[Rain Man]

It's hard to pick a favorite, but I have one, and it's probably not a common choice.

I feel like my favorite should have the following elements:

1. It's a win. I want to be sure of that.
2. It's against a team that cheats and plays dirty, which pretty much means the Broncos or Raiders.
3. The dirty cheating team has a good record.
4. The Chiefs play well to get the win. I'm less interested in a 4-12 Chiefs win over 2-14 Raiders.

The iffy parts are this:

5. Do I want it to be a last-minute exciting win, or do I want it to be a complete dismantling of the villains? The last-minute wins stick in my memory more, so I guess that's the right answer. But I really enjoy a game where the Chiefs go out and destroy an opponent in every phase of the game.
6. Do I want the dirty cheating opponent to play well or not? It feels good to beat a strong team, but I may not want a strong performance by dirty cheaters. I never wanted to see John Elway or Lester Hayes or Bill Romanowski have a good game. I wanted to see them get humiliated from coin flip to final gun. This is a real dilemma when deciding a favorite game. But in the end, the villains' performance is less important to me than good guys' performance.
7. Obviously a win in a big game is better, but it's not a dealbreaker to me if it's not. However, this question is about the regular season, so it knocks out the great playoff performances of Joe Montana's Chiefs.


If I had to pick a few favorite games, they would be (in no particular order):

- the regular season opener in 1981 where the Chiefs beat Pittsburgh
- the game against the Raiders where Jeff George gave up. (Was that the same game where Leslie O'Neal killed him?)
- the Jamaal Charles massive touchdown game against the Raiders a couple of years ago
- the Larry Johnson last-second run to beat the Raiders a few years back
- Montana beating the salary cap cheaters
- Grbac to Rison over the Raiders
- Vanover over the Chargers
- Hasty's fumble recovery (or was it an interception?) against the Raiders
- Stoyanovich over the cheating Broncos
- Lowery's kick over the AFC champion Bengals
- 8 rushing touchdowns against the Falcons
- This one is up there.

But I think my favorite would have to be the game where the Chiefs finally got into the playoffs in 1986. They had no offense, but a spectacular defense and special teams. They got three touchdowns - a blocked punt, a kickoff return, and a blocked field goal return - to get into the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.

Think about how meaningful that game was, and how amazing the scoring was. I was 23 years old and had not seen the Chiefs in a playoff game since I was 8.