I do very much like our chances in every single game we play, and that is mostly because this "Seven Samurai" team we have of Patrick Mahomes and his posse of runners and pass catchers. In fact watching a very small bit of NBC lately I have seen a promo for tonight's game that has Mahomes as this phenomenally high-scoring video game character, closing with an image of him smiling with flames all around him. Love it!
I'm actually anticipating with some hope the game(s) that this team loses, so they will keep that fire going. Trust me I do want the Chiefs to win the next 57 straight games. But I'm just steeling myself because that loss will happen, especially important because we all have this belief now that this team is invincible.
As I've shared before winning can be a curse. I've written about it here: I'm a baseball Giants and Royals fan and a basketball Warriors fan, and over the past eight years I've got to enjoy seven world championships among them. This is splendid fun, but it does mean when your team loses it seems to be a bit more painful. There is some value to having a team no one expects to win and then winning those fun games every once in a while, there really is.
Now please I would not trade this Chiefs team for any other. This is an incredibly exciting time to be a Chiefs fan, probably more now than at any other time. We all know how much Brett Veach and previously John Dorsey have done to put this team on the field and into the hands of Andy Reid, one of the premiere coaches ever in the NFL.
But I can't go another moment without augmenting the real challenge that we have as Chiefs fans.
We are not a New York or Boston or Los Angeles team.
And this team we play tonight?
A Boston team -- one which has been to the Super Bowl seemingly for perpetuity.
Every time the Chiefs take the field I take pride in the Kingdom, no matter who is out there. Yes it is awesome this set of players is out there now and I cheer them on passionately every time. But I also know...
I know we are up against it.
It is a bit harder to do it in pro football, but it is still done: Advantages are given to the large market or media darling teams so they will win more frequently to keep entire major professional sports leagues financially viable.
And since it is Major League Baseball playoff season, I'd like to share something with you.
The Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers are in the postseason again this year. I went ahead and did a little of my research again, and wondered, indeed how successful have been the teams you'd expect the powers-that-be to favor? What are the actual numbers?
I consider the strike-shorted 1994 season a turning point for this, because before that you had the very disfavored Blue Jays (not a major market or media darling) winning two straight World Series, and just before that the greatest World Series in history did not feature the Yankees or Dodgers but rather the boring Braves and Twins.
Since that time 24 years ago, starting with the 1995 season, the Yankees have made the postseason a whopping 20 times. They have had a winning season every one of those 24 years. Incidentally, since the late 1960's when the Yankees had a brief spell when they didn't appear in a World Series and the powers-that-be decided this was not good for baseball, the Yankees have had exactly seven losing seasons. This was out of 50 since that other major milestone, the realignment of 1969.
The Red Sox have made the postseason 13 times and have had 20 winning seasons in the 24 since 1994. They have of course won the World Series three times.
The Dodgers are a very interesting story. They've won their division now six straight years. In the 24 since '94 they've made the playoffs 12 times and have had 21 winning seasons. What makes this so amazing is that from 2004 to 2011 they were owned by the reviled Frank McCourt. I mean, I live in the Los Angeles area and anytime anyone speaks of this guy it is with the most vicious revulsion. He was considered so bad the baseball mandarins took over the team and handed it to Magic Johnson and his ownership group.
Here's the thing. During McCourt's ownership the Dodgers went to the playoffs four of those eight years. They had winning seasons in all but two of them. How many teams dream of such horrible ownership? I believe the whole McCourt episode was ginned up to get this team to a point where it could be in a position to better do the winning a large market, media darling team must do to prop up the entirety of the sports league.
For comparison? Look no further than the Kansas City Royals, on top of the baseball world for two glorious years in 2014 and 2015. The Royals top brass went crazy laboriously putting together a championship team for the five or six years before, and it did materialize in those two phenomenal years. Now? This season the Royals finished with 104 losses.
Know the last time the Yankees lost 100? Never. They did as the "Highlanders" back in the Stone Age, but the most they've ever lost is 95 in 1991. The Royals have lost 90 or more games 16 times, and they've only been around since 1969 and they were a dominant team in the late 70's and early 80's. (I can't help but add that from 1955 to 1967 when Kansas City's major league baseball Athletics essentially served as a farm team for the Yankees, the A's lost 90+ nine of those years and 100+ in four of them. Meanwhile during that time New York and Los Angeles were busy winning 13 pennants and 7 championships between them.)
When the Royals won the 2015 World Series the MLB's powers cringed. To them the Royals were merely one of those tools that must be in place for some of those kinds of teams winning in some instances to convince most sports fans the whole thing is is not totally rigged. This is not to say at all that the Royals winning was undeserved -- indeed that is much of the point: they probably deserved it more because of what was stacked against them to accomplish it.
Anyway, the number of times the Royals have made the playoffs since 1995? For those Royals faithful you know: two. That's it. 2014 and 2015. Thuh end.
I know this is a blog about pro football and the Kansas City Chiefs, I know.
But this competitive duplicity plays a part in our success -- or non-success because we're up against it just as much in the NFL.
Tonight the Chiefs are being showcased because our brand spankin' new quarterback is such a popular player, and he's going to get a nationally televised look-see against the most prolific quarterback in history. Could it be the case that Patrick Mahomes is helping make the Chiefs a media darling team? Ooo-eee!
I don't really think so. Unless you're the Patriots or the Cowboys or the New York Giants, the NFL's version of the Yankees-Red Sox-Dodgers, you're going to have to do a lot more to get into the elite level. (And the Giants at 1-5? Don't be fooled. While I pay no attention at all to anything, all I've been hearing when I do happen to catch something said about pro football is about how Eli Manning is through and how much Odell Beckham Jr. hates his team right now. Just watch the sports talk shows and you'll see who the favored teams are -- and it's been that way for years and years.)
So here's what I think about tonight's game, ultimately. If we win, fine, good, I like it a lot. If we lose, it'll give the team a feel for what they must do to do better next time. I don't even necessarily think the favors given to the Patriots will help them win all that much tonight. In the long run they do, yes. But no sour grapes about any of what may happen tonight. I know most people have long recognized how much the officiating favors the Patriots in any given game anyway -- it is pretty obvious.
Thing is any given loss throughout the season is just no big deal. I just hope we can stay injury-free, as does any team and their fans hope for their team.
The officiating though? Yeah, it'll be what it is now, that's fine. The real question is
Will the officiating do its typical thing and kill us early in the postseason? That's the real question. And yes, I've shared this a dozen times before, I'm convinced it is made to be that way. For baseball it is a bit different, a lot is in the exploitation of front office advantages, for football a lot of it is the officiating -- and it is likely to be worse now with even more interpretation-oriented calls like that new more strict roughing-the-passer penalty. But holding calls and pass interference calls and determining-validity-of-a-catch calls all so easily go against a not-large-market not-media-darling Chiefs team.
For now, it's the regular season. For now it doesn't really matter that much. For now we're likely to win the AFC West even with a few ugly losses, but all teams have those over the course of the year. Who knows right now what'll happen in November and December?
I'm writing this portion in the afternoon of this beautiful October day, looking forward to seeing us in prime-time tonight. In fact, hey! They flexed us into prime time against a very good Bengals team next Sunday! How about that!
Maybe we ARE turning into a genuine MEDIA DARLING TEAM! Wowwie!
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