Kansas City Chiefs have emerged from long dry spell to become the NFL’s dominant team. A super Sunday special, Part 1
Tom Lawrence has written several columns about the Super Bowl over the last few years, including some with a South Dakota angle. On this Super Sunday, we republish a few of his gridiron musings.
Oh, and go Chiefs!
From 2020:
Fifty years. Half a century.
It seems so long. So many seasons, so many games, so many disappointing finishes.
But all that swirled away Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020, as the Kansas City Chiefs won their second Super Bowl. Kansas City’s comeback win, defeating the San Francisco 49ers 31-20, allowed the Chiefs and their fans to breathe a sigh of relief.
They — we — had won it all again.
I have been a Chiefs fan since the first title. That veteran team was loaded with stars, with future Hall of Fame coach Hank Stram at the helm, future HOFer Lenny Dawson at quarterback and five future HOFers on defense — outside linebacker Bobby Bell, middle linebacker Willie “Honey Bear” Lanier, defensive tackles Buck Buchanan and Curly Culp, cornerback Emmitt Thomas and safety Johnny Robinson.
Add in kicker Jan Stenerud, the first kicker to make it to the Canton, Ohio, gridiron shrine, and owner Lamar Hunt, who helped found the American Football League, pushed for the merger that created the modern NFL and the Super Bowl. Those Chiefs were a star-studded, glamorous team, the kind an 11-year-old South Dakota farm kid would fall in love with and become a devoted fan.
They played in two of the first four Super Bowls, losing 35-10 to the Green Bay Packers in the first NFL-AFL title tilt, and whipping the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV.
What he didn’t realize was, those players, many in their 30s and closer to the end of their career than the start, were fading. The Chiefs made one more playoff run, losing to the Miami Dolphins on Christmas Day 1971 in a double-overtime thriller, still the longest game in pro football history.
Then … nothing for 15 seasons. No playoff appearances. Fewer and fewer games on TV.
I spent several years living near the West Coast, and became an ardent fan of the San Francisco 49ers, led by the amazing Joe Montana and coached by the brilliant Bill Walsh. The Niners won five Super Bowls and spent two decades at the top of the league.
Still, that kid’s heart — even as he grew older — kept a spot for the Chiefs. A light burned for the team of his youth. It flickered over the years, but he hoped for another magical season.
Oh, they came close. In the 1990s, the Chiefs came alive again, making several playoff runs. Amazingly enough, Montana was forced out of San Francisco and chose to play for the Chiefs.
He led them to the AFC Championship Game in his first season and back to the playoffs his second before retiring. Close, but no victory cigars.
Still more playoff runs followed, and strong, exciting teams revived interest in the Chiefs for millions of fans. They started appearing on TV more and fans hoped for another title.
But time and again, they lost, blowing big leads, missing field goals, losing at home to inferior teams.
The Chiefs needed something. They needed a star, a transcendent player who could win the big games, provide the big moments, to turn the Chiefs into champions.
Enter Patrick Mahomes. He is a former South Dakotan, sorta anyway.
His dad, Pat Mahomes, pitched in the big leagues for 11 seasons, including five years with the Minnesota Twins. He made an attempt to return to the majors by pitching for the independent Sioux Falls Canaries in 2007-09, leading them to a league championship in 2008.
His son Patrick came along, serving as a bat boy, shagging flies in the outfield and taking batting practice. His dad was placed in the Canaries Hall of Fame last summer — maybe Patrick will make an appearance in Sioux Falls this year.
That would draw a crowd to the Birdcage! Patrick Mahomes is a rare player, as much for his talent as his coolness under fire, reminiscent of quarterbacks named Dawson and Montana.
In his first season, he sat and watched Alex Smith, a fine QB, lead the Chiefs to the playoffs, where, once more, they lost. The Chiefs traded Smith after the season and handed Mahomes, all of 23, the keys to the team.
All he did was throw 50 touchdown passes, win the MVP award and take the Chiefs to the AFC Championship Game, where they lost, in overtime, to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, who went to their ninth Super Bowl under the leadership of Brady and coach Bill Belichick.
Once more, a Chiefs season ended in disappointment. Would it ever change?
Well, it did Sunday. The Chiefs were good in 2019, but they lost more games than they did in 2018. Mahomes was injured and missed two games.
But things fell right during the playoffs. The Patriots lost. The Chiefs rallied from double-digit deficits to win both playoff games and finally, after 50 years, half a century, were back in the Super Bowl.
Against the Niners, of course. But that kid wouldn’t have mixed emotions — he was all in for KC.
That 11-year-old kid, now a gray-headed 61-year-old, hoped for a championship, another Super finish. But he had experienced decades of disappointment and losses in big games.
When the Chiefs were down 20-10 as the clock wound down in the fourth quarter, he sighed. Well, maybe next year.
Then, Mahomes displayed the form that has made him the most compelling player in football today. The Chiefs, who had rallied from a 24-point deficit in the AFC title game, showed their quick-strike ability was still evident.
They scored one, two, three touchdowns. Suddenly, they were ahead and the clock was running down and …
I stood up, a jolt of energy running through me. It really was happening.
“Fifty years! We did it,” I said, as if I was in the huddle. “Super Bowl champions!”
I don’t think it will take five more decades to win another one. I hope not, because I won’t be here then.
But with Mahomes, who has joined Dawson, Bell, Lanier and the other Kansas City legends in our hearts, we might just win another one, or two or more* …
Editor’s note: Called it!
Fourth-generation South Dakotan Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states for four decades. He has contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The London Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Do not republish without permission.
Photo: Super Bowl I, January 1967. Green Bay Packers sack Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson, Public domain, wikimedia commons
