Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, coach Andy Reid react to recent mass shootings

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes grew up and became a college football star less than 400 miles from Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed by a teenage gunman Tuesday at Robb Elementary School.

During the hours after the tragedy, Mahomes expressed his condolences for the families affected on social media.

Mahomes — a Tyler, Texas, native and Kansas City chiefs first-round pick in 2017 from Texas Tech University — offered his thoughts on the latest school shooting to rock the United States again Thursday after wrapping up Organized Team Activities for the week.

“We have to find a way as a nation — it’s never going to completely stop — but to lower the cases of all these people going out and shooting, especially these kids,” Mahomes said. “They had no chance. They’re just living their life and trying to grow up.”

Mahomes and his now-wife Brittany became parents in February 2021. It also gave him a new perspective on the heartbreak the families of those slain children face.

“As a father now, it’s scary,” Mahomes said. “It’s scary for all of us whenever you’re taking your kids to school and you want it to be a safe place and stuff like this is happening day after day. You don’t want to become numb to it. You don’t want to just say condolences and all the sudden we’re practicing the next day as if nothing happened. You want to make sure that we’re holding people accountable and we do whatever the steps are — and I don’t know the steps, so I’m not going to act like I do — to try to minimize this as much as possible.”

Mahomes said he’s been contacted by people from his alma mater, Texas Tech, who run foundations that are planning to support the victims from the Uvalde shooting.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid opened his news conference Thursday by expressing his condolences as well.

“Our hearts go out for these tragedies that have taken place the last couple weeks,” Reid said. “Whether it was in New York or Texas, it’s a shame that that’s where things are at. But I know through good people that we’ll get that all straightened out. For those families, our hearts go out to them.”

Reid, a future Hall of Fame football coach, allowed that he’s no expert on policy-making to address the violence, but hopes steps will be taken to end such senseless killings.

“Everybody has their own opinion, but I think the bottom line is this has got to stop and what can we do to help stop it?” Reid said. “I’m not sure I have the answer other than, if we see signs of something, then as parents and as teachers or whoever, try to help that person out, get them into a place where they can get things straight. Right now, there’s too many things happening up here in the cranial compartment that are killing people. It’s not good. For whatever reason, it’s not good and it’s more than it’s ever been. It’s got to stop.”

Mahomes and Reid are the latest in the world of professional sports to speak out this week after the Uvalde mass murder.

During a fiery press conference Tuesday, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr pounded the table and asked, “When are we going to do something?” before challenging federal lawmakers — including Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky — to take action.

Kerr’s outrage is deeply personal.

When he was studying and playing basketball at the University of Arizona, Kerr’s father — Malcolm, a professor and the president of the American University of Beruit — was gunned down by terrorists in his native Lebanon.

Indianapolis Colts coach Frank Reich, who spent most of his playing career with the Bills, also discussed the most recent spate of mass shootings when announcing donations to help survivors in the May 14 shooting at Tops Market in Buffalo.

Several accounts have been set up to help the victims from the Buffalo tragedy, which was perpetrated by a suspected white supremacist, and to help the families who lost loved ones in the Robb Elemantary shooting.

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