KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In less than two weeks, the Chiefs will play a real football game for the first time in seven months. The first since their Super Bowl victory. The first since a pandemic cast doubt on when we’d see football again.
But also the first NFL game since social injustice conversations have moved to the forefront of the sports world. The police shootings of Black men and women have led to player protests, kneeling during the national anthem and even boycotting in American sports.
On Saturday, Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said he has had “a lot of conversations with the leadership group on the team related to social justice issues.”
But they have not discussed any action the players might take, he said. The players, however, have hinted they will do something.
It wouldn’t be the first time. In 2017, Chiefs All-Pro cornerback Marcus Peters sat during the anthem, and at that time, Hunt said the organization had communicated with players “that we prefer for them to stand, but at the end of the day, it’s their decision.”
Asked Saturday by The Star if he still preferred Chiefs players stand for the anthem, Hunt was noncommittal, though he did say he sees a difference between the climate now and three years ago.
“I would say that we’re in a very different place as a country,” Hunt said. “These issues are important to our players. They’re important to our coaching staff, our entire organization. This is the time to be sensitive. It’s a time to listen. It’s a time to understand. I recognize that around the league, there may be some kneeling that goes on with the national anthem, and I just think the country is in a really different place at this point.”
Chiefs players and coaches have been vocal on the country’s racial inequality this offseason, their voices initially ignited by the killing of George Floyd and further fueled recently by the shooting of Jacob Blake.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and safety Tyrann Mathieu have transformed words to action with voter registration efforts in Kansas City. That comes with the assistance of management, they emphasized, through talking with team president Mark Donovan as well as Hunt.
“It’s not something that’s new to the Kansas City Chiefs. Really going back to the 1960s and 1970s, my dad really encouraged the players to get out there and use their platform to make a difference in the community,” Hunt said. “A lot of those efforts over the decades have been focused on things that benefit the minority communities. We’re certainly more focused on that than ever.
“What I’ve really appreciated the last couple of years is how engaged the leaders on our team are. I’ll take Patrick and Tyrann as examples. They’re very engaged. They want to make a difference. The want to do things that are going to make our country better, things that are going to help us get along as a country.”
It’s led to potentially fruitful efforts. The Chiefs are attempting to transform Arrowhead Stadium into a voting location this November, though any finalization of such a plan has work left to accomplish.
“That’s one of their big issues — voter registration and getting people out to vote,” Hunt said. “And so we’ve worked with them, and we’re working with some organizations here locally to try to encourage people to get out to vote. We’ve made an effort to get all of our players registered to vote here. And the icing on the cake would be if we could have Arrowhead as a polling station. We don’t know if that’s going to work out. But we’ve had some really good dialogue at some of the highest levels with the state, and we hope it does.”
Hunt credited his father, Lamar, the founder of the Chiefs, with providing a lesson on treating all people with respect and appreciation, regardless of race and background. That’s the message players and coaches have tried to stress this offseason.
“I think Andy (Reid) said it as well as anyone — we just need to love our neighbor,” Hunt said. “If we’ll do that, this world’s going to be a whole lot better place.”
