The internet has been buzzing since the release of the first trailer for Him, an upcoming football-themed horror film produced by Oscar winner Jordan Peele. Though the movie stars Marlon Wayans as a legendary quarterback mentoring a gifted young player, many NFL fans believe the film is a thinly-veiled allegory for the rise of Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes.
The trailer follows a promising football star, played by Tyriq Withers, whose career is derailed by injury—until he’s invited to train at a secluded compound with a former NFL icon. But what begins as mentorship quickly spirals into psychological horror, with dark supernatural undertones and whispers of sinister bargains traded in pursuit of greatness.
Almost immediately, fans on social media connected the storyline to Mahomes, who has earned a near-mythical status in the NFL for his clutch playoff heroics and seemingly impossible on-field wizardry
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While the comparisons are made in jest, the parallels are striking. Mahomes has already won three Super Bowls and two league MVP awards before the age of 30. His uncanny ability to pull off miraculous throws and rally his team in the most dire moments has often sparked jokes that he must be powered by something otherworldly.
“Patrick Mahomes origin story just dropped,” one fan joked on X (formerly Twitter).
“They finally made a documentary about how Mahomes gets those wins,” another user shared.
Fueling the speculation is the revelation that Him was originally titled GOAT—a nod to the “Greatest Of All Time” label that Mahomes is increasingly associated with. Even more compelling: the film’s tagline, “Greatness demands sacrifice.”
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Though there’s no evidence the filmmakers based the story on Mahomes, the cultural overlap has proven too obvious for NFL fans to ignore. The idea of a quarterback becoming “too good to be human” has long existed in online banter about Mahomes, especially following recent playoff wins that seemed pulled from a script.
Directed by Justin Tipping and produced under Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions banner, Him will hit theaters on September 19, 2025. The film is already generating buzz as a rare fusion of football and horror—genres that seldom intersect on the big screen.
Whether or not Mahomes was any sort of inspiration, the film’s themes have clearly struck a chord. And as long as Mahomes keeps making the impossible look easy, the legend—and the memes—will only continue to grow.
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