KC cancer doctor and Chiefs lover could be NFL Fan of the Year — with enough votes

So imagine: You’re tailgating with family and friends at Arrowhead Stadium, wearing some of your lucky gear, and suddenly the commissioner of the NFL and the CEO and chairman of the Kansas City Chiefs start walking toward you.

What do you do?

If you’re Dr. Amy Patel, you quickly wipe the Jack Stack Barbecue sauce from your hands and good thing, because those two men are about to give you some of the biggest news of your life.

That’s how Patel, medical director of the Breast Care Center at Liberty Hospital, found out before the home opener in September that she was chosen Chiefs Fan of the Year.

But there was more. She and a plus-one are going to the Super Bowl on Feb. 12 in Phoenix, when she will find out if she is the 2022 NFL Fan of the Year.

“It was a pretty surreal moment. My husband and I look back and we say, that happened? We still can’t believe that that happened,” Patel said.

The NFL contest is “an annual celebration of extraordinary fans who inspire others through their love of football and exemplify every aspect of what it truly means to be a fan,” according to the league.

This year, for the first time, fans will help choose the winner through online voting. Polls close at 10:59 central time on Wednesday, Feb. 8. You can vote at nfl.com/honors/fan-of-the-year.

The Chiefs chose Patel because her work as a radiologist and teacher — she is an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine — shows a commitment to the community, the team said.

Since that moment in September, Patel’s life has been a whirlwind, giving interviews to local and national news outlets and posing for Sports Illustrated. All 32 fans will be featured in next month’s issue.

“I’m just trying to win this for the fans,” said Patel. “Our fans are just so die-hard and lovely and everyone’s been so supportive. So I’ve been really trying to immerse myself. It would be so cool to win this for the fans.”

She’s using this moment to talk about breast cancer and early detection — issues Commissioner Roger Goodell told her are close to his heart. His mother died of breast cancer and has said she might have lived longer with early intervention.

“The things that the NFL are doing to shine a light on cancer and early detection with the Crucial Catch campaign in October, these are the things we need,” said Patel. “We need big platforms like this to get the word out to perhaps a different demographic we weren’t previously reaching.

“So I’m really trying to push not just ‘please vote for me,’ but I’m really trying to take this time and use this platform to educate the community on early detection and breast cancer awareness.”

Michael Jordan

The Star first wrote of Patel’s work in 2020, when one of her breast cancer patients said the worst diagnosis of her life became the “best experience” because Patel was her doctor.

Her relationships with patients, her prowess with imaging and her advocacy — including work to push through a Missouri law making insurance companies pay for more mammograms — have earned Patel the reputation as a “Michael Jordan” in her field.

Patel’s colleagues in the American College of Radiology have honored her leadership, a trait she admires in Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, whom she considers “wise beyond his years.” She’d like to meet him.

She grew up in Chillicothe, and after training in the Midwest, took a job at Harvard University. But she came back to Missouri because there “was so much work to be done at home,” she has said.

This is how the NFL describes Patel in her Fan of the Year biography.

“After a stint at Harvard University, Dr. Patel returned to the Kansas City area in 2018 to build a comprehensive breast program at a local hospital, a first of its kind in the region which serves Northwest Missouri to Southern Iowa.

“Dr. Patel felt compelled to move back to the region to help women achieve equitable breast care access as she saw these disparities in her rural hometown of Chillicothe, MO. That is where she developed her love for the Kansas City Chiefs, which has never waned.”

Patel jokes that she has rooted for the Chiefs since she was a baby. She and her family watched games from home because, like for most fans, tickets are expensive. But Patel set a goal: When I become a doctor, I’m going to buy season tickets.

In 2019 she split the cost of two season tickets — Section 242, row 5, seats 4 and 5, on the visitors side — with the guy she was dating, architect Joe Rathermel, owner of JWR Architecture.

“What a gamble that was,” she joked.

They got married in June 2021.

You’re going to the Super Bowl!

Her husband got this whole Fan of the Year ball rolling.

