Jan. 16, 2026, 7:00 a.m. CT<\/p>\n
This week, Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. spoke with retired All-Pro NFL running back and Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> legend Jamaal Charles.<\/p>\n In his interview with Easton Jr., Charles discussed his role as an NFL Alumni<\/a> ambassador for the ‘GEAR UP Against Cancer<\/a>‘campaign’s fight against lung cancer, in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>\u00a0Division of Cancer Prevention and Control. He also shared his connection to Chiefs Kingdom and Arrowhead Stadium memories.<\/p>\n “Yeah, joining this campaign, I wanted just to use my influence, use my playing in Kansas City for a decade. I’m always active in the community, always doing anything positive to improve people’s health. I’m all with it. I’m always inspiring people,” said Charles, “So it’s definitely a campaign that I was excited to do because my mom still smoked. I’m still trying to get her to stop. But it doesn’t start with my mom by the side, with a lot of other people’s, too. I just wanted to use my background as a professional athlete in health and wellness, and it is essential to be on this campaign.”<\/p>\n Charles played his best NFL seasons for the Chiefs, reflecting fondly on his experience at Arrowhead Stadium, including the initial misunderstanding about where it was located.<\/p>\n “I think about the confusion I had when I got drafted, thinking I was going to Kansas. So that’s one of the confusions. But man, I have great memories there. I scored my first touchdown ever. We had the Guinness World record for the loudest stadium. At Arrowhead, just coming out of the tunnel, and they yelled your name-“my name”-“coming from the University of Texas” said Charles, “That’s one of the first moments I have just coming out and dancing, I can say, just seeing the crowd getting loud, and seeing them making the offensive team jump offsides, having that advantage.”<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Charles retired on a one-day contract with the Chiefs in 2019. He supports the future of the new stadium slated to open in Kansas for the 2031 season.<\/p>\n “Just the moments, man, I hope that carry on to the next stadium, Kansas, and I can’t wait,” said Charles, “I know history is moving on, but I hope that we have that same feeling going on to the future with us.”<\/p>\n For more information on the ‘GEAR UP Against Cancer<\/a>‘campaign’s fight against lung cancer, visit the National Football League Alumni Association<\/a>\u00a0and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 16, 2026, 7:00 a.m. CT This week, Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. spoke with retired All-Pro NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[95878,346,7,118,110,2438,2437,6,96828,96829,95882,99942,96831,99943,96540,95896,95888,95906,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-683899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-chiefs","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-kansas-city","12":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","13":"tag-kansascity","14":"tag-kansascitychiefs","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-sstssportsnflchiefs","17":"tag-sstsnchiefs","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagcenters-for-disease-control","20":"tag-tagfootball","21":"tag-tagjamaal-charles","22":"tag-tagkansas-city-chiefs","23":"tag-tagnational-sports","24":"tag-tagnfl","25":"tag-tagoverall-positive","26":"tag-tagsports-news","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115909782758112356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}