Was it real or fake? That is the question surrounding a video of Patrick Mahomes that went viral this week after it appeared to show the Chiefs quarterback leaving the Lombardi Trophy with a fan after taking a picture during Wednesday’s championship parade.
Well, as it turns out, Mahomes’s apparent mistake was, in fact, nothing more than the two-time Super Bowl champion and MVP being responsible and returning a very well-crafted Lombardi replica to its rightful owner. Or, at least, that’s according to a man named Vinnie Garofalo, the fan who seemingly received the most expensive handoff of Mahomes’s career.
Appearing in an interview with Kansas City’s Sports Radio 610 on Friday, Garofalo detailed his interaction with Mahomes and revealed that he handed reigning NFL MVP a fake version of the coveted trophy prior to taking the picture.
“I came to the first parade [in 2020] with the same trophy – it’s a replica by the way – he never handed me the real one,” Garofalo said during an appearance on Fescoe in the Morning.
Garofalo went on to explain that Mahomes actually took the replica, which included a sticker of the Chiefs logo on the front, on two different occasions—both of which were captured in separate videos. He also noted the viral video picks up just before the last exchange, which shows Mahomes handing him the trophy before walking away.
“All I’m thinking is ‘Get this trophy into his hands somehow, some way,’” he said. “I’m getting pretty hopeful when I see him walking on my side on the barricade. I’m screaming like a teenage girl at a Backstreet Boys concert [to get his attention].”
Garofalo continued, “He takes the trophy, raises it up, walks around, gives me a smile. Then he comes back, asks for the trophy again, walks away, gives it to [wide receiver] Kadarius Toney. They’re messing around with it, he comes back, I ask him for a picture, he graciously waited for me to fumble around on my phone to get a front-facing camera. Took the picture, handed me the trophy, which is what everyone saw, and went about on his merry way.”
With the mystery now evidently solved, Mahomes appears to now be off the hook, thanks to Garofalo’s account. But, even if the story turns out to be true, the viral exchange will live on as another all-time moment for Mahomes to cap an all-time season.
