San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle has been named the recipient of the NFL’s Salute to Service Award.
The award was first given out in 2012 as part of the NFL’s and USAA’s commitment to recognize and honor the military and veteran community.
Kittle hosts military members for every Niners home game, donating over 400 tickets over the last six seasons. He and his family created an app to offer free mental health services for veterans.
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George Kittle, #85 of the San Francisco 49ers, reacts during the second quarter against the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl LVIII at Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 11, 2024 in Las Vegas.(Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Kittle has also donated over $250,000 to military nonprofits and further highlighted military organizations through My Cause My Cleats.
“I am incredibly thankful and honored to be this year’s Salute to Service Award recipient. This is my fourth time being nominated by the 49ers, which is an absolute honor because it’s important to me to show gratitude and support to the military,” Kittle said in a statement. “My appreciation for the military stems from watching my Uncle Pat serve multiple tours with the National Guard and seeing firsthand how much it impacted him and his family while he was overseas.
“Without my family and their unwavering support, I would not be able to create these genuine and authentic relationships with the real heroes and the ones who should be receiving this award, the active-duty members, Veterans, TAPS and families that have lost loved ones in the line of fire. The support you see for the military around the league is so important and the fact that guys on every team do it, not just the nominees, is awesome. We are allowed to live the lives we live here because of the sacrifices they make, so we’re just trying to honor them, show our support, and share as much love as we can.”
George Kittle sits in the audience at WrestleMania 39 at SoFi Stadium on April 1, 2023 in Inglewood, California.(Unique Nicole/Getty Images)
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Kittle was one of the three finalists, besting Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones and Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Morgan Fox.
Jones grew up in a military household; his father, Alvin, served 29 years in the Army, while his mother, Vurgess, served for 27. Jones’ older brother, Xavier, serves in the Air Force. Jones and his twin brother Alvin Jr., founded the A&A All the Way Foundation in 2020 to support the youth of military families.
Fox also grew up in a military community and donated 100 tickets to veterans. He has hosted members of the Wounded Warrior Project at Chargers practices.
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Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi.(Tubi)
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Kittle will be recognized at the NFL Honors on Thursday, where the MVP, Offensive and Defensive Players and Rookies, and Coach of the Year will also be crowned.
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The Kansas City Chiefs have drawn some of the most popular people in the world to their games over the course of the last two seasons, and Super Bowl LIX is expected to be a star-studded affair.
Aside from Taylor Swift being in the Chiefs’ corner for big home games and the playoffs, President Donald Trump was among those who congratulated the team for narrowly defeating the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship.
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Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt with his wife Tavia Hunt, left, and daughter Gracie Hunt appear on the red carpet prior to the NFL Honors awards presentation at YouTube Theater.(Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
Gracie Hunt, the daughter of Chiefs team owner Clark Hunt, spoke to Riley Gaines on OutKick’s “Gaines for Girls” podcast and reacted to Trump’s remarks.
“It’s pretty cool. It’s pretty awesome,” she told Gaines. “Sometimes I just look at whoever I’m talking to and I’m like yeah that just wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card. But wow that’s just absolutely incredible.”
Trump posted his congratulations to the Chiefs on Truth Social.
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Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes celebrates after the Chiefs defeated the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship NFL football game on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025 in Kansas City, Missouri.(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
“Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs,” Trump wrote. “What a GREAT team, Coach, Quarterback, and virtually everything else, including those fantastic FANS, that voted for me (MAGA!) in record numbers.”
He also added that he expected the Bills to do “a lot of winning long into the future.”
On Tuesday, a source told Fox News Digital that Trump was expected to attend Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans as the Chiefs get set to take on the Philadelphia Eagles.
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Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi.(Tubi)
Trump would be the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl if he does make the trip to the Big Easy.
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EXCLUSIVE: Former University of Pennsylvania women’s swimmers Grace Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist have filed a lawsuit against the university, Harvard University, the NCAA and the Ivy League Council of Presidents over their experience sharing a team with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. The lawsuit does not name Thomas as a defendant.
According to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital, Estabrok, Kaczorowski and Holmquist argue that Thomas’ eligibility to compete as a woman for UPenn violated their Title IX rights. It argues the NCAA’s 2010, which allows biological males to compete in the women’s category based on their preferred gender identity, is “discriminatory.”
The women claim that by allowing Thomas to compete, the institutions “injured them and violated federal law.”
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The lawsuit also detailed the personal experiences each of the women faced having to share a team and locker room with Thomas. Each of the plaintiffs claims the experience left them “repeatedly emotionally traumatized.”
The plaintiffs allege that the university administrators pushed pro-trans ideology onto them throughout the process of accepting Thomas on the team and in their locker room. The former swimmers say that they were led to feel their concerns over being teammates with Thomas was rooted in a “psychological problem.”
“The UPenn administrators told the women that if anyone was struggling with accepting Thomas’s participation on the UPenn Women’s team, they should seek counseling and support from CAPS and the LBGTQ center,” the lawsuit alleges.
“The administrators also invited the women to a talk titled, ‘Trans 101.’ Thus, the women were led to understand that UPenn’s position was that if a woman on the team had any problem with a trans-identifying male being on her team that woman had a psychological problem and needed counseling.”
Lia Thomas of the Pennsylvania Quakers swims in the 500 yard freestyle event during a tri-meet against the Yale Bulldogs and the Dartmouth Big Green at Sheerr Pool on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania on January 8, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.(Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
The plaintiffs also allege that the administrators warned them against speaking out against the situation publicly.
“The UPenn administrators went on to tell the women that if the women spoke publicly about their concerns about Thomas’ participation on the Women’s Team, the reputation of those complaining about Thomas being on the team would be tainted with transphobia for the rest of their lives and they would probably never be able to get a job,’” the lawsuit alleges.
