The Kansas City Chiefs announced their annual team awards on Thursday as quarterback Patrick Mahomes and wide receiver Rashee Rice were each honored for their respective efforts in 2023.
Mahomes was the recipient of the “Derrick Thomas Award,” which is annually presented to the Chiefs’ most valuable player. This marks Mahomes’ third time earning the award, which is named for the Chiefs’ legendary, Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker. Mahomes threw for 4,183 yards and 27 touchdowns in 2023 before leading Kansas City on one of the greatest postseason runs in NFL history, culminating in a second-straight world championship.
One of Mahomes’ top targets all season long was Rice, who was named the recipient of the annual “Mack Lee Hill Award” on Thursday. The honor – which is named in remembrance of the late Mack Lee Hill, a tailback for the Chiefs who tragically passed away during his second season with the team – is presented to Kansas City’s top rookie or first-year player.
Rice caught 79 passes for 938 yards and seven touchdowns last season before hauling in an NFL rookie-record 26 receptions during the postseason. Fifteen of those catches picked up a first down, including a 13-yard catch on third down in overtime of Super Bowl LVIII that extended Kansas City’s game-winning drive.
These awards were voted on by the players themselves, representing a true composite of how the locker room felt about Mahomes and Rice throughout the year. Indeed, both players contributed to another unforgettable season for Kansas City in 2023, and with another world championship in the books, these individual honors are more than deserved.
At least “some” football fans, who attended January’s bitterly cold Kansas City Chiefs playoff game, suffered extreme frostbite and eventually needed amputations, a hospital official said Thursday.
The back-to-back champion Chiefs launched their 2023-24 postseason run with a 26-7 victory over the Miami Dolphins on Jan. 13 in a game that might be remembered as much for temperature readings than the final score.
The mercury plummeted to minus 3 with a wind chill of minus 25 at halftime of the contest played at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Grossman Burn Center in Kansas City treated 30 patients who suffered frostbite in January.
“To date, 12 patients have undergone amputation surgeries. Some of which attended the Chiefs game,” said Christine Hamele, associate vice president of HCA Midwest Health which operates seven hospitals, including the Research Medical Center and its Grossman Burn Center.
“Our specialized physicians and expert care team continue to treat and monitor patients’ healing to address long-term needs, and we expect more surgical procedures over the next two to four weeks as their injuries evolve.”
Hamele cautioned against drawing any direct lines between amputations and that frigid Chiefs game because those frostbitten limbs and digits could have resulted from other exposures.
“Some patients came in post-Chief game, assuming it would heal,” Hamele said. “When they arrived in the outpatient, they don’t always reference the Chiefs game. For example, one gentleman was at the Chiefs game, but is also a meter reader.”
That Jan. 13 game was one of the most notable of this recently concluded playoff season because of the weather, that it was only available to out-of-market fans via the digital service Peacock and drew the attendance of Taylor Swift, girlfriend of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
While Swift and Kelce’s mother appeared comfortable in a luxury suite, conditions outside looked miserable.
Even Chief coach Andy Reid’s mustache was a casualty, turning to icicles in the bitter cold.
Leave a Reply