Kansas City Chiefs Mascot Wants To Be ‘The Hands And Feet Of Jesus’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Dan Meers, the Kansas City Chiefs mascot, is gearing up for the Super Bowl—a job that he sees as a way to share his Christian faith.
“I’ve met so many great people, and the Lord’s just opened up so many opportunities for me to go out and hopefully just try to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. That’s my goal,” Meers said, reflecting on his time as a mascot.
Meers began his mascot career as a student at the University of Missouri, where he was Truman the Tiger. This led to an offer to be Fredbird, the St. Louis Cardinals’ mascot, followed by the opportunity to start the mascot program for Kansas City.
In 2013, his time as a mascot almost cost him his life when a stunt went wrong. Meers broke his ribs and a vertebrate, suffered a collapsed lung and fractured his tailbone.
His recovery process gave him a chance to think about his faith. “The hard thing about pain is it will make you into someone you don’t want to be because it makes you self-focused,” he said of that time. “All you can focus on is your pain…I don’t want my focus to be on me. I want my focus to be No. 1 on the Lord and No. 2 on those around me.”
During his recovery, Meers chose to focus on staying positive and being grateful for his blessings.
“There’s a lot of joy in the Christian life,” he explained. “It drives me crazy when I meet Christians who walk around like they’ve been sucking on a lemon. I made up my mind I didn’t want to be that guy, you know? If we want people to be attracted to our Savior, we can’t go walking around like we’ve been sucking on a lemon.”
In addition to his work as a mascot, Meers also spreads his faith through speaking engagements.
“We can use [the choices we make] to make an impact not only in our own lives, but more importantly in the lives of others,” he shared. “I believe as Christians that’s what we’re called to do, that God didn’t put us on this earth to make a living. He put us here to make an impact.”
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