Chiefs Why do we care so much? - Page 2

InChiefsHeaven · 01-10-2019, 10:33 AM

I've actually done a lot of thinking on this the last few years, and really the last few months.

I've been a Chiefs fan my whole life, though nobody in my family is. Back in the 70's my dad bought a poster for me and my brother's bedroom. It was a picture of an end zone pile up with the Chiefs and the Raiders. I guess I decided I liked the guys in Red, and I've never looked back.

I dealt with kids literally making fun of me in the 70s and 80s because the Chiefs sucked so bad. Then the 90s happened, and I guess it was redemption time, though it still ended in no championships.

I keep a schedule every year, I write the scores and my thoughts on the games. I just looked at the 2006 one where we lost to the...Colts...and read the final note I wrote: New Years Resolution...stop caring so much about the Chiefs...

...and for the most part, I have, a little anyway. I don't get nearly as involved in the draft as I used to, and I've actually had to miss a couple of games on TV because of other things going on...something that would have been unthinkable back in the day, when a loss meant literally 3 days of pissy-ness from me.

So I ask myself...why do I care so much? There is not one thing I can do to change how the Chiefs do play to play, game to game, season to season. And yet, I BLEED Chiefs red, hope reigns eternal every offseason and by the time the season rolls around, I'm feeling pretty good about our chances.

The question is...why oh why do we care so much about something that...at the end of the day, has no effect on our lives in any way shape or form, except the affect we allow it to have on our psyches.

This week, as I sit in anticipation of another Chiefs playoff game, and I think over in my head how great it will be if we win...I just wonder...why do I care so much?

Thoughts?

ModSocks · 01-10-2019, 11:21 AM

Because our fandom is part of our identity. So it's only natural that we make their success and failures personal.

For some of us, they represent us too. As a Chiefs fan in San Diego, there aren't many of us. So to my many friends and family over the years when they see the Chiefs, they think of me.

"Dang Detoxing must be so happy right now since they have Mahomes"

Or

"Dang, Detoxing must be pissed right now after that loss"

"I saw the Chiefs the other day, made me think of you...."

suzzer99 · 01-10-2019, 11:24 AM

Battered wife syndrome.

It's a way to bond with my friends and family back in KC.

It's like a striptease where you never actually get to see much more than a glimpse of a nipple - but it drives you crazy much more than a gaping vagina right in your face.

That's all I got.

Frazod · 01-10-2019, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Because our fandom is part of our identity. So it's only natural that we make their success and failures personal.

For some of us, they represent us too. As a Chiefs fan in San Diego, there aren't many of us. So to my many friends and family over the years when they see the Chiefs, they think of me.

"Dang Detoxing must be so happy right now since they have Mahomes"

Or

"Dang, Detoxing must be pissed right now after that loss"

"I saw the Chiefs the other day, made me think of you...."

Good point. I've lived away from Missouri for nearly all of my adult life. Being of fan of the Chiefs in particular has become a major part of my identity.

Also, I have no real life support group to console me if they lose. That sucks.

TLO · 01-10-2019, 11:41 AM

Because we are the Chiefs

dlphg9 · 01-10-2019, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InChiefsHell

I've actually done a lot of thinking on this the last few years, and really the last few months.

I've been a Chiefs fan my whole life, though nobody in my family is. Back in the 70's my dad bought a poster for me and my brother's bedroom. It was a picture of an end zone pile up with the Chiefs and the Raiders. I guess I decided I liked the guys in Red, and I've never looked back.

I dealt with kids literally making fun of me in the 70s and 80s because the Chiefs sucked so bad. Then the 90s happened, and I guess it was redemption time, though it still ended in no championships.

I keep a schedule every year, I write the scores and my thoughts on the games. I just looked at the 2006 one where we lost to the...Colts...and read the final note I wrote: New Years Resolution...stop caring so much about the Chiefs...

...and for the most part, I have, a little anyway. I don't get nearly as involved in the draft as I used to, and I've actually had to miss a couple of games on TV because of other things going on...something that would have been unthinkable back in the day, when a loss meant literally 3 days of pissy-ness from me.

So I ask myself...why do I care so much? There is not one thing I can do to change how the Chiefs do play to play, game to game, season to season. And yet, I BLEED Chiefs red, hope reigns eternal every offseason and by the time the season rolls around, I'm feeling pretty good about our chances.

