A new hairdo! Her latest workout! Celebrity magazines’ new stars? The Mahomes kids
On the field this season, Patrick Mahomes has led the Kansas City Chiefs to yet another AFC Championship Game.
Off the field, his two small children are grabbing national media and public attention, too, becoming the Chiefs’ — and arguably the NFL’s — most popular “littles.”
Sterling Skye Mahomes, who will be 2 in February, and her baby brother “Bronze,” born in November to Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, are growing an impressive fan base. Sterling went high-profile earlier this season, starring in her first TV commercial with her dad.
A mom blog dubbed her “the cutest little cheerleader” this month.
Last week, People published a “get to know them” story about the Mahomes children.
This week, Newsweek also published a story about the kids.
Yahoo! News gushed about Sterling’s “new braided ‘do” this month. And several entertainment outlets ran photos this week of Sterling “lifting weights” with her dad.
Brittany Mahomes‘ Daughter Sterling Rocked a New Braided ’Do & the Cutest Chiefs Hoodie at Her Dad's Latest Game https://t.co/UyzBxuGIhZ via @Yahoo
— @pyramidfire (@pyramidfire) January 23, 2023
Us Weekly last week published the couple’s “sweetest family photos with children Sterling and Bronze.”
The #KCChiefs’ littlest fans! See Patrick Mahomes and wife Brittany Matthews’ sweetest family photos with children Sterling and Bronze:https://t.co/oSbuqegHh0
— Us Weekly (@usweekly) January 21, 2023
The downside of the attention popped up this week with unfounded rumors about Sterling’s health on Reddit and no-name gossip blogs.
Among more credible media, Us Weekly, People magazine and E! News follow the family as closely as they do Hollywood celebrities, republishing photos from both parents’ Instagram and Twitter accounts and quoting anonymous sources about the family’s life.
“Their little quarterback!” Us Weekly cooed when Bronze was born Nov. 28.
Brittany Mahomes Shares Adorable Photos of Daughter Sterling Lifting Weights with Dad Patrick https://t.co/7eVm1lZHrp
— People (@people) January 27, 2023
This season, their readers learned that Sterling isn’t afraid of Santa but is terrified of team mascot KC Wolf. Dad had spilled those beans on a radio show, and Us Weekly snatched them up. He also shared that Sterling has to be told not to throw her baby brother around like a toy doll.
They know from one of Brittany’s tweets in December that “Sterling just screams ‘Buddy’ all day long, that’s what she calls Bronze & she’s obsessed.”
The family has been careful not to show Bronze’s face to the public yet, turning his head away from the camera, covering his face with their hands.
Us Weekly points out that it was four months after Sterling was born in February 2021 before the couple revealed her face on social media.
“Obviously at first we wanted to keep stuff private and not have her out there,” Patrick told Today.com in July 2021. “It almost became like a burden to try to hide her at all times when we do stuff, and this coming season we want her to be at the games and not have to worry about hiding her the entire time.”
Sterling — or “Ster-Ster” as her father calls her — stepped into a brighter spotlight last fall with a cameo appearance in the quarterback’s new Oakley commercial. The company came up with the idea, Mahomes said in a radio interview.
He posted behind-the-scenes photos from the set on an Instagram Story, predicting that there is a new star rising in the Mahomes household.
“She’s going to be the real star of the family,” he said.