By Rick Reilly
Contributing columnist
January 5, 2023 at 12:17 p.m. EST
It’s not easy out here for an NFL superfan.
Not only do you have to buy the mask, the furry and the air horn, you also have to spring for a ticket to every game. And that’s just the start of it. Do you have any idea how much the Denver Broncos’ Barrel Man went through in frostbite cream?
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That’s why you have to admire the moneymaking idea that the costumed wolfman known as “ChiefsAholic” seems to have worked out: bank robbery.
ChiefsAholic is the manic Kansas City fan who had been to nearly every Chiefs home game — in a full wolf costume, including wolf-head mask — for the past seven seasons and who, this season, made up his mind to go every away game too.
But that gets pricey.
So … on the morning of Dec. 16, apparently driving from Kansas City down to Houston for the Chiefs game against the Texans, the 28-year-old ChiefsAholic (real name Xaviar Babudar) walked into the Tulsa Teachers Credit Union in Bixby, Okla., according to the police affidavit, pointed a gun, demanded an employee open the vault, stuffed “a large amount of money” in a bag and fled.
The initial reports out of Bixby said the robber was “wearing a mask.”
Cut to me, spitting out my Frosted Flakes. “Please, please,” I said out loud, “tell me he was wearing the wolf mask!” How great would that be? He’d be the first bank robber in history identified by his mask.
Sadly, Bixby police — who said they caught him not six minutes after the heist — later clarified that it wasn’t a wolf mask. They said they caught him carrying a paintball mask — and the gun turned out to be the kind of air pistol you use for paintball.
Open the safe, or I splatter these walls purple!
But police did find on him what appeared to be the very same ski goggles he often wears to Chiefs games. Most Chiefs fans know those goggles because there are two things that will happen during any Chiefs TV broadcast: (1) Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will do something that will make you wear out your rewind button, and (2) the director will cut a dozen times to ChiefsAholic bouncing around like a wolf on a case of Red Bull.
That’s why, when the Texans game came and went on Dec. 18 with no sign of Babudar, all of #ChiefsKingdom fretted. He hadn’t even tweeted since Dec. 16, and ChiefsAholic is a tweetaholic.
Other than actor Paul Rudd, Babudar is probably the Chiefs’ most famous fan. He gives away jerseys and tickets to his followers and makes monstrous bets on his beloved team. Before this season, he plunked down $5,000 on Mahomes to win the NFL MVP — paying $45,000 if it comes in — and laid another pile on the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl, a $55,000 payday.
That’s a baller lifestyle for a guy who says he manages some warehouses “throughout the Midwest region.” When a follower wanted to know how he affords all these trips and gifts and bets, ChiefsAholic tweeted back: “I make a good living, plus I hustle in private.”
Sure seems as if he was hustling in Bixby. But it makes us wonder. ChiefsAholic tweeted photos of himself this season from road games in Cincinnati, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco … maybe detectives in those towns want to revisit CCTV from any unsolved heists?
This all reminds me of a 1970s PGA Tour golfer named Ricky Meissner, who apparently got so despondent about his high scores and skinny wallet that he started robbing banks in tour cities on his way out of town. He robbed 19 banks in seven states, according to the feds. The 19th was the Bethesda branch of the Maryland National Bank in 1978 and they gave him a 25-year sentence for that.
On Sunday, the wolfman was noticeably absent at the Chiefs’ home win over the Broncos. Instead, he was sitting in the Tulsa County jail. He pleaded not guilty to armed robbery charges and is being held on $200,000 bond. (Needs a few more bets to come in for that.) Hey, you think they have the NFL package?
This is all a little awkward for the Chiefs themselves, since Babudar attended (in street clothes) a dinner for Patrick Mahomes’s foundation 10 days before the alleged robbery. I texted my buddy in the Chiefs front office, and he said the team doesn’t want to talk about it.
Too bad. It’d make a fun commercial.
Open on: Mahomes flipping a touchdown pass through his legs, backward, while wearing a 320-pound defensive end as an overcoat.
Announcer: “We know Chiefs fans will do just about anything to see Patrick Mahomes play …”
Cut to: Police mug shot of ChiefsAholic.
Announcer: “ … but let’s not overdo it.”
