NFL Network writer wonders if fans of other teams will soon turn on Chiefs
Ahead of last year’s AFC Championship Game, an examination of Twitter activity showed 43 states in the country were rooting for the Chiefs to beat the Patriots.
The Chiefs were favored by a majority of the United States going into the Super Bowl in February, and lots of people were rooting for coach Andy Reid to finally get his first championship.
But because Kansas City did win the Super Bowl, one NFL writer wonders if Chiefs fatigue will set in.
Adam Rank of the NFL Network has been doing a “State of the Franchise” on all 32 teams, and one storyline “people need to start thinking about” the Chiefs is their how they’re perceived around the league.
This is what Rank wrote: “At what point do we turn on the Chiefs? You might not believe this right now, but people celebrated the Patriots when they won their first Super Bowl. Honestly, everyone was all about it. I was living in Los Angeles at the time and all of the former Rams fans thought it was great. Everyone loved Tom Brady. Bill Belichick was deemed charming for his demeanor. OK, the last part is taking it too far. But everyone eventually turns on the champions. Brady. Steph Curry. John Cena. You love them at first and can’t wait to see them win. But at some point you’re like enough already, to the point that once their music hits, you roll your eyes and start booing, even though they are really, really good.”
That seems hard to believe with the Chiefs, given the national appeal of quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
At what point might NFL fans reach a tipping point with the Chiefs? Well, George Wendt (as a “SuperFan”) joked after the Bulls won their first NBA Championship that Chicagoans were thinking “minimum eight-peat.”
That didn’t happen, but the Bulls won six NBA titles in eight seasons and were still a very popular team (as anyone who watched “The Last Dance” knows), so maybe the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes would be immune to a backlash.
Some people have said Mahomes is the closest thing to Jordan in sports these days, so maybe Rank’s outlook is wrong.
Just to be safe, Kansas City fans might want the Chiefs to win a half-dozen Super Bowl titles just to prove the theory right or wrong.
