The Kansas City Chiefs kicked off Black History Month 2026 with a powerful tribute to the legends of the past and stars of today. Building on the momentum of the Heart of the Kingdom campaign launched in February 2025, the franchise released a 107-second video to honor the pioneers who broke racial barriers to make the modern NFL possible. But it wasn’t just a history lesson; it was a direct message to those carrying on the legacy today: Patrick Mahomes, Chris Jones, and the team. 

Featuring the 1969 Super Bowl champions and Hall of Famers Willie Lanier and Bobby Bell, the video is titled “What We Carry.”

“To the men wearing this jersey now, we know what it’s like to be in your shoes,” Lanier’s words echoed as the video began. 

“We’ve been counted out before, told we did not belong, that we did not fit the mold,” joined the legendary linebacker, Bell. 

The message from the legends to the current team is clear: “You cannot listen to people who don’t know what you came with.”

Bell and Lanier aren’t just great players; they were revolutionaries. At a time when many believed Black players didn’t have the “leadership qualities” to play middle linebacker or quarterback, they proved the world wrong. 

Lanier, the first African American to star at middle linebacker in the NFL, was told he ‘wasn’t smart enough to play linebacker.’ He retired as Super Bowl IV champion, an 8-time All-Pro, and a 6-time Pro Bowler. Even today, he’s regarded as one of the greatest linebackers to ever play football. 

The great Bell couldn’t buy a house in a nice neighborhood in Kansas City when he joined in 1963. He was the first Chiefs player of color to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983. 

“Remember, you’re part of something bigger than yourself,” Lanier sent a reminder to today’s Black players, before adding a final, haunting question, “The question is, how are you going to honor it?”

The NFL was a much different place when stars like Jones (2016) and Mahomes (2017) first entered the league, or even more recently, when Chukwuebuka Godrick joined the ranks in 2025. Today, the face of the NFL is a Black quarterback: Patrick Mahomes. 

There used to be a time when teams could openly hold out against drafting and acquiring Black players. The Washington Redskins (now Washington Commanders) did it infamously until 1962. But there are still miles to go. Super Bowl LVII in 2023 made history as the first time two Black starting quarterbacks (Mahomes and Jalen Hurts) faced off in the NFL’s biggest game. 

The Chiefs’ Heart of the Kingdom campaign isn’t just a PR stunt for social media or honoring the Black players, redefining the NFL; it’s the continuation of the legacy built by their founder, Lamar Hunt. 

The Chiefs defied all odds 

The Chiefs and Lamar Hunt are the pioneers of dismantling the invisible barriers that kept Black athletes from professional football. In the early 1960s, the NFL was a closed circle with very few opportunities for Black players. After he was denied an NFL franchise, he founded the rival American Football League (AFL) in 1959. 

More than a social injustice, Hunt saw a massive competitive mistake. So to build a championship team, he looked at where others refused to: Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

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In the 1963 AFL draft, Hunt made history by selecting Buck Buchanan (from Grambling State) as the first-ever Black player to be taken #1 overall in a pro football draft. Hunt also hired the first full-time African American pro scout, Lloyd Wells. 

The Chiefs’ 1969 team defied all odds, not just by winning the first Vince Lombardi Trophy against the heavily favored Minnesota Vikings, but by constructing a roster with nearly 50% of Black players. Today, it may seem common because 70% of the NFL players are identified as Black. But the Chiefs Kingdom did it when Black players couldn’t make up even 20% of the league. 

“The lack of bias…was extremely impressive. Because the relationships were pure, it wasn’t something that was pushed,” Lanier recalled in America’s Game: The Story of the 1969 Kansas City Chiefs. 

Hunt’s father reportedly faced criticism for the number of Black players on the roster, but Lamar remained unmoved. The culture of equity he built in Kansas City wasn’t about politics; it was about winning. The only way to reach the pinnacle of the sport was to have the best possible athletes, regardless of their ethnicity. Today, the Chiefs are taking that legacy forward, along with every other team in the NFL.