This is a false narrative. There's been way more of a variety of teams have made the ALCS in recent years than the AFCCG.

In fairness, seeing John Elway up in the GM booth has that impact on opponents.

That variety is not due to all teams having an equal shot. The lack of variety in your statistic is due to the nature of football being dominated by great QBs, not by the nature of of revenue distribution. In baseball, it is vastly easier for the big-market teams (i.e. high revenue) to advance past the regular season than it is for the small-market (i.e. low revenue.) A larger variety in the teams advancing to the conference/league championship games is not in itself an indication that small-market teams have as much or more chance than the big-market teams.

Crazy things can happen.

I never thought that I'd see a Royals WS win before a Chiefs SB win, at least in my lifetime. Chiefs have been at the front doorstep because could never get in the door to the party, while the Royals had been terrible most of my life.

I was fortunate enough to start tee-ball around the time/peak of the "Bo Knows" era and last of the Brett era. Thought Bo was Superman. Every kid in KC wanted to be #16 or #5.

I was only 2yrs old and living in Peoria IL when the Royals won in '85, so there's no real connection for me there.

But also around that time, also Marty/DT coming to town, I was old enough to understand and be interested in football, old enough to where I could sit down and watch and actually be interested in the game. That's when I became a Chiefs fan. The Chiefs for most part were always good. But would always get beaten by teams with better QB in postseason. At the doorstep but never inside the party.

Growing up I never thought I'd ever see the Royals win a WS in my lifetime. Lots of people felt that way until about 2011 or 12. We all hoped that Hoz, Moose and these guys would pan out through the system and it happened and KC got a couple WS appearances with a win.

NFL is structured a little differently but like all pro sports you need a few things. A good FO committed to winning. A good coaching staff, and a couple/few really good superstars at the couple most important positions on the game. Whether you spend or draft/develop you still need all 3 things.

I was on board with Spags from day one. I like a lot of things about his defensive concepts.

After the Titans game, I was ready to move on not because "Fire the coach! Derp!" but because it appeared he'd lost his guys, I was seeing lack of effort up front especially. Defense is still a lot about 'WANT TO'.

But the boys up front have rallied, and Ingram has helped a lot and we can argue all day about Jones out of position and Clark blah, blah, blah. doesn't matter. They looked like shit for 6 weeks and have been balling since.

So Spags saved his job, and I'm glad to see it.

This post is nice.

Didn't the same thing happen in 2019. First half of the season we really sucked on D and then second half we had the best defense in the NFL???

The fact that Neimann and Sorensen don't see the field as often has also helped.

Spags defenses seem to do this a lot. Even the all-star Giants defense that won them a Super Bowl was kinda mediocreish at the beginning of the season. There's a reason that team was a wild card in the regular season.

So the question is... can he just coach a defense to play like this earlier in the season and to continue improving and communicating as the season goes along?

Right, but you talk about the Royals as if they are this diamond in the rough in terms of small market competitiveness.

Whereas by your own definition of success (advancing past the regular season), the A's, Tampa Bay, the Brewers, and Cleveland have all had great success advancing past the regular season since the Royals did in 2015.

While football doesn't have payroll disparities like baseball, franchises absolutely suffer from terrible owners just like baseball -- and like baseball, the NFL really doesn't do anything with their terrible owners.

Anyway, back to Spags.

Spags with a filthy d-line is an incredible defense to watch. That should be a given, but Sutton had phenomenal front 7's that often underperformed in big moments and seemed too passive when there were opportunities to strike. Spags, otoh, is the impatient madden player who goes with Engage Eight to try to force a sack and turnover, and it's a blast to watch when he's clicking.

I think Spags is a great D-coordinator. But I still wonder about the personnel decisions. Sorenson over Thornhill made no sense. I always thought Fenton was pretty good and they put everyone they could in front of him, until he finally won the job and now he's all world. Makes me wonder if maybe Armani Watts is actually decent and just can't see the field for whatever reason.

Speaking of Fenton, he will be missed Sunday.

Will Spags make the Ring of Honor?

Was there ever any doubt he'd NOT save his job? His adjustments 'historically' have been strong, I never panicked and was always (this season anyway) more concerned about our O.

I'm back to being a Bundle of Spags!