When KC hosts the Lions for tonight’s NFL season opener, the defending Super Bowl champs will be wearing a new jersey patch. The team announced today that they’re adding a memorial patch for Norma Knobel Hunt, the late wife of team founder Lamar Hunt. She died back in June.
The patch will be worn all season long.
KC already wears a perma-memorial patch for Lamar Hunt. The team didn’t release a photo showing both patches, but I made this mock-up showing how the new patch will look alongside the existing one:
That could create a bit of a patch logjam for rookies wearing the new NFL PREM1ERE patch. Fortunately, KC doesn’t wear captaincy patches during the regular season, but they do add the “C” patches for playoffs, so that could result in a major postseason patch pileup. And heaven help us if they make it back to the Super Bowl and have to add the Supe patch!
Aside from the Lamar Hunt perma-patch, I believe this is the first memorial patch that KC has worn since their “WWD” patch in 1992 for director of player personnel Whitey Dovell. They wore memorial rear-helmet decals (not jersey patches) for former player Derrick Thomas in 2000 and former coach Hank Stram in 2005.
I’m not 100% certain on this, but I think the last time an NFL team wore a memorial patch for an owner’s wife was in 2020, when the Jets wore a “BWJ” patch for Betty Johnson. And I believe the time before that was in 2017, when the Giants wore a “JHT” patch for Joan Tisch.
I’ve added the Norma Hunt patch info to my NFL Season Preview, which I’ll continue to update right up to tonight’s kickoff.
The one and only time I met Mrs. Hunt, she could not have been more lovely or gracious.
We might have a patch record if they make the Super Bowl again! Especially for captains. Any idea what the current record is?
As a uniform fan I’d be curious to see the Chiefs break it, but as a Broncos fan I don’t.
That would be such a crowded front of uniform but neat to see.
Another addition to your list of patches honoring wives of owners: “MHK,” worn by the Patriots in 2011 in honor of Myra Kraft.
What about the wife of Robert Kraft patch the patriots wore
For sure. I wasn’t trying to create a comprehensive list — I just wanted to mention the most recent examples.
Chiefs wore the GU patch for gene upshaw along with the rest of the week in 2008, not sure if you meant to include only full season patches or only chiefs specific patches, of course this patch fits into neither category, but it wasn’t mentioned in the post
I meant KC-specific patches.
“postseaosn” postseason
Thanks for the work you do, Paul.
Fixed!
I read somewhere else that maybe they should incorporate her initials permanently in the patch for her husband to open up some space on the front of the jersey. If they make the playoffs the C can be placed above the new patch but a SB patch has to be put on top of the front or TV numbers, probably…
The patch-for-the-spouse trend is the ultimate in narcissism. Sorry for their loss but nobody outside of the family cares. It’s simply a way for the owner to demonstrate his power — here’s a patch I’m making everybody wear simply because I can. It’s the polar opposite of the idea that these franchises are public trusts and that the nominal “owners” are merely caretakers. Any owner who does this ought to immediately be disqualified for any public funding thereafter.