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Thomas, a biological male, previously competed for the UPenn men’s swimming team from 2017-20 under the name Will Thomas. According to the lawsuit, Thomas was introduced by women’s swimming head coach Mike Schnur to the women’s swimmers during a team meeting in Fall 2019 as their incoming teammate.
The lawsuit alleges that coaches and UPenn administrators told the women’s swimmers not to talk about Thomas’ situation. Schnur allegedly told the women’s swimmers that Thomas wouldn’t be sharing a locker room with them when they asked after the initial introduction.
But that allegedly changed later.
Thomas officially began to practice and compete with the women’s swimmers in Fall 2021.
And that was when the female swimmers say they discovered that Schnur’s alleged claim Thomas wouldn’t share a locker room was not true.
“When UPenn’s women’s swimmers returned to school in the fall of 2021 they were shocked to discover that Thomas was being allowed to use the women’s locker room at UPenn and would be allowed to use the women’s locker room at swim meets,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Margot [Kaczorowski] only learned that Thomas had been authorized by UPenn to use the women’s locker room when [Kaczorowski] walked in the women’s locker room to find Thomas in front of her changing his clothing.”
Per the suit, Kaczorowski confronted Schnur in tears about her shock of discovering Thomas would now share a locker room with her. She alleges the coach responded by saying “I know it’s wrong but there’s nothing I can do.”
“Coach Schnur told the Plaintiffs he would be fired by UPenn if he did not allow Thomas to use the women’s locker room and compete on the women’s swim team,” the lawsuit alleges.
In December 2021, another team meeting was held to discuss Thomas’ presence on the team and the media attention it garnered, per the court documents. The female swimmers allege they were told that Thomas would continue to be on their team and that “Lia swimming is a non-negotiable.”
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The three female swimmers allege that they were made to believe they would be removed from the team if they tried to protest Thomas’ participation ahead of the 2022 Ivy League championships.
“UPenn swim team members were told by Coach Schnur and UPenn administrators that UPenn administrators coordinated closely with the NCAA and the Ivy League to ensure that Thomas would be eligible for the 2021-2022 women’s swimming season,” the suit alleged.
“These statements about close coordination between UPenn, the Ivy League and the NCAA regarding Thomas’ eligibility led the UPenn Women’s Team members to understand the resisting or protesting the participation of Thomas on the team or his presence in the locker room would be futile and could result in the women being removed from the team or from UPenn.”
At the 2022 Ivy League Swimming Championships, Thomas came in first in the 500-, 200- and 100-yard freestyle races, setting pool and Ivy League records, and was ultimately the highest-scoring swimmer at the entire meet. That year’s competition was hosted at Harvard’s Blodgett Pool in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas poses with her teammates Hannah Kannan, Camryn Carter, and Margot Kaczorowski after winning the 400 yard freestyle relay during the 2022 Ivy League Womens Swimming and Diving Championships at Blodgett Pool on February 19, 2022 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Kathryn Riley/Getty Images)
The lawsuit alleges that Harvard made no accommodations for any of the female athletes who did not want to share a locker room or restroom with Thomas.
“Harvard did not provide a unisex bathroom or separate bathroom for Thomas to use or for any other women to use who did not want to use the Women’s Locker room while Thomas was using it,” the suit alleges.
After Thomas’ record-breaking performance in Cambridge that February, the athlete went on to compete at that year’s NCAA championships. There, an infamous tie with former University of Kentucky Riley Gaines resulted in Thomas hoisting the trophy for photo-ops over the biologically female Gaines.
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Gaines has since filed her own lawsuit against the NCAA alongside several other female athletes who have been affected by the association’s gender identity policies.
Other female competitors from that event who joined Gaines’ lawsuit have spoken out about their experience with Thomas as well.
Former North Carolina State women’s swimmer Kylee Alons, a 31-time All-American and two-time NCAA champion, spoke about the experience competing against and sharing a locker room with Thomas, during a Georgia senate committee hearing on Jan. 30.
“We all were just guinea pigs for a giant social experiment formed by the NCAA regarding how much abuse and blatant disregard women would be forced to take in silence,” Alons said. “I go to the locker room that day only to see Thomas and realize there is no escape from this nightmare, no matter where I go. I had no idea he was going to be allowed in the women’s locker room as we did not consent to have a man in our locker room.”
Former University of Kentucky swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler joined Lyons in recounting the experience of sharing a locker room with Thomas at the Jan. 30 hearing.
“Young women, teenage girls were forced to undress next to a fully intact biological male who exposed himself to us, while we were simultaneously fully exposed,” Wheeler said. “We were never asked. We were never given a choice or another option. We were just expected to be OK with it, to shove down our discomfort, our embarrassment, our fear, because standing up for ourselves would mean being labeled as intolerant or hateful or bigoted.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to UPenn, Harvard, The Ivy League and the NCAA for comment, but has not received a response at the time of publication.
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NCAA President Charlie Baker addressed concerns over the issue of female athletes having to share teams and locker rooms with trans athletes during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in December.
There, Baker insisted that female athletes have the option to find other accommodations if they’re uncomfortable sharing with transgenders.
“Everybody else should have an opportunity to use other facilities if they wish to do so,” Baker said.
Baker also says that the NCAA’s policies that allow trans athletes to compete against women is based on federal standards.
Those federal standards may change in the coming days.
President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order to ban trans athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act Jan. 14, which would cut federal funding for any public educational institution that allows transgender athletes to compete against girls and women in sports.
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Advocates for fairness in women’s sports will join President Donald Trump on Wednesday as he is expected to sign an executive order to keep biological men from competing against females.
Independent Women ambassadors Riley Gaines, Payton McNabb, Paula Scanlan, Sia Liilii, Lauren Miller, Kim Russell, Kaitlynn Wheeler, Linnea Saltz and Lily Mullens will be at the White House for the signing.
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Riley Gaines gives a speech at Penn State.(Riley Gaines)
The executive order will come on National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Wednesday, which celebrates female athletes from across women’s sports and those who are committed to providing equal access to sports for all females. The executive order will concern public institutions, OutKick confirmed on Tuesday.
