Patrick Mahomes is standing on the verge of an unprecedented career: He’s in his fifth Super Bowl, has won three of them already and is trying to win another to pull off a three-peat that has never been done before. He’s won two MVP awards, three Super Bowl MVP awards, been named to the Pro Bowl six times and an All-Pro three times.

All those accomplishments have put Mahomes in the greatest-of-all-time conversation before he turns 30. They’ve also given him and his Kansas City Chiefs a new label ahead of Super Bowl LIX: villain.

And if winning makes him a villain, Mahomes is fine with it.

“I don’t even think it’s embracing being the villains. We embrace who we are,” Mahomes said this week. “We believe we play the game the right way. We believe that we play with a lot of heart and a lot of passion for the game, and then we win football games. And if winning football games makes you a villain, we’re going to keep going out there and doing it.”

When the Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, it will feel a bit like the all-time classic comedy movie, “Groundhog Day.” The Chiefs have been in the big game five of the last seven years and played the same opponent two years ago, winning one of the most dramatic editions of the title game in its history. A Chiefs run into February has become ho-hum for NFL fans at this point, such is the consistency of Mahomes’ performance leading the team.

That consistency is what his teammates say makes him great. It’s also a reason why football fans better get used to seeing No. 15 being under center in the sport’s biggest games for years to come: this is just his life now, and it’s obvious that he’s feeling pretty comfortable.

“I’m so focused on just the process of making the best play possible for the team and you don’t worry about the moment or where you’re at, the environment or anything like that,” Mahomes said.

“You just go out there and just go about your process, step-by-step through your checklist, and then make the play happen. And so nothing on the football field, I think, makes me feel insecure. I probably couldn’t think of anything in real life. I feel like I’m pretty confident in who I am, and I know there’s a couple things here and there that people might make fun of, but I’m pretty confident with myself.”

‘You want to model yourself after Pat’

During football season, Mahomes is everywhere. Chiefs games are often in the biggest timeslots on Sundays, he’s in commercials that air during the breaks, he speaks to the media multiple times a week.

But it’s behind closed doors and when the cameras aren’t on when Mahomes is winning football games.

“I value my time with him and have really come to respect a lot about what he does off the field, not just on the field, but behind the scenes,” said Carson Wentz, Mahomes’ backup under center.

“You know, how he takes care of his body, his training regimen, all of the things that he just – he’s very detail oriented with all of those things and how he prepares. He’s the first one in, last one out, like all those habits that no one would ever know or ever see, but I see. I get to work very closely with him. And so, I always respected him from afar, but I definitely respect him even more now.”

It’s that work that sets the tone for the Chiefs and, even more importantly, sets the bar. It’s clear that Mahomes, along with other team leaders like defensive lineman Chris Jones and tight end Travis Kelce, are the standard for the rest of their teammates, leading by example with their work ethic in practice and offseason team activities.

It’s easy to see why the Chiefs have reached the level of success they have in recent season when the rest of the team speaks about them – in particular Mahomes.

“I think Pat, he’s just, you want to model yourself after Pat. I mean, the way he prepares, the way he approaches the game. You know, he’s a real pros’ pro, and you know, I’m fortunate enough to be here with him and learn from him,” said Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, one of Mahomes’ wide receivers.

“It’s just his consistency. He’s the first one in, the last one to leave, and how hard he works – man, I feel like nobody works harder,” added Xavier Worthy, the rookie wide receiver who has become one Mahomes’ best deep threats thanks to his incredible speed.

A villain to opponents, a hero to his teammates

Mahomes repeatedly said this week that he didn’t feel the need to embrace the villain role. His head coach, Andy Reid, said that kind of talk didn’t really penetrate the bubble around the team until the questions started coming during the week of the game.

“I don’t think he lets that bother him. I haven’t heard any negative stuff, but I’m sure you guys have,” Reid said.

Some of his teammates can understand why a few people are through with seeing him in the final game of the season. “I mean, yeah, if I see the same guy in the Super Bowl every year, I’d be tired of him too,” Worthy said.

“Honestly, I don’t like the word villain, but he more like a superhero, man,” said Kareem Hunt, a running back for the Chiefs. “All the dude does is win, and if you want to be mad at him for winning football games, go ahead. But that’s a superhero to me, and he does a great job, man.”

Hunt played with Mahomes during their first two years in the league and is back with the Chiefs for the first time since 2018 this season. The quarterback’s journey since then is unreal, he said.

“It’s crazy. He used to be struggling calling the plays in the huddle and not being able to, you know, make the right call on the defensive guys, to have the line go the right way,” Hunt said. “But now he just knows it like second nature. He takes control in the huddle and knows everybody’s job. He can almost call his own plays if he wants to.”

That trust in Mahomes by his teammates is reciprocated fully.

“Everybody is just focused on the ultimate goal, and that’s winning,” he said. “We don’t care how it looks, we don’t care who gets the praise. We just want to win the football game. And we got a lot of trust in this building. We got a lot of trust in each other. And so, whenever a guy gets their opportunity to go out there and make the play happen, and we trust that the guy’s going to do it, you know.”

Why Mahomes isn’t going away any time soon

The most worrying thing for the rest of the NFL might be that Mahomes isn’t measuring his success in Super Bowl wins, MVP awards or statistical records. He’s focused on maximizing his own potential and seeing how far he can go.

“What I’ve always said in my career is that for me, success is leaving everything you have on the football field every time you have the opportunity to,” he said this week. “That’s practice, that’s games, OTAs (Organized Team Activities in the offseason), whatever it is. And I don’t want to have regrets at the end of my career. And if I can go out there and feel like I progress and I know that I’m putting everything I have in this football game, though, that’ll be a successful career to me.”

As he gets more experience – after all, he might not even be halfway through his career if he stays healthy – Mahomes is making the transition from being a great playmaker with raw talent to a great football machine.

The mental part of his game, processing new offensive ideas while being able to break down a defense in real time, is progressing. Reid said Mahomes attacks that part of the game with the same zeal that he does the on-the-field aspects.

“Patrick’s a real sharp guy, pretty smart (and) spends a lot of time at the game and making sure that all these crazy formations that we have, he can digest them first and then be able to spit them out,” Reid said. “In a short period of time, he’s able to see and anticipate what the defense is going to do. So, there’s some things there that – you’ve got to know where your guys are, you got to know where their guys are. And he’s able to digest all that too. He’s a sharp kid.”

The motivation hasn’t waned either. Mahomes still thinks about the Super Bowl he lost four years ago to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – led by Tom Brady, the widely recognized greatest quarterback of all time who will be in the commentary booth for Super Bowl LIX.

It was Brady’s final Super Bowl win, his record seventh. Should Mahomes and the Chiefs pull off the three-peat on Sunday, he’ll be over halfway to Brady’s mark and will have pulled off a run of success that Brady never did.

Brady and the New England Patriots definitely embraced their roles as villains during their run of success in the late 2010s, a role that Mahomes and the Chiefs seem to have unwittingly inherited. Mahomes is not worried about taking over the label of GOAT though.

“I’m trying to be the greatest Patrick Mahomes that I can be,” he said. “I mean, that’s obviously a goal of anyone’s, is to be the greatest of their profession. But in order to do that, you have to be the greatest that you can be every single day … And whenever I’m done with football, if I leave everything out there the way that I feel like I have so far, as far as effort and mentality, I’ll be happy with the results.”

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com