I am making one critical qualification with this list, however. I am only including seasons since the merger. Yes, that does mean since the Chiefs last won the Super Bowl, I know. But if this list included the entirety of Chiefs history, the 1969 season would be at the top hands-down. Thing is that's just too easy. I've taken on the challenge of picking the most memorable from seasons when there was no Super Bowl to be had, indeed barely a single AFC Championship game in the mix.
I must also confess that I only really started following the Chiefs fully after our Super Bowl win. I was nine years old, about the time most youngsters start getting a veritable conception that the Chiefs are the most important thing in the universe.
There were a number of memorable seasons, definitely, in some ways more memorable because you'll note most of them occurred after severely painful times for Chiefs fans, and yes, there've been many of those. The thing that makes them memorable is thrilling to the fact that, yes, this season we're a good team! after we'd been so bad for so long.
I'm also only including seasons that were favorably memorable, which means seasons like 2012, while memorable indeed, was atrocious. Yes, the most honestly sincere among us may openly revile lots of things within these seasons, I know there is a lot for a seasoned troller to mercilessly ridicule. I got that. But this effort is all about identifying the very best of Chiefs football play. Every season on the list is one in which for much of that time, in some way in some form, Chiefs fans could be exceptionally proud of our team.
Which ones would you pick? Here're mine, counting down to No. 1.
10. 1997 Key players: Tony Gonzalez, Marcus Allen, Rich Gannon, Derrick Thomas, James Hasty, Dale Carter, Joe Phillips, Kimble Anders, Will Shields, Donnie Edwards, Andre Rison, Jerome Woods, Reggie Tongue, Dan Williams, Elvis Grbac. Featured game: Nov 16 vs Denver, Pete Stoyanovich hits a 54-yard field goal to win it at the gun.
Sure this was the season we got hosed in the Divisional Playoff against the Broncos, and I think because that game leaves such a putrid taste in our mouths we forget about how extraordinary this team really was. I have to confess I think that game also keeps me from placing this season higher on the list. Note I included Rich Gannon as a key player, but this is not to dismiss Elvis Grbac because I'm not one of those who think he shouldn't have started that playoff game. Gannon did however play exceptionally well for us after he was pretty much languishing as a career backup.
Don't forget, too, the Chiefs defense that year was one of the best in NFL history -- sorry, not hyperbole from a rose-colored glasses-wearing Chiefs fan. It was just lost in the mess of that unceremonious playoff loss -- but yeah, I guess we're just such a podunk midwest puddle to the east coast elite sports blatherers who'll never recognize that fact.
9. 2010 Key players: Jamaal Charles, Dwayne Bowe, Mike Vrabel, Eric Berry, Tamba Hali, Matt Cassel, Tony Moeaki, Thomas Jones, Brian Waters, Glenn Dorsey. Featured game: Sep 13 vs San Diego, Dexter McCluster takes a punt return to the house to seal the win on a sensational opening day after three of the most abysmal years in Chiefs history.
Just a note, if I don't include the key players you remember, forgive me, the ones I cite are just some, in no particular order. All-Pros and Pro-Bowlers will always be on the list -- some players will show up more than a few times, certainly.
Naturally 2010 is there because the '07, '08, '09 period was so depressing. We played well enough to make the playoffs, and I just think of that interception return for a touchdown by Eric Berry in the Titans game that was the clinching play.
Before the win over the Steelers, we pasted the Broncos at home, a team that would go on to the Super Bowl that year. We intercepted John Elway four times. The following week we got by a good Raiders team, with our defense doing the job again, this time picking Jim Plunkett four times. This was another season that followed pathetic Chiefs years just before, so making those playoffs was exciting, especially since it was the first playoff berth we'd had in 15 years.
Of course our fantastic defense went limp against backup Jets quarterback Pat Ryan in the Wild-Card Game, but the season was still tremendous fun.
7. 2006 Key players: Larry Johnson, Tony Gonzalez, Trent Green, Bernie Pollard, Ty Law, Jared Allen, Will Shields, Brian Waters, Damon Huard. Featured game: Dec 31 vs Jacksonville. While we were pretty much in command of the game, beholding what happened through the evening to see if we'd miraculously get that playoff spot was unforgettable.
