For me, it brings back distant memories. Super Bowl I, back when everyone still used Roman numerals, between Kansas City and the Green Bay Packers was the only title game broadcast by two TV stations, one for the AFL and one for the NFL. Packers won 35-10 that day. But it was game on for the new AFL!
I was a little boy who played football with other boys in the neighborhood. Often I would go through the streets and backyards gathering a few boys so I could be the star quarterback to their receivers and halfbacks. If we found enough boys we could have a pick-up game in an abandoned field.
But on that day, I entered the living room and saw a football game on our black-and-white TV with the three channels available by rabbit ears. "What's that?" I asked my parents, sitting on the couch. My father turned and said, "They call it the Super Bowl." I asked who was playing and when I heard it was our team (we lived in Kansas City then), I learned my city had its own football team, the Chiefs. I was a fan from that day forward.
I missed Super Bowl II due to playing football with boys in the neighborhood, but I watched all the others. Well, except for one in the eighties because I didn't care who won so I offered to cover the shift of a coworker. But the others I watched, whether to cheer for a team or shout curses at a team hoping they would lose. Like with many Americans, it became a mid-winter ritual.
As a boy who loved playing football, I was such a fan that I went to training camp at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri just to get autographs. Trudging up from the field to the locker room at the end of a long day was Len Dawson (QB and Super Bowl IV MVP). I shyly stepped forward and asked for his autograph and he did not hesitate a bit to sign the notebook I had. Thank you!
Now, after many generations of players and coaches, some coming close and others far from it, the latest incarnation of the Kansas City Chiefs have returned to the big game and claimed the crown in dramatic fashion. There are plenty of written accounts and video highlights elsewhere if you wish to indulge in descriptions of the game. Following the protocol I had developed during the season, I avoided guacamole during the game - but chips and queso were permitted. I wore my gray sweatpants and a red t-shirt (alas, not a Chiefs shirt but still red) - the same outfit I wore when they won the game that started their winning streak culminating in the Super Bowl.
We have suffered through many bad seasons and, perhaps worse, the winning seasons that ended too soon or in unbelievable fashion (I'm looking at you 2018). But now it's happened. It's finally happened. If your team is regularly in the playoffs and if your team has been in a Super Bowl in recent years, you don't know the feeling of this moment. I even splurged on souvenir championship shirts and a cap - which I will likely never wear, keeping it clean and safe for another generation.
Congratulations, Kansas City Chiefs!
I always knew you would get there!
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I respect your love for your city's team. We Sea Hawks fans salute you (and rooted for you)!
ReplyDeleteYou guys are free to rule the northwest precincts.
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