We’re just gonna go ahead and recycle the lede from last year’s article about this:
Showing Kansas City Chiefs fans doing the Tomahawk Chop is already something that feels out of step with modern times. Showing German Chiefs fans doing the Tomahawk Chop adds a layer that makes things uncomfortable in a way that’s almost hard to describe.
Last year, when showing off the way the Super Bowl is an international event, Fox showed a room full of Chiefs fans in Munich, Germany doing The Chop while watching the game.
Germans doing the Tomahawk Chop is certainly a thing that Fox could choose to broadcast. pic.twitter.com/ZYNwrx6On6
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 13, 2023
CBS broadcast Super Bowl LVIII this year, once again featuring the Chiefs, but this time against the San Francisco 49ers. Once again, they broke off to show a package of NFL fans around the world cheering on their favorite teams, and once again they showed NFL fans in Germany doing The Chop.
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1756863267908333797
It even appears to be the same Munich bar from last year as well.
Native American groups in America have protested the use of The Chop in recent years, as well as the Chiefs’ name itself, as American sports fans have grappled in recent years with professional teams that use words and iconography considered, at best, out of touch, and at worst, racist. See: Guardians, Cleveland and Commanders, Washington.
While The Chop remains an active tradition for Kansas City fans, the franchise has prohibited fans from wearing headdresses in Arrowhead Stadium. Face painting is still allowed but “any face paint that is styled in a way that references or appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions” is prohibited.
Doing the tomahawk chop in Munich…boy I don’t know about that…
— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) February 12, 2024
It’s almost as if they realize it’s a bad look. And if anyone would know from bad looks, you’d think it would be Germans.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.