If NFL Fans Can Support And Defend Their Favorite Players, Why Can't NFL Wives?
Men aren't shamed for being sports fans — so why is Brittany Mahomes?
DFree and Jeff Bukowski via Shutterstock / narloch-liberra, EdvanKun and moderngolf via Canva / @brittanylynne via Instagram Non-sports fans could easily (and successfully) argue that the worst part about sports is the fans. Fans go to war on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or really any kind of social media they can get their hands on — a universal fan experience deemed to be normal. Exhibiting toxic behavior when it comes to your favorite sports online is normalized and comes with the turf — it’s almost a given. You have to defend your favorite team or your favorite player, no matter what.
But what if the person defending that player is their wife? Well, apparently the rules are a little different for them.
Kansas City Chiefs' wife Brittany Mahomes was called out for the way she regularly posts about her quarterback husband’s team.
Sportscaster Dan Dakich told Brittany Mahomes to ‘be a wife’ and stop posting on social media. The TikTok account for OutKick Sports, a FOX Corporation subsidiary, recently posted a video from their “Don’t @ Me!” podcast where (recently fired) Dan Dakich had some choice words for Brittany.
The caption on the post read “We must stop Brittany Mahomes,” and it goes in line with the things Dakich had to say.
“Britney, what are we doing?" he rhetorically asked. "Every day we got to listen to you talk about how you don't give a [expletive]. Every day we [have] to see [what] you're mad at somebody about. You’re a wife. Go be a wife.”
He compared Brittany to Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, who married into the Royal Family after being wed to Prince Harry. Markle also receives a lot of criticism for her involvement in her husband’s affairs and her outspoken attitude.
“You know, everybody says that housewife and mother is the hardest job there is. Yeah?” he asks. “Compare that to, oh, I don't know, standing a post in Afghanistan — you're pinned down. Oh, I don't know, being on one of those ships that catches all these fish.”
According to Salary.com, stay-at-home mothers are estimated to have a median value of $184,820 per year, in 2021. It's no secret the amount of work they do in order to keep the house up and running, just ask this divorce lawyer. According to the U.S. Army website, a full-time, active-duty, Major in the army makes nearly half that — don’t even ask what a Private makes.
Of course, there’s no value that can be placed on serving your country overseas, but a price should not be placed on being a stay-at-home mother either — its inherent value is priceless, while the difficulty of both roles should be acknowledged and not ignored.
Instead of trying to place a value on Brittany’s existence as a mother of their two children or a "housewife" (of which she is neither), Dakich’s reasons for calling out Brittany are more misogynistic at their root. Meanwhile, Brittany is wildly successful in her own right. As a former professional soccer player and founder of the National Women's Soccer League team, Kansas City Current, Brittany is not a "housewife."
The hatred for Brittany Mahomes is misogynistic at its core.
“You've got more money trying to make you look good than any other woman in America,” he says, “but you're mad when everybody doesn't kiss your [expletive]. Get over your entitlement. Stop it, stupid.”
Her looks have nothing to do with her position as her husband’s biggest fan. Instead, she receives a lot of heat for the simple fact that she is a woman, and women in sports are often looked down upon.
Brittany, more specifically, received a lot of backlash from the public after a celebration at one of her husband’s games saw her basically pouring champagne all over unsuspecting fans in the stadium — but a football game is incomplete without some kind of food or drink being thrown at you.
She was also criticized for tweeting about the referees during one of his games (but who doesn’t?) and more recently faced criticism for giving her husband a kiss on the field as fans were apparently offended by her presence on the field despite the field being open to all players' partners.
When it really comes down to it, a regular fan would do any of these things.
But since the spotlight is on her, she’s being criticized more heavily. She should be able to support her husband in any way that she wants, and she should be allowed to be a regular sports fan.
In a recent Q&A she did on Instagram, she claimed that she didn't care about other people's opinions about her and that she would change up her posting habits on social media, but she shouldn't have to. Part of the experience is getting emotional when things are going your team’s way, or the refs were paid off by the other team — Brittany is no different.
Men aren’t shamed for their fanaticism towards their favorite sports teams or players, so why should the wife of a prolific sports star be shunned?
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor for YourTango who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.