The Kansas City Chiefs might have spent a lot of time in Las Vegas this month, but they didn’t spend any time on the casino floor. Now, with the Super Bowl behind them, the team’s going to have a chance to do Sin City like the millions who crowded it over the weekend. And quarterback Patrick Mahomes says he’ll be footing the bill.
Prior to the Chiefs’ victory over the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, Mahomes told NFL Network’s James Palmer that if the team won, he would bring everyone back to Vegas to celebrate that feat.
“This is a business trip,” Mahomes said of the days leading up to the Super Bowl. “I told the guys that if we win I’ll bring everyone back to Vegas to celebrate.”
Even if he covers just airfare and hotel accommodations, that’s going to be an expensive trip. (We’ll go out on a limb and assume Mahomes is going to spring for a hotel other than Circus Circus.) The Chiefs quarterback can probably afford it, though. In 2020, he signed a 10-year, $450 million contract with the team.
First, of course, Mahomes will be making the journey to Disney, as tradition dictates. Mahomes will appear at an in-park parade Monday. There’s bad news for fans hoping to catch that parade on the spur-of-the-moment. Single-day tickets for the park are sold out in advance of the celebration.
(By the way, fun fact about the “I’m going to Disney…” line: Few realize that Phil Simms, the first to utter it, in 1987, was paid $75,000 to shout the line after the game. And even fewer know that Denver quarterback John Elway was paid the same amount for saying nothing. (Disney paid both in advance to say the line to cover its bets.)
Perhaps Mahomes can use whatever Disney paid him to shout the line this year (as well as the $171,000 bonus he gets from the NFL for winning the Super Bowl) to cover some of those Vegas expenses. At the very least, it should more than pay for the Chiefs to catch a show while they’re back in town.