Originally Posted by :
Let me be the first to admit that after a lifetime of watching professional football, including a couple very fanatical years coinciding with my New York Giants winning a pair of Super Bowls against the devil, the league has faded from my interest recently. It has nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with life, but clearly I'm not alone—despite being the most popular sports league in America by a good amount, the NFL's reputation has dipped in recent years for reasons as diverse as the CTE scandals, political fury (from both sides), and quality of play.
However, this has been a rebound year for the league in a few key ways. The games have been more fun, the story lines are better, and ratings shot up by five percent overall (and a whopping eight percent on ESPN's Monday Night Football). This has coincided with college football's devolution into predictable boredom, and the NFL—which has always boasted an unpredictable postseason—stands out by contrast. In addition, there's been a wealth of surprising new stars. All in all, Roger Goodell seems to have stumbled out of his own shadow, and whether he deserves it or not, the 2018-19 season has been a boon.
A year like this deserves a fitting ending, and there's no more appropriate Super Bowl champion than the ultra-enjoyable Kansas City Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes has become the exciting young face of the league in one season, the offense is explosive—as it proved against the red-hot Colts in a stunning first quarter on Saturday—and the Andy Reid Redemption Arc would be incredibly satisfying after a lifetime of mockery for his crunch-time decisions. Not to mention the fans: It's been 50 years since the Chiefs won Super Bowl IV, and the intervening years have been so routinely heartbreaking that you can make a depressingly long list just from the kicking woes.
The champion the NFL does not need is the New England Patriots—an aging but still dangerous relic of the bad old days. The Patriots are everything that should be left in the past: A grim, hostile group of serial cheaters endowed with the world's foremost superiority complex, worshipped by a smug, spoiled fan base whose brains have been addled by pervasive tribal groupthink that promotes hyper-aggressive hero worship and—when met with the slightest criticism—a hasty retreat into conspiratorial posturing. It would be beyond dispiriting to see them win another Super Bowl.
The Chiefs have been a breath of fresh air in a year that has been propelled by the winds of change. The NFL's problems are not over, but a Chiefs victory would be a stylish finish to a league on the rebound, and a symbolic clearing of the cobwebs to usher in a better, more exciting era.
Originally Posted by Tribal Warfare:
Indeed, the only backfire on all this is when the Chiefs win the SB with Mahomes. We will get bandwagoners that will act like they were fans since the Steadman days without knowing the Chiefs' history for better and for worse.
I don't mind folks hopping on the Mahomes train, just don't act like you suffered all the heartache and misery of the past 40+ years. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 2bikemike:
I don't mind folks hopping on the Mahomes train, just don't act like you suffered all the heartache and misery of the past 40+ years.
That's how you get more fans. Hell I was a bandwagon fan...in 1970. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 2bikemike:
I don't mind folks hopping on the Mahomes train, just don't act like you suffered all the heartache and misery of the past 40+ years.
I've had a couple of friends ask me about this weekend's game...if I were having a get together.
I told them yes, but with folks who are going experience the same gut wrenching pain or experience the same euphoric bliss that will come after decades and decades of following this team...and they understood. [Reply]
Tell that to the refs, who didn't call a single fucking penalty on a team that was CLEARLY holding all night long when both teams last met.
Brady is the most immobile QB in the league. OL has to hold because Brady can't move from the pocket. KC defense needs to tee off on this asshole. [Reply]