“National Girls and Women in Sports Day is incredibly special to me, more so now after experiencing the injustice of competing against a male firsthand and talking to hundreds of other female athletes and parents with similar stories,” Gaines, who is the host of OutKick’s “Gaines for Girls” podcast, said in a news release. “Who could have predicted back in 1987 when the day was created that we would be fighting to keep men out of women’s sports?
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Paula Scanlan, left, and Riley Gaines attend the DailyWire+ Red Carpet Premiere of “Lady Ballers” on Nov. 29, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.(Jason Davis/Getty Images for Bentkey Ventures)
“Luckily, we now have a president in the White House that has already proven he stands with women and actually knows what a ‘woman’ is. I’m counting on the Senate to bring Sen. Tuberville’s Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act to a vote as soon as possible and send it on to the president’s desk.”
Trump made fairness in women’s sports a major campaign issue on his way to winning the presidential election over former Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
At the beginning of January, a federal judge blocked the Biden administration’s attempt to redefine sex in Title IX as “gender identity.” Then, Trump’s Department of Education told K-12 schools and higher learning institutions that Title IX protections would be recognized on the basis of biological sex.
Trump made clear in December he was going to end the “transgender lunacy.”
Then-former President Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida.(Evan Vucci/AP)
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“As someone who was directly impacted by a male athlete on my college women’s swim team, I know how important it is to preserve female-only sport and space,” Scanlan, a former UPenn swimmer and teammate of Lia Thomas, added. “Current and future female athletes shouldn’t be subjected to what my teammates and I went through. Thankfully, the current administration is following through on promises to stop the insanity.”
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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
Golden State Warriors guard Dennis Schroder made a wild claim about the NBA trade deadline on Tuesday following the major movement that took place in the league over the last few days.
The league saw the Los Angeles Lakers acquire Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks for Anthony Davis. Then, De’Aaron Fox was traded from the Sacramento Kings to the San Antonio Spurs in a three-team trade that saw the Chicago Bulls deal Zach LaVine to the Kings.
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Golden State Warriors guard Dennis Schroder, #71, looks on between plays against the Chicago Bulls during the second quarter at Chase Center in San Francisco on Jan. 23, 2025.(Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images)
Schroder, who the Warriors acquired earlier in the year from the Brooklyn Nets, said in a recent interview he had no angst about the trade deadline, saying his salary is going to stay the same no matter what happens and that going to a different city or town was a “luxury problem.”
He then lamented the idea to NBC Sports Bay Area that anyone could be traded at any time. He then made the comparison.
“It’s like modern slavery,” he told the network. “It’s modern slavery at the end of the day. Everybody can decide where you’re going, even if you have a contract. Yeah, of course, we make a lot of money and we can feed our families, but at the end of the day if they say, ‘You’re not coming to work tomorrow, you’re going over there,’ they can decide that. They got to change that a little bit.
Golden State Warriors guard Dennis Schröder, #71, guards Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George, #3, during the second quarter at Chase Center in San Francisco on Jan. 28, 2025.(D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images)
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“But still grateful that we’re here and that we can live this every single day. I think everybody who’s in here is blessed. But if you really think about it, it is kind of crazy that the organization can tell you, ‘We want you to be team-first, but you’re going over there.’ It’s a lot.”
Schroder added that the control being out of the players’ hands and left to the NBA owners is something the guard wanted the league to eventually figure out.
The Warriors could end up trading Schroder thanks to an exception within the league’s collective bargaining agreement, according to the network.
He said he would want to stay with Golden State but acknowledged the uncertainty.
Los Angeles Lakers forward Anthony Davis, #3, dribbles against Golden State Warriors guard Dennis Schroder, #71, during the fourth quarter at Chase Center in San Francisco on Jan. 25, 2025.(Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images)
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The veteran was averaging nearly 20 points per game with the Nets before he was traded. In 24 games with Golden State, he’s averaging 10.6 points and 4.4 assists per game.
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Marcus Jordan, the son of Michael Jordan, was seen speeding away from Florida law enforcement officers before his vehicle was found stuck on railroad tracks, dashcam video showed.
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office dashcam video showed Jordan in his Lamborghini sports utility vehicle speeding away from deputies before he was later arrested.
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Marcus Jordan was arrested in Florida.(Orange County Jail)
Officers with the Maitland Police Department found the vehicle immobile on the tracks in the suburb with a commuter train about 10 minutes away. The SUV’s tires were buried in dirt and rock from being spun repeatedly, according to an arrest report.
Jordan was arrested on multiple charges, including cocaine possession and resisting an officer without violence.
When Jordan was asked to get out of the vehicle after smelling alcohol, officials said they noticed his slurred speech and confusion. The arrest report said officers found a bag of what tested positive for cocaine in his pants.
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Marcus Jordan attends the 2022 Rookie USA Fashion Show at 608 Fifth Avenue on Sept. 8, 2022 in New York City.(Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Rookie USA)
“Bro, I’m Marcus Jordan. I’m Michael Jordan’s son,” he told officers, according to the New York Post. “I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m just trying to get home. And I made a wrong turn, OK?”
Jordan was booked into the Orange County Jail and refused to talk to reporters when he was released Tuesday. Fox News Digital reached out to his representatives for comment.
The 34-year-old is the second-eldest child of the former Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards star. Marcus played high school basketball and later tried his hand at college basketball at the University of Central Florida.
He ended up leaving the program in 2012 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree at The Rosen College of Hospitality Management in 2013.
Marcus has laid low for the most part. He was thrust into the spotlight about two years ago when he began dating Larsa Pippen, the ex-wife of his father’s teammate Scottie Pippen. The relationship lasted for about two years as the couple broke up in 2024.
