It’s Kansas City barbecue vs. Buffalo wings in mayors’ wager over Chiefs-Bills game
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas bet upward of 200 pounds of meat from Gates Bar-B-Q on this Sunday’s AFC Championship game between the Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills.
Standing outside Gates at 12th Street and Brooklyn Avenue, Lucas announced that if the Bills somehow prevail, Kansas City will feed Buffalo’s health care workers for a day as they fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Kansas City has also promised Charlie Hustle KC gear, Monarchs baseball memorabilia from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and snacks from Made in KC.
Should the Chiefs win, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown will have to pay up with — you guessed it — Buffalo wings for Kansas City’s health care workers.
Lucas acknowledged that mayoral bets can seem silly, but the Chiefs can unite Kansas City.
“People need something to smile about,” Lucas said. “That’s what sports actually give to a community. That’s what good food gives to a community. That’s what fellowship, even if you can’t be together, gives to a community.”
The Chiefs face the Bills in a rematch of the January 1994 AFC Championship Game the Chiefs lost.
Lucas, then a kid, said he thought the Chiefs would win that game and go on to Super Bowl XXVIII. Instead, the Bills went on to lose their fourth consecutive Super Bowl.
“The Bills didn’t need to go to their fourth Super Bowl and lose,” Lucas said. “But the Bills had our number that day, so I look forward to getting that level of revenge some (27) years later.”
This Sunday’s winner advances to the Super Bowl on Feb. 7 and faces either the Green Bay Packers or Tampa Bay Buccaneers, depending on the outcome of the NFC Championship Game.
Lucas didn’t say which team he’d prefer.
“It would be very interesting to have a Super Bowl I rematch” between the Chiefs and Packers, Lucas said.
“I’d be happy to play anybody, including seemingly the ageless wonder, (Tamba Bay quarterback) Tom Brady, who I particularly do not like,” Lucas said.
Lucas encouraged Kansas Citians to get takeout and celebrate the Chiefs but do so safely as to not contribute to the COVID-19 spread. He said residents should not follow in the footsteps of Crimson Tide fans who flooded the streets of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, following their team’s victory in the college football championship earlier this month.
A dedicated Chiefs fan, Lucas has some game day superstitions, including not talking about which team might win or lose. He said Friday that wagering on games was something he had to adapt to when he became mayor. Last year, he and San Francisco Mayor London Breed wagered hometown grub on the Super Bowl. Lucas picked Gates then, too.
But he noted, he has yet to have to pay up on mayoral sports bets.
Aside from San Francisco, Lucas won bets with mayors from Nashville and Houston during last year’s Chiefs playoff run, hauling in Nashville hot chicken and Mexican food.
Asked if Gates was his favorite, Lucas, in mayoral fashion, didn’t say exactly.
“I am a big Gates guy,” Lucas said. “I’ve probably had more Gates in my life than anywhere else — grew up on it, continue to eat it.”
He added: “You can’t pick a favorite child, but I’ll just say maybe this is the oldest child.”
Besides that, he said he chose Gates because it’s a locally owned and operated Kansas City business, headquartered in a predominantly Black community.
Lucas said if the Chiefs win, Brown will send wings from Manna @ Northland and Doc Sullivan’s in Buffalo.
“Little did I know they they have a Northland, too,” Lucas said. “I would imagine their Northland is inferior. I would think their Northland is actually just Canada.”
Meanwhile, another friendly wager is playing out between two bars in Parkville.
Al Burns, a Buffalo native, serves up authentic Buffalo wings at Al’s Bar & Grill. So it was only natural that another Parkville bar, Riverpark Pub and Eatery, enter into a friendly wager over Sunday’s Chiefs-Bills game.
“Hey Al’s Bar & Grill let’s make a bet,” Riverpark posted on Facebook Sunday. “If the Bills win against the Chiefs then I will dress in all Bills gear and work the Super Bowl for you... if they lose then you have to dress in Chiefs gear and work down here.”
“Oh we never back down from a bet,” Al’s replied. “Your on!”
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 1:08 PM.
