From Whitehouse to the White House: How Mahomes, KC Chiefs left their mark in D.C.

President Joe Biden left the microphone unattended for about 20 seconds, just long enough to hold up a bright red Kansas City Chiefs jersey with his nameplate across the back — and evidently just long enough for Travis Kelce to see an opportunity.

The Chiefs tight end shuffled two steps to his left, placed a hand on each side of a lectern bearing the presidential seal, and did what he does best.

Found an opening.

“So I’ve been waiting for this,” he began, before Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes ushered him away like a Secret Service agent.

“Sorry,” Mahomes quipped as he turned back to a crowd that included team personnel, Congressmen, the Kansas City mayor and a few hundred others. “I’m sorry.”

Kelce darted backward, like a grade-school kid trying to avoid discipline. And the exchange, while lighthearted in nature, provided a snapshot of the unique circumstances the day offered.

The Chiefs brought a bit of their own flair to the franchise’s first trip to the White House on Monday. But a team that excelled playing games on its terms suddenly comprised the visitors, not the conductors.

This was someone else’s turf.

“It’s just surreal to be here,” Mahomes said.

It’s rare, though almost comforting, to see these guys on the other side of it, as fans and observers. They are accustomed to having others gush over their presence but were instead gushing over the experience.

As Biden pointed out the history behind objects inside the White House, the players took pictures along the way — on the outside of the glass, rather than swimming inside it.

“Pretty eye-opening,” Kelce said. “It was unique. I’ll definitely remember it forever.”

Only a select few have been offered the opportunity that awaited the Chiefs in D.C. Quite literally none of their organization’s predecessors got this chance. The Chiefs’ initial Super Bowl championship pre-dated these sorts of visits, and their second came during the COVID pandemic.

Fewer yet are offered this one: A group of six from the organization — Mahomes, Kelce, linebacker Nick Bolton, general manager Brett Veach, team president Mark Donovan and head coach Andy Reid — joined Biden in the Oval Office before the entire team gathered on the South Lawn for the presentation. It will be their last time together as a group. (A bit of an oddity they couldn’t fit the entire group on the stage, though, no?)

At one point during his opening remarks, you had the President saying about Mahomes, “Boy can play, man.”

Look, in the end, a 16-minute presentation that included remarks from Biden, Donovan and Reid didn’t reveal much that we didn’t already know — Biden quipped about his wife, Jill, being an Eagles fan; he tried to connect the dots between politics and sports, using the requirement of unity as his example; and he praised Mahomes. Like, a lot.

Not something any of us haven’t said (or written) already. But it hits differently hearing it through the voice of a president.

And, yes, that guy can play.

The Chiefs’ trip to the White House wasn’t about Mahomes. Rather, it wasn’t only about Mahomes. That’s why this column didn’t open with him. But it has to be a lot about Mahomes.

The Chiefs had never been here without him, and you can’t help but think the next trip will include a player Biden called “one of the greatest quarterbacks of his generation — and I predict of any generation.”

The ascension has been so rapid, so fruitful, that it can be easy to gloss over its beginning. Mahomes is still just 27, but in many aspects, a trip to the nation’s capital city represented a destination in his journey.

Just a kid from Whitehouse High.

It was a handful of years ago that the possibility of this topic initially came to mind, perhaps too cute in poetry:

From Whitehouse to the White House ...

The truth is it was more than convenient symmetry with the lingo, though, to be sure, that certainly didn’t hurt.

I don’t want to present Mahomes as a picturesque rags-to-riches story, but Whitehouse, Texas, is a world away from where he stepped along 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Two hours southeast of Dallas, Whitehouse has a small-town feel, even if it produces the occasional big-city athlete.

Football inspires the loyalty of religion there, and over the past half-decade, those who were once believers in America’s Team have found themselves decorating local businesses in red and gold and the number 15.

Over the years, I’ve spoken with dozens who knew Mahomes before the world knew Mahomes, and many of them talk about how they expected the guy they once sat alongside in photojournalism class or played against on Friday nights or played alongside on a 9-and-under Little League baseball team to one day be shaking hands with the President.

They brag about having played against him — some about having once bested him — like they’re prepared to tell their grandkids about having scored on Michael Jordan or blown a fastball past Barry Bonds.

Mahomes’ mom, Randi, shared a story that former teammates of Mahomes’ father in the big leagues would watch their son play and ask her, “How did you get him to do that?”

To which she would reply: “How do I get him to not do that?”

The point is he left his mark there, the stories about him more than merely lore. He has the ability to reshape not only an organization but entire cities.

Plural. He was a Washington, D.C. story for a couple of hours Monday, but he began as a Whitehouse story, and the meat in the middle is how he’s turned Kansas City into a national story.

That all resonated here.

During his presentation, Biden requested that Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly stand up to be recognized. And then Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.

The crowd on the lawn was littered with red.

Cameras were pointed toward the President, and he was draped by 30 members of the Kansas City Chiefs organization.

Can you imagine any of this 10 years ago? How could you?

The Chiefs had their moment Monday, an occasion they more than earned for themselves. But that moment has a rippling effect, in time and location. The Chiefs have provided yet one more audience for Kansas City, and it’s an audience of admiration.

Add one more to that list:

The President of the United States.