Among the glorious perks associated with winning a Super Bowl are passes for backstage and suite access at concerts. So of course Post Malone was willing to invite Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce to a meet-and-greet before the rapper's show in Kansas City the same day the Chiefs held their parade in February.
Post Malone's mistake was evolving that meet-and-greet session into a clash at the beer pong table, where he learned the quarterback and the tight end are just as lethal with ping pong balls as they are with footballs.
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The story appears in a GQ article published Tuesday that details Mahomes' unique offseason. Well before the COVID-19 outbreak shut down live sports in the United States and before Mahomes raised his powerful voice in the name of activism — and certainly before he signed the richest contract in the history of sports — the 24-year-old was simply enjoying an evening many 24-year-olds would envy even more than the night he led Kansas City to a title.
Yet Mahomes and Kelce were not about to suppress their competitive juices just because they were Post Malone's guests. Below is the whole story from GQ:
"The day that the Chiefs paraded their Super Bowl trophy through Kansas City, Post Malone happened to be playing in town. What better way to extend the party? 'We didn't buy tickets,' Mahomes says. 'But once we won the Super Bowl, we're kinda like, Can we get a suite?' (They could.)
"The rapper invited the quarterback to swing by for a quick hello before the show. The courteous Mahomes brought along a jersey 'as a thank-you for having us out.' As Mahomes and his teammate Travis Kelce sized up the scene backstage, Post challenged the two to a friendly game of beer pong. ('I guess he loves beer pong,' Mahomes points out. And Bud Light. 'That's, like, his thing.')
"Post's invitation turned out to be ill-advised. Mahomes and Kelce are the most effective quarterback-tight end duo in the NFL, and apparently they're capable of doing as much damage on a sad-looking folding table backstage at a concert as they do on the field on Sundays. Though Mahomes described his beer pong game that night as merely good, he told me Kelce had been 'unconscious.' When I asked him about it, Kelce said, 'I don't know if I've been that hot on the pong table ever in my life.'
"As the pair rallied off a series of quick wins, Post Malone — wearing his brand-new Patrick Mahomes jersey, red like the Solo cups on the table — grew increasingly ruffled. (In an email, the rapper admitted to me that he's a 'pretty f—ing competitive beer pong player.') Post tried switching partners. He played with a buddy. Then another. He teamed up with Swae Lee, who had joined Post on tour.
"After nine or ten games, Post is interrupted by his manager. It's time, he's told, to take the stage. But Post waves him off. He needs to win a game. Finally, around the 14th or 15th game, Post decides he needs to up the stakes. He hands a piece of paper to Mahomes and Kelce, and he asks them to write their signatures, and he promises to tattoo the autographs onto his body — you know, like, permanently — if they can beat him again. Dilly dilly!
"Surely you know how this ends: Post loses. 'He has a tattoo artist literally in the room,' recalls Mahomes, who sounds alarmed even in retrospect. 'I'm like, Dude, you do not actually have to get a tattoo of our autographs.' And certainly, by now, you know this too: Post Malone is a man of his word, and gets his new tattoo done backstage, immediately after the show, inking onto himself a squiggly Patrick Mahomes autograph that looks like it had been written by someone who'd been drinking all day to be tattooed onto someone who'd been drinking all day.
"In asking Mahomes about that epic day, I set the over/under at 20 beers, to which he replied, 'Way over,' but added that he doesn't 'know how many full beers I drank, because half the beers were on my clothes.' For his part, Post Malone told me he 'thinks' it's the only tat that ended up on his body as a result of a lost bet."
Phenomenal.
Quick beer pong story aside, the lengthy article details Mahomes' discovery of his own identity and responsibility in the context of social justice issues. Mahomes also explains how his offseason has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The full article can be found here.