Henry Winkler discusses how Patrick Mahomes surprised him with memorable special gift – “Was the most adorable thing”

Henry Winkler and Patrick Mahomes have forged a close — if unlikely — working partnership.

“I just made commercials for Kansas City for the playoffs, Patrick and me,” Winkler, 77, said in the press room at Sunday night’s Critics’ Choice Awards.

“And I [will] just say, I found out for the first time what no body fat meant,” adds the Barry star, who won the 2018 Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy series for his work on the HBO series. “You hug him and your fingers don’t go anywhere. It’s like you’re hugging an armadillo.”

Winkler told reporters that his friendship with Mahomes, 27, initially came about when he was promoting Barry on The Rich Eisen Show in Los Angeles.

“I’m not a real sports person,” Winkler clarified Sunday night at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. “I never went out for the football team. Shocking, I know. And then, I was invited to go on the field, that he gave me his jersey with his name.”

While on Eisen’s show a few months ago, it was clear that Winkler did not hold back his admiration for the NFL quarterback.

“Have you met Patrick Mahomes? I think he’s one of my heroes,” he said while Eisen was trying to discuss Winkler’s own career. “His ability is such a cut above. He is so passionate in the way he plays.”

Winkler then asked if “Patrick was listening,” to which Eisen replied, “Um, yes!”

“Patrick, hi!” said Winkler. “We make a great chicken stuffed with ricotta spinach with an unbelievable reduction. It can be yours if you’re here in L.A.”

Eisen then took things a step further to help the budding friendship along, playing Winkler’s clip for Mahomes during the athlete’s October call-in appearance and reminding him that there was a Chiefs game coming up against the Chargers “in a few weeks.”

“Well, I have an invitation for him. He can come sit with my family in the suite at the Chargers game if he wants to come see us,” Mahomes said, before complimenting the Chargers as a “great team.”

Doubling down on Winkler’s invite, Mahomes even invited his famous fan down on the field at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium (which Winkler wound up taking him up on!). The Super Bowl champ also invited Winkler out for a home game at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium as well.

“There’s an open invite both ways,” he added, saying that the Happy Days star, known as “The Fonz,” is also one of the “greatest of all time.”

Speaking at this weekend’s Critics’ Choice Awards, Winkler also expressed his thanks for still being able to do what he loves nearly 50 years after he booked his breakout role on Happy Days.

“I came out here … this is the truth. Two weeks later, I auditioned at Paramount Studios,” Winkler recalled of his Fonz audition. “I walked in the room. I don’t know where it came from. I just changed my voice. I just went over it. ‘Don’t look at me like that.'”

He continued, “I was talking to Garry Marshall and boom! — here I am, in 2023, and I’m doing the most wonderful character on an incredible show. [Barry costar] Bill Hader and [executive producer] Alec Berg are brilliant human beings. They just are.”