When St. James United Methodist Church announced it was taking part in a Chiefs “Faith and Football” pep rally tied to a church spirit contest, Dr. Yvette Richards was ready to show her team pride from the pews. She thought the Sunday event was about which congregation could be the most excited for the Chiefs. Instead, when a representative from the franchise walked into the sanctuary, she learned the real reason for the celebration: she had been named the Kansas City Chiefs’ 2025 Fan of the Year.
The surprise was the culmination of months of planning between the team and her church. Chiefs staff had struggled to find a time when Richards — known for her heavy travel schedule and full plate of community work — would be both in town and still long enough to be honored. The answer was to fold the announcement into a church event, and her congregation gladly helped “get” her. “My whole church, they got me,” Richards later said, laughing.
A Lifetime Shaped by Football and Family
Richards’ love of football began long before she ever set foot in Arrowhead Stadium. Raised in a military family, she spent part of her childhood overseas, including five years in Mannheim, Germany. No matter where they lived, football became a family ritual: her father cooked his famous chili, her mother spread oversized pillows on the floor, and the family spent entire days watching bowl games and NFL matchups together.
Back then, she cheered for the Dallas Cowboys — her family had two cousins on the team, Tony Dorsett and Steve Wilson. But after college she moved to Kansas City, a city she already knew from summers spent visiting her Missouri-born father’s family. Going to Chiefs games with her “three uncles” — Uncle Robert Harris and their friends George Walters and Gene Agins — eventually pulled her into Chiefs Kingdom for good.
What started as invitations to tag along with four longtime season-ticket holders grew into a decades-long commitment. Over time, the group’s tickets were reduced to two, and Agans asked if she wanted them. She did — and began paying for those two season tickets and a parking pass, a commitment she’s kept for roughly 25 years. When Agans died 11 years ago, his daughters wrote to the Chiefs explaining that their father wanted Richards to have the tickets. The team agreed and officially transferred the account into her name.
Richards has been going to games since 1985 and is known in her section as the “00 fan” — the one who never leaves until the clock reads 00:00, even in the 2–14 seasons. “We had some people that sit in our area [who]… would leave at the beginning of the fourth quarter,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Where are you going? This is when it’s getting good.’”
Fan of Faith, Service, and Community
Off the field, Richards’ life is anchored in faith and service. She joined St. James United Methodist Church in 1986 and became active in United Methodist ministries the following year, eventually rising to serve as national president of United Methodist Women (now United Women in Faith) from 2012 to 2016 and holding leadership roles on multiple global church boards.
She spent 28 years with State Farm Insurance, including 19 years as a catastrophe adjuster, often traveling for months at a time while still finding ways to support the Chiefs from afar — decorating her workstation with team gear and watching games whenever she could. She retired from State Farm in 2017 and that same year joined the staff at St. James as Director of Community Connections and Missions, a newly created role focused on building partnerships and filling gaps for families in and around the Blue Hills neighborhood.
Under her leadership, St. James launched Loads of Love, a free laundry ministry that began during the pandemic and is now entering its fifth year. The program pays for families to wash clothes at a local Black-owned laundromat, with an added voucher system for urgent needs when families can’t wait for the monthly event. She also helps coordinate the church’s food pantry, winter coat and clothing drives, homeless outreach, hydration efforts during extreme heat, and other initiatives in partnership with community organizations.
Richards holds a master’s in leadership, a master’s in Christian ministry, and a Doctorate of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio — a degree focused on ministry and mission rather than traditional pulpit preaching. Though she is not an ordained pastor, she regularly helps lead worship at St. James and is in the pulpit on Sundays, even when the Chiefs play early.
A Historic First — and a Call to Vote
With her selection, Richards becomes the first African-American chosen as Kansas City’s Fan of the Year since the team began participating in the NFL Fan of the Year program.
The recognition brings a trip to Super Bowl LX in San Francisco, where she and her sister will attend both the game and the NFL Honors awards show the night before. She also expects to be recognized on the field with other team honorees.
Now, the focus shifts to the national competition. Fans can vote for Dr. Richards as NFL Fan of the Year on the league’s website; voting continues through Feb. 7, the night of NFL Honors. Richards plans to draw on the global network she has built through her decades of church and community work, reaching out to friends and colleagues as far away as Africa, New Zealand, and Europe to support her campaign.
However, your vote will help. You can vote for her at https://www.nfl.com/honors/fan-of-the-year/
“I am just so humbled that somebody would think enough of me to nominate me,” she said. “To be selected by the Chiefs — an organization that I’ve loved for many, many years — is so special.”