The night I became a Chiefs fan

[Stryker]

So this thread is dedicated to all of those fans who do not live in Kansas City nor surrounding areas.

My brother who is a die hard Steelers fan, asked me why do I not have a favorite NFL team? (This is circa 1994) (I live in Louisiana) I had just bought him an authentic Steelers helmet - which he did not have, as a Christmas gift. This game was on TV...

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I told him at that moment, that I was a Chiefs fan for LIFE - my favorite color is RED. I turned right back around and ordered an authentic Chiefs helmet for myself to seal the deal.

I can remember the day when they were delivered at my parents house and my dad was tripping because it was so awesome! My brother still has that helmet to this day. I lost mine in the 2011 fire and now he replaced mine with an authentic Speed helmet. A long road being an out of town Chiefs fan but a fun ride during that tenure. A shout out to the outsiders not from Kansas City that love our Chiefs! We do not live there, but we are a part of you all!

This is that full size authentic helmet...

[Chiefspants]

If only Joe were healthy enough to stay for 95.

But, the butterfly effect likely effects us enough to keep us from getting Mahomes. So, worth it.

Great story.

[MMXcalibur]

That's the earliest Chiefs game I can remember watching and it was an awesome one to boot.

Like many, I was a Joe Montana fan and simply ended up staying with the Chiefs after he retired.

[TribalElder]

good lord, fucking cheating ass donkeys trying to pull some shit out of bounds then back in to catch the game winner

they got what they deserve

fuck horse face too

ROFL

[Monticore]

I started watching football during the 85’ Bears playoff run So I liked them initially i was 12 and i enjoyed watching defences play and they were pretty good , so I tried to watch games here and there mostly being forced to watch Bills games but in 89’ this kid out of KC caught my eye a rookie named Derrick Thomas , even though I new little about the game x and o wise there was just something about this kid skill/speed/motor just couldn’t keep my eyes off of him I barely paid attention when the offence was on actually hoping they would go three and out to watch DT do his thing , my preference over the years especially lately is watching the O For obvious reasons as D lover there has been some painful years watching these guys but the pain is all gone now.

[TinyEvel]

Me too. But 9 months earlier January 17, 1994. AFC Wild Card Game against the Oilers in Houston.

I grew up in Los Angeles. Not in a football household. When I got out of college and started working, i wanted to jaw with the guys at work about football so i decided to start watching the NFL.

Well, I had to pick a team.

Never really vibed with the Raiders, and the Rams were nothing to me.

So I started just watching games, it was Wild Card weekend.

I watched Montana come back in the 2nd half to beat the Oilers. The team seemed electric. Schottenheimer was really animated on the sidelines.

I said to myself, "Chiefs. That team has moxie." I will be a Chiefs fan.

Went to the Champs Sports in Newport Beach, CA and bought the only Chiefs cap there. Put it on and there I was.

And they wouldn't win another playoff game for another 22 years, until, ironically, I moved to KC in 2015 they beat the Houston Texans in round 1.

[Chiefspants]

The first Chiefs game I remember watching was us @ the Eagles in 1998.

Rich Gannon led us on a touchdown drive down in the 4th quarter. Tony G came up with a big recovery on an onsides kick attempt, and Donnell Bennett was gonna be a star.

My mom is a big Washington fan. She had just introduced me to football. She really wanted me to like them - but, we only had local channels, and I really was liking that other red team from the Midwest.

I gave it another week to decide who was going to be “my team.” But decided after the next week that I was going to love the Chiefs.

They rewarded me by losing 6 straight. First time I ever cried at a sporting event was when Elway led a Denver come back down ten in Q4 at Mile High.

It was all worth it.

[Baby Lee]

I came to football fandom, let alone Chiefs fandom, relatively late.
I didn't have much interaction with football at all growing up, certainly not professional.
I played soccer and tee ball until they started pitching [actually I had an unrelated injury that cut my first season of pitch baseball short]. By the time I recovered in the fall, I was all in on soccer.
Prior to becoming a Chiefs fan, I recall three things about football.
1. My first issue of Boys Life when I started Cub Scouts had Terry Bradshaw on the cover [October 1979]. Before that, I don't know that I was even aware professional football existed.
2. When Al Toon had like 10 100 yard receiving games in a row for the Jets that one season, I started following pretty religiously. Had never seen someone so dominant [in my limited exposure].
3, In 87 or 88, I took a lot of interest in watching Dino Hackett play. The team sucked, but he was fun to watch.

Then I remember listening to the radio the day Marty was hired, and the certainty in the radio guys' voices that he was a good hire.
That first season coincided with me going off to college. And Kirksville was in the middle of nowhere and the dorms didn't even have cable, except for A TV in the common areas on each floor. Between that season, and DT, and having a group of guys in the dorm who all got together to 'reserve' a common area TV to watch the game together, and the watching of the 'hometown KC Chiefs' a part of keeping me connected to home, all coalesced to cement my fandom that fall of 89.

Haven't missed a game since week 1 of the 89 season.