This was the year after a very promising 2005 season ended with the Chiefs barely missing the playoffs. It started off well at 7-4 when a crushing give-up-the-big-lead loss to the Browns and an insane loss to the Chargers put us at death's door. We scratched out a win against the Raiders and then discovered before the final day of the regular season that we had a 1 in 16 chance to make the playoffs.
Lo and behold: (1) we won, (2) Tennessee lost, (3) Cincinnati lost (with the help of a missed Bengals field goal, of all things, that would've won it for them), and (4) Denver lost when the Niners' Joe Nedney hit on his field goal late in overtime to get us in. Again, it can't be said enough -- Wow.
6. 2013 Key players: Alex Smith, Jamaal Charles, Dexter McCluster, Tamba Hali, Justin Houston, Dontari Poe, Eric Berry, Brandon Flowers. Featured game: Sep 19 vs Philadelphia. Andy Reid wins against his old Eagles team in a Thursday night nationally broadcast game, taking us to 3-0 giving us more wins than we'd had in the entire 2012 season.
This was probably the most pronounced example of the joy of winning right after a wretched previous Chiefs experience. 2012 was indeed the worst of them all, and yet this 2013 Chiefs team stormed out to a mind-boggling 9-0 start. We simply could not beat the horse teams, however, losing twice to the Broncos, Chargers, and Colts, each, the last loss that abject heart breaker in the Wild-Card Game. Still, winning and winning and winning through that streak was a beautiful, beautiful thing.
It is so fresh in our memories. We start 1-5 and even the best of us knowing this team was much better than that were feeling the worst despair. Then against Pittsburgh we won. We went to London and annihilated the Lions, then Denver, then an impossible streak that ran the table. The Chiefs won every single other game of the season, and doing it with style and resilience and fortitude that made this easily one of the best seasons in Chiefs post-merger history.
Of course honorable mention for the featured game must be the playoff win against Houston. The week before the game knowing we had everything in place to win a playoff game we hadn't won in 22 years, the game itself -- just a rapturously dominant win, and the week after joyfully anticipating taking on an elite playoff team in the Divisional. A very memorable two weeks of Chiefs enjoyment.
And, I mean, 2015 -- only 5th among the 10? Which seasons could be higher? Well, here're my top four picks. I think you'll like them.
4. 1993 Key players: Joe Montana, Marcus Allen, Kimble Anders, Keith Cash, Willie Davis, Tim Grunhard, Dale Carter, Harvey Williams, Neil Smith, Dan Saleaumua, Derrick Thomas. Featured game: Jan 8 vs Pittsburgh. The most exciting game of the post-merger Chiefs playoff history, by far. (And yes, we all know, our playoff history is not very expansive.) Anyway, the late blocked punt, the Montana-to-Barnett TD connection to tie it, the Lowery field goal in OT to win it. Awesome.
Joe Montana brings his magic to KC and helps get us the deepest into the playoffs of any year since Super Bowl IV. What a ride. Just that alone is the highlight of this very deserving memorable year.
We start 9-0, but our weak defense wilts even more late in the season, and can't stop Peyton Manning in the Divisional Playoff Game. Even with that, this season ranks as one of the greatest ever simply because our offense and special teams (can you say "Dante Hall"?) were so nfmgnking explosive.
I mean record-breaking explosive. Trent Green slingin' it, Priest Holmes slashin' it and Will Shields et al poundin' it (you know Holmes with this O-line scored 27 touchdowns. Get - out), Tony Gonzalez leapin' the length of tall buildings in single bounds, and Dick Vermeil gleefully calling it all. So - much - fun.
2. 1981 Key players: Joe Delaney, Bill Kenney, Henry Marshall, Carlos Carson, Gary Barbaro, Gary Green, Mike Bell, Nick Lowery, Art Still, Jack Rudnay, Billy Jackson. Featured game: Sep 6 vs Pittsburgh. The opener was a thrilling see-saw affair between the supposedly pitiful Chiefs and the certainly powerhouse Steelers -- and we actually kept up with them. The Steelers and their fans had to be shell-shocked. The Chiefs were rewarded by coming out on top at the end, a very encouraging portend of more to come during the season.
