Deadspin vilified a young Chiefs fan over face paint. The boy just did his painted victory dance in person at the Super Bowl.



Deadspin vilified a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan last year for wearing face paint to a game. The article, penned by Deadspin senior writer Carron Phillips, alleged the boy "found a way to hate Black people and Native Americans at the same time."

The family of the traduced child filed a lawsuit against Deadspin last week. Fortunately, the boy did not have to wait until the suit's resolution for a major win.

Holden Armenta donned more paint and feathers to support his team Sunday and watched them beat the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in person at Super Bowl LVIII.

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According to the Washington Examiner, a group led by Patriots Prayer host Eddie Smith along with "Skin in the Game" co-hosts Maurice — known online as the Native Patriot — and Anthony Chavez raised over $11,000 to send Armenta to the big game.

Their GiveSendGo campaign noted, "We believe in supporting Holden's Superbowl [sic] dream to counteract the unjust treatment he received from the media. Our goal is to send Holden to the Superbowl, allowing him to experience the joy of being a dedicated Chiefs fan without the shadow of false accusations."

Maurice told the Examiner, "Just the demonization that that kid went through and that family went through. I wanted to turn something dark into something light for them, so that way he can go back out there and basically get a second shot."

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Blaze News previously reported that Holden Armenta was smeared by Deadspin's Carron Phillips after wearing an Indian headdress to a November 2023 game between the Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders.

The original article — which has since been partially revised but nevertheless maintains its initial argument — was entitled, "The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress."

Holden Armenta, a child of Chumash Indian heritage, had dared to wear his favorite team's colors to the Chiefs-Raiders game on Nov. 26. Extra to his jersey and an Indian headdress, he painted one side of his face red and the other side black.

The Deadspin article featured an image of the child in profile such that only the black-painted side of his face could be seen.

Phillips' article started off weighed down with presumptions: "It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time."

Phillips exploited this false narrative to suggest that "this is what happens when you ban books, stand against Critical Race Theory, and try to erase centuries of hate. You give future generations the ammunition they need to evolve and create racism better than before."

In addition to slamming the child, Phillips, who still writes for Deadspin, insinuated that Holden Armenta's family "taught" the boy to hate black people and Indians.

When critics lashed out at Phillips and Deadspin over their hit piece targeting a child, Phillips doubled down, accusing his critics of being racist as well.

The family filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware on Feb. 6 seeking damages and a "narrowly-tailored injunction" prohibiting the republication of any statement or image found by the jury to be false and defamatory.

The suit stressed that the hit piece "maliciously and wantonly" attacked "a nine-year-old boy and his parents for Phillips' own race-drenched political agenda."

A race-obsessive writer evidently couldn't hold Holden Armenta down.

Footage shows the boy decked out in his Indian war paint and headdress leaving a Nevada hotel with his father for the game. In addition to showing off his ceremonial touchdown dance, Holden also demonstrated his practiced tomahawk chop.

Shannon Armenta, the boy's mother, indicated in a pregame video, "We are so grateful to everyone who has supported our family. It means the world to us, so thank you.

Eddie Smith said, "On to the next one, guys. This is just one victory in many."

Skin in the game live holden going to the Super Bowl https://t.co/XMINB40cTE
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The Native Patriot wrote in a Sunday afternoon post to X, "I feel blessed and honored to be part of this movement. We have taken a dark smear against a child and turned it into something incredible! ... I believe this is a huge win against cancel culture, and against the dark side of the media that only wishes to destroy, smear, and defame."

My immediate reaction to this.\n\n I feel blessed and honored to be a part of this movement. We have taken a dark smear against a child and turned it into something incredible! \n\n The Armenta\u2019s are amazing people. I\u2019m blessed to have met them. \n\n Every one that took a part\u2026
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Family of Kansas City Chiefs fan smeared as racist files lawsuit against Deadspin



The family of a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan smeared as a racist has filed a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin for its dishonest reporting.

Holden Armenta was lambasted by writer Carron Phillips at the sports news outlet after wearing a Native American headdress to a game between the Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders in November.

"It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time," wrote Phillips at the time.

Immediately after the outlet published the article, critics pointed out that it had used a misleading photograph only showing one half of the child's face in order to make it appear as if he was wearing blackface.

