Legendary actor Henry Winkler explains why he calls Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes a hero

This is going to be a big weekend for legendary actor Henry Winkler.

He finishes shooting Season 4 of the award-winning television show “Barry” on Friday, then heads to SoFi Stadium to watch the Chiefs play the Chargers on Sunday Night Football.

While admittedly not what you’d describe as a hardcore football fan, Winkler is as big a supporter of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes as you’ll find.

“He just is something, and they talk about Josh Allen and all the other wonderful men, the young man from I think Florida (Tua Tagovailoa),” Winkler said Wednesday in a phone interview. “Patrick, you only see his brain thinking, ‘How am I going to get into that end zone?’ He just walks and he’s thinking; you don’t see a lot of joking going on.

“He’s so locked in on, ‘How am I going to get to the end zone? Hmm. There are those big guys over there, I think I’ll go over here.’ And then — boom — like a cobra.”

Winkler, who turned 77 last month, was on “The Rich Eisen Show” earlier this year and interrupted the host’s question about “Barry” to inquire about Mahomes, who Winkler called his hero. When Eisen said he had met Mahomes and he sometimes watches the show, Winkler turned and addressed Mahomes directly, inviting him to dinner.

A few months later, Mahomes was on “The Rich Eisen Show” and said he’d invite Winkler to a game the next time the Chiefs were in Los Angeles. Well, that’s Sunday, and Winkler will be in a suite at SoFi with his sons Max and Jed, along with son-in-law Rob Reinis, thanks to Mahomes.

Unfortunately, Mahomes won’t have time for that dinner.

“It’s not gonna happen, but the invitation is open,” Winkler said. “At a drop of a hat, the chicken will be whipped into shape. But the fact that it went from making Rich Eisen laugh, me really wanting to communicate in some way with Patrick, and maybe a friend of his watched that show and (told) him, that’s how it came to be.”

It is an unusual road that will have Winkler watching Mahomes in person for the first time.

While Winkler doesn’t plan his week around NFL games, he’s seen Mahomes enough to know the Chiefs quarterback is something special.

“On Sundays, my youngest son Max, sometimes my oldest son Jed and some of their friends come and they watch (football) or I watch by myself,” Winkler said. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t always understand it. And I am drawn to the technique, how great a person plays.

“And now I watch all of these people and it is not that I disparage other players, but when you watch Mr. Mahomes play, there is no nonsense. There is a man who is so concentrated. The finesse, the improvisational nature of his ability — he has captured my imagination.”

Sports improv

Mahomes is known for adapting to what defenses give him, which means he sometimes will make an adjustment to a called play. Sometimes that means he’ll take off running. Other times, he’ll scramble and throw on the run.

It’s the sports equivalent of an actor improvising.

“In the structure comes the freedom,” said Winkler, who starred as The Fonz on “Happy Days,” and later was in “Arrested Development,” “The Waterboy” and many more projects in his five decades as an actor. “So all of the men who play football know exactly what it is, all those complicated plays and where they go and what they do and the trickery and everything else. And then inside that structure comes someone like Patrick, who not only is able to carry it out, but he is, at the moment, in the absolute magical second when he must slow time down in his brain, he is able then to create yet another piece to an already established play. That is just magnificent to watch.

“There are actors who can make a moment in between two moments that you never would have considered existed. You can’t even slide a piece of loose-leaf paper in between the traditional doing and then the improv. You know what I mean? I’ve seen it on stage. You know, there’s a similarity.”

That admiration of Mahomes’ abilities is what led to Winkler asking Eisen if he knew the Chiefs quarterback. Winkler wanted to tell Mahomes how much he loves what the Chiefs quarterback does on a football field.

In fact, it’s a moral imperative for Winkler, who also has authored more than three dozen children’s books with Lin Oliver.

“I swear to God, I really believe that if someone somewhere doing whatever it is, is great, you’ve got to mention it,” Winkler said. “You’ve got to let them know, ‘Yes, that flew all the way through the wire, through the waves, into my house, into my brain and gave me joy. And I think you’ve got to let the person know, and you don’t know if they know. You have no idea if they’re going to see it.”

Those who know how Winkler feels about Mahomes are Chiefs fans. They routinely respond to Winkler when he tweets after a game. He noted the “warmth” when Chiefs fans respond to him on social media.

On Sunday, WInkler will join many of those Chiefs fans, who have been known to show up in big numbers at SoFi Stadium for games against the Chargers.

While dinner at his house won’t happen, Winkler is hoping to greet his hero.

“I don’t know if I’m going to meet him,” Winkler said. “I know Mrs. Mahomes is pregnant and will not travel. So I know they can’t come to my house for dinner. But if I can, I will proudly post it on what seems like the dog days of Twitter.”