The Chiefs have always been Kansas City’s first love. The city has been devotedly loyal to the team even through 25 years of playoff failure, even though it’s 50 years this month since the team was last even in the Super Bowl. No matter to the fans – they’ve kept the faith all this time, even as the team continually let them down.
Two years ago, I remember. Another January evening. Lona and I went out for Mexican food. It was a good meal – I bumped into one of my coworkers at the restaurant, always a joy – and in the background was another Chiefs playoff game. As we filed out, Lona elbowed me and said, “Hey, look! You’re winning!” I glanced over. It was halftime, and the score stood 21-3 in the Chiefs favor. I laughed.
“I’ve seen this movie before,” I said. “There’s a lot of game left. Give ’em time, they’ll let you down.”
By the time we reached home, the game was over, and the Chiefs had lost 22-21, in a game that featured an opposing fumble blown dead because of “forward progress” and the opposing quarterback managed to somehow throw a pass to himself in the end zone. Same old Chiefs. I loved them anyway, because some things are important.
But now…maybe not same old Chiefs.
As the entire world knows by now, watching from the sidelines of that failed playoff game was a young man, a 23-year old out of Texas Tech University who had been drafted by the Chiefs at #10 that year. His dad was a major league baseball player, but Patrick Mahomes II’s first love was always football. A few weeks after the game, the Chiefs traded their veteran quarterback Alex Smith (the man behind the helm for both the 2014 and the 2018 defeats, as well as 2 more in the meantime) and said they were all in with Mahomes as the new starter.
Well, we all know what happened next. That fall, Mahomes took the league by storm. He was the second coming of Favre, Montana, Elway, all rolled into one. He could throw passes on one foot, across his body, with either hand, with his eyes closed. He could throw a football 70 yards and place it in a window 6 inches wide.
For the first time in my life, the Chiefs had the best player in all of football. And while the Royals had won, the one thing that my grandfather would have most wanted to see – the one thing that everyone wanted to see – was the Chiefs playing the Super Bowl. With Mahomes under center, suddenly that looked like a real possibility.
The Chiefs stormed to the #1 seed in the AFC last year and home field advantage in the playoffs. They hosted Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in a game at Arrowhead for the right to go to the Super Bowl, a titanic game, the largest in the old stadium’s entire history. It was a brutal slugging match, a back-and-forth affair that came down to the final seconds. I remember, as Brady drove down the field, trailing by 4, with less than two minutes to go, he slung a single ill-considered pass – and a Chiefs defender (Charvarius Ward) came up with the ball. An interception!
For one, brief, shining moment, I thought I’d seen what my grandfather had wanted for his whole life. I thought I’d watched the Chiefs just punch their ticket to the big dance.
Of course, we know what happened. Dee Fords was off-sides. The play was nullified, and the Patriots would go on to win in overtime.
It was a gut punch, a sickening blow right in the stomach, but it was one I’d felt before. Because it had happened to us before – in 2014, when the Royals came up 90 feet short. They had come back the next year. Now the Chiefs would have to, too.
The NFL is not an easy league. It’s been a long, tough road. The Chiefs lost a game to the Colts, and to the Texans, games they should have won. New England won the Super Bowl (again) and looked as unstoppable as ever. The Ravens exploded to completely dominate the league. Meanwhile, the Chiefs struggled, Mahomes was injured, and it looked like any prospect of repeating was slipping away. The low point was when the Chiefs went to Tennessee and were beaten in the closing seconds by the lowly Titans.
I’m sorry, Grandpa. Maybe next year.
But sometimes it’s the little things that make the difference.
The Chiefs quietly put things together. They stopped losing. They went to New England and beat Brady’s Patriots. At the time, it seemed to hardly matter – New England still had a 1-game lead for the bye, and the Ravens had locked up the #1 seed long since. The top 2 seeds are almost always the teams competing for a Super Bowl. The Chiefs, as a #3 seed, would have to beat a wild card team, then go to New England and beat the Patriots again, then go to Baltimore and beat the 14-2 Ravens, just to reach the Super Bowl. A tall order. But the Chiefs kept grinding, kept winning.
I’ll never forget the last week of the season. The Chiefs came in, 11-4, needing to beat the Chargers even to have a chance at a bye. The Patriots were 12-3, simply needing to defeat the lowly Dolphins, a team with only 4 wins, who the Patriots had blown out 42-0 in Miami earlier, a team so terrible legitimate articles were written earlier in the season questioning if the team was the worst of all time.
And as the Chiefs closed in, doing their part, beating the Chargers, a miracle happened.
As time wound down in both games, the Dolphins marched down the field – and took the lead with barely 30 seconds to go.
In Arrowhead, the news was kept from the big screen – Reid didn’t want his players distracted. But the crowd knew, and the word spread via word of mouth around the stadium. ANd you can see the roar steadily grow and spread in a natural wave as everyone learns the amazing news. The players learn, too, and react with unfeigned joy: the Chiefs were now the #2 seed. They would have the bye – and the Patriots would have to play a wild card team, and, if they won, come to Arrowhead to play.
And then last week. The Patriots, and then the Ravens, were upset. The two teams the Chiefs were chasing all season – eliminated. And for the second straight year, the AFC Championship Game will be held at Arrowhead.
Wow.
Wow, wow, wow.
And so it comes to the Titans.
It had to be the Titans. The last team to beat the Chiefs this season. A team the Chiefs have beaten only once in the last five years, and lost to four times. Last year, the Chiefs beat the Colts in the playoffs and got that monkey off their back. The game in Foxborough this year ensured the Patriots were in the wild card and served as fitting revenge for the defeat last January. Now the Chiefs face a tough, physical team that isn’t the least bit frightened of them.
The team the Chiefs lost to, the last time I doubted them, 22-21?
The Titans, of course.
But they’re back. Against all odds, the Chiefs have clawed their way to a second chance. A second chance to give me the thing I’ve wanted for Grandpa for years. A chance at a Super Bowl. And so the game on Sunday means everything to me.
But not whether they win or lose. I want htem to win, obviously, but ultimately the winning or losing isn’t what’s important. What is important is that you’re there, with your team. Because when you cheer for the team, you’re not alone. You’re sharing the experience with millions of people from around your city. You’re coming together and joining in something larger than yourself, something you choose to devote yourself to. Not because they just happen to live nearby. But because the people you care about also choose to. And when you’re cheering on your team, the ones you love – including the ones you lost – aren’t really gone. For just a few hours, once a week, they’re right there with you, again.
Because ultimately, you cheer for your team because of your family.
Good luck Sunday. Go Chiefs.
Gwangju Dreaming 