Can the Chiefs keep fans safe amid COVID? And will they ever stop the tomahawk chop?
When the Kansas City Chiefs play their first game Thursday as defending Super Bowl champions, they will take the field in a world that has changed in stunning ways since the team’s championship triumph last February.
A deadly virus has taken hold, claiming 900,000 lives worldwide. Americans are confronting tough questions about racism and bigotry in their communities. Millions face real economic hardship.
The Chiefs are not immune to those concerns, no matter how much the team — or fans — would like games simply to be an escape from reality, not a reminder of it.
Yet all public institutions must now deal with a fundamentally different landscape, and sports franchises are not exempt. On that score, while the Chiefs have made progress, they have fallen short of where they need to be.
On Thursday, for example, more than 16,000 fans will attend the game at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs are the only team in the NFL’s AFC West that has decided to allow fans in the stands at the start of the season.
Are Kansas City fans inherently safer than those in Las Vegas, Denver, and Los Angeles? There is no reason to think so.
Allowing fans at the Chiefs’ game, even with masks and distancing, is dangerous. It also sends the wrong signal to the region, which is doing its best to balance the needs of businesses and families while protecting health. Football is fun, but it is not essential.
And it’s unnecessary. Other sports leagues have shown how to offer competition while minimizing the risk to fans’ health. Empty stadiums are not ideal, but they’re better than COVID-19 outbreaks.
The fans who do attend Thursday’s contest or watch it on television can expect some sort of public statement from the team and the players about the Black Lives Matter movement, the other great challenge of our time.
“We’re gonna be playing sports,” star quarterback Patrick Mahomes said in a sponsored video Tuesday. “But at the same time, we’re gonna be taking action. We’re gonna be making change in this world, so that it’s a better place when we leave it.”
No one can reasonably argue with that statement or criticize Mahomes for it. He has a voice, and he’s using it — nearly 9 million people saw the tweet. Mahomes and his teammates deserve credit for standing on the side of equality and justice.
But imagine the garbled message if players or the team honor the Black Lives Matter movement, and then everyone launches into a hand motion that’s indistinguishable from the disingenuously-named Arrowhead Chop?
The team has banned the most egregious displays of Native American imagery. And team president Mark Donovan now says cheerleaders will lead the stadium in swinging their arms — only now with a closed fist to signify fans are beating along with the big ceremonial drum. “Admittedly it’s a subtle change,” Donovan told Star sportswriter Sam Mellinger.
Here’s a better idea: Don’t play the music Thursday. Let the offensive tomahawk chop go away on its own, which it will. That will make the world a better place.
These would be symbolic steps, of course. But in this moment, symbols are important. They help change thinking, which can lead to tolerance and understanding. We need that, even more than we need another Super Bowl victory.
Someday we may return to a time when the only concern on the Chiefs’ opening night is the play on the field. That day is not Thursday.
The Chiefs faithful will have much to celebrate as the defending Super Bowl champs kick off the season. But the team still has work to do to keep fans safe this season — and to finally call a halt to the Chiefs’ racially insensitive traditions.