“Folks, the Chiefs are in the AFC championship game.” This text was near the end of a thread between my dad, my brother (who lives in Canada), and myself. We’d developed this routine of texting each other during the Royals’ World Series run in 2015, and now we text whenever the Chiefs play. We exchange emojis and GIFs, rants and raves, enjoying the game as if we were all together 
in the same room. But it was that message and the final one from my dad that brought tears to my eyes – “KC is happy.”
And wow, he’s not kidding. To a lifelong Kansas City fan, this was HUGE! We are a community of mega fans – hanging with our Chiefs through thick and thin. And boy, there have been some thin post seasons for these Chiefs. We’ve been knocked out of the playoffs for so many years and waited 25 years for a home playoff win. We were practically owed a victory for all the heartache we’ve endured in the post season. Yet each year, we are excited to do it all again.
After high school, I lived away from Kansas City for about eight years. But what always anchored me to home was cheering for the Chiefs. I was a proud Chiefs fan, no matter where I lived. My parents sent me newspaper articles about the team before the dawn of the internet. My years in Washington, D.C. and Chicago had me finding the local Chiefs bars to watch the games. Turns out, there were quite a few of us transient Chiefs fans! We’d toast Steve Bono and Marcus Allen, Elvis Grbac and Derrick Alexander. We cried in our beer over Elvis Grbac too, and our failure to reach the playoffs for most of the late 90s. But each season we were back, swearing THIS would be the year. We were proud of our team, and we owned it.
I remember scanning the AM dial on my car radio in 1998, trying to catch the Chiefs-Broncos playoff game while driving through southern Virginia, then pulling into a rest stop to cry when we lost. But I was still so proud.
Kansas City is a proud, proud town. We stick with our Chiefs, and wait out the post seasons that we didn’t reach. We wear our KC hearts on our sleeves, cheering and crying after every win or loss. My son asked why I was cheering so loudly during the game on Saturday. I told him that someday, he’ll understand that this is what reminds me of how awesome Kansas City is. This is what we have been waiting for. This is what brings us back season after season. This is what brings us together as a community. And we will be proud, no matter the outcome.
And while I can’t wait to watch the Chiefs play for the AFC Championship, I also can’t wait for one more text thread with my brother and my dad.
