Rustin Dodd is an author and journalist at The Athletic.

Fresh off of a gutsy, thrilling 2023 Super Bowl win for the Kansas City Chiefs, two inspiring stories that fit perfectly together—a biography of superstar quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, who brought the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl win in fifty years in 2019 as well as a second in 2023, along with the historical struggles and recent resurgence of the former “Paris of the Plains,” Kansas City.

There is nobody like Patrick Mahomes.

In three seasons, he has won a Super Bowl and competed in another, earned the titles of First Team All-Pro, NFL Offensive Player of the Year, and league MVP, and turned the Kansas City Chiefs from famed playoff failures into the most successful team in the NFL. With his unique and groundbreaking playing style, and winning personality both on and off the field, Mahomes has become a truly transcendent quarterback in a journey that mirrors and accentuates the rebirth of the once swingin’ cow town of Kansas City, Missouri.

Once an adventure-filled jazz epicenter and nightlife hub to rival New Orleans, Kansas City’s wild edges and captivating neighborhoods were snuffed out in pursuit of a suburbanized dream that largely left out people of color. It’s been a long road attempting to move past the scars of segregation and overcome the city’s flyover reputation, but Kansas City is now poised to make a comeback, and no other person or team embodies that hope like Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City and Mahomes represent the story of the midwestern American city—how they grew, how they shaped the country, how the sport of football came to mean so much to them, how they failed, and how they are changing.

Kansas City–area natives Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd have written for outlets such as The New York Times, The Kansas City Star, and Texas Monthly, bringing their deep connection to the city, football expertise, and polished writing skills to create a serious book about a very entertaining subject—the rebirth of a city, a team’s triumph, and how Patrick Mahomes, and the team he led, were exactly what was needed to bring Kansas City back together again.

PRAISE FOR KINGDOM QUARTERBACK

“Sportswriters Dent and Dodd cover three subjects in writing that is lively, vivid, well-organized, understandable to non-football-oriented readers, and up-to-the minute.” — Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)

“[A] riveting look at the plight of a midwestern city through the prism of a star athlete.” —Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)

“[L]ively and meaningful… Chiefs fans will find this a revelation, and urban planners might learn a thing or two, too.” —Kirkus

“Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd write a story here that is bigger than Patrick Mahomes — and it’s hard to imagine ANYTHING being bigger than Patrick Mahomes. They tell the remarkable history of a thoroughly American city and its pathway to the center of professional football.”—Joe Posnanski, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Why We Love Baseball

“Does a man make a city, or does a city make a man? Fortunately, the extraordinary Kingdom Quarterback explores both questions with rigorous detail and compassion. Dent and Dodd have written a smart meditation on race, class, geography, and of course, football. This deeply-researched book will leave you with more appreciation not just for the transcendent superstar that is Mahomes, but the city that has embraced him. —Mirin Fader, New York Times bestselling author of Giannis

“Kingdom Quarterback is a brilliant weave of football and urban sociology, popping with illuminating detail and as smart about Kansas City as it is about the meaning of Patrick Mahomes.” —David Maraniss,  Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author of Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story

“Kingdom Quarterback is an instant sports classic. There’s never been a player like Patrick Mahomes, and this book somehow pins his crazy magic to the page while spinning a yarn for the ages, tracing his unlikely rise to the NFL and showing how his jaw-dropping abilities are transforming the game. Epic stuff.” —Jason Fagone, national bestselling author of The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America’s Enemies
 
“Kingdom Quarterback dives deep into the visionaries, villains, and prophets who built Kansas City — the hard heart of America. It’s a history lesson with soul, and makes the case for how pro football not only fits into the country we’ve built for ourselves, but for better or worse, embodies it.” —Eric Nusbaum, author of Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between
 
“Patrick Mahomes is a civic treasure — the embodiment of Kansas City’s highest aspirations, and the walking rebuttal to the darkest moments of its past. Kingdom Quarterback is the book that explains why. Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd take readers on an enlightening and entertaining walk through past and present, through speakeasies and locker rooms, through systemic racism and into the mind of a football genius, deftly telling the intertwined stories of a uniquely skilled quarterback and a uniquely American city. There is still no earthly explanation for what Mahomes can do. But this book shows why he matters.” —Michael Rosenberg, senior writer, Sports Illustrated, and author of War As They Knew It: Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes, and America in a Time of Unrest