Big Read: From the highest of highs to metres from death
“Seeing my boss and seeing my co-workers get emotional because I was alive - because we had all got separated - that’s when it all sunk in."
United States-based Southlander Atipa Mabonga experienced a life highlight and lowlight in the space of just a couple of days. She spoke to Logan Savory about the conflicting emotions of a Super Bowl victory and being so close to a tragic shooting.
Atipa Mabonga describes it as emotional whiplash.
On Monday February 12 [NZ time] she experienced the highest of highs. Mabonga was overcome by the sort of joyful emotions that prompts tears.
A couple of days later those tears of joy were replaced by tears of despair.
The girl from small town Southland, New Zealand had watched on from the stands in Las Vegas as the team she works for - Kansas City Chiefs - won the 2024 NFL Super Bowl.
Mabonga is the Kansas City Chiefs’ culture and influencer co-ordinator. We’ll delve deeper into that unique role later in this yarn.
It was the second straight year Mabonga had experienced that euphoric feeling of being part of something so big. She also worked for the organisation when Kansas City won the Super Bowl 12 months earlier.
This time around she was prepared for what was coming.
There was the all-night celebration with fellow staff, players, management and celebrities. And there was also the thought of receiving a second Super Bowl ring.
But in particular, Mabonga was looking forward to returning to Kansas City for the victory parade.
“The whole of Kansas City is there, they shut down the city for a day and a half… It’s a true celebration with one another.”
But what was supposed to be a moment Mabonga would remember for the rest of her life for all the right reasons, turned out to be a moment she now remembers for all of the wrong reasons.
The euphoria that had swept the city was supplanted by shock and sadness. That street parade celebration became a tragedy when a deadly shooting played out at Union Station leading to a death and over 20 injured.
Mabonga was metres away from the horror and chaos.
“I was uncomfortably close to everything that was happening.”
“As soon as I was opening the front set of doors to get into Union Station that’s when I heard, and saw, gun shots and a swat team run in. People were screaming and running out of the exact doors I was walking in.
“People were getting trampled, so obviously your fight or flight instincts kick in.”
As part of her role, Mabonga was hosting a couple of actors that day. Her priority was to keep herself safe as it unfolded, but it was also to look after her guests and ensure they returned to their hotel safely.
Mabonga had limited cell phone service at that time. Knowing how fast news travels throughout the world, Mabonga sent a message to her parents back in Otautau, Southland hoping it would reach them.
“I just said, ‘whatever you see on the news I want you to know I’m safe’.”
The next task was finding a way back to the Kansas City Chiefs headquarters. The players and staff had all travelled to the event by busses. Most were quickly transported back soon after the shootings.
Although Mabonga was on the other side of the station.
She found her own way back to the stadium. That was when the reality of the whole situation truly kicked in.
Mabonga was greeted by fellow Kansas City Chiefs staff who until that point had been unaware if she was okay or not.
“Seeing my boss and seeing my co-workers get emotional because I was alive - because we had all got separated - that’s when it all sunk in. Just how tragic the moment was and how close to it I was.”
Mabonga was already proud to work for the Kansas City Chiefs before that day. But that love for the organisation was fuelled further in the aftermath of the tragedy.
“They setup therapy, counsellors, flooded us with a tonne of resources to make sure we were looking after our mental health and that we were taking the amount of rest we needed.
“I love the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s full of good, good people… Our three key pillars are faith, family, football. I think that unfortunate moment showed how that was true. It felt like a family.”
Staff were given time away from work following the incident, which Mabonga is grateful for.
“I don’t think I could have gone back to work on Monday and started sending emails.”
From Zimbabwe to Kansas City via Otautau
It’s difficult to segue from such a tragedy to outlining the remarkable journey of Mabonga.
Her path from Zimbabwe to working with one of sports biggest current global brands is such a special one.
It’s a heart-warming journey worth continuing to shine a light on to counter the horror - like the Kansas City shooting - that can often fill the daily news cycle.
Mabonga shifted with her family from Zimbabwe to New Zealand when she was just four. They eventually found a home in Otautau - a town in Southland with an estimated population under 1000.
They are a farming family and well respected within the community. Her father Edwin is on the local community board.
Mabonga found her sporting love in athletics, which eventually led the former Central Southland College pupil to the United States.
She signed a scholarship with the Southern Methodist University [SMU] and made the move to Dallas, Texas in 2017.
