Ten Things About Super Bowl LIV: KC 31 SF 20

[gblowfish]

Ten Things About our 2019 Super Bowl Championship Game: KC 31 SF 20

10. This morning I woke up after a particularly restless night. Tossing and turning and seeing Elway and Rapistburger and Five Head and Brady in my shadow dreams. Got up around sunrise, and got to my well established game day routine. Hot shower and shave. My Chiefs flag (around 30 years old now) flown from the front porch. Coffee in the lucky game day coffee cup I’ve had since 1980. Set up the DVR to record everything. At 10am while puttering around the house I recorded Bill Grigsby and Bruce Rice doing the Super Bowl IV broadcast. I took the trash out around noon. These two kids were playing in the back yard a couple of yards over. There was a girl about 10 years old and her little brother, probably 7 or 8 years old. The girl took the football, swept right and ran down the fence line to the end of the yard while her little brother chased her. She spiked the football and yelled “Touchdown…Kansas…City!!!” I just watched for awhile and smiled. See, I still live in the house I grew up in as a kid. I vividly remember the 1970 game 50 years ago. It was a very cold day, and I watched the game with my dad with a fire in the fireplace. He whooped and hollered and cheered after the game, I went down to the end of our block. There’s a little lake at the base of the hill, and I went down and played hockey under the streetlights and a bonfire somebody made by the lake side. Today I watched the game with the lovely Mrs. B, the next door neighbor -our families have lived next door to each other for more than 60 years- my best man Gary and good friend from high school Eric. And it was in the very same living room that I watched the 1970 game with my dad. 50 years in the making. 50 years.

9. In 1985, I had to work some voodoo like mojo to help the Royals rally to beat the Cardinals. One important thing was to put some Gates BBQ sauce in a little cup on the mantle before Game 7. Today I put a little in the same spot on the fireplace mantle, and also put Gates in the crock pot with the little meatballs. We also had some cheese dip and chips, and Jambalaya as a salute to our last win in New Orleans. I did several whiskey shots in the afternoon while getting all the food together, but quit drinking about an hour before game time because I wanted to be clear headed enough to process everything. During the course of the game, I was thinking to myself I wasn’t really enjoying this thing all that much. I know I told myself earlier in the week it was just great to be in the big game. But man, if we’re going to go this far, why not win the damn thing? I thought most of the commercials sucked. Halftime sucked. Third Quarter sucked. Then the Chiefs do what the Chiefs do and scored 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to sprint to victory. I’ll admit, when the Chiefs were only up by four, I was so nervous I had to go to the basement and do a load of laundry. Had to return to the basement again a few minutes later to not jinx them at the two minute warning. Then Fuller got his pick. When you have Chiefs PTSD like I do, you just have to do what you have to do. My dad did the same thing back in his day. He’d even walk around the block if need be. But the thing I’ve finally realized is with Mahomes you don’t have to watch scared anymore. This was not even close to his best effort, and he was still the Super Bowl MVP. I think Damien Williams actually deserved the honor, but I’m sure both of them would tell you winning is the only thing that mattered. An old saying is "Everybody Looks Good at the Starting Line."

8. Chiefs are the first team to come back from a ten point deficit in each of their playoff games to win an NFL Worlds Championship. That alone makes this team legendary. Another thing that came to my mind was this: This was the perfect FU to San Francisco for the 2014 World Series. We were 90 feet away from tying up game seven and Salvy Perez fouls out to third. Niners were one final quarter away from a Super Bowl Championship, up by two possessions, and got shut down 21 points to zip in the quarter that matters most. Paybacks are a bitch. Add this to another historic KC misery reversed and vanquished. Not to mention all the retread SF QBs we lived through...

7. The game itself, well, haven’t really processed it all just yet. Initial reactions: Pundits (I’m looking at YOU Trent Dilfer) said Niners rushing game would crush KC. Leading rusher in the Super Bowl? Damien Williams with 104 yards. Mostert held to 58 yards. Jimmy G threw for just over 200 yards but had two costly picks and a QBR of 40.6. Not good. He was especially bad in the fourth quarter. Mahomes played maybe his worst game of the season - had two picks, sacked four times and a QBR of 61.6. But the ability to rally the team and lead a furious comeback in the fourth quarter is what WORLD CHAMPION LEADERS DO. I don’t think I’ll be dreaming about those other ghosts tonight.

6. Kudos to Watkins during the playoffs for his clutch receiving. People bagged on him the last two years and deservedly so, for production related to paycheck. But without him we don’t bring home this Lombardi trophy. Hill had over 100 including a 44 yard grab that swung momentum, and Kelce had several big catches and a TD. Damien Williams…man, what can you say about that guy? I can’t imagine if Kareem Hunt would have stuck and not been an immature bone head, that he would have been any better than Williams in this game. He was clutch both rushing and receiving, and did to the Niners what they had done to all the teams they defeated to get to Miami. Always great to fight fire with fire.

5. One thing I noticed during this whole playoff run: Every team we played felt like they had to throw the kitchen sink at us. Every gadget play like flea flickers, halfback option passes, wildcat, crazy end around stuff, fake punts, etc. Just seemed to me like every team we played, played in fear of KCs quick strike capability. And they were afraid for good reason. It’s the real deal. Just amazing resiliency this year. Stuff of legend.

4. I heard from a lot of people how they were pulling for Andy Reid. I’m so happy Andy won this one. It’s the game Marty and Vermeil could never get us to. I think the stat I saw said Andy coached 21 years in the NFL before he finally won it all. I think about all the guys from the 1970 team that made it to Canton. I think Andy’s a lock now. I also think Mahomes, Kelce, Schwartz, Hill, Matthieu, Clark and Jones all have shots at someday making it, especially if we get on a roll and do this a few more times during this current window. I was joking with my friend Gary that we always said we hoped we’d live long enough to see this day. Now that this day is done, neither of us is in any hurry to die just yet. Our next goal is to become arrogant, entitled asshole fans. You know, like Patriot fans!

