In February 2025, a rumor spread online that the Kansas City Chiefs banned tech billionaire Elon Musk from attending the NFL team’s games.
Examples of the rumor appeared (archived) in numerous posts (archived) on Facebook (archived) as well as on Threads (archived).
(Facebook page Kelce Connection)
One Feb. 22 Facebook post (archived) about the rumor, which had around 51,000 reactions and 5,700 comments at the time of this writing, featured a collage of photos of Musk and Chiefs coach Andy Reid paired with a caption reading: “BREAKING NEWS: Kanѕaѕ Cіty Chіefѕ announce Elon Muѕk іѕ banned from attendіng all uрcomіng Chіefѕ gameѕ for thіѕ reaѕon…”
In short, there was no credible evidence to support the claim about Musk being banned from Chiefs games. A Google search for the terms “Musk,” “ban” and “Chiefs” returned no legitimate media reporting on the alleged ban. Also, articles about the claim that appeared on various websites, discussed in further detail below, showed signs of being the product of artificial intelligence software.
As a result, we’ve rated the claim false.
Many of the social media posts about the rumors linked to similarly worded articles that allegedly provided further details about the ban. For example, one article on a website named NewsEdge began:
BREAKING NEWS: Kansas City Chiefs announce Elon Musk is banned from attending all upcoming Chiefs games for this reason..
In a shocking turn of events, the Kansas City Chiefs organization has made an unprecedented announcement that has sent ripples throughout the sports world. Billionaire entrepreneur and tech mogul Elon Musk has been officially banned from attending all upcoming Chiefs games, and the reason behind this decision has left many fans and analysts bewildered.
The news broke early this morning when the Chiefs’ front office released a statement confirming Musk’s ban, but not without initially providing specific details regarding what led to this drastic action. Speculation spread like wildfire across social media, with fans and pundits scrambling to uncover the circumstances that led to one of the most well-known figures in the world being prohibited from stepping foot in Arrowhead Stadium.
Reports soon began to surface, shedding light on what may have been the catalyst for this decision. According to sources close to the organization, the controversy stems from Musk;s recent social media activity and his involvement in discussions regarding the Chiefs’ performance, coaching decisions, and even ownership structure. Musk, known for his provocative and often unfiltered opinions on X (formerly Twitter), had allegedly made several remarks that did not sit well with the Chiefs’ executives, players, and loyal supporters.
These articles did not appear in credible media outlets, but instead on websites with generic names like CelebNowUSA, LuxuryBlog and Colofandom.com.
These websites all seemed to be content farms publishing high volumes of poorly sourced content.
One website with an article about the claim, Btuatu.com, previously published a different Chiefs-related article that spread a false rumor about quarterback Patrick Mahomes buying a hotel and firing its employees after allegedly receiving racist treatment.
That article, we found when we looked into it, was likely AI-written.
The AI detectors GPTZero and Quillbot both found that the articles about the alleged Musk ban that appeared on Btuatu.com, NewsEdge, CelebNowUSA, LuxuryBlog and Colofandom.com all likewise had a high likelihood of being entirely or mostly AI-generated.
Some of the posts and articles also contained details that were either factually wrong or nonsensical. For example, multiple articles claimed that Musk responded to the ban with an X post reading, “Banned from Chiefs games? Guess I’ll just have to buy my own team!” Such a post did not appear (archived) on Musk’s X account at the time of this writing, and a Google search found no evidence it ever had.
Similarly, some of the posts making the claim featured an image that included what appeared to be a screenshot of an X post from the official Kansas City Chiefs account reading, “Confirmed banning Elon Musk from watching Kansas City Chiefs Games.” Again, there was no evidence (archived) that the Chiefs’ X account ever made this post in reality.
The timeline laid out in the articles also made little sense in a real-world context. For example, the Btuatu.com article said the Chiefs would not allow Musk “to attend any games this season,” and the LuxuryBlog and Colofandom.com articles both said the Chiefs would “attempt to move forward without further distractions, focusing on their season and their pursuit of championship success.”
However, the 2024–25 NFL regular season ended in early January 2025 and the postseason concluded with the Super Bowl on Feb. 9. While we were unable to determine exactly where the rumor began, the earliest examples (archived) we found (archived) dated to Feb. 11. In other words, the season was already over when the rumor apparently began to circulate.
We previously looked into a rumor that Chiefs players signed a petition to ban pop star Taylor Swift, who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, from home games.
