Source: John E. Moore III / Getty
From Michael Jordan’s baldy to Allen Iverson’s braids, some hairstyles have become a big part of athletes’ personalities.
One player who’s slowly joining those ranks is Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Since joining the league in 2017, Mahomes has worn the same long, curly hair with faded sides. Like that old lucky pair of underwear he refuses to toss away, he believed his hair had some sort of superpower—appearing in five Super Bowls and winning three—until he finally decided to shave it off recently.
“I’ve wanted to do it for a while, but it was kind of one of those superstitions, I kept winning the Super Bowl, which is a good thing, but I didn’t want to cut the hair while I was doing it,” he told Kansas City news station KCTV.
It’s served him well, but after this year’s Super Bowl upset at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles, he knew it was time for a switch-up.
“I told everybody during the season that win or lose, if we win three in a row or if we lose, I’m getting a haircut like that’s enough,” he remembers. “I’m very excited. I’ve looked at some videos from last year, and I can’t believe all you guys let me keep that nappy hair for so long, like I look way better now with the short hair, so I’ll be keeping this going forward.”
Mahomes’s new cut first debuted back in February. His barber, DeJuan Bonds, told US Weekly he wanted a fresh start after the season ended and told him just to cut it all off.
“I was like, ‘No, no, no. We’re not just going to cut it all off,” Bonds said. “We’re actually going to collab on this and go a little bit at a time, take it a little bit down. We kind of came to a common ground like, ‘OK, this is the cut, this is the cut, this is the length.’ It was a collaboration on this last one.”
A new cut under his helmet isn’t the only change the Chiefs will see on the field next season; they also made a solid choice on the first night of the 2025 NFL Draft by selecting Ohio State offensive tackle Josh Simmons.
Social media felt weird about Mahomes, who’s biracial, negative connotation when using the word “nappy”, and didn’t hesitate to let their feelings be known.
See the reactions below.
