Mixed Race Studies

As N.F.L.’s Quarterback Guard Changes, Patrick Mahomes Wins Second M.V.P. Award

The New York Times
2023-02-09

Kris Rhim, Sports Reporter

Mahomes, Kansas City’s quarterback, won football’s top honor for the second time, establishing his place atop a new generation of passing talent.

PHOENIX — Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback, won his second Most Valuable Player Award on Thursday night, for his work in perhaps the most challenging season of his career, cementing himself as the leader of a new wave of talented young quarterbacks.

Mahomes is the first Black quarterback to win the league’s highest individual honor twice, having previously won the award after the 2018 season, his first as a starter.

In the past 20 seasons, the award has been won by the generation-defining quarterbacks Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers 12 times, with no other player repeating as M.V.P. With the retirements of Manning, in 2016, and Brady this season, Mahomes leads an emerging class of young passers defining the N.F.L...

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Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes proud to be part of first Super Bowl with two Black QBs

Chief’s Wire
USA Today
2023-02-01

Ed Easton Jr., Kansas City Chiefs Beat Writer

We are just under two weeks away from Super Bowl LVII as the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to battle the Philadelphia Eagles.

The game will feature top seeds from both conferences and, for the first time in league history, two Black starting quarterbacks. Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts will make history when they step onto the field in Arizona—a special moment considering the strides the position and league have taken to improve diversity…

…Speaking to Carrington Harrison on 610 Sports Radio show “The Drive” during his weekly check-in, Mahomes opened up about the cultural impact of the game and the history of the Black quarterback.

“I am proud. We came a long way,” said Mahomes. “As I’ve gotten into the NFL and learned more about the history of the Black quarterback, I’m happy that we’re going to be on this stage. It couldn’t be against a better guy than Jalen Hurts… I’m glad that we’re going to be able to represent the Black quarterback in the biggest game of them all.”…

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Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes responds to recent, unfounded criticisms of Black QBs

Chief’s Wire
USA Today
2022-07-30

Ed Easton Jr., Kansas City Chiefs Beat Writer

The career of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been progressing well since entering the league in 2017. He’s been named league MVP, he’s won a Super Bowl, and he’s secured one of the highest-paying contracts in sports history all before turning 26 years old.

Mahomes is already one of the most accomplished Black quarterbacks in NFL history. The topic of race has never been something Mahomes has shied away from in interviews or press conferences. He’s been outspoken about racial injustice and the need for change…

…Following the Chiefs’ Friday training camp practice, Mahomes was asked whether he felt Black quarterbacks are evaluated differently in the NFL. His response was about as perfect as you could expect.

 “I don’t want to go that far and say that,” said Mahomes. “I mean obviously, the Black quarterback has to have a battle to be in this position that we are, to have this many guys in the league playing. I think every day we’re proving that we should’ve been playing the whole time. We’ve got guys that think just as well as they can use their athleticism, so it always is weird when you see guys like me and Lamar (Jackson), Kyler (Murray) kind of get that on them and other guys don’t, but at the same time we’re going to go there and prove ourselves every day to show that we can be some of the best quarterbacks in the league.”…

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In recognizing and expressing gratitude for the many opportunities he’s had, [Patrick] Mahomes also tells me he’s proud of his Black heritage—a subject he notices is sometimes talked about online. “I’ve seen how people, on Twitter, have tweeted and said, ‘Oh, you’re not full Black,’ ” he said. “But I’ve always just had the confidence and believed in who I am. And I’ve known that I’m Black. And I’m proud to be Black. And I’m proud to have a white mom too. I’m just proud of who I am. And I’ve always had that confidence in myself.”

Clay Skipper, “How Patrick Mahomes Became the Superstar the NFL Needs Right Now,” GQ, July 14, 2020 (August 2020 issue). https://www.gq.com/story/patrick-mahomes-cover-profile-august-2020.

How Patrick Mahomes Became the Superstar the NFL Needs Right Now

GQ
2020-07-15

Clay Skipper, Staff Writer
Photography by: Pari Dukovic

After winning his first Super Bowl, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes was supposed to have a straightforward summer: First sign a blockbuster new contract. Then prepare to repeat. But when a pandemic gave way to a protest movement that implicated the NFL, the game’s brightest star began to find his voice—and prove that he’s as adroit off the field as he is on it.

Patrick Mahomes calls right on time. When my phone rings, the area code flashes “Tyler, Texas,” where the young Kansas City Chiefs quarterback grew up. It’s early June and a pivotal point in an already momentous off-season. Whatever he might have expected as he walked off the field in February—a first-time Super Bowl winner, coronation complete, celebration on the horizon—was upended by a generational pandemic. And now, historic protests roil the country. Two weeks have passed since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and the 24-year-old Mahomes is still trying to make sense of the moment.

Just a few days earlier, Mahomes had joined more than a dozen other Black NFL stars—Odell Beckham Jr., Michael Thomas, and Saquon Barkley among them—in a powerful 71-second video, calling on their employer to condemn racism. It shouldn’t have been a bold assertion. But, of course, it was. While nearly every big American corporation was addressing the significant work to be done on racial justice and equality, the NFL was being asked to address a particularly egregious track record. This is a league in which 70 percent of players are Black but only three coaches, two general managers, and zero majority owners are; a league in which the response to Colin Kaepernick’s protest of police brutality was to promptly run him out of a job.

This time, though, the reaction was different. Less than a day after the players’ video, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell filmed a clip of his own, offering a point-by-point affirmation of the players’ requests. According to a report from ESPN, a key factor in his swift response was the participation of one young player in particular: Patrick Mahomes…

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Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes makes his voice heard. He should talk about the Tomahawk Chop

The Kansas City Star
2020-06-15

Dave Helling

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes recently joined with other NFL players in condemning racism and demanding that the league recognize the players’ right to protest injustice.

