As these international fans can attest, Chiefs Kingdom touches all parts of the globe
For some Chiefs fans, they will arise in the early hours of Monday to watch the AFC Championship Game. Others will catch it after breakfast on Monday.
While the game kicks off at 5:40 p.m. in Kansas City, Chiefs Kingdom isn’t limited to the United States. There are fans around the globe who will be rooting for the Chiefs to make a return trip to the Super Bowl.
They’ll do so even though many of their neighbors have no idea who Patrick Mahomes is or the NFL for that matter.
Let’s meet some of those fans in other countries.
RICARDO RIBEIRO
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ribeiro’s introduction to the NFL came during the 49ers dynasty in the 1980s. When quarterback Joe Montana was traded to the Chiefs, Ribeiro switched his fandom.
“I watched the 93/94 playoffs on TV — victories against the Steelers (OT) and Oilers,” Ribeiro wrote in an email. “As well as the first disappointment the defeat for the Bills, with Joe Montana leaving the game injured. Sunday is the day of REVENGE!!!
“I suffered from all the stupid and inexplicable playoffs losses until Mahomes came.”
Soccer rules in Brazil, which meant the day after some of those postseason heartbreaks he couldn’t commiserate with other fans.
Last year he was watching the AFC Divisional game against the Texans at his house, and his screams (first of anger, then joy) could be heard down the street.
“When the game ended, I bought a one-way air ticket, booked a hotel and bought a ticket for the AFC final and let the family know that the return depended on that game,” Ribeiro wrote. “Everything went well and I went to Miami. Watching the Chiefs win the Super Bowl was one of the greatest joys I had.”
While there are not many NFL fans in Rio, Ribeiro has evangelized others in the name of the Chiefs.
“All my friends and relatives have Chiefs’ T-shirts and caps and are compulsory Chiefs fans. With the (Patrick) Mahomes phenomenon, interest in the Chiefs has grown a lot here,” he wrote.
“A nephew was a fan of the Raiders (unbelievable). I bribed him with an official jersey from Larry Johnson, it was the first official jersey I bought, but it was worth it, I saved a soul and today he supports the Chiefs.”
TAKAO MATSUI
Kawanishi, Japan
Matsui became a Chiefs fan during the spring of 2017. In 1986-87, Matsui attended Texas Tech and was in the Intensive English Program, and he loves all things Red Raiders.
“While attending the program, I became a Japanese Red Raider,” Matsui wrote in an email. ”I didn’t watch the games live while Patrick was quarterback for my Red Raiders, but the minute the Chiefs drafted him, I became a Chiefs fan.”
Matsui watches football on cable TV, but only select NFL games are aired in Japan with the exception of “Sunday Night Football” and the playoff games.
There are some NFL fans in the city where Matsui lives.
“If they are football fans, they should know the Chiefs because of the way Patrick Mahomes has performed,” Matsui wrote. “Older people like my age 55 or older probably know the Cowboys more than the Chiefs, because in the 70s the ‘Boys were a dynasty.
“If they aren’t football fans, they don’t know the Chiefs. Baseball fans may know Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs because his father pitched for a professional baseball club in Yokohama for a year.”
Matsui hopes to organize a Chiefs fan club at some point.
KEITH FRIESEN
Winkler, Manitoba, Canada
Friesen’s route to becoming a Chiefs fan began with a video game that was popular in the early 1990s: Tecmo Super Bowl on Nintendo.
After purchasing a magazine that featured former Chiefs running back Christian Okoye on the cover, Friesen played the video game as Kansas City.
“Of course, I discovered Derrick Thomas (while) playing the game,” Friesen wrote, “and I was hooked.”
Winkler has a population of about 13,000, so Friesen is the only Chiefs fan in town.
“Over the years it was hard to get a game since the Chiefs were never really a top team that got nationally televised games,” Friesen wrote. “So it was basically if they had a SNF or MNF game. In 2015-2017 I was able to occasionally find some on the web but suffered through pop up ads and poor internet speeds. Since Mahomes came along I have been able to watch every game as Chiefs games are always televised on one station or another.”
