The Kansas City Chiefs will take the field on Sunday with a chance to do something that no other NFL franchise has done in the history of the NFL. If the Chiefs can beat the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX it will be the first time any team has won three consecutive Super Bowls. It would also be the Chief's fourth Super Bowl win in six years with five appearances in that span. The Chiefs really are on a storybook run. Simply put, this is the best that it's ever been for Chiefs Kingdom.
The rest of the NFL community does not seem to be enjoying this run of excellence by the Chiefs. The anti-Chiefs hysteria has reached truly comedic levels. Fans and national NFL media personalities are not only moaning about "Chiefs fatigue", but flat-out accusing the NFL of rigging games for the Chiefs instead of giving them credit for their truly special run at history. They're tired of seeing Chiefs players in commercials. They're tired of hearing about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's romance. They're tired of the Chiefs dominating. Period.
Too bad.
I don't know who needs to hear this but don't waste a second on that negative energy this week. Don't take a second to explain why they're wrong. Don't let them steal one moment of your joy and appreciation of how special this is. We have nothing to apologize for. We have nothing to explain. Chiefs Kingdom has been showing up for YEARS before any of this success happened. We have built our reputation as one of the most passionate fan bases well before Patrick Mahomes ever arrived in Kansas City.
Yes, the Chiefs has some early success after the NFL/AFL merger. Yes, they won Super Bowl IV in January of 1970, but the 40 years that would pass before another Super Bowl win would prove the merit and passion of a fanbase that showed up even when the team didn't.
Between 1974 and 1988 the Chiefs went a combined 86-137-1 over that 15-year period, with only two winning seasons and one measly playoff game. That stretch included the forgettable coaching tenures of Paul Wiggin, Marv Levy, John Mackovic, and Frank Gansz. It was the worst stretch of success in the history of the team. While this was just before my time as a fan, there are still plenty of Chiefs fans who remember those days all too well.
That era was followed by the Marty Schottenheimer era. The 10 years between 1989 and 1998 were much different in the regular season, with the Chiefs going a combined 101-58-1. Where the previous era was just about misery, this era was about tough defense, a smash-mouth run-first offense, and the true birth of the booming Arrowhead crowd, it just didn't bring any real postseason success with it.
I will passionately argue that the Chiefs Kingdom culture that still exists today comes from the Martyball era. The tailgating and screaming at the top of your lungs to make life miserable for opposing fans have never left since those late '80s/early '90s teams when it became the norm. That's not to say there weren't great fans before that, but the Marty era brought it up a notch and it's been ingrained in the KC faithful ever since.
The problem for years was that the passionate support was never rewarded with postseason success. Marty is one of my favorite coaches of all time, but they were pitiful in the playoffs in that era despite all the support and regular-season success. They went one and done in the playoffs five times, including two seasons where they were 13-3. One of those was the infamous Lin Elliott game. They made one AFC Championship in this era, in 1993 with Joe Montana, but lost 30-13 to the Buffalo Bills.
For someone my age (47), I defined being a Chiefs fan for decades as passionately supporting a team that was good enough to get your hopes up, but never good enough not to break your heart. There were all the one-and-done years with Marty, the 13-3 season under Dick Vermeil where they went one-and-done because of the "No Punt" game against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. There were the overall disappointing years under Herm Edwards and Todd Haley. It was always some version of:
- "Maybe this will be the year?"
- [Fast-forward five months]
- "Sigh...maybe next year"
- Repeat...for decades.
Then there was rock bottom in 2012 when the Chiefs went 2-14 under Romeo Crennel. There was the Jovan Belcher tragedy. The passionate fanbase literally had to revolt to demand change. There were black shirts, paper bags over heads, and banners flying over the stadium. It was miserable, but it brought us Andy Reid.
Reid brought instant credibility back, but it was just a return to the same "hopes up/let down" cycle that we knew under coaches like Shottenheimer and Vermeil. In the Chiefs' first year under Reid, they were up 38-10 over the Colts only to choke it away 44-45. They lost a playoff game to the Pittsburgh Steelers 18-16 where they didn't allow a touchdown, just six field goals. Then the very next season they lost 22-21 to the Tennessee Titans in the game where Marcus Mariota threw a touchdown to himself.
Then came the start of the Patrick Mahomes era. In his first year as a starter, he torched EVERYONE. Maybe things would be different this time. Maybe we wouldn't have our collective hearts broken again. Oh, wait... Dee Ford was offsides? We're going to overtime and Tom Brady gets the ball first? Oh despite how brilliant Mahomes was we end with the same heartbreak again? Awesome.
So now that things finally worked out for us in the best way possible the national media and other fans want to tell us they're tired of us? Tired of the winning. Tired of the commercials. Or worse, that this isn't even earned, that it's somehow being rigged for a Midwest team in "flyover country". Well sorry, I have zero time to let all that whining and coping ruin my team making another Super Bowl. I dreamed of this for DECADES and I know it will never be this good again in my lifetime.
This is special. This is legendary. This is the height of my entire lifetime as a passionate fan of a team. I'm sorry that not every fanbase gets to experience this, but I have zero guilt. This is amazing. This is a dream come true. All those years of letdown. All those years of wondering if I would ever get to see just one Super Bowl win have made these past six years all the sweeter. I'm not saying there aren't also fans of other teams like the Detroit Lions that I would be genuinely happy to see win after years of struggle, but I waited too long for this to not fully embrace the history of this moment.
I am incapable of having my joy sucked away by those that are jealous and neither should you. Someday this run will end and another team will push our team to the side and we'll move into the reminiscing years, but not yet. Chiefs Kingdom is still on cloud nine and, hopefully, on Sunday the Chiefs extend our stay there. Hopefully, this dream gets to continue for at least one more year, even if it's more of a nightmare for the rest of the league. Soak this all in Chiefs Kingdom. We've earned it.