Hey, Dad. It’s been a while since I’ve written you. In between those “talks,” I wrote a couple of blogs, including one after the Chiefs reached the Super Bowl. That’s right, old man, Kansas City actually played in the Super Bowl last week.
It gets better. Get this: The Kansas City Chiefs actually WON the Super Bowl. And they did to San Francisco what so many teams have done to them through the years: Broke their heart.
In my blog when the Chiefs rallied to beat the Titans in the AFC Championship game, I wrote about our conversation after Kansas City lost to New England in overtime.
On that night, I was pretty sure the Chiefs were never going to the Super Bowl, at least during my lifetime. As you’d done after those awful losses to the Colts, Bills, Broncos and many others, you talked me down from the ledge.
That reminded me of the countless Dad hugs after some heartbreaking sports moments. There was the first time I sobbed as an 8-year-old when I lost a family softball game in our yard. The next year, it was as the Royals were losing in Game 6 of the 1985 World Series (that one turned out great).
Several years later, you were there when Tyus Edney crushed our souls, the Cornhuskers slopped by on an illegal kicked ball and those football losses in conference championship games in 2007 and 2013.
“One of these days, for the sake of your heart, I hope your teams win the big one,” you said. “You deserve it, son.”
The Royals did just that in 2015. I’ll never forget your phone calls every five minutes during the extra innings of Game 5 and after they won.
Back to the Chiefs … for much of the night, it looked like it was going to the same old heartbreak again. Patrick Mahomes was off. The defense couldn’t stop the 49ers. The coaching staff, for whatever reason, wouldn’t stretch the field and test San Francisco’s defense.
I was pissed, frankly. But I should have remembered what I wrote about two weeks before and what you told me last year: “Mahomes is special.”
After falling behind 20-10 and playing a mostly miserable two quarters, Kansas City caught fire. Mahomes went full Mahomes. On third-and-15 with the season on the line midway through the fourth quarter, he somehow made an off-balance throw 50 yards to Tyreek Hill.
That 44-yard pass might as well have been the game, even if the Chiefs were still behind. They scored moments later, then suddenly the defense made play after play. Another beautiful Mahomes pass, this one to Sammy Watkins, set up the go-ahead touchdown.
Frank Clark made another big play on the next series on fourth down, Kansas City got the ball back and scored again. Five minutes, 21 points. From heartbreak to heart-warming in the blink of an eye.
Like I’d done in 2015 with the Royals, I paced back and forth in the living room as Kansas City rallied. In the final minute, as the Chiefs ran the clock out, I looked at Shana and said, “I really wish my dad was around. He’d be calling right now.”
I went ahead and sent you a text anyway. My phone said the number is no longer active, but I know you got it.
Love and miss you, old man. How about those Chiefs?
