America Has Spoken: We’re Tired of the Chiefs, But a Three-Peat Would Cement A Historic Dynasty

A YouGov poll published this week found some hard evidence that America is suffering from Chiefs Fatigue.

Of the poll’s 1,604 respondents, 29% are rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles to win Super Bowl LIX on Sunday versus 22% for Kansas City. When we had the same matchup two years ago, the Chiefs outstripped the Eagles in support 30% to 27%. Decline in Chiefs support was found in the four main regions of the country—even the Midwest.

I won’t hide that I’m in Camp Philly. I’ve already taken shots at the Chiefs, Travis Kelce and the refs in a column here two weeks ago.

But allow me to strike a more conciliatory tone with Kansas City fans.

Because whether we like it or not, the Chiefs are on the precipice of the first Super Bowl three-peat ever. History is written by the victors, as they say, and short of a legitimate scandal that’s yet to come to light, another win would make the Chiefs an unimpeachable dynasty in the annals of football.

Not only would it be three straight Super Bowls, but it would also be a 4-1 record over five appearances in a six-year run. The Brady-Belichick Patriots can’t compete with those numbers.

And quibble with the competition all you want, but while Brady had Peyton Manning as his foil, Patrick Mahomes and co. share a conference with Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen. It’s a super quartet of quarterbacks for a single era, and the other three may never sniff a Lombardi Trophy because of Kansas City’s stranglehold.

How we choose to stomach this reality is up to each of us. The NFL Today’s Nate Burleson apparently scolded the anti-Chiefs contingent with a “Just be happy that you are alive to be there to see it.” No. You do not, in fact, gotta hand it to them. Burleson doesn’t get to tell anyone how to be a fan.

There are myriad reasons to be “over” the Chiefs, to justify your distaste, anything from Taylor and Travis to Mahomes’ problematic family members to Andy Reid’s son’s awful DWI to the kicker’s politics. Whatever suits you.

You’ll notice that none of those have to do with the product on the field. The closest any of us can come to puncturing the Chiefs’ actual football greatness is to cite their lucky record in one-score games and throw up our hands when the refs give them a favorable call.

I’ve had my fun with the officials, but my conclusion stands: There’s hardly proof here of a true league-rigging conspiracy to keep the Chiefs’ dreams alive. (The referees union crying about how insulted they were by fan theories was a tad much.)

We claim to want to witness greatness, but in reality most of us wish that it was our favorite team on that stage instead. It’s OK for the bulk of us to root against the Chiefs this weekend. That will take nothing away from a singular NFL accomplishment like a three-peat. 

In fact, the league office may privately like it this way.

“If winning football games makes you a villain, we’re going to keep going out there and doing it,” Mahomes said this week.

Spoken like a true villain, indeed.