Friesen also has since made the roughly 800-mile road trip to Kansas City for games from time to time, including the 2019 win over the Vikings — although Mahomes was out because of an injury.
JULIE WARNER
Sydney, Australia
Warner married into her fandom, as her husband and his family introduced her to the Chiefs in 2007.
“Even though Australia is a very sporting nation, NFL popularity has only just recently started to grow,” Warner wrote in an email. “So I am still having to explain who the Chiefs are and where Kansas City is within the U.S.”
NFL games are televised on stations that don’t require people to pay to watch in Australia. But other games, such as prime-time contests, are on a pay network, Warner wrote.
The remainder of the games that are not shown on either TV options are watched through a Game Pass subscription.
Chiefs fans can be found in other parts of Australia, she said.
“There are a few in the area that have reached out,” Warner wrote, “but many are from several cities and states around Australia.”
RICHARD TURKOWITSCH
Vienna, Austria
Turkowitsch has family members in the Midwest, mostly in Iowa. But some reside in Kansas City, which explains how he became a Chiefs fan when he started watching football in 2013.
“For the longest time it felt like I was the only Chiefs fan in the entire country, which probably wasn’t even true,” Turkowitsch wrote in an email. “Regardless, most NFL watchers in Austria are still Packers, Patriots or 49ers fans, so I guess the bandwagon hasn’t arrived yet. But at least it’s possible to get a Chiefs hat in stores now. And yes, I am a lot of people’s resident Chiefs expert.”
Like Chiefs fans in many other countries, Turkowitsch has been able to watch more Chiefs games the last few years because of Mahomes’ success.
Still, Turkowitsch has NFL Game Pass so he won’t miss any games.
“Football has grown in popularity immensely in Austria thanks to the Austrian national team and Austrian club teams performing really well in European competition in recent years,” he wrote. “Also three games a week are being broadcast on Austrian television, so watching the NFL is as easy in Austria as it has ever been.
“Watching the Chiefs games in particular had been a bit of a struggle at times, basically only doable with NFL Game Pass but the recent success with (Andy) Reid and Mahomes brought with it that Chiefs games are broadcast on free TV a lot more often.”
STEFAN LETZELTER
Klein-Winternheim, Germany
Letzelter first took note of the NFL in 1985, and so he took a passing interest in the Chicago Bears. But by the early 1990s, he began visiting the United States on vacation and soon after NFL Europe began, with a team in Frankfurt, Germany. That helped to kindle his interest.
“I bought a bunch of preview magazines for the 91/92 season and somehow the Chiefs appealed to me the most,” Letzelter wrote in an email. “In addition, I was a track athlete and as you probably know Christian Okoye is a former discus thrower, and he became my first favorite player (and the first jersey I bought).”
None of Letzelter’s close friends are Chiefs fans, and only a handful have any interest in football. However, there is a 1,300-member German Chiefs fan group on Facebook, although he only knows them through the social media platform. However, Letzelter keeps in touch with a couple of friends in Kansas City.
“We have two or three NFL games per week on free TV and every playoff game,” Letzelter wrote. “They showed the Chiefs six or seven times this season so far. ... Sometimes it is also OK for me to follow a Chiefs game on the NFL.com Ticker and do other stuff simultaneously.”
A few years ago, Letzelter made a vow to himself: if the Chiefs ever made the Super Bowl, he was going to the game. Thanks to a long layover after switching planes, it was a 21-hour trip from his home to his hotel in Miami.
But it was all worth it.
“My little Chiefs group in (Section) 304 had a blast,” he wrote, “and was overwhelmed with joy.”
MIKE BEASLEY
Cozumel, Mexico
After growing up in Wyandotte County and living in other cities around Kansas City as an adult, Beasley finds himself on an island. And he couldn’t be happier.