The question is...why oh why do we care so much about something that...at the end of the day, has no effect on our lives in any way shape or form, except the affect we allow it to have on our psyches.

This week, as I sit in anticipation of another Chiefs playoff game, and I think over in my head how great it will be if we win...I just wonder...why do I care so much?

Thoughts?

I remember my brother and I went to the last regular season game in 2006 against the Jaguars and I was 16 and he was 14. It was my very first Chiefs game and it was just me and him. Driving around to get into the stadium can sometimes be a pain, but imagine being a 16 year old kid from rural Missouri and had only driven in the city a handful of times, now that was stressful as hell.

I remember that day like it was yesterday. Mom had made us biscuits and sausage patties that morning so that we could make breakfast sandwiches before the game, so that we didnt have to spend any extra money at the game since it was so expensive and our family was pretty poor when I was a kid. So we get to the stadium without any problems and the Chiefs pretty much dominated the Jags. The score made it seem like the game was closer than it was, but the Chiefs were up 35-24 with less than 6 minutes to go. The Jags scored with 5 minutes left, but they never got the ball back.

So if you all remember the 2006 season, then youd remember that the Chiefs needed like 3 teams to lose (Bengals, Broncos, Titans) and they had to win to make it into the playoffs. Well I remember when we were at the game a group on people sitting several rows back started to erupt and go crazy. Well word got to us pretty quickly that Shayne Graham from the Bengals missed a 39 yard field goal that would have won the game and they were going to OT. Well the Steelers got the ball first in OT and scored in the first 3 plays. So we leave the game and start our drive home, it took us like 1 and a half hours to get home.

By the time we had left 3 of the 4 things we needed to happen happened (Chiefs win, Patriots beat the Titans, Steelers beat the Bengals). The last thing we needed to happen was the 49ers needed to beat the Broncos. This was the Alex Smith led 49ers. When we got home the Broncos were up 13-0 and right around half time. I thought ok well ill just take a nap, since I was tired from the long day and I had a feeling that the Broncos were going to win. I wasnt even terribly mad, because I knew going into the day that the chances the Chiefs were going to win the wild card were pretty slim. At least I got some brief excitement from the brief dreams of making the post season.

So I wake up from my nap and to my surprise its the 4th qtr and omg the 49ers are up a TD! Could this really be happening? My brother and I shared a room and he had fallen asleep too so I wake him up to watch the end with me. So if you all dont remember, the Broncos tied the game and force overtime. OT is a shit show and no one is able to move the ball and im just thinking after all of this excitement none of these ****ers are going to score and its going to end in a tie and Im pretty sure that meant the Broncos are in. But as fate would have it Alex Smith leads the 49ers down the field and the 49ers kick a FG with 2 minutes remaining in OT to beat the Donkeys and send KC into the playoffs.

After the 49ers won I jumped up out of my bed and started running around the house and yelling like a crazy person. Everyone knows that we did nothing in the playoffs and got our asses kicked by the Super Bowl champions the Indianapolis Mannings.

That was the only Chiefs game I ever went to with my brother and he passed away 4 years after that. Its one of my favorite memories with him. Just my brother and I among 70,000 other Chiefs fans on one of the most exciting days that I can remember.

You can have so many special memories that would have been just another day if it hadnt been for the Chiefs. I just had to look up my earliest memory of the Chiefs and all I knew was Pete Stoyanovich made a long FG at the end of the game to beat the Broncos. It was week 12 of the 1997 season and I was only 7. Broncos were up 22-21 after horse face drove the donks down the field and Elam kicked a FG to put them ahead. Rich Gannon gets the ball back with 2 minutes left and drives down the field and sets up Stoyanovichs 54 yards FG as time expires to beat the Donkeys at Arrowhead. I remember that day because my uncle who is a huge Chiefs fan gave me the biggest high five of my life to that point.

So thats why I care. Without this team I would never have those memories.

O.city · 01-10-2019, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Because our fandom is part of our identity. So it's only natural that we make their success and failures personal.

For some of us, they represent us too. As a Chiefs fan in San Diego, there aren't many of us. So to my many friends and family over the years when they see the Chiefs, they think of me.

"Dang Detoxing must be so happy right now since they have Mahomes"

Or

"Dang, Detoxing must be pissed right now after that loss"

"I saw the Chiefs the other day, made me think of you...."

Tribalism.

We all need to feel like we fit in with a group.

This is our tribe mother ****ers.