Larsa Pippen and Marcus Jordan attend day 2 of Rolling Loud at Hard Rock Stadium on July 22, 2023 in Miami Gardens, Florida.(Romain Maurice/Getty Images)
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He has had a brush with the law in the past. He pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in an incident in Omaha, Nebraska, in 2012. He was also charged with obstructing a police officer, but the charge was dropped as part of a plea agreement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Millions of American televisions will show constant shots of Taylor Swift and potentially President Donald Trump on Sunday, with a historic football game going on in between.
When Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs take the field at the Caesars Superdome for Super Bowl LIX, they will be the first players in NFL history to play in a third straight Super Bowl after winning the last two.
They are currently 1.5-point favorites to become the first team ever to win three straight. If they do win, it would be their fourth in an era dating back to 2020 and fifth all-time.
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Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi.(Tubi)
They would join the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers, Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots as the only teams with at least five Super Bowls.
And they’re doing it as the team with the largest following on TikTok and YouTube, as Swift’s relationship with Kelce has catapulted the franchise into a pop culture phenomenon.
However, many NFL fans have had it with the Chiefs.
The constant shots and conversations involving Swift, a growing history of controversial referee decisions and the general animosity that follows any team that wins too much has made the Chiefs the NFL’s “villain.”
How did they get here?
New Year’s, 2012
On Dec. 30, 2012, the then-defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 42-7. Andy Reid was fired as Eagles head coach the very next day, on New Year’s Eve.
Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid, center, leaves the field after a game against the New York Giants on Dec. 30, 2012 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Giants won 42-7.(Hunter Martin/Philadelphia Eagles/Getty Images)
Reid was booted out of Philadelphia after a 14-year stint that included plenty of wins but none in the Super Bowl. He was dubbed one of the NFL’s most beloved coaches, but in terms of championships, he was just a lovable loser.
It all came crashing down on him after his son, Garrett Reid, died the previous August.
But the coach wasted no time getting back to work. He was hired as the Chiefs’ head coach just one day after getting fired by the Eagles – the first day of 2013.
That day, the Chiefs franchise changed forever.
The 2013 Draft: Travis Kelce’s Big Break
The Chiefs were one of the only teams to have a worse season than the Eagles in 2012. As a result, Kansas City had the first pick in the 2013 NFL Draft.
Reid’s very first draft as Chiefs coach saw the franchise take offensive tackle Eric Fisher with the first pick. However, the most consequential pick for the Chiefs that draft didn’t come until the third round, when they selected Kelce, a mid-round tight end prospect out of the University of Cincinnati.
Travis Kelce of the Cincinnati Bearcats reacts after scoring the game winning touchdown against the Duke Blue Devils during their game at Bank of America Stadium on Dec. 27, 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina.(Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
At that time, the notion that Kelce could become one of the most accomplished tight ends in NFL history and boyfriend to Swift was a pipe dream at best. He was an underdog from a blue-collar Ohio family and missed out on a whole year of college football after getting suspended by his own program for using marijuana.
On his podcast “New Heights,” Kelce once mentioned that his marijuana-induced suspension was questioned by scouts when he tried out at the 2013 NFL combine.
“At the combine, I had some bad interviews,” Kelce said. “The [Dallas] Cowboys, they were kind of pressing me about having this red flag of missing a year.”
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But Kelce said he had a confident message ready for any of the teams that wanted to use it against him.
“I basically just said, ‘If you guys think I’m gonna be that kind of guy, or you’re questioning if I’m still that person after everything that I’ve battled through to get to where I am now from missing a season, then you guys (should) probably go somewhere else and pick somebody else.’”
The Chiefs’ decision to overlook Kelce’s marijuana past and draft him anyway changed everything.
It changed everything for the franchise as a whole in the long run, both on and off the field.
The 2013 Season: An Immediate Culture Shift
Reid and Kelce’s first season in Kansas City marked an immediate turnaround from the franchise’s disastrous 2012. Reid set a new tone in town right away. They raced out to the best start in the league, winning their first nine games, which included a revenge victory in Philadelphia for the coach.
Still, that year was an early lesson in the limitations a team faces without an elite quarterback.
Former Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith, who came to Kansas City after a disappointing stint as the No. 1 pick with the San Francisco 49ers, did enough to help make the Chiefs make a massive leap from the year before. But Smith couldn’t do enough to make the Chiefs competitive with Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos for the AFC West title. And when the Chiefs did make the playoffs as a wild card team, they gave up one of the biggest comebacks in playoff history to Andrew Luck’s Indianapolis Colts.
The Chiefs were on the wrong end of the quarterback comparisons that year, and it would be a few more years before they were on the right one.
The 2014 Draft: Dodging Johnny Football
Reid and the Chiefs may have gone into the 2014 draft with the hope of drafting a franchise quarterback.
Former Heisman winner Johnny Manziel was one of the most exciting but uncertain quarterback prospects in 2014. The Chiefs apparently had interest and already had a history of overlooking past character concerns for the right talent based on their decision with Kelce.
Manziel previously told Fox News Digital that he had been in close communication with the Chiefs during the draft process that year. Manziel said he and his agent believed Kansas City was the quarterback’s “floor” on draft night. Manziel was one pick away from falling to the Chiefs at the 23rd overall pick, and potentially altering the course of history.
But just one pick before that, Reid’s old team prevented it from happening.
The Cleveland Browns struck a trade with the Eagles for the 22nd pick, and Manziel went to Cleveland. Manziel went on to have one of the most disappointing and dysfunctional NFL careers of any Heisman winner in history.
And the Chiefs stayed the course to becoming what they are today.
The 2016 Season: Division Dominance Begins
After Manning’s retirement from the NFL following the 2015 season, marking a steep decline for the defending Super Bowl champion Broncos, a power vacuum opened in the AFC West.
For much of the 2016 season, it seemed the Oakland Raiders, led by a young Derek Carr, were destined to take the throne in the division that year. But when Carr suffered a season-ending injury in the second-to-last game of the season, an opportunity opened for the Chiefs.
