Patrick Mahomes partnering with virtual-reality project set for Arrowhead this season

A virtual-reality look at Kansas City Chiefs games from Patrick Mahomes’ perspective will be available to fans at Arrowhead Stadium this year.

According to an article by Shlomo Sprung published by Forbes on Thursday, the Chiefs quarterback is partnering with immersive entertainment company CityLights to create The MVP Experience — a way to see an NFL game through his eyes.

This project will have fans at Chiefs home games at Arrowhead Stadium— thanks to an official partnership with the team— put on a VR headset and be transported on the field in Kansas City. You’re the quarterback facing a defense with the crowd noise making things difficult to process, but virtual Mahomes will be there to coach you on finding holes in the defense to drive your team down the field to victory. The MVP Experience will also use augmented reality holograms with fans’ phones, and a mixed reality video will be available for fans afterwards so they can share their experience on social media.

Joining Mahomes as producers for this venture are CityLights co-founders Joel Newton and David Ganek, along with award-winning extended reality designer Travis Cloyd and Chiefs executive vice president of business operations Tyler Epp.

When he was first approached with the idea, Mahomes told Forbes he was reminded of the days he idolized NFL players like Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Tony Romo.

”As I grew up and idolized and watched some of these quarterbacks that played the game, I always wanted to see exactly what they were doing and how they did it,” he told the magazine. “And so when they came to me with this idea, I knew it was something I wanted to look into even more. And once I met the people behind it and their drive to make it the best possible thing they could, I knew it was the perfect fit for me.

”They’re going to be able to go out there and step into my shoes, at least for a couple of plays,” he continued. ”I knew that people would be interested, and I wanted to do whatever I could to show them this technology and show them what we do on a daily basis, trying to go out there and win football games.”

As reigning NFL MVP, Mahomes has been offered a lot of opportunities since the conclusion of last season. But he told Forbes that after the experience he had at Texas Tech — where VR was used to perform drills and scout other teams — this was something he wanted to do.

“As I looked at things that I wanted to do, I wanted to find ways that I could do different things that no one else has done before,” he said. “And this is definitely one project that I was excited to do.”

If the project is successful in Kansas City, CityLights believes there is potential to expand it to NFL stadiums in other markets.