Maybe if you were a chiefs fan you would realize that to describe them as anything OTHER than playoff punching bag for the 50ish years prior to mahomes is just plain wrong.
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Yeah, I was born in 73 and became a fan in 89. You missed the Marty years where we had not one, not two, but THREE ex-49er QB's - Bono, Montana, and Grbac.

We had Gannon, who was a journeyman. We had DeBerg on the downside of his career. We had former Seahawk Dave Krieg.

You starting to see a pattern?
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I misinterpreted your post then.
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Occasionally teams get lucky like a 9 win Cardinals team or a 9 win Giants team who gets to the super bowl. It can be done.
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its ok. you havent lived through being a regular season champ only to turn into glass joe in the 1st round for 4+ decades otherwise you'd get it.
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No Tom Brady doesn't win one every year but the thrill of winning one can often last long enough to get you through to the next one. Hell, the Super Bowl win 2 years ago will probably be enough to get me to my DEATH. It was that awesome. I wasn't even disappointed in losing this year. NOTHING can take away 2019.

That's the real issue. Been a fan since 1989 and after a while a handful of hope doesn't cut it anymore.
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But it didn't. For 50 years.

Do you think Cardinals fans thought, after winning 9 games and backing into the playoffs, that they actually had a chance to make it to the Super Bowl?

You're talking about objective facts, not subjective feelings.

Of course, if a team makes the playoffs, they have a statistical probability to make it to the Super Bowl.

But after nearly 3 decades of watching a team lose their first playoff game every damn time, what fan would actually think that?
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No reasonable fan would. I’m just saying it happens every now and then.
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This is something I was going to mention as well. 99/100 the better team will win the series, which takes the bite out of pretty much every other major sports league, IMO. The win-or-go-home nature of the NFL postseason makes it so unique. Anyone can get lucky. It could have been us many of those years if the ball just bounced a different way.

Yep, the Eagles are a bit different. They made an effort to go out and get their QB but I still consider them a great example because the fact that they stacked their roster allowed them to be in a position to get lucky when Foles stepped in.

I was a fan in the 1990s; I was just too young and not invested enough to give too much of a shit. I'm well aware of the history.

Agreed. That championship was magical. I was disappointed that we didn't win again this last season, but for different reasons than normal. I was more pissed off that we let Brady win another and the fact that we embarrassed ourselves on the biggest stage than I was about not winning.

It was a weird place to be in and I can say it's entirely due to the fact that the previous year's win afforded us some leeway in my mind. If we hadn't won the chip in 2019, I'd have been INFINTELY more pissed about losing this past year.
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about 3 times in the last 30 years ... so 10% chance a non elite QB takes it. (Johnson , Dilfer, Foles).


so basically 90% of the time an Elite QB is gonna get a ring.


Prior to 30 years ago (yes I am that old) I would completely and 100% agree with taking the "puncher's chance"

and a solid team, solid QB, good D and trying to just make the playoffs. Nowadays....I am convinced of the new "way"...
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Add 2015 Broncos. Peyton and Osweiler were garbage.
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i didnt break down the yearly analysis for any team.. just speaking in general terms with what they went into starting that season....and came away with a ring..
more in terms of planning / roster etc..
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And this here is why you not being die hard in the 90’s makes all the difference. The NFL playoffs absolutely can be decided by one bounce if the ball. But those of us that were fans back then watched the ball bounce the WRONG way not once or twice but EVERY DAMN TIME.

We had a coach that believes in keeping the game close because he always wanted a chance to win it at the end. The problem is that when that ball bounces the wrong way in close games, it’s a death blow. It became a curse - anything that could go wrong did - untimely penalties, turnovers, missed field goals. Marty invented a new way to lose every time. And when we had a QB that could overcome it, the other team just hurt him to get him out of the game.

Not having experienced that viscerally, I’m just not sure you can see it from my view. Let me put it this way:

I’m sure when Indy cemented their comeback in 2013, you were stunned. I wasn’t. In fact, when they scored the 2nd time to cut the lead, my first thought was “here we go again”.
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Fair enough. If we were doing annual breakdown, there’s probably more that I missed.
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It's tied to being competitive in the biggest games of the season and then against the few really good teams in the postseason. Everyone knows you're not winning a SB every year, but being a true contender most years is infinitely better than the "make the playoffs and see what happens" approach.

The Patriots did it for 20 years, Packers have done it for years, the Colts for years with Manning, etc.... but, never the Chiefs prior to Mahomes.

Tim Tebow can win more games than he loses and win a playoff game... it's actually very hard not to reach that level of mediocrity in the NFL every year or three. That's the entire point of the league and it's not impressive or all that entertaining, IMO, to beat or 9 or 10 teams that range from shit to okay and then beat one of them in the playoffs before bowing out to a real contender. :-)
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