We're guaranteed at least one playoff game.
I also believe the achievement is dismissed a bit because so many in the Kingdom are certain this team is going muuuuch further than it ever has. Huh. I'm a bit more cynical, and the thrust of this year's "Playoff Preview Extravaganza" will be surprisingly simple. You'll see.
In the mean time, I'm writing this now here in the middle of the week for a number of reasons.
One, I just feel like pounding out something Chiefs right now. Just to vent a bit, that's all. Blogging is good therapy, as any "Chiefs Game Today" readers can attest.
Two, we will be out of town for the next Christmas week, and although I will be thoroughly immersed in enjoying the Chiefs Sunday night affair with the Seahawks, I just don't know what's on the docket after that. I do hope to pound out something of a game-oriented post not too long afterwards, but the social director (the wife) has command of things that week. Besides, if I write anything, it will more of the preview post for our we-really-hope-is-not-the-only playoff game -- again stunningly simple.
Three, some of that preview has to do with this:
I did a bad thing and peeked at a bit of Chiefs news today, and hey, I discovered we've got six players in the Pro Bowl. Woo-hoo! Only the -- ::gulp:: -- Chargers have more with seven.
But yeah!
Eric Fisher got in! He's having a fine year, good for him. Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill got in, well deserved. Dee Ford got in, how about that! Fine pass rusher, yes. And Anthony Sherman made it! He's such a gamer. Awesome.
Annnd, who's that sixth guy? Hmmmmmmmm, it couldn't possibly be a ------- quarterback could it?
Super awesome.
Fantastic.
Terrific.
Yeah.
Yeah --- Huhhhh.
No really, not being facetious.
Good, I like it, and...
Yeah.
...
...
...
Ahem.
...
...
...
I don't want to see any of them in that game.
You know. You know why. Chiefs Kingdom dwellers are smart savvy football people. You know the Pro Bowl is now played the week before the Super Bowl and Super Bowl participants do not have to send their players to the Pro Bowl.
So this Pro Bowl thing? Don't get me wrong. I love that our players were picked. I love that they are now so celebrated.
But please.
It's just the agony.
It's the pain of the several years before when the Chiefs led the galaxy in Pro Bowl selections and yeah, we had to show up because our fine team got nowhere close to the Super Bowl. It's the excruciating disconsolation of seeing even for a second a Chiefs guy in that game doing fine things because of yet aye-NUTHER ding-dong thing that happened three weeks earlier that plopped our players there instead of over THERE, you-know-where.
So yeah, it is simple. The preview is just processing the grief. Yeah I get over it, but a part of me still doesn't. A big part of me believes as you do that this is a good team and can go far, even all the way, even in spite of the NFL and what it does to us -- I do have a great deal of confidence.
But part of this simple preview thread to our first playoff game is just tempering expectations. The number of times I'm hearing "I think this is for real!!!" -- it sounds all too familiar. You remember -- we said it in '95. And '97. And '03 and '13 and '15 and '16 and '17.
So yeah, in some ways this year is no different than any of the others, for right now anyway. "Yay us! We're fighting valiantly in the AFC West!" "Yay us! We've got a good team with good players!" "Yay us! We've got a playoff date secured really excited woo-hoo!"
For now that's a very good thing.
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