ANAHEIM, Calif. — When Super Bowl LVIII ended in Las Vegas and the Super Bowl celebration began, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes admitted he was looking for a specific person:
“The moment the game ends, I’m always looking for that camera and saying, ‘I’m going to Disneyland,’” said Mahomes, standing in front of Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle on Monday. “I’m always motivated to go back to Disneyland.”
The “I’m going to Disneyland” or “I’m going to Disney World” catchphrase and commercial immediately after a title game has become synonymous with winning a championship.
It’s one of the spoils of winning a trophy and being its best player.
On Sunday, Mahomes led the Kansas City Chiefs to another Super Bowl win, an overtime thriller against the San Francisco 49ers, 25-22 in Las Vegas.
The Chiefs are the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls in 20 years, and it’s the team’s third championship in five years.
Mahomes said the moment the 49ers kicked a field goal to go up by three in overtime, his team “had a great chance of winning the game.”
“I wanted to score a touchdown,” he said during a media scrum at Disneyland on Monday.
For Mahomes, who was MVP in all three wins, it was also his third invite-only trip to a Disney theme park immediately after the big game. He and his family were at Disneyland last year and Walt Disney World in Florida in 2019.
Mahomes told Spectrum News that accomplishing so much within the past five years has been extraordinary.
“The run that we’ve been on has been truly special,” he said as fans in the background chanted, “MVP!” “MVP!” “I know I’m lucky to be in the organization that I’m in. We’re able to win three Super Bowls now and be in four of them. I’m just enjoying the ride.”
On Monday, Disney celebrated Mahomes with a Super Bowl cavalcade down Main Street, U.S.A.
Performers danced with red and yellow pom-poms.
Red, yellow and white confetti rained down Main Street, U.S.A., as his ride vehicle approached.
A multitude of fans, sporting red Kansas City Chiefs jerseys, lined up and set up camp on the street, some as early as 10 a.m. — four hours before the start of the parade — to get the best seats in the house for a glimpse of Mahomes and Mickey and Minnie wave as they ride past them.
Marianne Reguero came from Rancho Santa Margarita to cheer on Mahomes and celebrate the Chiefs win. Reguero is originally from Blue Springs, Missouri.
Reguero donned custom Kansas City Chief Mickey ears, a small white and red face Chiefs tattoo, and matching KC earrings.
Reguero, a Disneyland annual pass holder, spent hours last night after the game refreshing the mobile app to get a reservation ticket to enter the theme park and watch the parade.
“I’m a die-hard Chiefs fan,” she told Spectrum News. “The game was unbelievably good and stressful.”
Paula Hymer and her family came from Visalia to watch the Disneyland Super Bowl parade.
Hymer wore a Kansas City Chiefs shirt with Minnie Mouse and custom KC red Mickey ears that said, “Fan since 1988.”
“I missed out last year, so I had to be here this time,” she said.
Mahomes is certainly getting used to returning to the so-called Happiest Place on Earth.
When asked if Disney should build him a house in Toontown because of his many Super Bowl championship visits, he said he “hopes so.”
“It might be a new attraction,” he said. “If I keep winning, I’ll keep coming back.”
