Gardner Minshew’s current focus is helping Chiefs win, but farming is in his future
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- Gardner Minshew toured Missouri cattle operations and considered farming post-career.
- He filled in for injured Mahomes, aiming to help win the final three regular-season games.
- Minshew plans further farm visits, studying holistic grazing and multi-species systems.
Shortly after signing with the Chiefs in March, quarterback Gardner Minshew spoke with the Kansas City media about football.
But because Minshew has done some unique things in the past, I asked if there was anything off the beaten path he wanted to try in Kansas City. Yep, he answered, cattle farming.
After getting settled in KC this past summer, Minshew made a trip to a farm in Liberty, and he was impressed with how things were run.
Farm talk is taking a backseat now.
Minshew will be starting in place of Patrick Mahomes, whose season ended Sunday because of a torn ACL in his left knee. Helping the Chiefs, 6-8, win their final three regular-season games and finish above .500 is Minshew’s immediate focus.
But Minshew will turn 30 next year, and in his time away from the Chiefs practice facility, he has pondered life after football.
“I think about what my days are going to look like,” Minshew told me last month. “I want to be outside, working. I want to be tired when I go to sleep. Start looking at what it costs to eat good, and to even know what’s really in the food that you’re eating. It’s about impossible with the laws of how things can be labeled nowadays.
“So, being able to control that part of the process would be fun. To be able to do that for friends and family and anybody else.”
Minshew, who is with his fifth NFL team in a seven-year career, doesn’t dream of having a large head of cattle when he steps away from the game.
Visiting the farm in Liberty gave Minshew, who grew up in Mississippi, a chance to learn more about the trade and see what he’d like and not like about the profession.
“They do a little bit different operation. I think I’d probably have a herd, and you’re kind of managing the breeding and having them year over year,” Minshew said. “They’re more of a buy them young, grow them out and sell them.
“So it’s a different style, but still a lot of logistical stuff and really good insight on how they just manage the whole operation, because it had been passed down through a couple generations there, and it’s cool how they worked.”
Minshew is getting another chance to be a starter, albeit for a short while. He was drafted by the Jaguars in the sixth round of the 2019 NFL Draft out of Washington State. Minshew made his NFL debut against the Chiefs that fall when Nick Foles was injured.
After three seasons in Jacksonville, Minshew was traded to the Eagles. He was in Philly for two years, then went to the Colts, where he made the Pro Bowl in 2023. The next season, Minshew started nine games for the Raiders, then signed with the Chiefs earlier this year as a free agent.
Minshew kept himself ready in case he was needed by the Chiefs, so he hasn’t had much time to think about cattle. But when the season ends, he hopes to visit another Missouri farm.
“There’s one in southeastern Missouri that’s a really cool model. They practice what’s called Holistic Management,” Minshew said. “It’s just a different way of how they graze, and they have multiple species out there all working together. That would be my next one.
“Probably hit that one on my drive home. Spend the day there.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2025 at 8:59 AM.
