How Patrick Mahomes and Chiefs validated Arrowhead mystique after decades of the myth
As Arrowhead Stadium was being built in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the sleek and revolutionary design stressing comfort, sightlines and acoustics was a futuristic endeavor.
One that nicely mirrored the stylish and innovative Chiefs of that era.
At the launch of the NFL-AFL merger, after all, those teams had played in two of the first four Super Bowls — and won Super Bowl IV. And coach Hank Stram’s system was understood to be The Football of the Future.
Nevermind that it was Stram who proclaimed that; in Sports Illustrated’s 1970 NFL preview issue, estimable pro football writer Tex Maule wrote that “the Stram approach … will be the hallmark of the ‘70s.”
Those forces fused together figured to make Arrowhead a formidable place to play.
But while the compelling stadium itself and fans typically (but with some discerning gaps) made good on their end of it, a curious and anguishing twist lurked:
It wasn’t until the advent of the Patrick Mahomes era, 50 years after the 1968 groundbreaking of the twin stadiums now known as GEHA Field at Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadium, that the Chiefs so much as played an AFC Championship Game at home.
Even as Arrowhead was becoming an NFL icon and fans were animating the scene with such feats as a 156-game sellout streak, extreme tailgating and reclaiming in 2014 the Guinness World Record for loudest crowd roar (142.2 decibels) at a sports stadium, the Arrowhead mystique, alas, was a myth.
Until the 2018 start of a staggering seven straight AFC title game appearances for Chiefs, including their sixth at home when they play Buffalo on Sunday, the Chiefs were 2-6 in playoff games at Arrowhead.
Now that’s all been purged and redefined since the dawning of the age of Mahomes, who is 11-2 in the postseason at Arrowhead ... and where the Chiefs are 45-19 in regular-season games since he took over.
That’s a winning percentage of .833 that contrasts with the franchise’s previous Arrowhead winning percentage of .578 (207-151-1).
“A special place,” Mahomes called it Wednesday, adding, “I mean, you get a feeling when you step in the stadium, and you know the history and the greatness (within).”
It’s just that he’s been the most momentous part of that in a place previously best known for such postseason torment of the no-punt game, poor Lin Elliott and Marcus Mariota throwing a touchdown pass to himself, etc., that marked a quarter-century between home playoff wins.
It was enough to make some fans feel hexed, jinxed or otherwise cursed until Mahomes and the Chiefs effectively ended that with a 2018 playoff win over the Colts. They exorcised the vibe altogether a year later with a rally from a 24-0 first-half deficit against Houston on the way to the club’s first Super Bowl win in 50 years.
Until then, though, the prevailing script of playoff games at Arrowhead, in the rare instances they even happened, was stunningly bleak.
Two future Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches, Stram in his twilight and Marv Levy — before taking the Bills to four Super Bowls — had losing records at Arrowhead … and never even coached a playoff game there.
Another Hall of Fame coach, Dick Vermeil, coached only a playoff loss at Arrowhead ... after a 13-3 regular season marked by being undefeated at Arrowhead.
Marty Schottenheimer, a semifinalist for the 2025 Hall of Fame class, was 62-18 at Arrowhead during regular seasons with memorable teams and players. But, argh, he was just 2-2 in the playoffs there; like Vermeil’s loss, those two defeats were after 13-3 seasons with unblemished home records.
Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson, the face of the 1960s glory days, never had the chance to play a postseason game at Arrowhead before retiring in 1975.
During his two-season stint with the Chiefs, Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana won his only playoff game at Arrowhead and led the Chiefs to the AFC title game in Buffalo.
Even that reprieve, though, had a certain painful exclamation point on it.
Not merely in the sense it would be their last playoff win of any kind for more than 20 years.
But in the crestfallen image of founder Lamar Hunt in the postgame locker room after the trophy bearing his name had been presented to Bills owner Ralph Wilson.
As Michael MacCambridge wrote in his biography of Hunt, in the locker room after the game then-cornerback Kevin Ross walked over to Hunt to apologize and give him a hug.
“It was the only time,” Ross told MacCambridge, “I ever saw him cry.”
If only the beloved Hunt, who died in 2006, could be here to bask in what started with the arrival of coach Andy Reid in 2013 and ignited when Mahomes became QB1 in the 2018 season.
For one thing, the namesake trophy that never even had been on display here until the Chiefs were taking on the Patriots in that season’s AFC title game has become a recent fixture.
The only time in the last six seasons it wasn’t looming over proceedings in Kansas City was last season. But the Chiefs brought it back after winning the AFC championship in Baltimore to advance to their fourth Super Bowl in five years and put themselves on track for an unprecedented Super Bowl threepeat.
Hunt would treasure his son Clark’s hiring of Reid, whom Lamar Hunt literally tapped on the shoulder and introduced himself to at the 1999 owner’s meetings where the then-first-year Eagles coach was thinking “I don’t really know a soul here.”
“‘I‘ve heard good things about you,’” Reid in 2021 recalled Hunt saying. “‘I think you’re going to be good for this league.’”
And he’d revel in the transcendent greatness of the winsome Mahomes, who more than any other single force has harnessed what we all might have imagined the magic of Arrowhead to be — the spirit that made it a place the visionary Hunt liked to say was his favorite “vacation spot in the world.”
It was a long time coming, to be sure.
But because of all that Reid set in motion on the way to winning his 300th game and what Mahomes has catalyzed with the best postseason winning percentage (16-3/84.21) and quarterback rating (105.6) of any quarterback with more than 10 postseason starts ...
Because of organizational synergy and a terrific defense and many other key factors …
Because ever-faithful fans have more to celebrate than ever before …
Arrowhead now embodies what was so elusive for so long, with a team befitting its aura and reputation.
This story was originally published January 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM.