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While the Kansas City Chiefs are nine months removed from their Super Bowl LIV title and appear well-positioned to get back to the big game in Tampa Bay this coming February, the topic of visiting the White House has been looming since earlier this year, in some cases even before the championship was secured.
Following the team’s 33-31 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes was asked whether he and the organization plan to visit the president in Washington D.C. in the near future. While that particular question hasn’t arisen from the media in many months, it is certainly brought back to relevance by the political unrest surrounding the ongoing U.S. election.
“I haven’t heard when the White House thing is going to happen,” Mahomes told reporters during his November 8 postgame press conference. “We were kind of going through that with this last offseason with COVID situation and hopefully we can get another championship and have another opportunity to do that as well.”
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Mahomes’ diplomatic answer suggests that the team may very well be shifting its focus toward creating a second chance opportunity in 2021, rather than wedging in a visit this year and all the scrutiny that may come with it. Even with the Chiefs on bye this week, a surprise visit to the nation’s capital seems out of the cards, especially considering the rising number of positive COVID-19 cases across the country and another confirmed case by a Chiefs’ staff member just last week.
Should Kansas City ultimately pass on a 2020 visit, it would mark the third consecutive year in which the league’s Super Bowl winner has declined the congratulatory trip to the White House. The last NFL champion to do so was the New England Patriots in 2017, who then passed on the opportunity to follow up in 2019.
Mahomes Addressed White House Question in March
In February, Super Bowl LIV’s Most Valuable Player took some time to soak in his first NFL title before breaking his silence on the hot-button issue of the White House, which Mahomes elected to do in early March in a feature story with Yahoo Sports’ Terez Paylor.
“Obviously, keeping the politics out of it — it’s an incredible opportunity that you see growing up with teams that win championships, getting invited to the White House and just being invited to the White House in general,” Mahomes told Paylor. “But that’s something that I will talk about with my guys and really make the right decision that represents us, represents Kansas City and the Chiefs in the right way. That’s the decision we’ll make, hopefully, as we get closer to OTAs and everyone’s on the same page.”
During a February 6 news conference, President Trump publically announced that the Chiefs had been formally invited to bring the Lombardi Trophy to Washington D.C., before falsely claiming that the visit would occur “very soon,” possibly as early as the “next week.”
President Mahomes Has a Nice Ring to It
During one of the more highly contentious presidential elections in recent memory, some people turned to the write-in section of their ballots to cast support behind the candidate of their choice. For some residents voting in Clay County, Missouri, the suburbs located northeast of Kansas City, President Mahomes had a nice ring to it.
“Funny getting written in, but that’s not anywhere I’m thinking right now,” Mahomes joked during a November 4 team press conference. “Maybe later on I’ll think of a slogan.”
While it’s unclear how many write-ins Mahomes received on November 3, perhaps the All-Pro quarterback will revisit the idea following his age 35 season in 2031 — a.k.a the final year of his record-setting 10-year, $503 million contract extension.
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