In recent years the focus has switched from athlete to her marketing career. Mabonga initially started with the Chiefs in a seasonal role as a social media assistant before being locked into a fulltime position.
It came just in time for the Kansas City Chiefs’ back-to-back Super Bowls titles, and with it has come two Super Bowl rings for Mabonga.
Players, coaches, and certain fulltime staff attached to Super Bowl-winning organisations are given a precious Super Bowl ring.
Mabonga had her first Super Bowl ring sized to fit her father Edwin’s finger and she gifted it to him last year.
However, she has had the latest ring sized to fit her little finger and she will keep this one.
“It will be nice to bring it home [to Otautau] and have both Super Bowl rings sitting there with all our sporting achievements.”
There’s been a fair few “pinch yourself” type moments for Mabonga as she has gone from an accomplished athlete herself to a career in sports marketing.
“Leaving Zimbabwe when I was four-years-old, I was in Southland thinking, ‘I’m an African baby here living the dream in Southland’.
“Now I’m in the States and I’m an African baby-Southland girl living the dream here in the States.
“It is interesting where life takes you when you take all the opportunities. I carry Southland, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe with me all of the time.
“I’m one proud Southland girl.”
What she learned growing up in Southland, through the likes of Academy Southland and in athletics, she now integrates into work with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“So many of the things I learned at Surrey Park [athletics track] I apply today, I really do.”
‘Crash course’ in sports marketing
Mabonga’s job title at the Kansas City Chiefs includes ‘culture and influencer co-ordinator’.
It’s the sort of job title that might spark some puzzled looks amongst some of the Otautau dairy farmers she knows well.
It’s a wide-ranging job. She coordinates the Chiefs’ celebrity and influencer partnerships and engagement.
The quest is to grow the Chiefs brand.
“I am soaking it all in, because we really are one of the biggest brands in the world of sport right now.”
For Mabonga, the job now extends beyond just the Chiefs brand itself.
Take star Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes for example; he is a massive global brand in his own right.
Mabonga works with the likes of Mahomes around commercial partnerships and other opportunities.
“Patrick’s brand on and off the field is incredible. His management team is amazing. So, it’s just learning how they positioned him and the commercials he is part of, and why he is part of those commercials. It’s all very strategic.”
Travis Kelce is another star Chiefs player Mabonga has worked alongside. Although it is Kelce’s even more famous girlfriend - Taylor Swift - that’s further ramped up Mabonga’s crash course working in big time sport.
An already bright spotlight on the Chiefs intensified on the back of Swift - the world’s biggest pop star - joining the Chiefs family.
“It ramped a lot of my job up in a way that I wasn’t expecting. I think the world saw how much impact her presence had in and around the [Chiefs] brand.
“It really impacted my role in how to manage that in a positive way that keeps the brand in a positive light, keeps our player in a positive light, and obviously respects the relationship that these two are in.
“So, I learned a lot about contracts, I learned a lot about [Non Disclosure Agreements], and I learned a lot from a PR point.
“It was a crash course of figuring it out quickly. But it was also a once in a lifetime opportunity to have one of the biggest pop stars of our generation in and around the brand and seeing the positive response.”
On the back of Swift’s presence Mabonga said the demographic of the Chiefs’ fanbase was now 54% female.
“You hardly get an NFL team with that much of a female fanbase so it’s about making sure we are trying to accommodate those female fans and making sure they are following our socials, and they are watching games and are engaged.”
“I also learned a lot [with Taylor Swift] around a stadium operations standpoint. How do you get someone like that in and out of a stadium, how do you keep them safe. It was crossing every single t and dotting every single i.”
Mabonga believes she has probably squeezed five, six, seven years of knowledge into the past couple of years on the job. And she is grateful for that.
The long-term plan?
Mabonga jokes that if her mum had her way, she would probably head back home to Southland soon to meet and marry a farmer.
At the moment though Mabonga is content living her American dream. She wants to continue to soak up as much knowledge she can while working with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“With all of the things I’m learning with entertainment and sports marketing, the States is definitely the place to be exposed to all of that.”
She doesn’t rule out one day returning to New Zealand though, and potentially working with a New Zealand sporting organisation.
“Hopefully one day I can bring [the knowledge] back and be able to implement it into rugby, netball, or cricket. There is such a huge opportunity.
“Even athletics, there is a huge opportunity for New Zealand sports to tap into the structures and strategies that the States have.
“It’s a very long-winded way of saying, ‘maybe’ [I’ll return to New Zealand].”