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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Walk through the Kansas City Chiefs’ locker room in the last week, and it’s impossible to miss the team’s newest fashion statement.
Defensive end Malik Herring was wearing his white T-shirt on Thursday. Offensive tackle Wanya Morris and receiver Nikko Remigio both had theirs on Friday, while quarterback Patrick Mahomes had a similar one hung up near the front of his practice locker this week.
The latest team-issued merchandise boasts three bold letters in red across the chest, followed by a black period:
“AAF.”
So what does that stand for?
“You could say it’s ‘Aggressive as fire,’” Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said with a laugh.
OK, yes, that’s the PG version. And it gets the first two words of the actual slogan correct.
But it’s also important to know this about the Chiefs’ slightly NSFW rallying cry, created months before the season began.
The team this year, deciding to be “Aggressive as f—“? It has not only brought about real change with the Chiefs’ ascending offense.
It’s also a mindset that’s spreading among teammates.
“Now it’s just taken off,” Nagy told The Athletic on Friday. “And what I love about it is it’s not just the offense. It’s the entire building.”
It’s more than shirts, too. After last week’s blowout win over the Las Vegas Raiders, Chiefs receiver Tyquan Thornton tweeted out a photo of the receivers with two short acronyms.
One was “EGE,” which references the “Everybody Gotta Eat” mantra of the Chiefs receivers who continue to preach that success will come for all of them if they remain unselfish.
The other expression, though, was “AAF,” which Thornton said in the locker room last week had initially come from Nagy.
#EGE #AAF https://t.co/ps7eFvPgt9
— T.Thornton4️⃣ (@Humble_Ty19) October 20, 2025
Turns out there’s a backstory to that as well.
It begins with the Chiefs quarterbacks room — and an old group-text message thread.
Chiefs assistant coaches like Nagy, quarterbacks coach David Girardi and pass game coordinator Joe Bleymaier share an offseason cell phone conversation with the team’s quarterbacks, discussing ways they hope to improve the following season. One topic kept recurring: The offense needed to be more aggressive in 2025.
From there, Nagy had the initial idea of “AAF.” He said the group also brought it up during the first practice of organized team activities back in May.
The context here matters. Before the 2024 season, Mahomes and Nagy both talked about the team taking more deep shots while hunting for additional explosive plays.
Yet, because of injuries and other circumstances, that never materialized. Mahomes averaged just 6.3 yards per target per TruMedia, which was the lowest mark of his career.
“It started with just the mentality, ‘You know what? This is where we’re at. We have to speak it into existence,’” Nagy said of changing the offensive mindset. “We can’t just talk about it once a week. It needs to be every day, all the time: the word ‘aggressive.’”
So Nagy started things.
And his way of switching it up this year? It would be a quick three-letter sequence.
When referencing this, Nagy likes to use the phrase “mindtap.” In essence, when speaking with Mahomes, he wanted a casual way to refocus him on the greater goal of maintaining an attacking mentality.
So in the meeting rooms, before they went over a play call, Nagy would say the letters: “AAF.”
That spread to the practice field on the headset. Nagy would give Mahomes the entire play call, then slip in the three letters at the very end.
“AAF.”
In other words: Remember to take your shot if it’s there.
“I think big picture, the last couple years is not what we wanted it to be. And I think that’s everybody. It’s us as coaches. It’s not just the players. It’s all of us together,” Nagy said of the offensive attitude. “And the only way to be better at that is — and it’s in anything you do — if you just do it more and more and more and you talk about it, you think positive, it happens.”
The phrase snowballed from there.
Chiefs quarterbacks say now the expression has become something they live by. When they pass each other in the hallways, they’ll repeat it as a reminder.
Then, after big-time touchdowns this season, they also welcome Mahomes back to the sideline with the best compliment he can hear.
They’ll tell him he was “AAF.”
“It’s fun,” Nagy said. “The guys have been great.”
The offense has taken off in recent weeks while adopting the new saying.
Entering Week 8, the Chiefs had scored on 52 percent of their offensive drives per TruMedia, which is the second-best mark in the NFL and on pace to be the team’s top showing since Mahomes’ first year as a starter in 2018.
Meanwhile, Mahomes is averaging 7.7 air yards per attempt this season, making this his most aggressive season since 2020.
In other words … he’s buying in.
No matter where he goes (or who he talks to or sees), Mahomes is surrounded by three letters that have become part of his everyday vocabulary.
It goes back a few months, stemming from a deliberate plan by the Chiefs to avoid past pitfalls.
Now, Nagy and the team’s QBs appear to have created a message the entire team can get behind.
With their words — and yes, their T-shirts as well.
“We know what it is internally, but it’s just a mindtap,” Nagy said. “Like, ‘Listen, this is who we are. This is what we’re going to be.’”
