A Patrick Mahomes display in Kansas City.

Not only was Patrick Mahomes back in the Super Bowl for a second straight year, his Mahomes Magic Crunch had a second-edition box with all proceeds going to his foundation, 15 and the Mahomies.

At the Super Bowl in Tampa last week, PLB Sports and Entertainment talked about how successful the second round of cereal was and other athletes they are working with.

“It’s amazing working with Patrick. We know him as a philanthropist  just as much as we know him as a football player,” said Troy Witt, director of marketing at PLBSE. “He has decided to give back 100 percent of his proceeds to 15 and the Mahomies which helps youth initiatives in Kansas City and East Texas where he is from.

“We are really proud to work with him and it’s great to see a highly-compensated athlete like Patrick giving back to his community and causes that are very important to him,” Witt continued. “And we feel very blessed to work with him.”

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Ryder Ballou, a senior marketing executive at PLBSE, said last year before Mahomes, a Whitehouse grad, was named Super Bowl MVP in the Chiefs win over the San Francisco 49ers, PLBSE had raised over $100,000 for 15 and the Mahomies.

“We did the first box last year and it was so incredible. Hy-Vee supermarkets in the Kansas City area and fans in Kansas City really showed out and supported Patrick and his charity,” said Ballou. “So this year, we created eight different boxes for Patrick, each box has a different panel of a poster on the back and when you put them together, it’s a complete picture of Patrick and looks really cool. Hy-Vee sold them as a package of eight.”

PLB Sports and Entertainment has worked with athletes from across the country since 1996. While based in Pittsburgh, PLBSE worked the first two years primarily with Pittsburgh-based athletes to raise money for charity until they signed a quarterback from the Canadian Football League — Doug Flutie. 

“PLBSE was founded by my father, Ty Balou, and everyone knows him from Flutie Flakes back in the day and giving back to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism. That really kicked it off,” said Ryder Ballou.

In 1998 while Flutie was playing for the Buffalo Bills, millions of boxes of cereal was sold with proceeds going to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism. The foundation, through the cereal and other events, has donated $14 million to families and schools over the years. They invested $450,000 into a technology grant to support communication for people with autism. They have also helped keep 500 kids safe through a tracking device and they send kids to an adaptive summer camp.

The central piece of all of these projects we work on is philanthropy and how they give back to their own initiatives,” said Ryder Ballou of the athletes. “Just this year alone we were able to work with Aaron Jones of the Green Bay Packers, Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills, Tyler Herro of the Miami Heat, Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings, JuJu Smith-Schuster of the Pittsburgh Steelers and then Patrick once again.

“It’s been amazing to give back to these guys’ foundations and continue what my father started back in the 90’s,” he added. 

Witt said the internet has helped bring fans closer together to the athletes.

“A lot of the fans of our products don’t necessarily live in the same markets as the athletes, so we offer most of our products online (https://plbse.com/) and there we talk about the stories of each athlete, we highlight their charities and sell their products as well which can be shipped anywhere in the area,” said Witt. “We do that in addition to the grocery partnerships we have which we are looking forward to growing in the future. “

Ty Ballou looks back at the decision to work with Mahomes and he knew it would be a success.“We liked what Patrick did on the field and off the field, we saw he did a lot of charity work even before he started his foundation,” said Ty Ballou. “Certainly we didn’t know they would wind up Super Bowl champions in the first year, but based on his talents and the stuff he does off the field and in the market, we decided to come out with the cereal.”

Ballou had the same feelings with Mahomes Magic Crunch as he did with Flutie Flakes.

“It is very Flutie-esque. As Flutie was growing and going viral, we were able to take that product and put it in New England, and then Walmart and it grew and grew,” said Ballou. “The only reason we are not there yet is because of the NFL license we can only sell it in a restricted market around Kansas City.”Ballou then said with a laugh, “If we could sell this product in Tyler, Texas, it would absolutely be off the chart.”Mahomes’ website (15andthemahomies.org) is “dedicated to improving the lives of children. The Foundation will support initiatives that focus on health, wellness, communities in need of resources and other charitable causes.”