Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes address Ulvade school shooting

Late Tuesday morning, a gunman left 19 children and two teachers dead in a tragedy at Robb Elementary School in Ulvade, Texas. It was the second mass shooting of this type in under a couple of weeks. Earlier this month, another gunman entered a Tops Friendly Market on the east side of Buffalo, New York, and opened fire on shoppers in an attack.

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid opened his press conference Thursday afternoon with a statement addressing the attacks.

“Our hearts go out for these tragedies that have taken place over the last couple of weeks. Whether it was in New York or Texas, it’s a shame that [this is] where things are at. But I know through good people — we’ll get that all straightened out. And those families, you know, again, our hearts go out to them.”

Shortly after news broke of the Ross Elementary School shooting Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who grew up six hours down the road from Uvalde, in Tyler, Texas, conveyed his sadness at what happened and offered condolences on Twitter.

The families who lost their children have been at the forefront in the aftermath of the Uvalde shooting. The youngest reported victim was only eight years old.

Mahomes, a new father, reflected on his own family as he spoke about the events after practice on Thursday.

“As a father now, it’s scary,” he said. “It’s scary for all of us. Whenever you’re taking your kids to school, and you want it to be a safe place and stuff like this is happening day after day, and we just don’t want to become numb to it.”

Mahomes went on to say that he isn’t interested in offering lip service; he wants to see real change occur.

“You don’t want to just be able to [say], ‘Oh, condolences,’” he said. “And then all of sudden [go back to] practicing the next day [as if] nothing happened. You want to make sure that we’re holding people accountable, that we do whatever the steps are — I don’t know the steps. I’m not going to act like I do, [we need] to minimize this as much as possible.”

As to what he is personally planning on doing, Mahomes said that there are things in the works.

“We have people from Texas Tech that already reached out to me that are from that area, [and] they have great plans with their foundations of giving back to those families.”

Mahomes did not elaborate on what those plans are or if they will include his charitable foundation, “The 15 and Mahomies Foundation,” but he said that as a country, we have to find a way to mitigate events like this as much as possible.

“We have to find a way as a nation that we can bring this — It’s never going to completely stop— but [we have to] lower the cases of all these people going out and shooting [people] — especially these kids — I mean, they have no chance. They’re just living their life, trying to try to grow up.”

Andy Reid ended his own press conference similarly, acknowledging that any solution that addresses the epidemic of mass shootings would be complex and has to be multifaceted.

“Everybody has their own opinion,” said Reid. “The bottom line is — it’s got to stop. And what can we do to help make it stop? I’m not sure I have the answer other than if we see signs of something, as parents and as teachers or whomever, try to help that person out and get them into a place where they can get things straight.

“But right now, there’s too many things happening up here in the cranial compartment that [we need to address] to that are killing people. [It’s] not good. Not good. For whatever reason — it’s not good. And It’s more than it’s ever been. It’s got to stop.”