# @thekansascitystar on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw03zcDN4Ze
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/8564792-thekansascitystar-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/e771a04b02.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-09-05T22:00:36.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Kansas City Star (@thekansascitystar) — https://gondola.cc/thekansascitystar

## Caption

If you want to deconstruct what makes the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes the NFL’s best quarterback, perhaps it’s best to start with his anatomy.

Thanks to dynamic right arm, Mahomes can throw a ball 70 yards. Coaches also have raved about Mahomes’ brain and his “eidetic” memory. And his vision has been rated the best in the NFL.

Could another key to Mahomes’ incredible success be … his tongue?

One neuroscientist believes so.

Ian Whishaw of the Canadian Centre for Behavior Neuroscience at the University of Leftbridge in Alberta has studied videos of Mahomes throwing the ball. But where others watched the result of those passes, Whishaw looked at Mahomes’ tongue.

Whishaw’s research initially began when he studied mice that had been taught to pick up food.

“We have two components to our reach,” Whishaw said. “We lift our hand up and that’s kind of what I called an aim. And then we reach. And I noticed, they lift their hand up to the aim position. They stuck their tongue out and then they reached. And I thought that they’re actually trying to reach it with their tongue. But if it doesn’t work, then they’ll use their hands.”

Now, Whishaw’s been applying that theory to professional athletes — first Michael Jordan, who sticks out his tongue before he dunks, and now Mahomes.

Read more about the research at the link in our bio. 

🎥: @wagsphoto

## Stats

- **Views:** 15,058
- **Likes:** 730
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 13

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Kansas City Star | @thekansascitystar | https://gondola.cc/thekansascitystar | Newspaper |
| Nick Wagner | @WagsPhoto | https://gondola.cc/WagsPhoto | Photographer |

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