‘It’s unexplainable’: Fans celebrate Kansas City Chiefs heading to Super Bowl
As the clock wound down to zero and the lead held, the fans in Kansas City saw it was really happening.
The Kansas City Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl.
At Arrowhead Stadium, where the Chiefs closed out their victory over the Tennessee Titans in Sunday’s AFC Championship game, fans erupted in a celebration 50 years in the making. Across the city, fans watching at homes, in bars — anywhere they could find a TV — basked in the glory. With the final score at 35-24, the Chiefs won a spot at the Super Bowl on Feb. 2 in Miami.
In the stands at Arrowhead, Trevor Lininger, 24, of Kansas City, sat with his face in his hands, ecstatic, as the final minutes ran out.
“You think you’re ready for it. You’re not ready for it,” he said. “It’s unexplainable.”
“Come on, come on!” shouted Lisa Mildfelt of Chanute, Kansas, a 25-year season ticket holder. “We’re headed to Florida!”
Downtown at the Power & Light District, fans hugged, danced and high-fived each other. With two minutes left in the game, fans jumped up and down, chanting: “Super Bowl! Super Bowl!”
Confetti flew over the crowd. Fireworks went off. Fans jumped up on tables and recorded the moment with their phones. Rapper Tech N9ne jumped on stage at the KC Live! venue where fans watched the game.
“I love this!” Thomas Gaye, 24, shouted. “I love this, baby!”
‘Today’s the day’
Throughout Sunday, Chiefs fans said they were confident Kansas City would come through with a win.
Despite frigid temperatures, fans swarmed Arrowhead Stadium to tailgate as they awaited the historic moment when the team would reach the Super Bowl again.
Long before dawn, the first die-hard fans to arrive at Arrowhead were Mark Lambeth of Louisburg, and his friend Jim Price, who pulled up to Gate 5 to wait outside the stadium in the sub-freezing temperatures.
Their time: midnight Saturday — eight hours before the gates opened and 14 hours before kickoff.
A sedan carrying Dwain and Theresa McClure of Oskaloosa, Iowa, soon followed. They left their home at 9:30 p.m. Sunday and arrived at 1:24 a.m. Sunday.
“You hear a drum start pounding, then the music,” Theresa McClure said. “May as well not sleep.”
Still, some tried, huddled in their cars, trucks and RVs in a line that by 7 a.m. spread four lanes across and what seemed a quarter-mile long. Fans spread throughout the parking lot.
Tents rose quickly. Grills heated up.
Among the fans were Emily Grey, 26, and Holden Richmond, 30, both of Nashville, Tennessee. After driving more than eight hours to watch the game in person, they were fan-crossed lovers in a crowd of tailgaters in red and yellow.
She’s a Chiefs fan. He’s a Titans guy.
Before the game began, Richmond had already reminded Grey that the Titans defeated the Chiefs in Kansas City back in November. She had not seen the Chiefs beat the Titans since they’ve been together, he noted. Each was sure their team would win.
“Today’s the day,” Grey said.
No matter what happened, the couple said before the game, their relationship will survive.
Bundled up in winter coats, they and other fans endured what the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill called the coldest temperatures of the season. In fact, the AFC Championship game may have been one of coldest playoff contests in Chiefs history.
Regardless of the weather, Sunday morning was a time to recall friendships formed through years of football.
For more than 30 years, Bill Scopp, 63, of Leawood, and his friends have been tailgating on what they call “Fantasy Island” — a tiny slip of grass near Lot F. There, they have watched their Chiefs’ fortunes rise, but ultimately fall, each year.
On Sunday, some 30 people began the day on the “island.”
Randy Tegethoff and friends joined them years back.
“It’s not a fantasy now,” Scopp said before the game, fully confident that the Chiefs, under quarterback Patrick Mahomes, would finally, after 50 years, bring them back to the Super Bowl. “Maybe we should change the name to Reality Island!”
‘Like I’m at the stadium’
Those who couldn’t be at Arrowhead gathered across the city to watch the game, including in the heart of downtown in the city’s Power & Light District, where more than 100 fans created a sea of yellow and red jerseys.
Drinks were poured. Stereos blasted music. A large Chiefs flag was run across the stage.
Lifelong fan Geraldo Martin, 31, said if the Chiefs won he would help “paint the city red.” Like other fans, Martin said he felt a sense of unity watching at Power & Light, where the crowd roared.
“I feel like I’m at the stadium,” he said.
Fans jumped up and down in excitement during big plays, including when running back Damien Williams ran for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, helping put the Chiefs up 28 to 17.
Not among the crowd was Charles Penn, who became locally famous after he he left Arrowhead Stadium before the Chiefs came back against the Houston Texans. Earlier Sunday, he was spotted leaving Arrowhead Stadium to watch the game at home.
‘Own this town’
At Arrowhead, no one budged. No one left. Carol Lanoue stood at her seat, cellphone in her hand, eyes dropping tears out of happiness and thoughts of her son, Travis Forsberg, who in 2014 lost his life at age 33.
“He and I went to so many games together,” she said.
In the years before he died, Forsberg was always confident, a massive Chiefs fan. He’d tell his mother, “We’re going to the Super Bowl,” Lanoue remembered.
Now the Chiefs are. And Lanoue, 65, of Lawrence, said she’ll do her best to be there — if she can find a ticket.
The second the Chiefs won, cellphones erupted like daffodils in spring as tens of thousands of fans captured the moment for history.
“I’m 58 and I was 8 years old when the Chiefs last went to the Super Bowl,” said Mike Otten of Lake Ozark, Missouri.
“I waited for the rest of my life,” he said.
Married in 1992, Otten said he told his wife then if the Chiefs ever made it to the Super Bowl again he would make a major sacrifice for them to go.
“I told her we would hock our wedding rings if we had to” he said.
They don’t have to. They already have tickets.
At Arrowhead Sunday, Otten beamed as he stared out at a cloud of orange confetti shot from a cannon at midfield. Coach Andy Reid hoisted the Lamar Hunt trophy high.
Otten said he will wear a replica Len Dawson jersey to Miami. He looked at the star quarterback Patrick Mahomes standing on the platform in front of the crowd.
“He is going to own this town forever.”
This story was originally published January 19, 2020 at 5:18 PM.
