Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes found himself at the center of what appeared to be a deeply disturbing racial incident earlier this month, and fans are certainly not happy about it.
Ahead of the team’s showdown against the Buffalo Bills earlier this month, a viral image showed a Kermit the Frog puppet dressed in Mahomes’ No. 15 Kansas City Chiefs jersey and styled with the quarterback’s signature hair hanging from a rope outside the Buffalo Bills stadium.
The Kermit the Frog comparison obviously stems from Mahomes’ distinctive voice, which has often been likened to the famous Muppet on a number of occasions, which Mahomes has addressed publicly several times, including recently.
“I’ve gotten used to it, it’s like the joke that keeps giving,” he said during his press conference at the Super Bowl. “I’ve heard it all, jokes about Kermit the Frog or about smoking cigarettes.
“It’s unique, so maybe I’ll get a deal from having that unique voice.”
However, the Kermit comparison was not what made the incident so disgusting – it was the imagery of the puppet hanging from a rope.
The puppet hanging by a rope evoked stark imagery of the lynching of Black people in American history and was seen by many as a horrible racist incident.
Unsurprisingly, the horrible incident led to a lot of reactions on social media.
“Bills fans are the worst in the NFL! This is disgusting!” one fan wrote on X.
“This country is comfortable being openly racist lately,” a fan remarked.
“That’s absolutely disgusting,” another person commented.
“This is the stuff that racist white people did when Obama was elected and then had the nerve to call him the most divisive president we’ve ever had,” another person wrote.
“Lynching something that’s supposed to represent Patrick Mahomes is kinda crazy,” one person observed.
“White conservatives in the replies saying this isn’t racist is insane,” someone else added.
A source close to the situation told The Daily Mail that the Mahomes family is working to identify those responsible to determine if there was any “sinister” intent.
“They would all like to find out who did this, and footage should reveal it. Not to press charges, per se, but just to know that it was nothing more sinister than a joking Bills fan,” the source said.
Obviously, this is a completely reprehensible act. It remains to be seen whether or not the individuals behind the incident will be identified.