The Kansas City Chiefs are a young and upcoming team who found tremendous success with the fourth hardest schedule in the NFL for the 2016-2017 season. Everything was lining up, and everyone knows that in order to win championships odd things start to happen.
We need only look back to the Kansas City Royals World Series run in 2015 to see this. Alex Gordon’s 9th inning home run which tied the game and sent it into extra innings where the Royals would take game one, Daniel Murphy’s errors, Eric Hosmer making it to the plate, etc.
The entire season was going this way for the Chiefs, even though some of their star players were out of commission.
The Chiefs defense led the NFL in takeaways this season, turning 6 against the New York Jets alone. This season they had 8 red zone takeaways and scored a whopping 32 points off of those turnovers.
For example, when the Chiefs defeated the NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons earlier in the season. With a late deficit the Falcons went for the two point conversion which was intercepted in the endzone by Eric Berry who then returned the interception not for a pick-6 but rather a pick-2. This is the first time that has happened since the NFL first began back in 1920. The Chiefs won the game 29-28.
Rookie sensation Tyreek Hill went on an absolute terror of a season which made both special teams and defenses worry every time he got the football. His lightening fast speed and unmatched acceleration allowed him to sprint away with a franchise record 12 touchdowns by a rookie. He also set another franchise record by having the longest punt return in Chiefs history of 95 yards earlier this season.
Through some sort of miracle the Kansas City Chiefs won the AFC West, a first round bye becoming the number two seed in the Playoffs.
I bought tickets to the Divisional game at Arrowhead Stadium against the Pittsburgh Steelers and was ecstatic to attend the game.
The Steelers were one of the four losses the Chiefs had this season and quite frankly they got it handed to them, with a final score of 43-14. That was a different team who had not yet found their niche and was haunted by injuries, but that game was out of everyone’s minds.
The parking lot was electric and buzzed with tailgate parties, loud music, and an overall feeling of excitement was putting everyone in a great mood.
Within 5 minutes of the game starting I got a headache from the amount of noise and screaming. The Steelers drove the ball down the field and kicked a field goal. Copy and paste that last sentence five times and that is how Pittsburgh won the game.
With a final score of 18-16 the Chiefs fell on that Sunday night. The Chiefs defense did a phenomenal job but the offense was plagued with dropped passes, missed blocks, and missed opportunities.
When the Chiefs scored their second touchdown in the 4th quarter to bring their deficit to 2 points with only a few minutes left in the game, they went for the two point conversion. Arrowhead Stadium erupted and we thought the impossible had been done and the Chiefs had just tied the game. A lone yellow flag lay on the field and Arrowhead went quiet… A 10-yard holding penalty on Eric Fischer brought the Chiefs back to the 12 yard line, wiping out the 2-point conversion. Needless to say, the Chiefs did not succeed on their second attempt needed to take the game to overtime, and Chiefs fans, including myself, exited the stadium.
No words can really describe how everyone felt. Walking up the spiral ramps faint chants of people shouting “Let’s go Royals!” could be heard. Walking back to my car, stepping over crushed beer cans and passing the once lively tailgate parties, myself and my fellow Chiefs fans were not sad or depressed. We were hopeful. Hopeful for the Chiefs next season and excited for Royals in just a few short months. Until next season Kansas City. Your time is not over

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