Fair or unfair: Patrick Mahomes might be a MAGA QB
We don't know where No. 15 stands politically, but we know what it's starting to look like.
By Carron J. Phillips
Tom Brady had the hat in his locker. Patrick Mahomes was endorsed by President Donald Trump. Either way, it’s a tricky position for a quarterback, especially a Black one.
If Mahomes stopped playing football today, he’d go down in history as one of the five best quarterbacks to ever play the game and would be a first-ballot Hall of Famer with three Super Bowl titles and three Super Bowl MVPs on his resume. But, he’d also be remembered by many as MAGA’s favorite quarterback—even if we’re not 100 percent sure he’s even “MAGA.”
“I’ve watched this great quarterback, who has, by the way, a phenomenal wife, OK. She’s a Trump fan. She’s a MAGA fan. So I happen to love her,” Trump said in his pregame interview with FOX before Super Bowl 59, as he incorrectly picked Mahomes and Kansas City to win it all.
Along with Jalen Hurts, Mahomes is half of the only two Black quarterbacks to ever meet in a Super Bowl—and they’ve made history by doing it twice in the past few years. Mahomes is a member of a very short list of Black quarterbacks to display their intellect, talent, and skill on sports' biggest stage. So when he's backed by a man who has become the poster child for the systemic oppression Black people (and Black quarterbacks) have endured for decades, things can get messy — even if Mahomes doesn’t feel the same way about Trump that Trump feels about him.
Asked a few days before the game about the president’s attendance, Mahomes said, “It's always cool to be able to play in front of a sitting president, someone that is at the top position in our country.”
For the 2020 presidential election, Mahomes helped pay for the cost of turning Arrowhead Stadium into a polling place. When he was asked about the 2024 election, he kept his vote private—as he did in 2020.
“I don’t want my place and my platform to be used to endorse a candidate or do whatever, either way,” he said back in September. “I think my place is to inform people to get registered to vote. It’s to inform people to do their own research and then make the best decision for them and their family.”
Well, it sure feels like the Mahomes family loves Trump. His wife, Brittany, previously liked one of Trump’s social media posts in which he highlighted his platform. His mom, Randi, wore a MAGA hat at a game. And his family took a picture with Trump at the Super Bowl.
One of the preeminent players in this country’s biggest sports league, the best at playing the most important position in American sports, is beloved by the man who occupies the Oval Office—that’s if you don’t count Elon Musk—and his family members have gone out their way to inform us of where they stand politically, even if he hasn’t.
“I’ve grown up with people from every aspect of life and every background. I think the best thing about a football locker room, and kind of how I’ve grown up in baseball locker rooms, is people can come together and achieve something and achieve a common goal,” Mahomes explained when he was asked about politics in the 2024 presidential election.
“I think if we can do that as a nation, I think we can get the best out of each other. I think that’s something that I do every single day. Whenever I’m hanging out with whoever, I’m not thinking about their political views or anything like that.”
That last line is the answer of a privileged white man. Mahomes is a biracial Black man. History won’t allow him to enjoy the same conveniences as the majority of his family. The one-drop rule makes sure of that.
Despite us not knowing where Patrick Mahomes stands politically, his silence makes him a target of the adage “Birds of a feather flock together.”
Mahomes’ refusal to publicly stand against Trump and his administration is a choice. And though it’s well within his right to keep his decision private, it’s also our right to wonder if he's in silent agreement with his family. This would be sad, given that it would mean that he’s aligned himself with people who stand against half of who he is.
Carron J. Phillips is an award-winning journalist who writes on race, culture, social issues, politics, and sports. He hails from Saginaw, Michigan, and is a graduate of Morehouse College and Syracuse University.
Why did you write this article for the Contrarian? It’s mostly irrelevant and just speculation. But most of all. It’s below what I expect from this innovative new publication that is helping save our country.
Well, what do we expect from a player in the Redneck NFL? Just look at despicable people like Aaron Rogers. No surprises here. To the extent that those players care at all, I would say 90% of them and 99% of the coaching staff are Trumpers. I used to watch a lot of NFL games, and I was a diehard Packers fan for many years. Not any longer. I can’t take that aggressive masculinity (wonder who coined that expression) and the blatant commercialism and fake patriotism of that league any more.