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Patrick Mahomes is a big Texas Tech sports fan, which makes sense, given the fact that he attended the school and used to put up insane passing numbers for the Red Raiders’ football team a few years ago. So when his former school found themselves in this year’s Final Four during the NCAA Tournament, the reigning NFL Most Valuable Player wasn’t going to miss his chance to show them support.
There’s just one, small, tiny problem that Patrick Mahomes has to worry about when showing his Texas Tech pride in public — the university is an Under Armour sponsored school, whereas Mahomes himself is sponsored by adidas now that he’s in the NFL. What’s a man to do, right? The answer: Be creative.
While posing for a picture last night with legendary college basketball reporter Dick Vitale, take a look at how Patrick Mahomes got around that whole Under Armour thing, which would have been front and center on the quarterback’s chest throughout the entire broadcast, which wouldn’t have looked too great for him or adidas.
A big Texas Tech Red Raider fan / guess who baby pic.twitter.com/jE286Eyud7
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) April 9, 2019
You’ve got to admit, that’s pretty damn clever of the Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback to maneuver there. After all, adidas is paying Patrick Mahomes millions of dollars to be the face of the football division for a long, long time, so the player and brand couldn’t quite possibly risk their biggest NFL star being seen in competitive gear — so, grab a little tape and get creative; you’ve got to love it.
This reminds me of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona where, after the Dream Team won gold medals and took the podium to receive their medals, Nike sponsored players like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, among others, had American Flags draped over their shoulders to cover up the Reebok logos that were on the team’s warmups. Take a look below to refresh your memory.
We all know sports sponsorship is big business, so Patrick Mahomes was just doing his best to stay loyal to his adidas family — while not allowing Under Armour to bask in the glory of seeing him wear their logo on national TV during the biggest college basketball game of the year. This Mahomes kid might have a bright future in this whole sports sponsorship thing, guys.