S O
T Y
only knew who I was, but also understood the
significance of what I had done: At the end of the
1987 season, I became the first Black quarterback
to start a Super Bowl, and I was named the game’s
MVP. For a lot of young guys in this league, history
does not matter to them. They might know what I
did, but they don’t particularly care. Patrick cared.
I always tell players, “Don’t ask what football
can do for you, but what you can do for football.”
Patrick is a great example of that. You can tell he
loves the game—he has more fun than anybody
I’ve ever seen—but he doesn’t play for selfish rea-
sons. It isn’t about him. It’s about the organization,
the community. He is the best player in the league,
but he heaps praise on everybody around him.
He takes that attitude with him everywhere.That video helped change how the NFL views
the social justice movement. This fall, his 15 and
the Mahomies Foundation split the cost of new
voting machines in Kansas City with the Chiefs.
He understands the issue of voter suppression in
America. He wanted to make sure that people had
an opportunity for a fair election—that whoever
you support, you just get the chance to vote.
Mahomes’s foundation was also a presenting
sponsor this summer for the Black College Football
Hall of Fame’s “Road to Equality” event. That
really touched me because Mahomes didn’t go to
a Black college. But I did.
In 1978 the Buccaneers drafted me out of
Grambling State. It was really unusual to see Black
QBs in the NFL at that time. A lot of racist stereo-
types drove NFL decision-making. After my first
game my rookie year, a reporter asked me what
was going through my mind during the national
anthem. I told him the truth: I was counting the
number of Black coaches on the other sideline. At
Grambling, I was used to having all-Black coach-
ing staffs—for my team and for our opponents. In
the NFL, there just weren’t many Black coaches.
The next day, our coach, John McKay, called me
into his office, where Ta m p a Tr i bu n e sports editor
Tom McEwen was waiting. McEwen told me thatI shouldn’t make statements like that to the press.
That was the NFL I knew. It was a different time.
When I was the starting quarterback for the Bucs,
I was the 54th-highest-paid QB in the league. My
backup, Mike Rae, got paid more than I did. If you
were Black and wanted to play quarterback, you
had to fall in line—and even then you might not
get a chance. Warren Moon, a star at Washington
who won Rose Bowl MVP, came out the same year
I did and didn’t even get drafted—and the draft
was 12 rounds back then. Warren had to play in
Canada for five years before joining the NFL. He
is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame now.
When I made it to the Super Bowl, I was fa-
mously asked how long I had been a Black quarter-
back. There has been a lot of discussion about thatROB (^) T
RIN
GA
LI
HE BENEFITS FROM THE PROGRESS
OF PREVIOUS GENER ATIONS.
WHAT I LOVE IS THAT HE KNOWS IT.
MONEY
PLAYER
Mahomes’s
post–Super Bowl
contract is
worth up to
$503 million.