Patrick Mahomes’ wife has defended the Kansas City Chiefs star against criticism he received last season, saying she lost him to football, but approved of him focusing on improving himself.

During Wednesday’s episode of the WHOOP fitness podcast, Brittany Mahomes spoke out about the backlash her husband received as a quarterback for the reigning Super Bowl champions.

Patrick Mahomes had the worst statistical year of his career in 2023, despite winning the 2024 Super Bowl 25-22 against the San Francisco 49ers in February. Some of these stats included averaging 7 yards per pass and 261.4 passing yards per game. He also threw a touchdown on 4.5 percent of his passes—all of which were the lowest in any of his seasons so far.

In addition, the 28-year-old, who signed with the Chiefs in 2017, received backlash for losing his cool when the Chiefs lost to the Buffalo Bills in December. In a video that went viral on X, formerly Twitter, the football star had to be held back while appearing to shout at the referees.

“It seemed like he had an amazing attitude this past season,” WHOOP founder and CEO Will Ahmed said. “I mean obviously winning the Super Bowl’s like the best you can possibly do, but throughout the season, it was a lot more criticism than usual I felt like.

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“Yeah and I don’t think he listened to any of it, I don’t think any of that matters to him,” the pregnant mom—who shares kids Sterling Skye and Patrick “Bronze” Lavon III with Patrick Mahomes—responded. “It was him focusing on himself and, you know, what could he do better as a leader, how could he get better.”

Brittany Mahomes added that “he started studying more,” and “started doing different things,” noting, “I lost my husband in football last season,” but the former professional soccer player said she was supportive.

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“As a wife, it was like I understand, you know, that’s what you want to do and so I wasn’t ragging on him, I wasn’t interfering with what he had,” she continued. “I think it was so good for him to go through that experience, you know, as a person and as a leader just because he had never had any adversities like that last season.”

“It was really cool to watch him like go through that and figure it out and still have an amazing season,” she shared.

Newsweek reached out to Patrick Mahomes’ team via email for comment.

Patrick Brittany Mahomes TIME100 Gala 2024 NYCPatrick Mahomes and wife Brittany Mahomes at a gala night in New York City. Brittany Mahomes recently defended the Kansas City Chiefs star on Wednesday’s episode of the WHOOP podcast. Cindy Ord/Getty Images for TIME
In a press conference, following the Bills outburst, Patrick Mahomes owned up for his mistakes.

“You have to be critical with yourself,” he said. “You have to be true to what’s on the film—and what’s happening. A lot of people would make excuses. That’s why they don’t take that next step or become better because of it. When you look at the film—and you made a lot of mistakes that you can’t make in this league if you want to have success—you have to learn from them and get better from them.”

He added, “If you look at it and try to make an excuse for why something happened—or it’s not your fault because this [thing] happened—that’s when stuff snowballs. If you look at the film and say, ‘I have to be better here. I have to get better footwork. I have to work the pocket better and get the ball out of my hands when I need to,’ then you can be better the next week.”

Brittany Mahomes, 28, said on the podcast that her husband doesn’t get “stressed” about games.

“I don’t think he gets nervous or stressed really at all,” the personal trainer shared. “That’s just what he likes to do, and I think he loves going into a new week, having new game plans, having new challenges, having new people that he’s playing.”

She laughed, “I think I’m definitely a little more nervous every week than he is.”