Critics aside, the 2023 NFL Draft was spot-on showcasing Kansas City and the Chiefs
To be sure, the first night of the 2023 NFL Draft was an unabashed celebration of Kansas City and the Chiefs.
Never more than the way it was bookended by an opening act featuring some of the region’s most recognizable stars — including Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce — and the finale of Clark Hunt stepping to the stage with the Super Bowl LVII Lombardi Trophy to announce the Chiefs had made Lee’s Summit native Felix Anudike-Uzomah of Kansas State their first-round selection.
Great stuff, really. And exactly the sort of enlivened and contoured touch that the crowd of approximately 125,000 dominated by Chiefs fans, the city and even the NFL itself deserved.
If the NFL could plan to conduct the draft annually in the city whose team just won the Super Bowl instead of having to set up the elaborate undertaking years in advance, what unfolded in the majestic setting between Union Station and the National WWI Museum and Memorial and was watched by millions on television would make for a model for energizing the main event.
Instead, it was unprecedented happenstance that it fell into place as it did — and Kansas City and the Chiefs in conjunction with the NFL just fashioned the blueprint for how to do it up right.
Never mind that there was some morose and silly social media grumbling about it, including that this wasn’t the forum to celebrate and suggesting Hunt bringing the trophy on stage was poor form.
And never mind that the Chiefs chairman and CEO heard some boos from pods of fans of other NFL teams when he stepped to the microphone and placed the most recent Lombardi Trophy alongside the franchise’s other two already displayed on the stage.
When I asked Hunt Friday afternoon if he’s heard any fuss about that since then, he smiled and said, “I haven’t heard that yet.”
With a laugh, he added, “And I’m betting that I don’t hear that here in Kansas City.”
Maybe it will come up a few months down the road, he added, perhaps referring to his NFL ownership peers.
If he’s challenged on it, he’ll have a fine rebuttal making the point he did with the rest of his answer.
“I think it just ties back to the uniqueness of us being the Super Bowl champion,” he said. “And that was just a few months ago, so the timing was really good. It was a great way to extend our celebration.”
Including, he said, the last 10 years in the region. And not just because that’s when Andy Reid took over and revived the franchise.
“I really think the draft has been all about Kansas City,” he said. “And it’s an exclamation point on an incredible decade that we’ve had here with our sports teams.”
Hunt pointed to Sporting KC winning the MLS Cup in 2013, for starters, and the Royals winning back-to-back American League pennants and the 2015 World Series.
“And, then, of course,” he said, “the five (straight) AFC Championship games that we’ve been fortunate enough to host (while) claiming a couple of Lombardi Trophies along the way.”
Also in that span: Kansas City was named a 2026 World Cup host city.
Some of the aggrieved responses to the night suggested the showcase Thursday stood for gloating. And, sure, there was some preening to it.
But it was more about seizing the most from a time that was the stuff of fantasy only a few years ago.
The Chiefs, you might recall, had just emerged from decades of postseason traumas and hadn’t won or been to a Super Bowl in 50 years before their momentous rally to beat the 49ers in 2020.
Now having appeared in three of the last four and winning two of them, the Chiefs and the city still are basking in a change of fortunes a half century in the making.
This rise has transformed the narrative about them in more ways than one.
First and foremost, the franchise, Reid and Mahomes each now stand on the cusp of the most elite scale of greatness. Suddenly, only six franchises in NFL history have won more than the three Super Bowls the Chiefs have (including Super Bowl IV). Only four coaches have won more than Reid’s two. And only four quarterbacks have won more than Mahomes’ two.
On the way to this new frontier, the Chiefs have gone not only from the hunter to the hunted but at some point soon — if not already — stand to become resented for their success.
Whether that means they’re on the verge of being hated the way, say, the Patriots dynasty came to be by about every other fan base is another matter for a column in itself another time.
(Initial premise: No, they won’t, for a lot of reasons. Starting with finding the winsome Mahomes to be beloved virtually anywhere I go ... and that Reid is infinitely more personally appealing than his at least publicly dour counterpart Bill Belichick).
So suit yourself if you want to carp about Hunt having the temerity to call attention to what the Chiefs have done.
Or if you’re somehow offended that the great Heidi Gardner and Eric Stonestreet took the stage with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and introduced former Chiefs stars Will Shields and Dante Hall before calling Mahomes and Kelce up to spend a few seconds hyping the crowd.
Each aspect was planned with the NFL but also essential to making this event unforgettable for the city that invested so much in making it work — including furnishing it with a Super Bowl champion as part of the draw.
“Anything that we could do to highlight either Kansas City or the Chiefs was a huge win for the community,” Hunt said, smiling and noting, “I think it’s safe to say that our No. 1 ambassador is now Patrick.”
And safe to say anyone squawking about it all is being shortsighted.
This story was originally published April 28, 2023 at 10:12 PM.