KC Star photo of Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes picked as one of top images of 2024
A late-fall chill has descended on Kansas City, but it’s nothing like we witnessed in January, right?
Perhaps the best way to describe the brutal cold was to say it was “helmet shattering.” The Chiefs played a postseason game during that frigid time, and at kickoff on the night of Jan. 13, the temperature was negative-4 degrees with a wind chill of negative-27.
In the third quarter of the Chiefs’ 26-7 win over the Dolphins, quarterback Patrick Mahomes absorbed a hit from Miami safety DeShon Elliott. Remarkably, a chunk of Mahomes’ helmet broke off and The Star’s Emily Curiel captured the moment perfectly.
That photo was chosen as one of the top images of 2024 by CNN.
“Because the events of 2024 are remarkably varied and critically significant, the CNN Photo Team decided to pull out the most visually powerful and important stories of the year and present them as individual sections,” the network wrote in unveiling the very best pictures of the year.
“We have been extremely committed to showing you the most compelling images of the last 365 days to inform, educate and even inspire.”
That photo of Mahomes’ broken helmet certainly qualifies. The image went viral quickly during the Chiefs’ playoff game, and Curiel later wrote about how she captured the iconic image — which has since made its way onto hoodies and T-shirts.
“I fired off a sequence of photos that captured mostly the grass on the field as I worked to lock in on Mahomes scrambling with the ball,” Curiel wrote. “My 400mm lens worked at locking in its focus on Mahomes while he scrambled toward me. The players were closing in and I struggled to adjust myself in the short 40 second long play. Amid the chaos of the moment my ADHD led me to focus on Mahomes’ facial expression more than anything else.
“When the play was over, I didn’t think there was anything extraordinary about it other than it was a good scramble by Mahomes.
“While selecting photos to send to my editor from the sideline, I saw Mahomes switching out his helmet. I thought: Hmm, that’s odd. I wonder why he switched out his helmet? At this point I didn’t realize that his helmet had cracked.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 10:55 AM.
