Kansas City Chiefs players, coaches receive media attention they deserve

Beyond the implication of the big game itself, the Kansas City Chiefs participation in Super Bowl week is an incredible platform for each player and coach.

There’s a parade, the big game, and then another parade.

Let’s pause for a minute and consider what’s happening these days leading up to Super Bowl LIV, a media frenzy unlike anything these players or coaches have ever experienced before despite being a professional athlete or even a star in the most popular sport in America.

Three thousand people were given media credentials to cover one of the single biggest spectacles in any global sport this year. That’s thousands of stories written, thousands of video reports, thousands of player profiles, thousands of bits of analysis to be found on Twitter and Facebook, Instagram and blogs, websites and print media.

On Monday night, “opening night” featured a wide-scale introduction of both teams on NFL Network and tons of opening interviews for outlets of all kinds. It was a spectacle unto itself but it was only the beginning. Check out the following inside look from Chiefs team reporter B.J. Kissel on Tuesday:

All this week, each and every member of the Chiefs is going to be asked plenty of questions about his past, present and future. The team’s biggest stars are going to be exhausted discussing the most finite details of their lives, their families, and their interests. Major sports media will dig deep for stories that haven’t been told about a sport already covered ad nauseum in order to unearth something new.

If you want proof of such lengths, Peter King took a ride to Arrowhead Stadium with Andy Reid at 3:15 a.m. just to ask him about one of his oldest jobs that featured him keeping track of how many meatballs celebrities ate. It’s a good story itself, and King clearly knows the questions to ask to get a new angle, but it’s also a silly anecdote in itself. We already know all we need to about Andy Reid as a long-time coach, so now the search for the frivolous begins.

Back to the platform. Given the amount of content created around the Super Bowl, it means that the individual profiles of all parties involved are going to be elevated higher than they’ve ever been before. Good players become stars. Stars become household names. Household names can now go by one name. Tyreek. Patrick.

Every player will not only receive a healthy bonus for being in the Super Bowl ($70K to each player on the losing team, $124K to each player on the winner), but each will also reap the reward for having the elevated profile. Teams interested in signing a player from the current Chiefs will pay a premium for that Super Bowl experience. The same can be said of future coaching hires away from Andy Reid’s staff.

Clark Hunt also holds a much-higher profile as the team’s these days and swings a bigger stick within league circles. Think of the sway that Robert Kraft or Jerry Jones holds in the league compared with, say, Shad Khan or whichever member of the Bidwill family is now calling the shots. It’s just part of the bargain that the most successful teams have owners with gravity.

Most importantly, the city itself gets a major boost. K.C. is now home to a Super Bowl caliber-team, one with a bigger draw than ever before. Those same fans are now likely to visit a region that also holds world-class food and entertainment. This reach will trickle down into more people enjoying gems like the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art or the Negro League Baseball Museum, among many other places.

Back to the players real quick. For all the times we’ve scratched our heads wondering why Mitchell Schwartz could be an All-Pro several times without a single Pro Bowl, here is the solution. For this year’s conundrum that Tyrann Mathieu was left off the roster this year or Chris Jones last year, here is the solution. This rising tide lifts all boats, which means players who have long deserved more respect should finally see things come their way.

For a city as wonderful as K.C., a team as classy as the Chiefs, and a set of players as fun as this roster, it’s nice to see media week giving them their due. These stories deserved to be written.