Kansas City (and Chiefs franchise) is on the clock for the NFL Draft: KC’s Next Play
Picture Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Festivus all crammed together into one perfectly pig-skinned present for football fans.
That’s the NFL Draft. And it arrives this week.
Three glorious days of football hope for cities otherwise too often bereft of it, and a chance for the league’s rich to enrichen themselves even further — no, not the owners, though they always seem to make ample bank, but perennial playoff participants like the Chiefs.
That — the NFL Draft, and particularly the Chiefs in the NFL Draft — is the big-ticket item in this week’s grocery cart of sports-headline goodies.
But as so often is the case when we get together, gentle reader, there’s more: The Royals have a full slate in front of them, and both of KC’s major pro soccer teams are in action for games in the coming half-fortnight.
With no further mumbo-jumbo from yours truly, here’s the latest installment of KC’s Next Play.
Kansas City is on the clock!
That’s just fun to say, and it will be doubly true this week.
While Kansas City (the Chiefs) get a whopping 12 picks in the Thursday-Saturday 2022 NFL Draft in Las Vegas, Kansas City (the city) is next in line to play host to the league’s annual selection spectacle, which for the past half-decade or so has flown the coop from its past perch at Radio City Music Hall in New York and now takes place in a new locale each year.
Next spring, the NFL Draft is coming to KC. So this week’s proceedings will be our final look at a draft held elsewhere before the 2023 edition lands in our own backyard. It’s going to be fun this week ... and next time around right here in Kansas City, USA.
Ahead for the KC Royals
After wrapping up a three-game series in Seattle today against the Mariners, the Royals’ road trip rolls on to ... the South Side of Chicago.
Yep, it was a quick jaunt to the West Coast for KC, to be sure, but they’ll get an off-day between series before opening a three-game Tuesday-Thursday set against the White Sox in Chitown.
And then comes a really fun one at Kauffman Stadium: a trio of games against the New York Yankees on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There’s just something about series against the Pinstripers that levels up an already good vibe at The K.
Current nearing end of group stage
The Kansas City Current roll into Sunday’s Challenge Cup group-play match with a formidable record of 3-1.
Their opponent this weekend, at 4 p.m. today (Sunday) at Children’s Mercy Park, is Chicago. And then, after their match against the Red Stars in KCK, the Current head to Oregon for a 5 p.m. showdown next Saturday against the Portland Thorns.
Sporting KC gets another at home
Sporting Kansas City is the host team on Saturday for a 7:30 Major League Soccer showdown against FC Dallas.
There’s an interesting and ongoing yet sometimes forgotten angle to SKC-Dallas matches: The owner of the team from Texas is none other than the Hunt Sports Group, in which Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt holds considerable interest.
So low-level bragging rights are on the line each time these MLS teams tangle. It’ll be no different next weekend as Peter Vermes’ side seeks to get something positive going against its counterpart from the Lone Star State.