This year was plopped right in the middle of a bunch of crappy Chiefs years, and is one of the reasons it is ranked this high. Even when the Chiefs have won five or six Super Bowls in the next several years and justifiably push their way into this list, I really can't see how this season can ever drop out, no way. Even though we didn't make the playoffs, it is so memorable because it was a sublimely delightful oasis in a sea of Chiefs ineptitude.
They actually got to 8-4 after trouncing Seattle -- even hammering the champion Raiders twice along the way -- before they couldn't hold it. It was truly a miracle team. This team will forever be one of the most endearing in Chiefs' fans hearts.
And Number One among them... What do you think? Everyone has their own opinion, here's mine...
In the 4th quarter when the game was still close at 24-20, DeBerg hit Robb Thomas on a crossing route and he didn't stop running, down the sideline for the game-clinching score.
For some reason I will never forget that play. It was just such an in-your-face-Broncos play. It was just such an it's-for-real,-now's-our-time kind of play. Phenomenally memorable.
For you see, there are a number of reasons this year gets the No. 1 nod from me.
It was the true launching point for the decade of dominance for the Chiefs. They owned the '90's. In the entire NFL only one other team, Buffalo, had a better overall regular season record than the Chiefs from 1990 to 1999 (yes, even better than Dallas' or San Francisco's record during that time). Now, the Chiefs playoff record was another story, and that requires a whole other story as to why -- which, sadly, we all know all too well. That didn't take away from the memorable nature of the great Chiefs play during that decade.
Steve DeBerg had a quarterback season for the ages, he really did. Bounced all over the place his entire career, maligned as a choker -- and much of that was justified, yes -- DeBerg was still a gamer, a hard-worker, a leader, a warrior, and you know what? When he was on he was a damn good passer. He was smart, accurate, and his play-action was some of the best you could ever see. In 1990, he put it all together and was the most important factor in giving the Chiefs their most memorable post Super Bowl IV season ever.
Yes there was Derrick Thomas and his ungodly ability to sack the quarterback. Yes there was the Nigerian Nightmare Christian Okoye still running over people. Yes there were several players of note that got us this season. All of them made this splendidly memorable, yes.
For one thing DeBerg had 23 touchdown passes to 4 interceptions. Damnnn. Do you know that this interception ratio -- 0.9% -- is the 3rd best ever? In all of NFL history? And even that isn't the greatest thing about him. He broke his pinky finger on his non-throwing hand in something like the fourth-to-last game of the season, something like that, and he never went out. He never missed a game. The backup Steve Pelluer attempted 5 passes all year. Those were the only non-DeBerg quarterback passes thrown all year. In the last game against Chicago, DeBerg was in there, the pathetic cast on his finger flapping about as he stormed down the field with his team to score points and win the game.
Do you remember this fun fact? That later Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Cowher was our defensive coordinator that year? And that later Indianapolis Colts Super Bowl-winning head coach Tony Dungy was our defensive backs coach that year? And that now Arizona Cardinals team-turning-around head coach Bruce Arians was our running backs coach that year?
The crushing thing was that insane loss to Miami in the playoffs when we were up 16-3 at the start of the 4th quarter. It was indeed just another of those ridiculous unluck losses the Chiefs are so famous for. The stupid things you can't blame anyone for, not even Steve DeBerg. That just-missed interception by Albert Lewis -- those kinds of things that are just killers.
I truly believe this team could've made it to the Super Bowl, I do. I honestly think with our strong talent, our youthful enthusiasm, our fine coaching, and the career year DeBerg was having, we honestly could've made it.
And I loved that team.
I don't know what you think. Your list may be different. A lot of it depends on the personal attachment to players, coaches, games, plays, events, experiences -- all perfectly valid.
In fact, my opinion itself has changed in the way I've looked at these seasons. When I made that list of best Chiefs seasons ever back in 2013, I had '81 above '90. I think I've just become more fond of '90 as more of a memorable one. Again, what are your picks?
I'm actually looking forward to being able to add some years to this list that include seasons with some thrilling playoff wins, some deep runs into through the postseason, even a Super Bowl victory or two!
Here's to expanding this list to add those seasons very soon!
__
No comments:
Post a Comment