‘It is inescapable’: Kansas City Chiefs have become team fans love to hate

NEW ORLEANS – Bonkers conspiracy theories and contempt for excellence.

That’s what the Kansas City Chiefs have engendered during their historic championship run that continues Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome. The two-time defending Super Bowl champions are pursuing a record third consecutive title and their fourth in six seasons.

Kansas City has been so sensational for so long, it’s the team that fans of other teams love to hate. Of course, in sports history, that part is nothing new.

The powerhouse New York Yankees dynasties of MLB and the incomparable Boston Celtics dynasty of the NBA also enraged fans who grew loathsome of their sustained success. Prior to the Chiefs becoming the NFL’s newest dynasty, the New England Patriots were the object of scorn.

Even when the Patriots appeared in Super Bowls as if they were scheduled to do it each season, they didn’t produce the level of rage and illogical arguments ignited by the Chiefs’ dominance. Among many NFL observers, there’s a belief that the commissioner’s office actually rigs games in favor of the Chiefs, directing officials to make favorable calls for them. And here’s what’s even scarier: Some fans are actually convinced that Chiefs’ victories are predetermined by commissioner Roger Goodell.

On its face, both theories — for myriad reasons — are laughable.

Preposterous though they are, Goodell felt compelled to address the concerns of infuriated fans Monday during his pre-Super Bowl news conference.

“Reminds me a little bit of a script, right? But then I write a script, and I have the script for the entire season,” said Goodell, whose comment was dripping with sarcasm. “A lot of those theories are things that happen in social media, and they get a new life. It’s out there.

“It reflects a lot of the fans’ passion. It also is a reminder for us how important officiating is. The men and women that officiate the NFL are outstanding. They have the highest possible standards. That’s a ridiculous theory, for anyone who might take it seriously.”

A day after Goodell dismissed the conspiracy claims, the executive director of the NFL Referees Association was equally strong in his condemnation of the wrongheaded thinking.

“It is insulting and preposterous to hear conspiracy theories that somehow 17 officiating crews consisting of 138 officials are colluding to assist one team,” NFLRA executive director Scott Green said in a statement. “NFL officials are graded every week, on every single play of each game. These grades are the determining factor as to who receives postseason assignments. The NFLRA commends its members, who all strive to do exactly what all 32 NFL teams do, which is to excel at their jobs so that they are working the last game of the season – the Super Bowl.”

Based on available data, the Chiefs don’t benefit from calls nearly as much as many fans believe, or as much as some of their opponents do. Despite the evidence, which is as incontrovertible as it is overwhelming, many fans essentially respond, “I believe what I believe.”

With revenue in excess of $20 billion annually, the NFL is by far the most successful professional sports league in history. Long ago, it sped past MLB to become the nation’s most popular sport and national pastime. The NFL’s current contracts with its broadcast partners are valued at more than $110 billion. That’s more than the NBA, MLB and the NHL receive from its broadcast partners combined.

Simply put, the NFL is a recession-proof economic monster. Perhaps the only thing that could kill the golden goose, so to speak, is if the league’s top decision-makers fixed games.

It just doesn’t happen, law professor N. Jeremi Duru said.

A professor of sports law at American University in Washington, D.C., Duru said NFL officials would risk a lot more than financial losses if they engaged in the illegal practices many delusional fans believe they do.

“The cornerstone of any professional sports league is integrity of competition, the understanding that games will be truly competitive without a predetermined outcome,” Duru wrote to Andscape in a text message. “If you lose that you lose the league, because nobody is going to want to watch it.

“The NFL’s revenues exceed $20 billion per year. The idea that the league would risk destroying this incredibly profitable business to fix games for any team is unthinkable. On top of that, there would be civil and criminal liability for anyone involved. There is no way you can convince me the league is fixing games. I just don’t buy it.”

Richard Lapchick is in the same camp as Duru.

A leading commentator and activist in the field of sports and society for decades, Lapchick believes that the re-election of President Donald Trump, and the divisiveness around that process, are among the factors in the reaction to the Chiefs’ success. An alarming number of Americans also choose to ignore objective facts, Lapchick added, which further fuels conspiracy theories.

The Chiefs’ dominance is occurring, “at a time when the country is as divided as I can ever remember it being since the civil rights era,” Lapchick said in a lengthy phone interview. “The re-election of Donald Trump, the demeaning of people, calling [facts] into question … it has all added up.

“We’re looking for scapegoats. If you’re a sports fan, this is where you can have it play out, either to defer or to displace some of your unhappiness on an entity. In this case, [the scapegoat] is a sports team. And when you win as much as they’ve won, it’s already gonna create a certain amount of envy.”

Since Patrick Mahomes became the Chiefs’ starting quarterback before the 2018-19 season, everyone else in the NFL has been playing catch-up. Last season, the Chiefs joined the NFL’s dynasty club by winning three Super Bowls in a span of five seasons. In doing so, they became the first team since the Patriots in 2004 and 2005 to win back-to-back Super Bowls.

Regardless of the outcome of the season’s final game, the Chiefs are assured of the best finish in NFL history of a team that has won consecutive Super Bowls.

In the Super Bowl era, which began in 1967, nine teams have won consecutive titles (the Pittsburgh Steelers accomplished the feat twice). The Chiefs are the first such team to return to the Super Bowl a third consecutive season. The 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers, 1990-91 San Francisco 49ers and 1994-95 Dallas Cowboys returned to their conference championship games the season after becoming back-to-back champions.

Even some lifelong Chiefs supporters tired of the incessant complaining are empathetic to fans of other teams.

Well, to a degree.

“When a team has won as much as the Chiefs have, you sort of get used to it. But something has changed this year,” Patrick Allen, co-host of the Arrowhead Addict podcast, said in a phone interview. “It has reached a kind of fever pitch that I never really saw coming. And it’s very frustrating. It’s kind of gotten to a point where it is inescapable.

“What seems to be happening now … it seems like literal hysteria. I mean, I have friends that I went to grad school with, who are on Facebook posting about the Chiefs and how the NFL is rigged. One of those guys is a huge Alabama fan. He rooted for the Alabama dynasty. I can’t even wrap my head around it. I point out common sense to them, and they just say, ‘I see what I see, man.’ That’s what you get.”

Obviously, the NFL would rather not have any portion of its fanbase believing Goodell and his underlings are putting thumbs on scales for the Chiefs.

Not surprisingly, the Chiefs are unfazed by the chatter.

“I don’t care,” head coach Andy Reid said. “Honestly, I don’t get into that. I don’t use that with the guys [as motivation].”

Said Mahomes, “I try not to listen to it. More than anything, I just try to embrace who we have in this locker room and … how we enjoy playing football.”

The Chiefs are having the time of their lives while rewriting NFL history in the process. That’s so troubling for many NFL fans to accept, they’ve concocted nonsensical theories to explain the Chiefs’ ascent.

A more sensible approach would be to simply cope harder.