3. I heard one of the sports commentators say that they estimated the crowd was about 70% Chiefs fans. I’m so glad Twisted Chief was able to cap off this season by being there. He’s done so many nice things for others in the past years that nobody deserves being rewarded more. He’s going to be a new dad in a few weeks. What an awesome year. Just so happy for him. Life doesn’t get any better.

2. So, the schools are announcing closure for Wednesday when the big parade is going to happen. It may snow the night before and morning of. Initial estimates say that a million and a half people may show up. The ceremony will be in front of Union Station, just like the Royals World Series Victory Parade in 2015. Definite route won’t be announced until Tuesday, but it’s sure to be, well, a party the likes this city has never seen. And the one in 2015 was massive and magical. Cold and snow won't bother us. We're Chiefs fans!

1. I wish I had more eloquent words this evening, but I’m just awestruck and so happy and grateful. You know, I don’t believe in petitioning the Lord in prayer over sporting events, but I’ll admit I did say a little prayer at the beginning of the fourth quarter. My prayer was answered I think. Or it may have been assisted by the souls of those fans who escaped this mortal coil without getting to see this day on Earth. Maybe that’s crazy thinking, but I can’t help but think things happen for a reason. Faith is a real thing. Faith rewarded after 50 years is a magical thing. What a great day in the history of this city. Nobody deserves it more than we do.

Thank you all so much for your kindness, encouragement and your comments over the past years reading and reacting to the Ten Things. I may ride off into the sunset after this one. Haven’t made up my mind yet, but this would be a good place for me to step off. Not getting any younger, y'know...

Regardless, its been my pleasure sharing my thoughts, observations and rants with you all. Sincerest Congratulations to the Hunt Family, Andy Reid, our beloved players past and present and to all the awesome Fans of Chiefs Kingdom and the CP. It’s a day we’ll all remember forever.

[cabletech94]

This is great and all, but can someone please tell me when my boner will subside, please?

[Buehler445]

This probably doesn't deserve it's own thread, but I wanted to bring it up.

I don't normally consume much sports media. Here's what I listen to:

Ryen Russillo Podcast
Bill Simmons Podcast (when he talks football)
Chris Simms Unbuttoned (only the weekly recaps - FUUUUUCK Mike Florio)
SVP Sports Center - once in awhile if its on after some game.

I didn't watch any of the pregame nonsense. I only cared about the snaps. **** all those fools. And there is 0% chance I'd EVER watch Stephen A Smith or Bayless or who the **** ever is just out there spewing hot takes. That is the worst thing going in sports.

But after the game, I took it all in. All of it. I took in all the post game interviews, went to ESPN and watched interviews there, I watched Sports Center. I took it in.

A couple things stood out.

1. All of our guys said the right things. There wasn't anybody that said anything cringeworthy, nobody calling fools out, or being a dick to the other team, or haters or whatever. Reid (and obviously the PR team) deserve a lot of credit here. But it's not just the PR team, Historically there is always somebody saying something stupid. Just speculating here, but Reid has built a hell of a culture. Jones could have held out. Things could have come apart when the defense was sucking ass. Things could have come apart at ANY of the 3 games we were losing. I think everybody - even Suggs who notoriously gives 0 ****s ever - was super respectful and represented the team well.

Means a lot.

2. Reid was on set with the ESPN guys and was his normal humble self. Then he tried to change the subject to get Randy Moss' kid to come to the Chiefs and went on about how good of a Dad Moss is. Moss listened for a second, and interrupted Reid and said, "coach this isn't about me, it's about you."

That was a pretty telling exchange for both guys. Reid is legitimately a nice guy. He didn't just go out there and puke out coach speak just to get through it. He took time to point out that Moss is a good dude. Pretty telling. On the other end, I wasn't ever much of a Moss guy, except when he was quitting in Oakland LOL, but damn, he had to be straight up adult to realize what Reid was doing and shift the spotlight back on him. I didn't expect that.

Sidenote: Moss is the best analyst I've seen on ESPN. Didn't expect that either.

3. Russillo pointed out that everybody in the media said they were happy for Reid, how he deserved it, blah blah blah. He went on to say that a lot of those same guys historically have straight blasted Reid saying he would NEVER win a bowl. I'm confident Russillo didn't say it because he's not hot take guy - which is why I listen. He's been in the business for a long time and has seen and heard a lot of shit. The fact that he felt it necessary to bring it up was telling. And Reid didn't say a word about it.

Classy dude.

[suzzer99]

Thanks George! I feel like we lived through this together from all the 10 things over the years. We did it man. The freaking finish line.

Funny I was at a party running around cleaning and picking up things most of the 4th Q. Not my party mind you. I just needed something to do during commercial breaks or I was gonna explode.

I hope Meesh Meesh appreciates his local fame and city's status as champions.

[MahiMike]

Our days have similarities. I too drank early but not during the game. My wife hid in the bathroom like you did in the basement late in the game. I said a little prayer before the game and also in the 4th.

Sad to see you might walk away from your 10 things. Hope not but I know it's a lot of work.

I was just re-reading the game day forum on a 49er site where they were hoping for ring #6. So spoiled.

Let's raise a toast to becoming as arrogant as 49ers and Patriots fans.

[jjchieffan]

I just got to read this. Thanks once more for anot amazing ten things. I get you being ready to hang up the 10 things. But I hope that you don't. I gotta have my ten things after every game.