Contributing columnist
January 5, 2023 at 12:17 p.m. EST
It’s not easy out here for an NFL superfan.
Not only do you have to buy the mask, the furry and the air horn, you also have to spring for a ticket to every game. And that’s just the start of it. Do you have any idea how much the Denver Broncos’ Barrel Man went through in frostbite cream?
Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates
That’s why you have to admire the moneymaking idea that the costumed wolfman known as “ChiefsAholic” seems to have worked out: bank robbery.
ChiefsAholic is the manic Kansas City fan who had been to nearly every Chiefs home game — in a full wolf costume, including wolf-head mask — for the past seven seasons and who, this season, made up his mind to go every away game too.
But that gets pricey.
So … on the morning of Dec. 16, apparently driving from Kansas City down to Houston for the Chiefs game against the Texans, the 28-year-old ChiefsAholic (real name Xaviar Babudar) walked into the Tulsa Teachers Credit Union in Bixby, Okla., according to the police affidavit, pointed a gun, demanded an employee open the vault, stuffed “a large amount of money” in a bag and fled.
The initial reports out of Bixby said the robber was “wearing a mask.”
Cut to me, spitting out my Frosted Flakes. “Please, please,” I said out loud, “tell me he was wearing the wolf mask!” How great would that be? He’d be the first bank robber in history identified by his mask.
Sadly, Bixby police — who said they caught him not six minutes after the heist — later clarified that it wasn’t a wolf mask. They said they caught him carrying a paintball mask — and the gun turned out to be the kind of air pistol you use for paintball.
Open the safe, or I splatter these walls purple!
But police did find on him what appeared to be the very same ski goggles he often wears to Chiefs games. Most Chiefs fans know those goggles because there are two things that will happen during any Chiefs TV broadcast: (1) Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will do something that will make you wear out your rewind button, and (2) the director will cut a dozen times to ChiefsAholic bouncing around like a wolf on a case of Red Bull.
That’s why, when the Texans game came and went on Dec. 18 with no sign of Babudar, all of #ChiefsKingdom fretted. He hadn’t even tweeted since Dec. 16, and ChiefsAholic is a tweetaholic.
Other than actor Paul Rudd, Babudar is probably the Chiefs’ most famous fan. He gives away jerseys and tickets to his followers and makes monstrous bets on his beloved team. Before this season, he plunked down $5,000 on Mahomes to win the NFL MVP — paying $45,000 if it comes in — and laid another pile on the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl, a $55,000 payday.
That’s a baller lifestyle for a guy who says he manages some warehouses “throughout the Midwest region.” When a follower wanted to know how he affords all these trips and gifts and bets, ChiefsAholic tweeted back: “I make a good living, plus I hustle in private.”
Sure seems as if he was hustling in Bixby. But it makes us wonder. ChiefsAholic tweeted photos of himself this season from road games in Cincinnati, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco … maybe detectives in those towns want to revisit CCTV from any unsolved heists?
This all reminds me of a 1970s PGA Tour golfer named Ricky Meissner, who apparently got so despondent about his high scores and skinny wallet that he started robbing banks in tour cities on his way out of town. He robbed 19 banks in seven states, according to the feds. The 19th was the Bethesda branch of the Maryland National Bank in 1978 and they gave him a 25-year sentence for that.
On Sunday, the wolfman was noticeably absent at the Chiefs’ home win over the Broncos. Instead, he was sitting in the Tulsa County jail. He pleaded not guilty to armed robbery charges and is being held on $200,000 bond. (Needs a few more bets to come in for that.) Hey, you think they have the NFL package?
This is all a little awkward for the Chiefs themselves, since Babudar attended (in street clothes) a dinner for Patrick Mahomes’s foundation 10 days before the alleged robbery. I texted my buddy in the Chiefs front office, and he said the team doesn’t want to talk about it.
Too bad. It’d make a fun commercial.
Open on: Mahomes flipping a touchdown pass through his legs, backward, while wearing a 320-pound defensive end as an overcoat.
Announcer: “We know Chiefs fans will do just about anything to see Patrick Mahomes play …”
Cut to: Police mug shot of ChiefsAholic.
Announcer: “ … but let’s not overdo it.”
