Greek prime minister welcomes Chiefs’ George Karlaftis for visit, celebrates Super Bowl win
Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis finished his rookie season with a flourish.
Karlaftis had at least a half-sack in six of the Chiefs’ final seven regular-season games. He also sacked Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in the AFC Championship Game. The former first-round pick started all 20 Chiefs games, regular season and playoffs.
According to Pro Football Reference, Karlaftis is one of just seven players in NFL history to be a native of Greece. Karlaftis, who grew up in Athens before becoming a star at Purdue, is well on his way to becoming the most prolific NFL player with Greek roots.
Karlaftis is the only one of those seven to be a Super Bowl champion and that earned an invitation to meet Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The prime minister received an autographed Karlaftis jersey, as Mitsotakis shared in an Instagram photo.
Here is a translation of what Mitsotakis wrote in the social-media post: “ With NFL’s ‘Greek Freak’ @georgekarlaftis I would have never imagined that we would have a Greek champion in American football.”
