Evokes the feeling the Chiefs are going to scorch through the playoffs on the road to the Super Bowl.
I like it.
I really like Kansas City Chiefs deep, deep postseason runs. I like them a lot, I really do.
I have to continue to blog, however, to process, to confront, to therapeuticize (if that's a word) with a key thread running through the grey matter in my cranium.
I just don't think the Chiefs will get past the first playoff game.
I will tell you right up front that the reasoning here is simple. For one, I have to see a Chiefs team for once go out there with some real got-it and not have the typical stupid crazy-ass thing destroy their chances to win the game in the most abjectly horrific way imaginable -- it is certainly true that our imaginations have been mercilessly slaughtered through the years. I simply have to witness a solid hard-fought triumphant effort before I can have confidence we're ever going to win any playoff game ever. We've just experienced too much heartbreak to think any differently.
For two, this time I'm going the distance tempering my expectations. This season I'm laboriously working to expect nothing from this team. I'm absolutely exhausted every year offering up playoff preview take after playoff preview take saying how good we are at this and how good we are at that and we simply have to win this time. I'm sick of it. It never matters.
The advantage here is if we don't win, well, it's no different than before. Whatever. "Hey, we got in the postseason again, had a fine regular season year, all that, awright. That was nice." If we do win, however, then it's bonus. "Wow we won! What a splendid surprise! This feels really good! Awright!"
See? See how much more tolerable that is? Waaay more tolerable than any of the dozen or so years we've had the most excruciating one-and-outs for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Our Week 17 game is, essentially, a playoff game. We do have a real postseason affair coming up either the following week or the one after, but if we can't win this one against the Raiders then something is really wrong with these Chiefs. After everyone's been talking about Patrick Mahomes being a shoo-in for MVP it is already quite clear that if Mahomes cannot lead the Chiefs to a No. 1 seed-clinching win Sunday, at home no less, then the MVP award is going to Drew Brees. He too clearly deserves it and he already has his Saints team in the No. 1 seed slot in the NFC.
Here's something I'd like to share with you, related to our long rivalry with the Raiders. Did you know that sometime over the past few games, somewhere there in the middle of this season, Kansas City surpassed Oakland in total franchise regular season wins between them. Yes you saw that right.
The Chiefs now have 468 all-time regular season wins, and the Raiders have 466. The Chiefs winning percentage now stands at .521, and the Raiders are at .518. Is that hard to believe? I know why it is hard to believe.
It is because the Raiders were utterly dominant in the late '60s, throughout the '70s, for a good portion of the '80s, in both the early '90s and late '90s, and for a short stint in the early '00s. Since those AFL '60s the Chiefs were never a threat to do any postseason damage, ever, even though they've never really been horrible for very long -- they've just been very... average. Since their Super Bowl win in 1970 they've made the conference championship game once, and even then they got smeared.
See, that's the key thing. The Raiders have 25 postseason victories. Twenty-five. In the mix there are three Super Bowl victories and you've got "Just win baby," the silver and black pride, and the Autumn Wind mystique.
The Chiefs have 9 postseason wins, total, including our Super Bowl. A pathetically wretched nine. That's it.
So let's see... Chiefs better than the Raiders during the regular season, but in the postseason... yeee-ah.
I've gone to the mat to document many of the reasons why I think that is so. One of them is that the ordained powers-that-be clearly do not want the Chiefs to go far in any postseason action -- and trust me, to be fair, there are a number of other teams that are just as reviled. I'm honest about that. But it is true.
Someone may argue that a team like the New York Jets has been pretty bad for a while. Answer: it'd definitely be bigger money for the Jets to win, but with this all being a zero sum game it's fine if the team winning is a Patriots or a Cowboys. Oh, the Cowboys haven't won it all for a while, but they'll be in the playoffs yet again this year. That's not for nothing.
In fact, I'd even venture to say this is why the front office of a team like the Jets has been so miserable. It is because the decision-making personnel feel they don't have to work as hard because they know the NFL will always find some way to get them competitive.
It may indeed be why someone like our Brett Veach knows he must work that much harder. In some profound ways I'm great with that. Really, when you think about it... that's terrific. It just means we're doing what we should be doing to eventually get that good solid postseason push, and ultimately if we do win, it will be because we earned it.
Even if we don't win a postseason game, that's cool. I'd rather be a fan of this team than any other.
By far.
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