[|Zach|]

It is always eye opening to see how many life long Chiefs fans came to be fans from Montana coming to us. What a crazy time. The Chiefs v Steelers playoff games was one of the best games I have ever been to in person even though I was pretty young. I also remember going to Houston and watching them beat the Oilers. Lots of good memories from the era. Earliest memories I have of the Chiefs is of DeBerg and is epic play action fake handoffs. There are probably ones earlier than that but he really sticks out for me.

[scho63]

I've never lived in Kansas City, never had any relatives or family from Kansas City nor anywhere close. I grew up a New Jersey guy, where I spent a majority of my life.

My unique story begins in late 1969 early 1970 when I was put in front of the TV for the first time to watch major sports. My father was NOT a sports guy at all, he hated pro athletes.

My first team I saw was the KC Chiefs winning the 1970 Superbowl and I became a fan at 7 years old. I'm now 57. Never wavered and took all the crap for years from all my friends who I grew with back East who loved the Cowboys or Jets or Giants or Yankees or Mets or Phillies or NY Rangers or Knicks.

The next year I saw the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Orioles in the World Series and I've been a huge Pirates fan ever since. My first baseball game live was at the VET in Philly and I got to see Dock Ellis pitch, Bill Mazerowski play 1st base, Willie Stargell in Centerfield, Roberto Clemente in Right and Manny Sangullen behind the plate.

I always liked Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes and Phil Chenier and Earl Monroe so I chose the Washngton Bullets and now they are called the Wizards.

Lastly I always HATED the NY Rangers and watched then often against the Chicago Blackhawks and they are my team.

You won't find someone with more obscure and strange favorite teams they like for never having lived in any of these cities.

I've been loyal since 7-10 years old and 50 years later, they are still me teams.

[scho63]

BTW, did you see the fuck faced asshole who is kicking off???

[Rasputin]

I went through puberty the day i was at the game vs Oilers Steve Deberg broke his pinkie finger on an Oilers helmet and they showed it over and over on the jumbo tron.

Even though we got our ass whooped that day with Warren Moon eclipsing 500 yards passing air raid the crowed was loud and I just loved everything Chiefs. It happened to be a cold November drizzle day.

[Brody Wa]

When I was drinking too much Strawberry Boones farm wine at a high school party in Sunnyvale Ca, there was a lot of sh$$ talking between 49ers and Raider fans so I decided right then and there that I would claim The Chiefs as my team and I squakked like everbody else how I hated both teams equally. Unfortunately they laughed when I brought The Chiefs in to the conversation. That year they hired Marty Schottenheimer as the Head Coach and later on they stole both Marcus Allen and Joe Montana Crome the raiders and 49ers. I was ecstatic about both of the signings. It was well worth the wait for our last SB win.

[Chiefspants]

It is always eye opening to see how many life long Chiefs fans came to be fans from Montana coming to us.What a crazy time. The Chiefs v Steelers playoff games was one of the best games I have ever been to in person even though I was pretty young. I also remember going to Houston and watching them beat the Oilers. Lots of good memories from the era. Earliest memories I have of the Chiefs is of DeBerg and is epic play action fake handoffs. There are probably ones earlier than that but he really sticks out for me.

This really is an underrated part of Marty’s legacy. He (and Carl begrudgingly gets some credit here) revived the culture of football in Kansas City. I’d say it began with a shell shocked Elway getting the refs to ask Arrowhead to lower their crowd noise but hit its stride with Montana. I think Joe Posnanski said requests for press passes doubled (perhaps tripled?) when Montana came to KC. He put us on the map and then Marty kept us at that level through most of the decade - really establishing a culture in KC.

Without that culture and expectation, I do not think our fandom puts together the blackout/SOC movement to oust Pioli. We weren’t a dinky flyover City (as Pioli seemed to think when we got here). We all had championship expectations, and a staff who wanted the same thing and wouldn’t condescend to us in the process.

Gosh did we find that staff, too.

[Coochie liquor]

I lived in St Louis and was working at a restaurant called Tippins. The 2 managers were both from KC and were KC fans. I went to a bar with them and watched KC vs Faders. Saw how into it they were, and been a fan ever since. Think this was 87, but not positive.

[The Franchise]

I converted when Montana was traded.

[ChiTown]

In my Family, you were either a Chiefs fan, or you could go live somewhere else. So, I guess my moment was when I was born - which was shortly after the Chiefs lost SB I

[luv]

I grew up in an area saturated by the Cardinals baseball market and the Chiefs football market. I was more of a baseball fan growing up though, as we always went to games whenever my brother and I had roller skating meets in St. Louis. I never paid attention to football. Fast forward to 2004. My dad was a member of this site, and he supported the 37 Forever Foundation that this site used to run. He asked me to go to the Chiefs/Texans game on September 26, 2004 to be a designated driver for him and tommykat. This game was the one where they inducted Joe Delaney into the Ring of Honor.

It wasn't until after that game that dad told me about this place. I was just getting into message boards, chat rooms, etc., so I lurked here for a few months before joining that December. Shortly before the following season, Clay (going by GoChiefs back then) called me out on my fandom, asking how I could be a fan whenever I knew nothing about the game or the players. I went to the Chiefs/Cardinals preseason game on August 26, 2005 with my dad, and I asked him questions about positions, players, etc. just about the entire time from leaving Springfield to returning home.

So, I can either say my fandom started September 26, 2004 or eleven months later on August 26, 2005.