Last year the week before the Colts game my emotional constitution was was a lot more intense. Now, I'm at peace. Even in the thinking that there could just be that one dropped pass or one missed field goal or something never before seen on a football field, and that this one thing will be the undoing of us -- it has happened so often, how can you not have the thought pass by a synapse or two? It is part of being a Chiefs fan.
But I am at peace much because we're so steeled about it -- I'm just in that mode of so appreciating this team and what they bring to us every fall. Winter? We win and that's just gravy. There's also the consideration that there is a great future for this team. We've got the best GM in the game, a future Hall-of-Fame coach, and the most exciting young quarterback leading the charge -- and we'll have them doing all this for some time now. That's really cool, right now.
Thing is, the way this whole thing shakes out, yet again it would have to be some crazy-ass insane thing that keeps us from winning. Just look at the odds. We opened the week as 7.5-point favorites. Then it went to 8. Then to 9. Right now it sits at 9.5. The first line-setters must've known about our playoff history. Otherwise those putting some skin in seem to feel these Chiefs have nothing to worry about. We're all hoping so.
I'd been looking at some more of the history of the NFL and the Chiefs place in it. One thing I looked at was USA Today's list of Best 100 Teams, as well as their list of Worst 100 Teams. That Worst list? The Chiefs only appear once, that 2012 season at No. 27. That's actually pretty telling. You mean none of the late 70s teams made it? Nah, there were a lot worse out there. None of the late 00s teams made it? They were pretty bad, but they didn't make the top 100. Several teams made the list a number of times, including the Raiders.
Not the Chiefs.
Thing is, the Chiefs made the Best 100 only twice. Huh? Well, the USA Today people mostly considered whether or not you'd made it all the way to the Super Bowl, and then among those who didn't threw in a smattering of other playoff teams from history. The Chiefs got in for their '66 team and of course their '69 team, which in my view was woefully underrated at No. 22.
But no others? Not their '97 team with one of the best defenses ever, getting thoroughly hosed in the divisional game the NFL needed John Elway to win for one last shot at a Super Bowl? Not their '03 team with one of the best offenses ever? Not their '71 team with that wild OT loss to Miami keeping them from a very reasonable shot at the Cowboys in the Super Bowl?
Nah. It is just the Chiefs are barely on these guys' radar. Typical.
But I went ahead and looked at the updated winning percentages overall. The Chiefs are now up to 11th overall in NFL history. They are around sixty games over .500, at .532. They are just a few wins behind the Broncos, and it is likely they'll pass them sometime next season. They are now better than both the Raiders and Steelers. Of course we all know that's mostly because those records include the Steelers poor early years and Raiders poor recent years.
All this tells us that, yeah, even though we've experienced some disheartening times, we've never been really bad for any sustained period (late 70s and late 00s the only real exceptions, and even then not for very long), we've had long periods of steady excellence (most of the 60s and early 70s, all of the 90s, and most of the 10s and beyond) -- it's just, as you know, we've never done anything great in any postseason to set ourselves apart for any kind of renown.
Still.
The Kingdom knows.
We're good.
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