By: Kayleigh Hamilton
This wasn’t what the media was hoping to hear from Patrick Mahomes.
They put tons of pressure on him to speak out in favor of gun control.
But what he actually said shocked everybody and infuriated the media.
Since he became the Chiefs’ starter in 2018, Patrick Mahomes has established himself as the best QB in the NFL.
In a league filled with mediocrity at the position, he has consistently feasted on lesser teams and lesser players en route to three Super Bowl wins.
As his star has grown, the pressure on him to be a “social justice activist” in the mold of Colin Kaepernick has grown as well.
Especially after the shooting at the Chiefs parade, which resulted from a dispute between two individuals, there were widespread calls in the media for him to “take a stand.”
But instead of coming out with guns blazing, so to speak, for gun control, Mahomes took a very different and more humble approach.
He decided to step back and educate himself on the issue before making any grand proclamations about what society needed to do with guns.
According to Fox News, “Patrick Mahomes is one of the most recognizable faces in the NFL and across sports and was recognized as Time magazine’s ‘Most Influential People’ on Tuesday.
“In the profile, the deadly Super Bowl parade shooting in Kansas City, Missouri, was mentioned. One person was killed, and several others were wounded as the team tried to celebrate its second consecutive title, supplanting them as a dynastic team not seen since the New England Patriots.
“Thoughts, prayers and calls for tighter gun-control measures rained onto social media as shots fired were reported. Mahomes offered his condolences, donated money to an aid fund for victims and went to the hospital to visit some of the victims.
“However, the three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback stopped short of advocating for those measures. He explained why to Time magazine.”
This must not have been an easy thing to do for Mahomes. He has millions of dollars in endorsement deals on the line that could get stripped from him if he is suspected to be a conservative.
But he stuck to his conscience anyway.
Here is what Mahomes had to say: “I continue to educate myself. I don’t want to make a quick response to something that takes a lot of education to really learn and make a swaying comment based off that. But I know we have to find a solution of some way to make this stuff stop.”
This is an incredibly mature comment from Mahomes, and one that other athletes should take heed of as well.
And of course, no one disagrees with him that we have to find “some way to make this stuff stop.”
Gun rights supporters just know that there are dozens of better solutions to stopping violence that haven’t been tried yet and that don’t involve stripping people of their rights.
Mahomes may or may not be a diehard gun rights supporter, the article doesn’t make that clear, but he is at least open-minded.