Beasley has lived in Cozumel for more than a quarter century, and he is a proud Chiefs fan.
“Lots of Mexicans love the Chiefs,” Beasley wrote in an email. “Everybody on the island knows I love them. When they were on their way to the Super Bowl, I would be jogging and people would yell at me, ‘It’s happening!’ ... stuff like that.”
When the Chiefs beat the 49ers and won the Lombardi trophy, Beasley said the people who live on the island greeted him.
“After the win, I would be grocery shopping and people would come up and congratulate me,” Beasley wrote. “It was awesome.”
JEFF AND SHERRI NIGHTINGALE
Toronto
When he was 14 years old, Jeff Nightingale placed a bet that changed his life. He and a buddy wagered the princely sum of $1 on who would win Super Bowl IV.
“Jeff took the Chiefs and his buddy took the Vikings. The Chiefs won and he became an instant fan,” Nightingale’s wife, Sherri, wrote in an email. “I became a fan when weekly games became available to us in Canada.
After years of not being able to watch each Chiefs game, the couple bought NFL Sunday Ticket. They’ve made road trips to Arrowhead Stadium and away Chiefs games. Last year, they were at Super Bowl LIV.
“There are a handful of Chiefs fans around us and some that we actually know. Definitely a minority,” Sherri wrote. “Many Toronto NFL fans support Buffalo and Miami.
“Jeff wears his Chiefs gear weekly and people often wonder why he is supporting a team from KC?!?! He always wears a cap whenever we travel all over the world and has met other fans this way! It always strikes up a conversation. Once on a cruise he met a family from KC and they invited Jeff to KC for a game.”
WILL CRAGIN
Sopron, Hungary
Cragin was born and raised in Nevada, Missouri, so he’s basically been a Chiefs fan for life.
He moved to Hungary in 2013 to work as an educator, and he is teaching English language in a high school in Sopron, which is located close to the Austrian border.
“The first 4-5 years the Chiefs were rarely on TV, so I would have to stream the games online,” Cragin wrote in an email. “Since Mahomes, Chiefs have become more popular to put on TV. The time difference is the hardest part. I can always find a stream to watch the game, but the question becomes if I wanna wake up at 2 a.m. to watch the game (the answer is usually yes).”
Cragin’s wife, Hajni Tamasi, is a native Hungarian who has become a Chiefs fan.
“I have a friend that lives in Budapest who is a Chiefs fan,” Cragin wrote. “My wife fell in love with Alex Smith, so now she’s a Chiefs fan and a WFT fan. I’ve mostly met Patriots, Seahawks, Packers, and Niners fans (depending on age). When I first moved here, American football wasn’t super popular, but it has really been exploding lately and Hungary even has an American Football League.”
KEITH MACKINNON
Toronto
MacKinnon grew up on the East Coast as a Patriots fan but saw the light after being let down by New England as a kid.
“In the late ‘80s early ‘90s, I just kind of turned on the TV after disappointment after disappointment by the Patriots and saw Christian Okoye and just kind of fell in love with the Chiefs after that,” MacKinnon said.
“It was kind of a fun team to kind of get behind. They had a great history, they had some great players. So that was kind of it kind of it.”
After switching to the Chiefs, MacKinnon missed out the start of the Patriots’ dynasty, but he has no regrets.
“I wasn’t a real fan of the tuck rule,” MacKinnon said with a laugh.
There was a period when he didn’t come across other Chiefs fans in Toronto, but that has changed..
“Wearing the paraphernalia and people will stop and talk,” MacKinnon said. “I was at the grocery store the other day and had a mask on and the young guy beside me who was filling the shelves started talking Chiefs, and he was all in on the Chiefs.
“I think there’s been people like myself that have been picked up the Chiefs over the years and then I think for sure with the Super Bowl win with Mahomes and Andy Reid and all those things there are more and more people who tend to cheer on the Chiefs.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 10:29 AM.
