Patrick Mahomes and Tyrann Mathieu are making Kansas City the center of a changed NFL
The world is changing in so many ways, every day, and maybe it seems trivial amid a global pandemic and coast-to-coast protests of racial injustice to talk about football. But football is changing, too.
And Kansas City is at the center of it.
Patrick Mahomes is the face (and emerging voice) of the NFL, America’s biggest sports league and most valuable form of entertainment. Tyrann Mathieu is among the league’s best players, universally respected by peers and recently named to the NFL’s 2010s All-Decade team.
That they each joined in a player-generated video expressing support for Black Lives Matter is significant on its own. But that their power — Mahomes’ in particular — helped the video reach millions of views and essentially strong-armed NFL commissioner Roger Goodell into admitting he was wrong is nothing less than ground-shifting.
People around the league aren’t sure that would’ve happened without Mahomes saying I am Tamir Rice, and Black Lives Matter.
“I’m blessed to have this platform,” Mahomes, the Chiefs’ superstar quarterback, said. “Why not use it?”
Those words. They’re different. The actions are different, too. NFL players haven’t done this before. Not without fear, anyway. Not without consequences, too.
This is different. Players are empowered. They are powerful. They know it. They’re proceeding accordingly, and there’s no better example than the Chiefs.
“We saw ourselves as the guys to say something,” Mathieu, the veteran safety, said. “I know for a lot of us this has been going on a while. Most of us would consider this the second time around. The first time around a lot of us didn’t speak up. A lot of us weren’t vocal, for many reasons. I just think right now collectively everybody just wants to see everything pushed forward the right way. I think it’s important.”
The first time around is a reference to 2016, when Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice. Some players joined him. The vast majority didn’t, and by season’s end few were speaking publicly on the topic.
Kaepernick hasn’t been on a roster since. He and defensive back Eric Reid later settled collusion grievances with the league.
The reasons for not speaking up are different for everyone. Four years ago, Mahomes had just completed his sophomore year in college. Mathieu was in his fourth NFL season, hellbent on self-discipline and earning that second contract. They all had their reasons.
But the list of stars willing to put names, faces and voices on a video calling out their all-powerful employer last week included guys on new teams, guys on rookie contracts ... hell, it even included a rookie — Washington defensive end Chase Young.
Players have traditionally feared consequences from above. They’ve seen former teammates lose jobs for reasons they believe had nothing to do with football. That matters, greatly, and maybe that’s why the breakthrough had to come with so many players speaking together as one.
“I’ve always believed in people,” Mahomes said. “I’ve always believed when people do things together and do things for the right reasons and have a good heart when they do it that things get done. That’s how change happens.”
That’s influence. That’s Mahomes recognizing his voice is strong, but it’s even stronger with others.
Some of this is simple math. Mathieu has 1.6 million followers on Instagram, roughly the same as the Chiefs. Mahomes has 3.6 million.
Some of this is how the game is played and marketed now. Quarterbacks are the leading men, and stars like Mathieu and Odell Beckham and Saquon Barkley also move the needle nationally.
Four years ago, Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt talked cornerback Marcus Peters into quietly staying in the locker room during the national anthem instead of protesting in public. Good luck doing that with Mahomes and Mathieu.
The players are recognizing their power and harnessing it in a way the league has never really seen.
“Fans pay attention to what the players are doing, what the players are saying,” said Bryndon Minter, the NFL’s manager of social video who initially went rogue on his employer to get the video idea going. “Fans want to know the players’ personalities. That’s where the loyalty lies.
“I think that players are day after day realizing that’s the case and realizing more and more that their voices are way more powerful than they may think. And when those voices are collectively expressing the same sentiment, that is unignorable. And that’s what happened here.”
And it’s at least part of why the players are receiving upper-management support like never before. Goodell essentially reading the same script as the players in his own video — apologizing on behalf of the NFL — was stunning.
Maybe that’s because of the league’s well-earned reputation for stubbornness, but the fact that it’s happening is unprecedented.
Goodell reached out to Minter before releasing his own video on behalf of the league. He reached out to Mahomes and other players in the video they created. Hunt called Mahomes. He asked Mathieu how he could help. Chiefs coach Andy Reid has expressed “complete support.”
The weight of this shift cannot be overemphasized. Players in all sports are often viewed as expendable. More to the point, they’re often made to feel expendable. That’s a muzzle. They have too much to lose.
The NBA has, traditionally, been home to our country’s most outspoken athletes. That’s not a coincidence. That league’s renaissance from tape-delayed playoff broadcasts to global giant was built mostly on the marketing of its stars. That marketing gave the players power.
We’re seeing the NFL catch up in real-time now. It’s not equal. The bottom half of NFL rosters are full of players who justifiably feel expendable, and the NFL union’s power is small when compared to those of the NBA or Major League Baseball.
But now the NFL’s players — particularly the ones at the top — are realizing their own power. Particularly their collective power. Again, let’s use Kansas City as an example.
Fans here had various reasons to dismiss Peters’ protests four years ago, if they wanted. Those reasons are layered, and some of them are ugly. But many existed.
How does that look now, with Mahomes? With Mathieu? With Pro Bowl tight end Travis Kelce, if he speaks out?
If they speak out together?
That’s the power these guys have now. More specifically, that’s the power these guys realize they have now.
The NFL will never be the same.
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 7:15 PM.