Kansas City won their final game of the season while Oakland lost, as the Chiefs took over first place and won their first division title since 2010. It was a crown they haven’t let go of since, as they’ve won the division every year since then.
That season also saw Kelce make his first push into pop culture by publicizing his dating, seven full years before dating Swift. The tight end launched his own dating show, “Catching Kelce” on the E! Network, which launched in November of that year. The show featured a roster of women competing for Kelce’s romantic interest, but it only lasted one season after disappointing ratings.
Kelce has since said he wishes that the show be “forgotten.”
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The 2017 Draft: Enter Patrick Mahomes
Reid managed to get the Chiefs to the playoffs nearly every year with Smith at quarterback, but the ceiling on the team with Smith became more apparent each time.
They couldn’t get past the divisional round.
However, their opportunity to change their quarterback fortunes came in the 2017 draft.
Three years after possibly denying Manziel to the Chiefs, the Browns passed on Mahomes with the No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft. The Chicago Bears traded up for the No. 2 pick, needing a quarterback, and also passed on Mahomes in favor of Mitchell Trubisky.
Mahomes fell all the way to the 10th pick, which was owned by the Buffalo Bills, who also needed a quarterback. Buffalo made the trade to send Mahomes to Kansas City. Buffalo has lost four playoff games to Mahomes since then.
The Kansas City Chiefs selected Patrick Mahomes of Texas Tech with the 10th pick in the 2017 NFL Draft at the 2017 NFL Draft Theater on April 27, 2017 in Philadelphia.(Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The nine teams that passed on Mahomes may have believed the low marks on his scouting report that claimed he developed some “bad habits” and “lacked discipline” as a passer in college, despite possessing supreme talent.
At that time, Mahomes was also known as the son of Pat Mahomes Sr., who was a pitcher on multiple MLB teams in the 1990s and early 2000s. Mahomes Sr. even wound up on the “lovable loser” New York Mets in 2000, who went to the World Series against the 1990s dynasty New York Yankees. The younger Mahomes was just 6 years old that year.
But Mahomes’ father was left off the Mets’ playoff roster, and the Yankees, then known as the “Evil Empire,” went on to beat the Mets and win a third straight World Series championship and the fourth of an era.
When Mahomes was drafted by the Chiefs in April 2017, it put him in a position to eventually claim that very same type of hardware this upcoming Sunday.
The 2018 Season: A New Sheriff in Town
After a year of sitting behind Smith as a backup, Mahomes took the reins as the Chiefs starting quarterback. He changed the fortunes of the franchise immediately. In his first three career starts, he threw 13 touchdown passes without a single interception.
Mahomes went on to win league MVP and earn the Chiefs the No. 1 seed in the AFC. In his first playoff start, the young quarterback helped Reid avenge his first playoff collapse with the Chiefs in 2013, by defeating Luck’s Colts 31-13 without any threat of a comeback.
Kansas City reached the AFC title game for the first time since 1993, where the league’s last evil empire awaited them.
Tom Brady’s New England Patriots went into a freezing cold Arrowhead Stadium and just edged out the Chiefs in an overtime thriller. It crushed the hearts of Chiefs fans in attendance who were dreaming of their first Super Bowl trip since 1969.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, #15, stiff arms New England Patriots strong safety Patrick Chung, #23, as he rolls out in the third quarter of the AFC Championship Game between the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs on Jan. 20, 2019 at Arrowhead Stadium.(Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire)
And similar to what happened when the Yankees beat his father’s Mets to win a third straight World Series, Mahomes’ first playoff loss to Brady sent the Patriots to the Super Bowl for the third straight year. Mahomes was forced to watch as a losing opponent, as he entered his first offseason after playoff heartbreak.
Super Bowl LIV: The First Taste of Championship
The Chiefs fans who had their hearts broken by the Patriots didn’t have to wait long for their long-awaited Super Bowl appearance.
Mahomes and Kelce came right back in the 2019 season and picked up where they left off. And this time, they didn’t even have to deal with Brady and the Patriots, who lost in the Wild Card round in Brady’s last game as a Patriot.
So the Chiefs picked up the mantle of the NFL’s dynasty, winning Super Bowl LIV over the San Francisco 49ers in the final big game before the COVID-19 pandemic. It broke Kansas City’s 50-year Super Bowl drought and elevated the franchise in the pop culture sphere as well.
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid victorious, holding up the Vince Lombardi trophy after winning Super Bowl LIV against the San Francisco 49ers at Hard Rock Stadium.(Simon Bruty /Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)
The whole country seemed to rally behind Kansas City, celebrating the small market underdog that finally got over the hump. Reid became a central figure in this celebration, as his two-decades-long coaching career had finally been validated with a Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Mahomes went on to sign a historic 10-year contract extension the following July, ensuring that the prime years of his career would be with the Chiefs. Just one month later, he got engaged to his now-wife Brittany, who had already been pregnant since May.
Kelce went on to appear as a fictionalized version of himself in the first episode of the comedy series “Moonbase 8”later that year.
And the whole country got a blitz of commercials during the pandemic that featured the Chiefs stars and Reid, in a marketing strategy that has only become more prominent since then.
It was all just a modest start of an emerging phenomenon.
Super Bowl LV: A Historic Humbling
The Chiefs were looking to get a quick start on their dynasty when they made it back to the Super Bowl in the 2020 season.
But this time, they weren’t able to get around Brady.
Brady and his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, met Mahomes and the Chiefs in Tampa Bay for a historic Super Bowl overshadowed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And it ended up being the most lopsided Super Bowl since then, as Brady and the Bucs won 31-9.
It was a dark footnote in the Chiefs dynasty, as Reid’s son and Chiefs assistant coach, Britt Reid, was in a car crash just days before the game.
Mahomes’ loss to Brady, whom he had suffered his only two playoff losses to, gave Brady his seventh Super Bowl and created a wide gap for Mahomes to catch up to if he wanted to surpass him.
