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12-31-2020, 03:57 PM | |
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SI: The Inevitability of the Kansas City Chiefs
The season is already over, we're all just going through the motions now. That’s what I’ve been hearing and reading from analysts throughout our hermetically sealed football bubble. I’ve even seen it from some Chiefs fans on Twitter. The Chiefs are 14-1, but they aren’t obliterating their opponents and mailing the leftover viscera to their families, so are they really winning? The Chiefs have the best record in football, but their wins are being counted against them more than the losses of all other playoff teams. Nearly every discussion about the Chiefs over the last three or four weeks has legitimately been “Why aren’t the Chiefs blowing everyone out, and should we be concerned?” This is, in part, the Chiefs’ own doing. While the Chiefs have mostly goofed off, sleepwalked, and can’t-be-bothered their way to a 14-1 record, the Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers have spent the last couple of weeks looking a lot more exciting. Yet, the Chiefs have the second-best point differential in the NFL. They trail only the Baltimore Ravens, who they always beat. So, to be clear, the lackadaisical team that looks like it couldn’t care less and refuses to blow out teams is second in the league at scoring more points than their opponent. I get it. The version of the NFL we know today was built on storylines and narratives. Like 50% of the stuff I’ve written about the Chiefs has been complaining about dumb made-up media/fan narratives or trying to find narratives of my own to spend a thousand words on. Without the rivalries or beefs or soap operas or redemption arcs, the NFL wouldn’t be one of the biggest sports and entertainment goliaths in the world. The Chiefs' inevitability runs counter to the idea the NFL is the land of parity. It’s difficult to preach “any given Sunday” when Kansas City feels so inevitable. We all already know the ending, but we’re pretending like we didn’t peek at the last page before starting the prologue. We’ve known where this season has been headed since last season ended. The Chiefs have no competition. Everyone knows it. The comparison to the '90s Chicago Bulls and 2010s Golden State Warriors are already tired. They could kneel the ball every play until the fourth quarter and still put up 31. They have no peers. It's the Chiefs, about a galaxy of empty space, and then everyone else. That’s not just this year; it’s the next 15 years. People like to point to the Chiefs' collection of talent and say there’s no way the team can maintain its powerhouse status after Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill are gone. I would remind those people that Kelce and Hill were third- and fifth-round picks. The Chiefs are about to be a Patriots-tier dynasty that also drafts well. It’s over, folks. Turning to the 2020 playoffs, the Bills or Tennessee Titans on their absolute most flawless days will beat the Chiefs on their absolute worst day. That is legitimately the only reality in which the Chiefs do not get to a second-straight Super Bowl. The rest of the AFC has no shot. The Steelers and Colts have lumbering, geriatric noodle-arm quarterbacks who load up like trebuchets before hucking the ball seven yards downfield in an excruciating, borderline-tortuous fashion. The Ravens have had three seasons to figure out how to attack Mahomes and just keep getting embarrassed. The Browns would need twice the graupel they got last time to even have a shot at keeping it close. The Dolphins are just kinda there. As far as potential Super Bowl opponents, the Packers and Seahawks fall into the Bills and Titans “if we don’t make a single mistake and the Chiefs eat themselves, then we have a shot” camp. Everyone else is hopeless. All of their fatal flaws are infinitely exploitable by even a middling Chiefs performance. It’s not fun for anyone but the Chiefs and their fans to exist in a world where no one else has a fair shot. But it is what it is, and after this postseason, reality will finally set in. The only thing stopping the Chiefs are injuries or themselves. The 2020 season was over when it started, the games were just a formality. https://www.si.com/nfl/chiefs/gm-rep...L0ouqE1hikwOTM |
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12-31-2020, 04:26 PM | #16 | |
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Quote:
Instead, we get a puff piece that damn near anyone here could have done better. |
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12-31-2020, 04:26 PM | #17 |
pie is never free
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Thats a manly beard, combined with the scholarly looking specs and Chiefs gear... I still like the cut of his jib
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12-31-2020, 04:27 PM | #18 |
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Whoa, surprised Jason could stop gettin' pussy for the hour it took him to put this together.
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12-31-2020, 04:27 PM | #19 |
Banned!
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Currently, our offensive line prevents us from putting up better numbers. If they can get healthy, we'll look better.
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Your son is a bench warmer because of your weak genetics not because of the coach Norlin Mommsen is disgusting. |
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12-31-2020, 04:28 PM | #20 |
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12-31-2020, 04:30 PM | #21 |
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Hrmm, I wonder how daquix feels about this article...
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12-31-2020, 04:31 PM | #22 | |
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Quote:
SI is trying to be like the Athletic. Trying to get beat writers for every team but not paying shit. So you get who will work for free or near free.
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Mind you own damn business |
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12-31-2020, 04:31 PM | #23 |
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This writer seems nice.
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12-31-2020, 04:48 PM | #24 |
NFL's #1 Ermines Fan
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In a lucky coincidence, these are the only people I care about in the football world.
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Active fan of the greatest team in NFL history. |
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12-31-2020, 04:50 PM | #25 |
'Tis my eye!
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12-31-2020, 04:50 PM | #26 |
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12-31-2020, 04:54 PM | #27 |
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I enjoyed reading that.
Is it good journalism or accurate analysis? No, of course not - but really - just about as good and accurate as any other sports journalism story.
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What am I even doing here? |
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12-31-2020, 04:57 PM | #28 |
The pizza king of kansas
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The chiefs are Batman. The rest of the league kite man.
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When it's grim, be the grim reaper and go get it. Adopt a chiefs Travis Kelce. You woke up the wrong mother****er! |
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12-31-2020, 04:59 PM | #29 |
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First off, that beard is awesome. I also agree the weakness that could derail our season is our offensive line. Maybe the rest will get them healthy but it is a fine line between rest and rust.
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12-31-2020, 05:02 PM | #30 |
Now you've pissed me off!
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The only team that can beat the Chiefs is the Chiefs. With that said, there are numerous examples of dominant teams having flat or ineffective performances in one game samples that led to stunning defeats on a championship path. Just a few off the top of my head:
1983 Nebraska 1986 Miami Hurricanes 1998 Minnesota Vikings 2001 Rams 2007 Patriots It's not common, but it can and has happened, especially when the ball ain't round.
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