**Bugeater** · 01-10-2019, 01:04 PM

Now that you bring it up? I shouldn't care. At all.

**** IT I'M OUT OF HERE

Hammock Parties · 01-10-2019, 01:13 PM

Because a long time ago we got infected and there's nothing you can do about it.

It just is and there's no explaining it.

You can't turn it off.

We're the only fanbase that's led a goddamn grass roots revolt against the GM, and that's because the franchise is like our ****ing kid.

We're all sick in the head and we're gonna love every minute of it.

**New World Order** · 01-10-2019, 01:13 PM

I think it's more about socializing with people.

When your team is good it's fun to hang out and watch games with friends/family; It's fun attending games; It's fun talking about games; It's fun posting about the game; It's fun talking shit to opposing fans etc

InChiefsHeaven · 01-10-2019, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Because our fandom is part of our identity. So it's only natural that we make their success and failures personal.

For some of us, they represent us too. As a Chiefs fan in San Diego, there aren't many of us. So to my many friends and family over the years when they see the Chiefs, they think of me.

"Dang Detoxing must be so happy right now since they have Mahomes"

Or

"Dang, Detoxing must be pissed right now after that loss"

"I saw the Chiefs the other day, made me think of you...."

Agree to all of this, but the overarching question is still why? It's a part of our identity because we have made it so...why do we do that?

I like the idea of tribalism and wanting to belong to a sort of "exclusive" group. We're Chiefs fans, unless you are one, you don't get it. Or we're Husker fans, or Mizzou or whatever team and sport. So I guess maybe the reason we care so much is that...we need to. We need to be a part of something that is bigger (although infinitely less important) than we are. We pride ourselves as human beings in being rational, but there is literally no rationality to being a fan of a sports team. It's all emotion. Maybe that's something as well...

I do know that I have a great love of the game of football, so my passion is there, and I've attached the Chiefs as the team that fulfill my passion for the game.

I can't and won't do fantasy football because I'd have to pay attention to other teams that I frankly don't give a shit about.

In that way, I'm a pure Chiefs fan (in college it's the Huskers). I may have some teams that I don't hate, but there is no other team for me than my Chiefs. Not sure how I got here since nobody in my family was a Chiefs fan, but there you go. I feel a part of something, and if we (see what I did there) win or lose, I'll always be a fan.

InChiefsHeaven · 01-10-2019, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Now that you bring it up? I shouldn't care. At all.

**** IT I'M OUT OF HERE

Quitter.

Discuss Thrower · 01-10-2019, 01:16 PM

Oxytocin.

Pablo · 01-10-2019, 01:19 PM

I don't know why I care so much. I do know I'm not gonna stop caring so much now; after all the shit I've swallowed over the years. I'm gonna care even more now that it looks like we have the great biracial hope.

InChiefsHeaven · 01-10-2019, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dayze

I get excited for the games. and if they win, awesome. If they lose, pfffft.
i stopped caring about losses long ago; probably 206/2007 time frame.

if they lose, it sucks for about a half hour, but then I go on about my day/business. I've got my own shit to worry about to let a bunch of millionaires, a majority of whom, likely don't care if they win or lose to the degree a lot of die hard fans do.

I guess I'm just don't care about losses anymore. They suck, sure. But oh well. I enjoy the hell out of the wins, and don't let the losses effect me too much.

polar opposite from what i was like circa 1990 - 2006. Even a 'win' didn't really satisfy me all that much because I was always finding something on the team to worry about etc.

This is me as well...I think age sort of tempers the emotion. Age and life...the older I get the more life experience informs me that this Chiefs thing won't matter in 100 years, it won't matter if I get cancer, it won't matter if I lose my job...but it's something that I can depend on I guess. A distraction. Good or bad, I can depend on being a fan of this team.

InChiefsHeaven · 01-10-2019, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pablo

I don't know why I care so much. I do know I'm not gonna stop caring so much now; after all the shit I've swallowed over the years. I'm gonna care even more now that it looks like we have the great biracial hope.

Good point. I think that's part of it too. The longer you are a fan, the more you invest in it (time, emotion etc) the less possibility it seems that you could stop being a fan.

I mean, you can't decide all that time was wasted...so you press on...

