Why I’m Not A Big Chiefs Fan

I think it’s great that the Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl 54. I would certainly rather them win than the San Francisco 49ers. But I still have problems rooting for them and it all stems back to my childhood, I watched Super Bowl 4 with bitter disappointment because I bet my hard-earned lawn-mowing money on the Vikings and the Purple People Eater defense.

Two dollars is a lot of money to lose when you’re eleven.

The reason I laid down two Washingtons on Minnesota is because I was a St. Louis Cardinal Football fan to the core. Charley Johnson and later the Cardiac Cards with Jim Hart. The Cards had Mizzou All-American Johnny Roland. They had Roger Wehrli, Jackie Smith, Ernie McMillan, Larry Stallings, Jerry Stovall, Larry Wilson, MacArthur Lane, and the great Jim Bakken, yet they went 4-9-1 on the season.

I knew the Chiefs with Len Dawson, Otis Taylor, Buck Buchannon and that tough offensive line, was a better team than the Cardinals, but I couldn’t be a Chiefs fan and a Cardinal fan, so I rooted against the Chiefs.

To the best of my recollection, the football Cardinals were mediocre at best throughout the 70’s and early 80’s, but I thought they were fun to watch, especially the speedy Mel Gray on a fly pattern. He always seemed to play his best against our nemesis, Roger Staubach and the Dallas Cowboys. Pat Tilley wasn’t fast like Gray, but he seemed to catch everything that was thrown in his general direction.

Then in 1987 the unthinkable happened. Cardinal owner Bill Bidwell moved the team to Arizona and I stopped watching Pro Football. I had friends that were still Chiefs fans from the glory days of Len Dawson, or who became Chiefs fans. Some of them started rooting for the Rams when they moved to St. Louis in 1994. To me it wasn’t the same. They didn’t even play in Busch Stadium.

So when someone asks me about the Chiefs I just smile and say, “they’re pretty awesome.” I know it’s a long time to carry a grudge but now you know why I don’t get too excited about Kansas City football.

By the way I’m not a Royals baseball fan either for the same reason. Now… if you want to talk Cardinal baseball, I’m in.