Some days it’s kind of tough to be a Chiefs fan. Three steps forward, two steps back if you know what I am saying. New head coach, fired head coach. Talented running back, injured running back. Winning season, higher ticket prices. Losing season, nobody at the games.
The Chiefs, like life, are all about change most years.
Of course it wouldn’t be good if life didn’t change at all.
The good things might not get worse, but the bad things wouldn’t get better either. And so it goes…
Some things change, some things remain the same, but in the middle of this thing we call living , some things have the perfect mix. You know if you have a little patience, the bad things can and will get better. But the good things, well those parts of the perfect parts of your life will always, always stay the same. Which keeps life worth living.
In my life, that perfect thing that has the perfect mix of change is the Kansas City Chiefs.
A walk through the museum at Arrowhead reminds me of this every time I wander through its sacred halls.
The stadium that we watch our beloved Chiefs fight battle after battle looks pretty much the same as it did in 1975. So do the uniforms. So does the parking lot, so do the tailgaters . The Kansas City Royals stadium sits next door waiting for warmer weather exactly like it has year after year after year. And my little brick patiently waits for me to kneel by it and make sure it’s nice and clean and remembered.
The Truman Sports Complex was the best stadium complex in country in 1975 and it still is today. Jerry Jones and his Cowboys, and all those Texas billions can’t change that no matter how they try.
The millions the Hunt family pumped into her a couple of years ago will guarantee that for another couple of decades too.
Why have the uniforms, and the stadium, and so many other things remained basically the same for forty or so years? Why?!??!
Because we got it RIGHT DAMN IT! We got it right the first time.
The Indianapolis Colts thought they had it right when they built Lucas Oil Stadium. It’s nice, I had to give them that as I sat in the conditioned air, relaxing with my hot dog in a nice, calm, peaceful sea of blue, gazing out over downtown Indy.
A more relaxing afternoon I can’t remember.
Arrowhead, somehow, is a little different.
You see if it’s hot outside Arrowhead, its hotter inside Arrowhead. If it’s mind numbing, bone chilling cold in Kansas City , its mind numbingly, bone chillingly colder inside the greatest NFL stadium in the world. Which is exactly how God intended football to be played, and exactly how he meant it to be enjoyed by your Arrowhead Adventurer.
No blue at Arrowhead. They don’t call it the Red Sea for nothing. Red is the color of blood. Red is the color of fire. Red is the color of war.
The Chiefs had the best home game winning percentages in the NFL for decades.
I hate to be the one to say this gang, but it was not because we fielded the best teams Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. And it wasn’t because we had the best coaches or the highest payroll or the best luck in the drafts.
It was not because of any of that.
It was because when opposing teams and opposing fans came to Arrowhead they came to a world of fire, and blood. They came to a battleground. They came to fight a war in a sea of red.
It’s still that way today.
Players have died on our field defending its honor. I watched the Rams head physician carried away with a bone sticking out of his leg one fine summer preseason afternoon.
We lost the game if I remember right. But as he found out, by God if you win or if you lose at Arrowhead I will promise you this. You will bleed.
The players make a wordless promise to us when they come to pray in our little corner in Arrowhead. They promise they are willing to die like Stone Johnson died so many years ago in order to win.
We make them a promise too. We promise that if the game gets too cruel, or too unfair. If the officials get to one sided. We make a wordless promise to our Chiefs that the greatest fans in the NFL will come over that rail and make the worst fight in NBA history look like a game of tiddly winks.
We promise that if it rains or sleets or hails, or if the blazing sun burns them, it will rain and sleet and hail and burn us too.
Those players promise us that if an opposing team disrespects us in any way, shape or form, they will bleed.
We promise those players the same when it comes to opposing fans.
It’s been that way since the greatest NFL team to ever take a field took the field of Arrowhead for the first time.
It’s still like that today.
Which is why I’m still like I am……. When I sit….in the greatest NFL stadium in the world.
How about you?