Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd on Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs and Kansas City Itself, and, Yes, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift (We Had To)

It’s very rare I know my guests on the show personally, but for today’s episode, I do. I have been proud to know Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd since our days as students at the University of Kansas, where we all graduated from journalism school in the same class—the class of 2009. (As the senior class president of the class of 2009 back in my glory days, to that I say a heartfelt Rock Chalk.) Mark and Rustin have gone on to have extremely successful careers, both in sportswriting; Mark is now working in the business and tech sector. (You’ll hear all about what they’ve done with the past 14 years on the show.) These longtime friends just wrote a book together, Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin’ Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback, which zooms in on the quarterback of a generation, Patrick Mahomes, and how the Kansas City Chiefs have gone from struggling to winning their first Super Bowl in 50 years in 2020, made another Super Bowl appearance in 2021, and won this year’s Super Bowl, as well. (And more to come.) In addition to being about Mahomes and the Chiefs, the book is just as much about Kansas City—a love letter of sorts to the place where Mark and Rustin grew up. And if you’re wondering about the Kansas City Chiefs elephant in the room—Taylor Swift—yes, we do talk about her, and her connection to the so-called “greater Kansas City area” goes even deeper than you think. Kingdom Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, the Kansas City Chiefs, and How a Once Swingin’ Cow Town Chased the Ultimate Comeback by Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd