The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback is a three-time Super Bowl champion, three-time Super Bowl MVP and two-time NFL regular-season MVP.
Image courtesy of Getty Images
A rumor circulating online in April 2025 claimed Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, donated a $4.7 million bonus and endorsement deal to charities and “homeless relief.”
For example, on April 14, a moderator of a Facebook group named Kansas City Chiefs Fans posted (archived), “BREAKING: Patrick Mahomes donated his entire $4.7 million bonus and endorsement deal to charities and homeless relief. In a stunning act of generosity, NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes has made headlines for donating his entire $4.7 million signing bonus and endorsement earnings to a variety of charities and homeless relief efforts.” The post received more than 100,000 reactions, 6,300 comments and 10,000 shares.
(Kansas City Chiefs Fans/Facebook)
Other users shared the rumor on Facebook, Instagram and X. One Facebook user said (archived) of the purported news, “His actions speak a lot more than words. May he be blessed as well as the charities to receive his gift.”
However, the rumor alleging Mahomes donated a $4.7 million bonus and endorsement deal was false. Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo displayed no credible reporting about the matter from news outlets.
The untrue claim, whos origin was unknown, existed as the latest in a trend of false rumors claiming prominent athletes donated large sums of money to charities.
Had any such events occurred, numerous news outlets would have widely reported on the matter. For example, at around the same time the Mahomes matter spread, users shared a false claim alleging 2025 Masters champion Rory McIlroy donated his $4.2 million in earnings from the victory to a U.K. charity.
The Kansas City Chiefs organization did not yet respond to an emailed request for comment, including asking whether the team could speak from its official capacity about the baselessness of the rumor.
AI-generated image and inauthentic administrators
The post on the Kansas City Chiefs Fans Facebook group displayed three photos in a single image. The largest picture (left) showed signs of artificial-intelligence manipulation.
The photo — one depicting Mahomes signing a check upside down — featured letters that did not form real words, both on the check and in the background. Also, the “KC” logo on Mahomes’ chest did not legibly appear.
The large photo (left) showed several indicators of AI-generated manipulation. (Kansas City Chiefs Fans/Facebook)
Further, the Facebook group featured several administrators and moderators showing signs of inauthenticity. For example, one administrator’s account included almost no identifying information at all. Other moderators’ accounts mentioned “works at USA,” “lives in York, New York” and “lives in New York, Florida.” Some signs of potential inauthentic Facebook accounts include odd employer names and mistakes in typing a state name where a city name belongs — even if the cities with state names such as California City, California, genuinely exist.
An administrator of the group, reached via Messenger, did not yet respond to questions about the accounts’ indicators of inauthenticity.
For further reading, a previous fact-check article examined whether or not the Chiefs banned tech billionaire Elon Musk.
