What Patrick Mahomes’ latest pursuit says about him, Kansas City and women’s sports

Even five seasons ago as Patrick Mahomes was leading the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl berth in a half century, the winsome wonder had emerged as the face of Kansas City. Considering what’s happened since, including the Chiefs winning the last two Super Bowls to amass three in five years, his profile has grown exponentially as the Chiefs seek the first Super Bowl three-peat.

(The 7-0 Chiefs play host to 4-4 Tampa Bay on Monday night).

Because of his pioneering play, the immense popularity of the NFL, numerous sponsorships and the proliferation of social media, Mahomes is admired around the globe — as we got some extra perspective on last season in Frankfurt, Germany.

But all of that also has amplified something else meaningful.

The proudly native Texan is entwined with, even synonymous with, Kansas City. Whether through his unique style on the field, the infinitely appealing way he presents himself or his charitable endeavors and business ventures, Mahomes is a living, breathing symbol of a city on the move and basking in a reset self-image.

And he’s becoming more a part and instrument of that all the time — reiterated last week by how he articulated his interest in the WNBA.

Beyond the indelible mark the three-time Super Bowl/two-time NFL MVP has made on Chiefs history, he’s built a house here. Both his children were born here, and his 15 and the Mahomies Foundation has made a tangible impact on Kansas City (and beyond). He has ownership stakes in the Royals, Sporting KC and, along with his wife, Brittany, the KC Current of the National Women’s Soccer League.

(Along with teammate Travis Kelce, Mahomes also is an investor in the Alpine Racing Formula One team.)

But what Mahomes is undertaking now — along with his wife and Current co-founders Angie and Chris Long — represents another sort of civic frontier for him.

With all due props to Mahomes helping lure Texas-based Whataburger franchises to the area, he’s now part of the pursuit of bringing a WNBA expansion franchise here.

To be sure, Mahomes believes it’s a promising time and place for the venture.

He pointed to: the increasing popularity of the WNBA; the way Kansas City supports the playoff-bound Current (selling out every match in the first-year stadium), the acumen of the Longs; and the general local fan passion and basketball love most evident at the University of Kansas.

“Kind of a no-brainer,” he called it.

But this all reflects something beyond enhancing the portfolio that reminds us Mahomes one day would like to be part of bringing an NBA team here: “It would definitely be a goal of mine to get a team to Kansas City,” Mahomes told The Star’s Blair Kerkhoff in 2021. “It’s a long-term play that hopefully we’ll be able to do some day.”

Mahomes, whose deep love for basketball animates his quarterbacking, didn’t reject that long-term prospect the other day. But as ever with Mahomes, he had more thoughtful and substantial points to make Thursday.

About his connection to Kansas City, where he plans to be “for a long, long time” … and whose people and culture he wants to “showcase.”

About being a father and role model to his children.

And, both in that context and on its own, women’s sports, for which he has long advocated.

That includes as one of the honorees at the 2024 Time 100 Gala in New York, where he put it this way:

Speaking of the opening of the Current’s CPKC Stadium as the world’s first purpose-built for a women’s professional soccer team, he said then, “I feel very confident that investment will pay off in more ways than one. We all need to keep investing in the women’s game with our attention, with our media and with our wallets, because this isn’t a flash in the pan.

“It’s the future. So here is a toast to the greatness that is women’s sports. It’s been happening, and I’m glad the world is catching on.”

He made the point all the more strikingly Wednesday when I asked how he foresaw his future sports investments and if there was a broader plan right now.

“No, I wouldn’t say a broader plan, not necessarily,” he said. “I think more than anything, I just know how much sports has given to me. So whenever I’m done playing football, whenever that is, and I have to venture off into life after football and chasing kids around and everything like that, I want to be able to still be a part of it. …

“Hopefully we can get this WNBA team here. And it’s for life after football, so I can still make an impact in all sports. Then, at the same time, showcase to my daughter (3-year-old Sterling) that she can follow her dream and go out there and execute whatever that dream is.”

About that in particular, Mahomes spoke with particular heart and eloquence when my colleague Emily Curiel followed up on why supporting women’s sports is important to him.

“I think, first, it’s to showcase to my daughter, who I believe loves sports so far…” he said. “She wants to hit the baseball off the tee; she wants to play soccer. I want to show her that she can follow her dreams and make an impact in this world in whatever that dream is.”

Because, he added, Brittany and other female athletes he’s known over the years “didn’t get some of the same things that I got coming up, as far as the resources and the facilities and stuff like that.

“I want to give them those same resources, those same facilities. And you’ve seen it with the Current: Whenever you give them the best of the best, they go out and perform at an even higher level.”

A trajectory he’s helping bolster in a new way ... as with Kansas City itself.