She didn’t know he had nominated her to sit in the Lamar Hunt Legacy Seat at Arrowhead, an honor at each home game for someone who embodies the spirit of the team’s founder and is making a difference in the community.

“He told me after the fact,” she said. “I was like, well, thank you so much. But it’s such a long shot because there’s so many people in the community doing incredible things.”

Then came the phone call. She’d been chosen as a finalist. A 30-minute interview with team representatives followed, and then she found out she would have the seat at the home opener.

“So then at the home opener before the game, they put us up in a really nice lot behind the stadium, like next to where the players park. Where we’d never have access to otherwise. It’s very fancy,” she said.

Her dad, who hadn’t been to a Chiefs game since the ‘90s, was there, with her brother, her husband, other family and friends.

And that’s when she saw Goodell and Chiefs owner Clark Hunt walking up to the group.

“But I’m thinking they’re going to walk past me because, again, we were in a fancy lot and I’m not important at all compared to some of these people in this lot.”

But there were members of the Chiefs staff there, too and they told Patel, get ready, they’re coming to talk to you.

“I was like what? We had had Jack Stack and I had barbecue on my hands and I was wiping it down, trying to get composed here. And then they came up to me and congratulated me for being the Lamar Hunt Legacy honoree but then said, in addition, the Chiefs have chosen you as the 2022 Chiefs Fan of the Year and you’ll be competing against the 31 other NFL teams,” she said.

“And you also get to go to the Super Bowl to represent the Chiefs. And all of these things happened and I had no idea they were going to happen.”

That was when Goodell told Patel his mother died of breast cancer. He brought it up again recently during a Zoom session with the Fan of the Year finalists.

During the home opener, the team introduced Patel to her fellow Chiefs fans on the Jumbotron as someone who has dedicated their life to breast cancer care and advocacy.

“My husband was in tears. It was just so surreal,” she said. “And since then it’s been a whirlwind.”

You’re going to be in Sports Illustrated, too

The surprises kept coming. None of the fan finalists knew, until they got an email, that a photo shoot for Sports Illustrated awaited them. Patel’s was shot at Arrowhead.

Like her fellow finalists, she wore the custom NFL jersey she received. Hers is Chiefs red with the number 22 and “Fan of the Year” emblazoned on the back.

It will likely hold a place of honor in her closet stuffed with Chiefs gear. She buys a lot. If the team loses while she’s wearing certain clothes, she never wears them again.

“It’s been pretty incredible,” Patel said. “The support from everyone has just been so overwhelming. I’m so appreciative to everyone that’s embraced me with open arms.”

She has seen some of the online, green-eyed comments from people questioning why she was chosen.

“And I understand,” she said. “There were so many who were deserving of this. Absolutely. We all love the Chiefs so much. And I don’t take this honor lightly. I feel blessed. That’s why I say I’m trying really hard to win this for the fans. This is really not about me. This is about the bigger picture.”

Patel is taking her husband to the Super Bowl. Their stay begins that Thursday evening, when the NFL Fan of the Year will be announced. So far, she knows only that the winner will attend the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremony in Canton, Ohio.

Last year’s winner got to announce a draft pick at the NFL Draft. Since Kansas City is hosting the draft this year, Patel hopes she will get to do something there.

This is the third year of the NFL Fan of the Year contest, presented by Captain Morgan rum maker. (Patel got a bottle of spiced rum, a cocktail shaker and jacket from the company.) Patel is impressed by the fans she’s competing against.

The Chicago Bears fan of the year who has worked with the Make-A-Wish Foundation for years. The Philadelphia Eagles fan coaching flag football and working with children. Several have served in the military.

“It tells you that football fans are some of the most die-hard, passionate individuals and we have so many that just want to do good in the world,” she said.

Even if she doesn’t win, maybe there is one other honor she could score at Arrowhead.

Patel has not shared often that if she hadn’t gone to medical school, she would have majored in vocal music at UMKC’s conservatory, with an emphasis in opera.

Singing the national anthem, perhaps?