"Yeah, just ruin this young fans life with your lying headline and misleading picture. This wasn’t black face, nor was it about race. It’s about support for the team," read one critical tweet.

Armenta's parents, Shannon and Raul, said that the report from Deadspin led to “the family to a barrage of hate, including death threats.”

The lawsuit claimed that the article misled readers by not including a full photograph of the boy with half of his face painted red and thereby “maliciously and wantonly" attacked "a nine-year-old boy and his parents for Phillips’ own race-drenched political agenda.”

The Armentas pointed out that their son's grandfather was on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, California, and yet, Deadspin refused to retract the article or apologize.

“It intentionally painted a picture of the Armenta Family as anti-Black, anti-Native American bigots who proudly engaged in the worst kind of racist conduct motivated by their family’s hatred for Black and Native Americans," the lawsuit read.

The lawsuit is asking for unspecified damages.

In 2020, the Chiefs decided to ban headdresses from being worn at their stadium, but Armenta was attending an away game in Las Vegas when he wore the headdress. The Chiefs went on to defeat the Raiders on their way to winning a trip to the Super Bowl, which will be held in Las Vegas on Sunday.

Here's an interview of Holden Armenta:

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Angry dad says son has been 'pretty devastated' since Deadspin writer accused 9-year-old of wearing blackface to Chiefs game



The father of Holden Armenta — the 9-year-old boy accused by Deadspin writer Carron J. Phillips of wearing blackface to a Kansas City Chiefs game over the weekend — told Fox News' Jesse Watters that he's "mad" and "upset" about the toll the rather dubious controversy has taken on his son.

"He's pretty devastated," Holden's dad Bubba said of his son, adding that it was his "dream to get on the Jumbotron" for the game.

What's the background?

Phillips used a photo for his Deadspin piece showing only half of Holden's face, which was black.

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As most of us know by now, the other half of Holden's face was red — one of the Chiefs' team colors.

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Blaze News writer Carlos Garcia pointed out that Phillips, in his effort to double down against numerous critics railing against him, used a non-sequitur that accused them of hating Mexicans.

"For the idiots in my mentions who are treating this as some harmless act because the other side of his face was painted red, I could make the argument that it makes it even worse," Phillips wrote in an X post, which now appears to have been deleted. "Y’all are the ones who hate Mexicans but wear sombreros on Cinco."

What's more, Holden's mother — Shannon Armenta — stated on her Facebook page that her son actually is Native American.

Fox News said the Armenta family noted they are part of the Chumash tribe of California and used to live on a reservation.

Dubiously, Phillips wrote in his Deadspin piece that Holden "found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time."

In addition, a recent update to his Deadspin article notes that the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians released a statement "condemning" the "wearing regalia as part of a costume or participating in any other type of cultural appropriation." Strangely, the full statement from the tribe, which is included in the update, does not use the word "condemn" — rather that the tribe "does not endorse" the aforementioned activities.

What else did Holden and his dad have to say?

Holden's dad told Watters that "we never in any way, shape, or form meant to disrespect any Native Americans or any tribes. The tribe we're from doesn't even wear that type of headdress. This specific headdress is a novelty piece. It's a costume piece. That's exactly what we had purchased it for and wore it for — not in any disrespect toward any Native Americans at all."

Holden's father also acknowledged that he's seen a "whirlwind of comments" about his son's headdress and that some tribal members "think it's OK, some think it's not OK" but that ultimately "it's a 9-year-old boy supporting his team."

In addition, Holden's dad told Watters that it’s "a little too late" for an apology from Phillips because the "damage is already done."

"It's, you know, worldwide. Now, there's comments all over. There's, you know, disrespect toward Native Americans and toward my family," Bubba said.

As for Holden, he told Watters that the reaction so far is "OK because a lot of kids at school are getting excited, but it's starting to get me a little nervous because if they go a little bit overboard it's a little scary."

On the positive side, Holden added to Watters that it feels "really good" to know that Chiefs fans apparently are planning to wear black and red face paint at the next game to support him.

Young Kansas City Chiefs fan smeared as racist speaks out: ‘It’s a little scary’ youtu.be

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