Chiefs aim for Royal revenge against San Francisco and Joe Buck

In a revolting twist, Joe Buck will call Super Bowl LIV along with fellow commentator Troy Aikman between the Chiefs and 49ers.

The table is set. The Kansas City Chiefs will clash with the San Francisco 49ers in Miami for Super Bowl. While the Kansas City faithful celebrate the long-awaited berth in the sport’s highest peak, one familiar memory is stirred as the team faces their final foe.

The 2014 Kansas City Royals do not fit the same mold as these Chiefs. Ironically, they were much more like what we see in this year’s 49ers; they weren’t expected to see nearly this much success, they ran extremely well, and they played great defense. As the Royals sliced and diced their way through the American League playoffs, they dominated every contender in their way, sweeping the Angels and Orioles on the unlikeliest of trails to a World Series.

If Super Bowl LIV is as close as its line suggests—the Chiefs are early 1.5-point favorites—then it may become as much of a nail biter as Game 7 was in 2014.

With Alex Gordon 90 feet from home plate, the Royals were one Salvador Perez swing away from glory. But we all know what happened. Perez popped out to Pablo Sandoval, and the Giants celebrated on the field at The K in front of 40,000 listless Royals fans. In hindsight, it felt much like the Chiefs’ January 2019 AFC Championship loss at home to the Patriots, the team only moments away from the pinnacle of their respective sport.

In that moment at The K, as Sandoval and the San Francisco Giants reveled in their third World Series championship in five seasons, no one knew who would play in the 2015 World Series just 12 months later. There was an emptiness in all our stomachs (exacerbated by the infamously biased call of Joe Buck) that would not be satisfied without a championship. That hunger was satisfied for baseball fans with a 2015 World Series championship, but the sting remains from the loss to San Francisco.

The Chiefs will take the field against San Francisco on February 2nd, and there will be far more relevant storylines to discuss: Joe Montana, Alex Smith, and a myriad of others. The 2014 World Series will be far from their minds of the players on the field.

But fans remember.

In a revolting twist, Joe Buck will call this year’s Super Bowl, along with fellow commentator Troy Aikman. For faithful Kansas City fans who remember the vision of San Francisco merrily rejoicing on the turf at the K while Buck prattled endlessly about Madison Bumgarner, a Chiefs victory in the Super Bowl will taste that much sweeter.

Fortunately, this game’s “Bumgarner” wears #15 for the Chiefs.