But that didn’t stop Mahomes from trying.
The Chiefs will take on the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. The game can be streamed on Tubi for free.(Tubi)
The 2022 Season: Getting Back
A loss to Brady in Super Bowl LV and then a stunning playoff loss to Joe Burrow’s Bengals in the following year’s AFC championship game left some wondering if a Chiefs dynasty would ever materialize, especially after the team lost superstar wide receiver Tyreek Hill in the 2022 offseason.
Hill was instrumental to the Chiefs’ success during the three years of the Mahomes era.
Meanwhile, Kelce parted ways with a big part of his team off the field. In May 2022, he broke up with his ex-girlfriend, Instagram model Kala Nicole. The two had been together since 2017 after Nicole reportedly started their relationship by DMing him on Instagram.
Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.(AP Photo/Ed Zurga, File)
But Mahomes and Kelce sought to prove they would be just fine without Hill in 2022, and soon enough, Kelce proved to be pretty fine without Nicole.
Mahomes replicated his MVP season from 2018, winning the honor for the second time in his career, leading the Chiefs to a 14-3 record and the top seed in the AFC.
In the playoffs, they got their rematch with Burrow and the Bengals. Mahomes, with a sprained ankle, led his team to an avenging 23-20 win, setting up a game-winning field goal on a hurt ankle.
By that point, Brady was officially done playing, for good (probably).
For Mahomes, that meant a chance to really lay down the law about who was in charge in the NFL now. He saw that kind of authority in his life from the other side, from Brady just years earlier. Maybe he even saw it from Derek Jeter and the Yankees if he and his dad watched the World Series in 2000, even after his dad didn’t make the Mets’ postseason roster.
For Reid, a Super Bowl matchup against the Eagles, the team that fired him after that loss to the Giants on New Year’s Eve in 2012, waited on the other side.
And for Kelce, a chance to impress the world, and maybe one of the world’s famous women, was hanging out there too.
Super Bowl LVII: The Slippery Showdown
The Chiefs won one of the all-time thrilling Super Bowl games in league history in Super Bowl LVII. A 38-35 win over the Eagles, on a last-second kick by Harrison Butker, went down as one of the all-time modern classics.
And to many, it was an all-time controversy.
The playing surface at State Farm Stadium in Arizona was specially curated in an $800,000 operation by the NFL to provide natural grass for the game.
Multiple Eagles players complained to reporters about the surface being slippery and affecting their performance after the game, including Jordan Mailata and Hassan Reddick.
Even Chiefs defensive lineman Frank Clark told reporters the field “was kind of terrible.”
Haason Reddick, #7 of the Philadelphia Eagles, pressures Patrick Mahomes, #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs, during the second quarter of Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium on Feb. 12, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona.(Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
And despite that, the Chiefs and Eagles played to an even beat, slipping and sliding to 35-35 tie late in the game.
The Chiefs were already in field goal range, and the Eagles were nearly out of timeouts. All they needed was a first down to drain the clock for Butker.
And they got the first down on a holding call by James Bradberry, who the Eagles plucked from the Giants in the offseason. Some have argued that the penalty should not have been called. Most have suggested the penalty is valid.
But had it not been called, the Eagles would have had plenty of time to go down the field and try and change things.
Instead, they just had a few seconds and all Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts could do was throw the ball onto an empty plot of slippery turf.
A dynasty was nearly complete.
The 2023 Season: The Hang-Out Heard ‘Round The World
On Sept. 12, 2023, the now-defunct media startup The Messenger reported that Kelce and Swift were “quietly hanging out.”
Twelve days later, Swift showed up in a suite at Arrowhead Stadium with Kelce’s mom to watch the Chiefs play the Bears, and the NFL hasn’t been the same since.
Taylor Swift, right, and Travis Kelce’s mom, Donna, sat side by side throughout the Kansas City Chiefs’ game.(Cooper Neill)
Swift ended up going to 13 Chiefs games that season, and every time she did, the broadcast never let the audience forget. She was shown in between plays over and over and over again, drawing plenty of new eyeballs to the game, while rolling many of the eyeballs that were already watching.
Chiefs games set a new standard for viewership in the NFL, as each one became a national pop culture event. Five of the top 10 most-watched prime-time telecasts of 2023 were all Chiefs games, according to data from Variety.
After the end of the end of the regular season, Gracie Hunt, the daughter of Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt, announced that Swift’s attendance at Chiefs games has increased the team’s fanbase by 30–40%.
And the Chiefs put on a big show for all of those new fans. They made a playoff run that, for the first time, forced the Chiefs to go on the road to win games. It didn’t even faze them, as they took down the Bills in Buffalo and the Ravens in Baltimore to get back to the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl LVIII: Sin City Magic
Swift flew 5,700 miles and crossed nine time zones in a single day to watch her first Super Bowl as an NFL WAG.
After finishing a leg on her “Eras Tour” in Tokyo, Swift immediately flew to Las Vegas to watch Kelce play in Super Bowl LVIII.
Her show in Tokyo proved to simply be an opening act, as the Chiefs and 49ers battled in one of the longest and most-watched playoff sporting events ever.
It was the most-watched telecast in history with 123.7 million viewers, and they tuned in for 74 minutes and 57 seconds – the longest Super Bowl in history.
The length was credited to the fact that it was only the second Super Bowl ever to go to overtime, and there, it became the first Super Bowl ever to feature multiple scores in overtime.
When overtime began, the 49ers got the ball first, but could only manage a field goal.
Then Mahomes and Kelce came out, with Reid on the sideline, needing 75 yards to clinch a dynasty. They got those 75 yards in a methodical 13-play drive, capped off with a game-winning touchdown pass from Mahomes to Mecole Hardman.
And it was official: The Chiefs were the team of the 2020s.
Travis Kelce says feeling the support from Taylor Swift has been an “amazing experience.”(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The 2024 Season: A National Obsession
Like many other things in 2024, the Chiefs became a political debate.
