The New England Patriots were in a celebratory mood following their victory against the Kansas City Chiefs in last year’s AFC Championship Game: going on the road as the underdogs, the eventual world champions were able to beat the conference’s top seed 37-31 in overtime. Despite emotions running at a natural high level after the game, however, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady found the time to talk to his counterpart.

Chiefs passer Patrick Mahomes recently revealed on the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon that the greatest quarterback of all time visited him in the locker room with some words of advice. “During all the excitement — they won the game and we were just walking off the field after that heartbreaking loss at home — I didn’t talk to him after the game. And so when I was in the locker room about to walk out, actually, he came in,” said Mahomes.

“He got the security to let him in and he said, ‘Man, you had a heck of a season,’” the NFL’s 2019 regular season MVP continued. “He knows what it’s like to win a lot of big games; he knows what it’s like to lose some big games — not many, but a few. He just said, ‘You have to keep grinding.’ He loved the way that I played. It was awesome for him to do that and show that class at such an exciting moment.”

Mahomes is not the first quarterback to receive some words of encouragement by Brady, who went on to lead New England to a 13-3 victory over the Los Angeles Rams two weeks later to earn his sixth Super Bowl win. Earlier during the season, the future Hall of Famer also spoke with Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson following their meeting on opening weekend — a game the Patriots also won.

“The advice he gave me was to work hard, continue to do what helped me get here and don’t listen to outside noise,” Watson said after his team’s 27-20 defeat at the hands of Brady and the Patriots in week one (via the Houston Chronicle’s John McClain). “Put in the work and feel like you’re the underdog at whatever you do. If you have that mindset, you’ll be able to prove people wrong.”