These longtime Kansas City Chiefs fans remember when the team was terrible. ‘Then Patrick came along’ | KCUR

But once more, the Kansas City Chiefs will begin the new NFL season as favorites to win the Tremendous Bowl.

However amongst the individuals who will pack Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday for the first regular-season sport, there are many fans like Gary Mitchell, of Kansas City, Kansas, who recollects the Chiefs’ leaner years.

“In dropping seasons, it’s actually laborious to get all the things collectively, spend cash to come back right here, and realizing that they may not win,” stated Mitchell earlier than final month’s preseason sport towards the Cleveland Browns.

Mitchell remembers 2012 as a very painful marketing campaign, when the Chiefs completed the season 2-14.

“Then Patrick came alongside, and look what you’ve,” Mitchell stated.

Certainly, as the Chiefs embark on their sixtieth yr of soccer in Kansas City, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and coach Andy Reid appear to have pushed these unhealthy recollections into the distant previous.

Reid’s first season with the team ended with an 11-5 document, and so they’ve made the playoffs yearly since 2015. Since Mahomes took on beginning duties, the Chiefs have performed in three Tremendous Bowls and received two, together with final season, 38-35, towards the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Chiefs unfold the 2023 season on Thursday towards the Detroit Lions, who haven’t received an NFL title since the late Nineteen Fifties.

“It’s been a tremendous run these final 5 – 6 years,” stated Mahomes the morning after his second Tremendous Bowl victory, in Phoenix. “And let’s preserve it rolling.”

Fans like Mitchell couldn’t agree extra.

Not since Professional Soccer Corridor of Famer Len Dawson’s arrival in ‘63 have Chiefs fans seen a comparable quarterback — Mahomes has taken the place to a different dimension.

The Baker household, from Independence, have adopted the team’s rise from the very starting.

“Once they came as much as Kansas City, my uncle purchased the tickets,” stated Dan Baker, from his Arrowhead Stadium tailgate spot. “My dad purchased tickets from my uncle, I purchased tickets by my dad and we’ve been right here since.”

Dan’s 90-year outdated father, Dick Baker, now foregoes these weekly journeys to Arrowhead as a result of his age, however he confirms “it has been fairly huge in our household, and, when the sport comes on, (we’re) just about sitting in our residing rooms if we’re not at the video games,” he stated.

Remembering these years when wins had been more durable to come back by helps Dan Baker recognize the Chiefs’ present success, he stated.

“I’ve gone by numerous very depressing video games out right here when we had 18,000 (fans) or one thing,” he stated. “I was certainly one of them.”

His outlook has utterly modified in recent times.

“Each sport, we count on for Mahomes to drag off some magic, or for Reid to design a complete new offensive play that no one’s seen and ready for,” he stated.

Staying near dwelling

Gary Spani performed linebacker for the Chiefs throughout a few of these darker days, after his time at Kansas State College. The Kansas native retired this yr as the Chiefs’ director of group engagement, after near 45 years with the group.

Spani stated if the team’s founder, Lamar Hunt, had been nonetheless round for these heady days, he’d be on the market mingling with tailgaters on sport day — the American Soccer League founder, who died in 2006, liked nothing greater than being part of all the things.

“Figuring out Lamar, he can be extra excited and centered on how he may make it higher for the fans, how he may make it higher for the group, how he may proceed to see the sport develop,” stated Spani.

Chiefs fan Gary Mitchell, a season-ticket holder, stated he’s on board it doesn’t matter what, however going to a sport feels completely different now that the team is constantly flying excessive.

“It provides us just a little bit extra ‘gump,’ so to talk, to come back out and see them play, as a result of their chances are high good,” he stated.

So good, in truth, {that a} shot at taking part in in subsequent yr’s Tremendous Bowl has grow to be routinely lifelike.