It all started with their kicker, Butker, who ignited national outrage from some feminists when he gave a controversial commencement speech at Benedictine College. There, he expressed his conservative values and encouraged women to embrace a traditional role as a wife and mother.
This stirred a divide between many of the new fans who had joined on just for Swift and old-school conservative Chiefs fans who agreed with Butker.
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That divide widened after Brittany Mahomes liked one of then-former President Doanld Trump’s Instagram posts in August. It ignited a controversy so hot, that Trump himself weighed in on the issue and expressed his fondness for the Mahomes family, while disparaging Swift after the pop star endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Sept. 10.
Brittany and Swift stoked election debate around their friendship as they were frequently seen sitting separately at Cheifs games throughout the season. The two were seen together a few times, which cooled speculation about a political divide within the Chiefs family, but fans still argued relentlessly on social media.
The political debates between liberal new fans who joined for Swift and conservative Chiefs fans who supported Butker and Brittany raged on.
Then, the day before the election, Mahomes mother Randi Mahomes threw a bucket of gasoline on the situation by fully and unapologetically announcing her endorsement of Trump at the Chiefs’ game against the Buccaneers, suited in a MAGA hat.
And all the while, the Chiefs got off to an undefeated start while seemingly playing their worst football in years. Week after week, Mahomes and company found ways to pull out games by the slimmest of margins, with many big moments being decided by favorable referee decisions.
It’s a trend that carried into the playoffs. Outrage over multiple questionable officiating decisions in Kansas City’s postseason wins against the Texans and Bills have run rampant in recent weeks, even resulting in one fan starting a petition calling for a boycott until there is referee reform.
But it worked for the Chiefs regardless, as they are back in the Super Bowl for a rematch with the Eagles.
As if the team’s two histories aren’t tied enough, Swift grew up an Eagles fan in Pennsylvania. But even Swift’s father has capitulated to the Chiefs’ evil empire.
Kelce told reporters that Swift’s father, a lifelong Eagles fan, will be wearing a Chiefs’ jersey when the two teams face off Sunday.
Because for the Swift family, and many others in America, the Chiefs simply come before everything else now.
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NEW ORLEANS – As a rookie, New York Giants wide receiver Jalin Hyatt experienced a subpar season after the team had just come off a run that involved the team’s first playoff win since they won Super Bowl XLVI.
What transpired this past regular season was even worse.
A 3-14 record befell the Giants, who cut ties with their quarterback, Daniel Jones, who was signed to a four-year, $160 million contract extension in the prior offseason.
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Jalin Hyatt of the New York Giants is seen at MetLife Stadium on November 26, 2023, in East Rutherford, New Jersey.(GETTY IMAGES)
Meanwhile, Saquon Barkley, who the Giants slapped with a franchise tag instead of extending, chose the Philadelphia Eagles in free agency this past offseason and led the league in rushing, while helping his team reach Super Bowl LIX this week.
So Hyatt, making his way down to New Orleans to represent World of Hyatt on Radio Row, knows 2024 was a year not to write home about. However, he had nothing but an optimistic view going into next year.
“Obviously, not what we want as a team, but I think for us, we’ve just got to keep building,” he told Fox News Digital. “We have great players on our team, and hopefully we can bring in the right guys next year to help us win. I have full faith in this team, so we’ll see what we can do.”
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Hyatt knows the only way forward after a bad season is to take that first step in the right direction.
Personally, he’s coming off a down year after showing flashes in his rookie campaign. With the Giants struggling heavily on offense, Hyatt’s role diminished, especially with the emergence of first-round pick Malik Nabers added to the mix of receiver talent. Hyatt played only 33% of offensive snaps in 2024 compared to 51% in his rookie year.
Hyatt will be heading to Dallas after his appearance in the Big Easy to begin his offseason training with the idea of competing for a top receiver position in year 3 with New York.
Wide receiver Jalin Hyatt(IMAGN)
“Knowing that I’m going to play on the outside more than I thought, I gotta continue to keep getting stronger,” he said about his goals for the offseason. “For me, it’s just keep developing – working on catches, working on routes, working on things I know I need to work on and be ready for next year.”
And moving on for the Giants also includes looking ahead to a new quarterback throwing him footballs. While there are free-agent options out there, the NFL Draft is where many believe the Giants, with the third overall pick, will try their luck again at a quarterback of the future.
Whoever that may be – Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Miami’s Cam Ward are the frontrunners at the quarterback position — Hyatt knows the characteristic trait he wants most in his new signal caller.
“Whoever comes in, I just want them to be a leader,” he said. “I want them to be a leader. I want them to understand when you come to the Giants, you have media you got to worry about – a lot of things that playing in New York you have to go through. Not only that, but say we’re losing, I want a quarterback to come in that knows how to be confident and comes in next game and has more confidence in himself.
“So, it’s going to be fun next year. I believe that we have the right guys in the room. We just got to add a couple more pieces and we’ll be all right.”
The Giants do have building blocks, with Nabers and fellow rookie running back Tyrone Tracy at the forefront on offense. But Hyatt also discussed that last part: having the right guys in the locker room to lead the way along with the coaching staff led by Brian Daboll heading into what many consider to be a make-or-break fourth season at the helm.
“I just say that because of how we fought, even with the losing season that we had,” Hyatt said in regard to senior leadership. “Obviously, we didn’t win a lot of games and had a lot of losses back-to-back. Just seeing that team coming into practice, practicing like we’re undefeated, practicing like we want to win. Just seeing the guys still going out there showing effort in Weeks 16, 17 and 18 shows, I can just tell, the senior leadership in that room.
“For us, we just got to start on the right path and the right foot. We got to start with a win to start the season off and build from there.”
MAKING MEMORIES WITH WORLD OF HYATT
With the last name fitting perfectly, Hyatt has been partnered with World of Hyatt for the past three years, and they’ve collaborated on a fun experience that anyone can take part in back home and in this year’s Super Bowl host city.
