A Super Bowl win is a huge prize. Let’s enjoy this before speculating about the future | Opinion
America loves a winner. In Kansas City, so do we. Title Town has a ring to it. City of Champions works, too.
On Wednesday, the city will celebrate the world champion Chiefs with a sure-to-be raucous victory parade from near the River Market to Union Station. But let’s live in the moment. We should push pause on any talk of a dynasty.
Almost immediately after the Chiefs beat the Eagles in Super Bowl Sunday, star quarterback Patrick Mahomes was asked a rather trite question: After two world titles and three trips to the Super Bowl in just four years, has Kansas City become the league’s new standard of excellence?
Did this win signify a sustained level of success only New England — with its six Super Bowl wins since 2002 — can claim in the new millennium?
Not yet, Mahomes told a worldwide audience.
“We’re not done,” Mahomes said during a postgame television interview. “So I’m not gonna say dynasty yet.”
So couldn’t we enjoy the narrow victory over Philadelphia for a day or two before the predictable drivel began?
These days, players come and go with frequency. Coaches are hired and fired. From season to season, the makeup of a 53-person roster will certainly change. We need to celebrate this version of the Chiefs. Only 13 current players were on the squad that won Super Bowl LIV just three years ago.
In pro sports, there are no guarantees of success. Even with a quarterback with the talent of Mahomes, a two-time league MVP and MVP of Sunday’s Super Bowl, sustained success is hard.
We could grow accustomed to celebrating our championship-winning professional sports teams, though. Nothing wrong with taking victory laps around the city. And the economic boom the region feels when the Chiefs win is real, according to tourism experts.
In the last 18 months, the metropolitan area has attracted $1.5 billion worth of economic development, according to the Kansas City Economic Development Corp. What’s driving the interest in Kansas City? Mahomes’ star power and the Chiefs, corporate and civic leaders said.
Mahomes has financial interests in several area Whataburger restaurants around the metro. He’s involved with other business ventures that have been good for Kansas City’s economy, business leaders said. That brings the area tangible benefits.
On-field success helps fuel prosperity away from the gridiron, Joe Reardon, president and CEO of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview with a local television station before the Chiefs’ exhilarating win.
“When Patrick Mahomes succeeds on the field, we win in business too — there’s a direct connection,” Reardon told KSHB.
Under head coach Andy Reid and Mahomes, the Chiefs have reached a pinnacle. Three title game appearances in four years and two Super Bowl trophies is uncharted territory around here. Kansas City makes winning look routine. It’s not. In the days of free agency and salary cap restrictions, bringing home multiple Super Bowl titles is more daunting a task than ever.
Our neighbors to the east in St. Louis won a Super Bowl after the 1999 season. Talk of multiple championships immediately followed. Two years later, the Rams, led by future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner, were defeated by New England in Super Bowl XXXVI. Two decades later, the Patriots are considered pro football royalty — and the NFL no longer has a team in the Gateway City.
Sorry, St. Louis.
Back in Kansas City, Wednesday is not a day to look ahead. It is a time to celebrate a world champion football team. To the victors, the spoils shall go — for now.