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Multiple members of the Kansas City Chiefs have been accused of rocking a “dad bod” in recent months, and Patrick Mahomes acknowledged he fits that particular bill while arguing it might not be a bad thing for someone in his particular line of work.
It’s been around a decade since the term “Dad Bod” was thrust into the public consciousness courtesy of a college student who wrote an article singing the praises of guys who aren’t losing sleep over their body fat percentage.
The movement was quickly championed by the many men who were thrilled to learn there was supposedly an appeal to packing a few extra pounds, and since then, plenty of famous figures have seen the phrase deployed to describe their physique after ending up on the receiving end of the lens of the paparazzi.
Now, I’d argue “Dad Bod” has become a bit of a misnomer when it’s harnessed to describe professional athletes. In the same way “hipster” gradually lost all of its meaning in the 2010s, it now seemingly applies to any player who isn’t sporting a shredded six-pack or lacks veins that bulge out of their skin—as was the case when Travis Kelce was spotted vacationing with Taylor Swift earlier this year.
With that said, I do think people were justified in using it to describe Patrick Mahomes when he showed off what’s lurking beneath his jersey after going shirtless in the locker room in the wake of this year’s AFC Championship Game.
It’s pretty obvious that literal Dad Bod doesn’t serve as much of a detriment for the father of two who recently secured his third Super Bowl ring, and during a recent interview with Time, he positioned it as a positive, saying:
“I definitely have the dad bod a little bit.
I’ll also say I have a great body for a quarterback. You’ve got to have some padding in there to take the hits that we take.”
Maybe it’s time for Tua Tagovailoa to think about adding the Dad Bod to his arsenal.