“I am Tamir Rice,” Mahomes says in the viral Black Lives Matter video, referring to the 12-year-old African American killed by the Cleveland police.

Mahomes’ willingness to take a stand sent a potent message that resonated far beyond Kansas City. “He has been the MVP of this league. He has won a Super Bowl,” said Doug Williams, a former NFL quarterback who’s African American. “It says a lot that he wanted to be involved in pushing for … change. It was very powerful.”…

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Mahomes’ performance leaves no doubt: Black NFL QB’s have arrived

NBC News
2020-02-04

Curtis Bunn

Patrick Mahomes, 24, of the Kansas City Chiefs became the youngest quarterback to be named Super Bowl MVP. Mike Blake / Reuters

“Mahomes’ performance was uplifting and annihilates the narrative that African American quarterbacks are somehow less capable.”

Doug Williams did it first. Russell Wilson came next. And Patrick Mahomes is now the third African American quarterback to win a Super Bowl, and his explosive performance on Sunday confirmed, if anyone still questioned, that the era of the black NFL QB is upon us.

With the world watching, Mahomes brought the Kansas City Chiefs back from a 10-point deficit in the final minutes, catapulting the franchise to its first Super Bowl win in 50 years, 31-20, over the shell-shocked San Francisco 49ers.

For the first time in a week, there was an athletic performance impressive enough to distract sports fans from the tragic death of NBA legend Kobe Bryant.

“Mahomes’ performance was uplifting and annihilates the narrative that African American quarterbacks are somehow less capable,” said Clint Crawford, an engineer, after getting a haircut at his favorite barbershop in Los Angeles Monday. “He executed when it counted most and demonstrated the kind of toughness and fiery resolve we came to expect from athletes like Tom Brady and Kobe Bryant.”…

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“The best thing about it is you’re showing kids that no matter where you grow up, what race you are, that you can achieve your dream,” [Patrick] Mahomes said during the lead-up to the Super Bowl. “For me, being a black quarterback — having a black dad and a white mom — it just shows that it doesn’t matter where you come from.”

Jason Reid, “Patrick Mahomes ushers in Era of the Black Quarterback,” The Undefeated, February 2, 2020. https://theundefeated.com/features/patrick-mahomes-ushers-in-era-of-the-black-quarterback/.

Patrick Mahomes ushers in Era of the Black Quarterback

The Year of the Black Quarterback
The Undefeated
2020-02-02

Jason Reid

With dramatic Super Bowl win, the Chiefs star punctuates spectacular year

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The Year of the Black Quarterback has evolved into the Era of the Black Quarterback, because Patrick Mahomes and his contemporaries are just that good.

On sports’ biggest stage here Sunday night, Mahomes emphatically punctuated the NFL’s 100th season – the one in which African American passers shined brighter than at any time previously in NFL history – leading the Kansas City Chiefs to a 31-20 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium. In only his third season and second as a starter, Mahomes added the Super Bowl most valuable player award to the long list of accomplishments in his nascent career. And for a fitting capper to it all, here’s his biggest feat to date: At only 24, Mahomes is the youngest player ever to have both a Super Bowl title and a league MVP award, having been selected the 2018 winner by the Associated Press.

Any scout, coach or player-personnel official worth their salt will tell you there’s no doubt as to who is currently the game’s top player. Mahomes is the face of the NFL and is expected to shatter the mark for the game’s biggest contract soon. Not only does Mahomes, the seventh black signal-caller to direct a team to the Super Bowl and third to win the championship, throw the game’s best deep ball and possess second-to-none improvisational skills, he’s also smart as a whip, tough and a leader beyond his years.

Any scout, coach or player-personnel official worth their salt will tell you there’s no doubt as to who is currently the game’s top player. Mahomes is the face of the NFL and is expected to shatter the mark for the game’s biggest contract soon. Not only does Mahomes, the seventh black signal-caller to direct a team to the Super Bowl and third to win the championship, throw the game’s best deep ball and possess second-to-none improvisational skills, he’s also smart as a whip, tough and a leader beyond his years.

“The best thing about it is you’re showing kids that no matter where you grow up, what race you are, that you can achieve your dream,” Mahomes said during the lead-up to the Super Bowl. “For me, being a black quarterback — having a black dad and a white mom — it just shows that it doesn’t matter where you come from.”…

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Is the Black Quarterback Revolution Going to Last?

The New York Times
2020-02-02

Elena Bergeron

Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs is part of a vanguard redefining the position. But it is a watershed only if it is widespread and persistent.

MIAMI — The N.F.L.’s longtime leading men, the ones with the pizza commercials and the Super Bowl rings, whose names adorn the league’s most-sold jerseys, showed their mortality this season in ways that were uncomfortable to watch.

Tom Brady and Drew Brees didn’t make it through the first round of the playoffs. Aaron Rodgers missed the Super Bowl, too, by losing in a later round. Eli Manning retired, usurped as the Giants’ leader after 16 years. Ben Roethlisberger played like he should be considering it, too.

Together they helmed 12 of the last 18 Super Bowl-winning teams. And all are pushing 40 years old or past it.

Yet their aging out of the game leaves no void, as these playoffs have highlighted the rise of quarterbacks whose savvy and daring have stolen our attention. Russell Wilson’s third-down scramble to survive the Philadelphia Eagles, Patrick Mahomes’s bionic touchdown run for the Chiefs against the Tennessee Titans, Deshaun Watson of the Texans’ magical escape from a sack to beat the Buffalo Bills. Everything that Lamar Jackson did…

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