How Bout Those Chiefs?

Here’s to the memories. LONG POST incoming - basically (TL;DR) Go Chiefs!!!

I still haven’t processed the wildness of the AFC Championship, or really even this football season. As I think about it, sometimes it feels like I haven’t fully even processed being married to the love of my life, having a house, a full time job, and that I’m closing in on 30 years old. Life has gone at a lightning quick pace since the moment I graduated, and sometimes it feels like I close my eyes and another year goes by. I remember everything about the day my brother was born, it feels like it was yesterday, and now he’s almost five years old. This isn’t intended to be a melancholy post about the fleeting feeling of life in what often feels like the existential grind of the day to day- to the contrary, I am happier in this time than I ever have been. I think a lot of that started when I decided to start pouring my focus into the things in life that I could actually control. I was inspired to do this after the Royals lost Game 7 of the World Series. It made me want to try something impactful in my own life, and something that I would always truly remember, and it was around that time I started planning my first trip to the beautiful country of Nepal.

So where in the world does sports fandom fit into all of that? An often unexplainable connection to athletes in an event that has an outcome outside of any fan’s control?

My mom did a good job early on. She introduced me to football at five years old, and I fell in love with the team that sported my favorite color, the Kansas City Chiefs. One of the first times I remember crying came when I watched John Elway lead the undefeated Broncos on a brilliant and heartbreaking comeback against the Chiefs at Mile High. Weirdly, that bonded me to the Chiefs in a way I couldn’t explain. It was not the last time my elementary school self would shed tears over a heartbreaking loss from the Chiefs (they sure did have a talent for those).

I remember (after a bad loss), being encouraged to write a different outcome by my parents and my pastor Jack Gilstrap. When I was around 7, I wrote a story about how the Chiefs won a Super Bowl against the Cowboys in overtime on a safety. I spent later elementary school spending my lunches talking about the Chiefs with my teacher Bill Goodwin and my friend Dylan. We always talked about what our team could do to make next year’s Super Bowl.

The Chiefs continued to have a presence in my life. They led me to make friendships with people I would not have made without them. In fact, I built friendships with 3 of my groomsmen through a shared fandom and heartbreak over the Chiefs. Later in life I made the decision to step back the rabidness of my fandom a little bit - I had to retool my life - and I wanted to get in control of how I reacted and prioritized sporting events. I stopped planning my Sundays around games, but instead starting reading editorials and downloaded an app that gave me life updates I could check-on. It allowed to stay in lock step with the team but evade the gut punches the games could so often bring. I found I couldn’t let go of my fandom, though. I often heard modern sports be compared to the diversions that Roman gladiators once brought folks. Comparisons like that didn’t matter, though. I just couldn’t stop being a sports fan.

But, two weeks ago, as I flew into Wichita to embark on a whirlwind of a 48 hour trip to watch the Chiefs in the AFC championship game, I realized that I couldn’t yet explain what it was that still made me so committed to the game.

It eventually hit me as my friend Scott picked me up in Wichita to drive me to Lawrence from the airport, and when we met Colin from his flight in Austin to Kansas City, and the three of us, for the first time in a year, met each other in person to watch a team we all loved.

In a life that is now so often a grind, at a time when time itself often feels like it’s flying by, and when the days start to blend together and their individual memories begin to disappear - sports creates a unifying reason to stop and remember the moments. The Chiefs have given a unifying reason for my friends to come together and share an experience we will always remember - and often, new reasons to be thankful for the incredible people in my life.

Two weeks ago gave me a reminder of how thankful I am to my incredible parents, who offered me their airline miles to fly to Wichita, my friends Colin and Scott, who instantly were in to see the game, my wife, Natalie, who after I initially declined my parents offer convinced me to reconsider and reach out to Scott and Colin to see if they’d be up to see the game, my amazing friend Jake who reserved a table at Burger Stand on the way home - and Nat and I’s incredible roommate Pearl, who took up a lot of my checklist to make sure we were still on track to move by February 3rd while I was gone.

The championship game also made me think about my Aunt Jackie. Who was tragically taken from the world much too soon this year - I knew she would be so happy looking down and watching the Chiefs, and I know she will be with us in spirit today.

Today Connor and his lovely significant other Steph will be coming over to a Super Bowl party hosted by my parents. We’ll be there cheering on our team with Natalie, Pearl, My Grandma - and Gibson, now near the age I was when I became a Chiefs fan - and with any luck, he too may become a fan for life. The Chiefs making the playoffs and the Super Bowl gave me a chance to spend the afternoon with people I truly love - and win or lose, I know I’ll remember it forever.

In life that now feels like it’s flying by, that’s absolutely a reason to be thankful.

Go Chiefs.