Well, this is certainly an auspicious way to start a ballyhooed title defense.
Thursday marks banner night for the Kansas City Chiefs and the opening kickoff of the 2024 NFL regular season — a normally celebratory time for football junkies and sports bettors alike.
Thursday also marks the day a notorious Chiefs superfan was sentenced to a 17.5 in prison.
Xaviar Babudar, known to many NFL fans as “ChiefsAholic,” was handed this hefty sentence by a federal judge on Thursday morning, per KCTV.
The outlet reported, “Babudar pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs in February to one count of money laundering and one count of transporting stolen property across state lines.
“Babudar also pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery for robbing a credit union near Tulsa.
“The charges are linked to 11 bank robberies, or attempted robberies, in seven states.”
On opening night: Chiefs superfan Xaviar Babudar was sentenced today to 17½ years in prison without parole and three years of supervised release for committing a string of armed bank robberies across the U.S.https://t.co/mv4wJ97bGv
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 5, 2024
According to ESPN, the 17.5-year sentence does not include parole.
It does, however, include three years of supervised release.
Babudar stole “more than $800,000” during his escapades and was “laundering the proceeds through casinos.”
“ChiefsAholic” was actually a beloved member of the Kansas City sports community before his crime spree came to light.
Typically spotted in his gray wolf outfit, the 30-year-old Babudar became a beloved member of “Chiefs Kingdom” and “crafted a persona of a hardworking, generous bachelor,” per ESPN.
Matthew Merryman, Babudar’s attorney, argued that that status gave his client a unique chance to pay for his crimes.
“Due to his quasi-celebrity status, Xaviar is in a unique position to potentially repay the financial losses created by his actions,” Merryman said.
Babudar’s attorney also tried to paint this crime spree as a gambling addiction, but Patrick Daly, senior litigation counsel at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, vehemently disagreed with that assessment.
“It’s not an addiction to gambling. It’s not an addiction to the Chiefs,” Daly said. “It’s an addiction to fame.”
While Babudar is the only one sporting a criminal sentence, he is hardly the only noted Chiefs fans stealing headlines in recent months.
Many are already aware of music czarina Taylor Swift, who is often seen rooting for the Chiefs and her boyfriend (star tight end Travis Kelce) — typically to the chagrin of NFL fans.
On a more serious note, young Chiefs superfan Holden Armenta was unwittingly thrust into the spotlight when the liberal sports site Deadspin falsely accused the then-9-year-old of sporting racist blackface.
The young fan was widely condemned for the alleged blackface — before it came to light that the young fan was wearing red and black face paint to support the Chiefs.
The Chiefs, amid all of this hullabaloo, kick the NFL season off with a stern test, when the team hosts a talented Baltimore Ravens team.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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