World of Hyatt’s FIND Experiences in New Orleans and New York City offer custom experiences where Hyatt members can bid points on the football star’s Guide to New Orleans, for example, which includes a two-night stay at the Hyatt Centric French Quarter New Orleans with a guest, food and walking tours and even a custom welcome video from the football star himself.
Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi.(Tubi)
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“It’s one of the best things we’re doing so far with the FIND Experiences. We just keep building together, and we’ll see where we get from there.”
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Rich Dauer, who was a key member of the Houston Astros World Series winning coaching staff, died earlier this week. He was 72.
The Baltimore Orioles announced Dauer’s death on Monday. Dauer made his Major League debut with the Orioles in 1976 and spent the next decade as an infielder with the franchise.
A cause of death was not immediately released.
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Houston Astros first base coach Rich Dauer, #48, watches play during game two of the 2017 ALCS playoff baseball series of the Houston Astros against the New York Yankees at Minute Maid Park in Houston on Oct. 14, 2017.(Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports)
Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer paid tribute to Dauer.
“My long time teammate Richie Dauer passes. Was part of the Oriole way, where you didn’t have to be a star to help the O’s win,” Palmer wrote on social media. “Richie had an infectious personality that kept us loose, yet focused. Another reason I was so blessed to be an Oriole for life. RIP.”
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Dauer served as the Astros first base coach when Houston defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2017 World Series. He underwent emergency surgery following that season to address a blood clot in his brain. MLB.com reported in 2023 that he had recently had a significant stroke.
Houston Astros first base coach Rich Dauer, #48, gives directions to the infielders during game two of the 2017 ALCS playoff baseball series of the Houston Astros against the New York Yankees at Minute Maid Park in Houston on Oct. 14, 2017.(Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports)
“Baseball has brought incredible people into my life. Loved him when he coached me and learned from him when he was on my staff in Houston,” former Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “RIP, my friend. And thank you for being you.”
Two-time MLB All-Star Alex Bregman took to Instagram on Monday to honor Dauer. “RIP my brother. We love you,” Bregman wrote. “You will be missed.”
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Dauer homered to open the scoring in Game 7 of the 1979 World Series between the Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates. Baltimore ultimately suffered a 4-3 series defeat, but the Orioles returned to the World Series in 1983 and defeated the Philadelphia Phillies.
Dauer was inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame in 2012. He was also part of the 2021 class for the College Baseball Hall of Fame. He helped Southern California win national titles in 1973 and 1974.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Chantz Martin is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.
Sports gambling in the U.S. has ramped up since states began to implement their own laws and restrictions around the activity.
Most sports are able to place a bet on their phone or mobile device without ever having to step into a casino or talk to a bookie in a dark alley. The easy access has made it so those of a younger generation, specifically Gen Z or those born between the late 1990s and early 2010s, can wager on nearly every sporting event in the world.
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(PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images/File)
Those young fans’ betting trends have underscored the notion that sports is one of the great unifiers in the world.
A survey conducted by Bookies.com and shared with Fox News Digital showed that 80% of more than 270 Gen Z respondents showed that they wagered with people of a different demographic. Additionally, 45% who wagered with friends who have a different ideology or presidential vote were three times more likely to listen to that person’s opposing viewpoint.
“Sports is the last and ultimate unifier, and the Super Bowl is the greatest and last unifying event. It is the only time all year when everyone is watching the same event at the same time on the same platform,” Bookies.com senior betting analyst Bill Speros told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “So, that unification just sort of runs downhill from there.
“The interesting thing about the demographics that struck me was that when you pick a side on a bet, let’s say you’re in a chat group or in a Reddit page or something, and you pick a side, and you say, ‘I like the under in the Super Bowl,’ and everybody else who picks the under on the Super Bowl is going to agree with you. They don’t know who you are. They don’t know what your race is. They don’t know your nationality. They don’t know your politics. They just know that you’re in agreement with them on the under in the Super Bowl.”
Speros added that if a young bettor is interacting with like-minded sports fans online, they weren’t necessarily seeing who the other person was on the other side of a username.
“So, the reason why this sort of cuts across demographics is that when you come into contact with someone over betting per se, you’re doing it based on how you believe a game or an outcome is going to go, and you’re not seeing the person’s face. You’re not knowing who they are [politically],” he said. “Your first interaction with them is that ‘Hey, we agree on this, right?’ It’s a positive interaction.
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“Any time you have a positive interaction with someone, you’re more likely to build a relationship. Nowadays in society, we see our differences first, and then we realize we have a lot in common. With this, everyone sees that commonality first and then later on down the line they might realize they have some differences.”
The survey suggested that young people were building relationships through sports betting, with friends being the most common betting partner. About 55% of respondents said they made friends because of betting.
The study also suggested young fans were more inclined to research a game and thus learn the history and geography of a particular team or city. About 41% of Gen Z bettors said they learned where a city, state or county is thanks to sports betting.
The Super Bowl is routinely the biggest sports betting event of the year. The study said 74% of young people were most likely to bet during the game.
With every high that comes from winning a bet, there’s the low that comes from losing. Gambling is fun for the split-second rush, but getting in over your head is a serious problem that scores of Americans deal with on a daily basis.
Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi.(Tubi)
Speros told Fox News Digital he gives everyone the same piece of advice.
“My first piece of advice is don’t bet,” he said. “My second piece of advice is, if you choose to bet, only bet what you can afford to lose. And that means set a budget. It’s a very simple way to figure out if you’re able to gamble responsibly or not.
“You always have to go into gambling with [the mindset of], ‘OK, this is money that I may lose.’ So it’s not going to have an adverse effect on the rest of my life. So it has to be money that you can afford or are willing to part with.”
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Super Bowl LIX is set to be played between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. The game will be broadcast on FOX and fans can live stream it on Tubi. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. ET in New Orleans.
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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
