President Joe Biden wears a Chiefs helmet as he speaks during an event with the Super Bowl-champion Chiefs on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday.
Evan Vucci | AP photo
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President Joe Biden, left, talks with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, center, and tight end Travis Kelce, right, during an event at the White House honoring Kansas City’s Super Bowl win.
Evan Vucci | AP photo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden welcomed the Kansas City Chiefs to the White House on Friday, lauding the back-to-back Super Bowl champion team for its sportsmanship on and off the field, and breaking an unofficial political rule about headwear. He tried on a Chiefs helmet the team gave him as a gift.
“It was cool to see him put the helmet on,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes told reporters after the celebration held on the South Lawn. “We didn’t expect that. But it was really cool to see him throw that Chiefs helmet on and you get that Chiefs kingdom kind of for the rest of the nation to see.”
The Democratic president recalled that he said at last year’s celebration for the Chiefs that they are building a “dynasty.” He noted the struggles they overcame last season on the road to the Super Bowl and said, “I don’t think anybody’s doubting you know.”
He noted the shooting in February at Kansas City’s parade and rally honoring the team, which killed a mother of two and host of a local radio program.
“We saw pride give way to tragedy,” Biden said, adding that, “amid the chaos this team stepped up.”
“‘This team is exceptional,” the president said, adding that the country as a whole must “do more to stop the tragic shootings before they happen.”
Biden recognized the Chiefs after their come-from-behind overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl in Las Vegas in February. It’s a longstanding tradition for championship sports teams, both professional and collegiate, to be invited to the White House.
In 2023, the Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, first lady Jill Biden’s favorite football team. She grew up near Philadelphia and attended the game. Kansas City defeated San Francisco to claim the 2020 Super Bowl title.
Kicker Harrison Butker, who made headlines by assailing some of Biden’s policies during a commencement speech earlier this month, accompanied his teammates to the White House. Butker recently defended his comments, saying he had no regrets about expressing his beliefs.
In the May 16 speech at Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school in Atchison, Kansas, Butker congratulated the women who were receiving degrees and said most of them were probably more excited about getting married and having children.
He criticized some of Biden’s policy positions, including the president’s condemnation of the Supreme Court’s reversal of its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Abortion is an issue that Biden and his fellow Democrats hope to use to their advantage in the November elections.
Butker also tackled Biden’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed nearly 1.2 million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Swift has been traveling abroad on her Eras tour and had a show on Thursday in Madrid.
BILLS SIGN OLYMPIAN
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Olympic gold medal wrestler Gable Steveson is seeking to trade the mat for the gridiron by signing a standard undrafted rookie free agent contract with the Buffalo Bills on Friday.
The Bills list the 24-year-old Steveson as a defensive lineman in hopes his leverage techniques and agility can translate to football.
Listed at 5-foot-11 and 266 pounds, Steveson, at 21, became the youngest freestyle wrestler to win gold as a super heavyweight at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. He then went on to win two college national titles at Minnesota in 2021 and ‘22, and twice was named the Dan Hodge Trophy winner as the nation’s best college wrestler.
After his second college championship, Steveson left his shoes in the center of the mat, symbolizing his retirement from amateur wrestling.
In Buffalo, Steveson joins a team with a head coach in Sean McDermott who was a two-time high school national wrestling champion growing up in Pennsylvania. And while McDermott went on to pursue football after high school, he credits wrestling for helping shape his life.
“I have been fortunate to compete at the highest level of competition in my sport but am looking forward to the challenge of seeing how my wrestling skills may translate to football,” Steveson said, in a statement released by his agent, Carter Chow. “I am grateful to Coach McDermott, (GM) Brandon Beane and the Buffalo Bills organization for giving me this opportunity.
Although Steveson’s contract with Buffalo spans three years, it is not guaranteed unless he makes the team.
The Bills opened a spot to add Steveson by releasing Matt Haack, one of three punters on the roster. Buffalo re-signed Haack this offseason after adding him to their practice squad in the playoffs as insurance when Sam Martin was bothered by a hamstring injury.
Steveson becomes the second player without past football experience Buffalo has added to its roster this offseason. Last month, the Bills used their final pick to select former English rugby player Travis Clayton in the seventh round of the draft. The 23-year-old Clayton, listed at 6-foot-7 and 303 pounds, is projected to play offensive line after spending this past winter learning about American football in the NFL’s International Pathway Program.
Steveson won gold at the Tokyo Games by scoring a dramatic last-second win against Geno Petriashvili. He had numerous options after the victory, and chose to return to college for a year and cash in on the new name, image and likeness rules that allowed college athletes to make money.
He signed an NIL deal with World Wrestling Entertainment before his final college season and later joined the company.
After joining WWE, Steveson briefly returned to amateur wrestling last year. He competed at the U.S. Open and Final X and won both in dominant fashion. That qualified him for the world championships, but he chose not to compete.
Steveson initially joined the WWE with much fanfare. He was mostly part of its developmental brand, NXT, before being released in May.
Steveson is from Minnesota, and his mother named him Gable in honor of wrestler Dan Gable, who won gold at the 1972 Munich Olympics.