01-10-2019, 10:33 AM
InChiefsHeaven Rockin' yer FACE OFF! Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Omaha, Nebraska Casino cash: $3894937	Why do we care so much? I've actually done a lot of thinking on this the last few years, and really the last few months. I've been a Chiefs fan my whole life, though nobody in my family is. Back in the 70's my dad bought a poster for me and my brother's bedroom. It was a picture of an end zone pile up with the Chiefs and the Raiders. I guess I decided I liked the guys in Red, and I've never looked back. I dealt with kids literally making fun of me in the 70s and 80s because the Chiefs sucked so bad. Then the 90s happened, and I guess it was redemption time, though it still ended in no championships. I keep a schedule every year, I write the scores and my thoughts on the games. I just looked at the 2006 one where we lost to the...Colts...and read the final note I wrote: New Years Resolution...stop caring so much about the Chiefs... ...and for the most part, I have, a little anyway. I don't get nearly as involved in the draft as I used to, and I've actually had to miss a couple of games on TV because of other things going on...something that would have been unthinkable back in the day, when a loss meant literally 3 days of pissy-ness from me. So I ask myself...why do I care so much? There is not one thing I can do to change how the Chiefs do play to play, game to game, season to season. And yet, I BLEED Chiefs red, hope reigns eternal every offseason and by the time the season rolls around, I'm feeling pretty good about our chances. The question is...why oh why do we care so much about something that...at the end of the day, has no effect on our lives in any way shape or form, except the affect we allow it to have on our psyches. This week, as I sit in anticipation of another Chiefs playoff game, and I think over in my head how great it will be if we win...I just wonder...why do I care so much? Thoughts?
Posts: 25,725

01-10-2019, 11:21 AM	#16
ModSocks Needs more middle fingers Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Diego Casino cash: $4294563	Because our fandom is part of our identity. So it's only natural that we make their success and failures personal. For some of us, they represent us too. As a Chiefs fan in San Diego, there aren't many of us. So to my many friends and family over the years when they see the Chiefs, they think of me. "Dang Detoxing must be so happy right now since they have Mahomes" Or "Dang, Detoxing must be pissed right now after that loss" "I saw the Chiefs the other day, made me think of you...." __________________ It's O'side or No side, baby.
Posts: 64,259

01-10-2019, 11:24 AM	#17
suzzer99 In Search of a Life Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: L.A. Casino cash: $2984284	Battered wife syndrome. It's a way to bond with my friends and family back in KC. It's like a striptease where you never actually get to see much more than a glimpse of a nipple - but it drives you crazy much more than a gaping vagina right in your face. That's all I got.
Posts: 27,254

01-10-2019, 11:41 AM	#19
TLO Life is changing.. Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: NW Missouri Casino cash: $1934900	Because we are the Chiefs
Posts: 38,902

01-10-2019, 01:04 PM	#22
Bugeater The Maintenance Guy Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Renovated Bugeater Estate Casino cash: $6252680	Now that you bring it up? I shouldn't care. At all. **** IT I'M OUT OF HERE
Posts: 70,443	1 0

01-10-2019, 01:13 PM	#23
Hammock Parties I'll be back. Join Date: Nov 2002 Casino cash: $4730478	Because a long time ago we got infected and there's nothing you can do about it. It just is and there's no explaining it. You can't turn it off. We're the only fanbase that's led a goddamn grass roots revolt against the GM, and that's because the franchise is like our ****ing kid. We're all sick in the head and we're gonna love every minute of it. __________________ Chiefs game films
Posts: 277,740	1 0

01-10-2019, 01:13 PM	#24
New World Order Choco Favre Join Date: Jul 2012 Casino cash: $2694765	I think it's more about socializing with people. When your team is good it's fun to hang out and watch games with friends/family; It's fun attending games; It's fun talking about games; It's fun posting about the game; It's fun talking shit to opposing fans etc
Posts: 28,961

01-10-2019, 01:16 PM	#27
Discuss Thrower "You like to drink?" Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: "I like to drink." Casino cash: $3246869	Oxytocin. __________________ Chiefs 2016 Opponents: Home: JAX, TEN, NO, TB, NYJ. Away: HOU, IND, ATL, CAR, PIT Chiefs 2017 Opponents: Home: BUF, MIA, PHI, WSH, AFC North. Away: NE, NYJ, NYG, DAL, AFC South
Posts: 42,693

01-10-2019, 01:19 PM	#28
Pablo Ultrabanned Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: KCMO Casino cash: $2039356	I don't know why I care so much. I do know I'm not gonna stop caring so much now; after all the shit I've swallowed over the years. I'm gonna care even more now that it looks like we have the great biracial hope.
Posts: 40,261