I had planned to write a tribute to my Chiefs while basking in the warm glow of victory. Instead, I am writing to process my grief.
I never really thought about the Chiefs losing after their victorious season of generally doing just enough to win game after game. I didn’t know much about our opponent, other than the success of their vaunted running back. Watching the game with a confident attitude made the sting of the meltdown even worse.
What the heck happened? I only have rudimentary knowledge of the game, but the consensus is the o-line broke down not giving Mahomes enough time to throw the ball downfield. Really, most everything went wrong, penalties, interceptions, sacks.
However, this Monday morning quarterback thinks there was a problem that has plagued most of my team’s poor performances. It is the re-occurring theme of trying to force an arial bomb downfield, instead of playing the game at hand with short passes, quick releases, and utilizing our very good running backs. That’s just me, but I have limited understanding.
Moving from the analytical to the philosophical, this thing called the National Football League (even though they play in other countries) is pretty crazy.
I often say the game appears to have originated with gladiators (the players), billionaires (the owners), lawyers (the officials who adjudicate the massive rule book), and marketers (who have turned a game into a multi-billion-dollar industry).
Sunday, I reveled in all of the hype and grandeur of the pre-game spectacle. It is an annual celebration of American culture. Beer, betting, and bingeing are encouraged through ads that cost eight million dollars for thirty seconds. The NFL always works in some well-produced messages, encouraging unity and tolerance, appealing to our better angels. Tickets are several thousand dollars. Celebrities cheer from their outrageously-priced luxury suits.
It is crazy. It is just a game, right? Yes and no. It is a game that becomes an excuse for all the rest. It is about money, lots and lots of money and celebrity (players, entertainers, and attendees).
But it is also about gathering with people we love and who love the same team. It is about sharing good food, stories, and humor. It is about forgetting about the important stuff and the troubling issues and getting wrapped in something that really doesn’t matter. Yet, it does because it entertains us, unites us, and gives us something to share.
We are blessed in that we have watched nearly every Chiefs game for almost a quarter of a century. We are even more blessed in that we have watched those games in a massive fan cave festooned with most any Chiefs branded item you can think of and many that you have not. We share really good food, and we do it all with our son and daughter-in-law, and sometimes with our grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Back about 2000 our son and daughter-in-law invited us over to watch the Chiefs play. It made sense because we are originally from the KC area. But it didn’t make sense because we neither understood nor cared about the game. Boy, did that ever change.
We have watched through many terrible seasons, way before the dynasty, and the Travis and Tay-Tay gossip. And we will keep watching. I firmly believe the Chiefs will continue to be very competitive so long as they have Bret Veach, Andy Reid, and Patrick Mahomes.
I would not trade this journey for anything. The very best part of it is the incredible way it been instrumental in forming a deep bond with my son. We have even made several pilgrimages to St. Joseph, Missouri, our hometown and home of the Chiefs Training Camp. We have met many of the players and accumulated several of their autographs.
You may have noticed that during the singing of the national anthem, Chiefs fans conclude with “and the home of the Chiefs.” Our homes, wherever we live, and our hearts (because of how this crazy game brings us together) will continue to be “the home of the Chiefs.”
