February 2, 2020. A day that Kansas City Chiefs fans will remember for a lifetime. Now that some time has passed since they took home the Super Bowl title, we thought it would be fun to hear from some of the die-hard fans of Team SJC on how it felt to watch their beloved Chiefs finally end a 50-year drought without a Super Bowl title!
Susan Campbell, President of SJC Marketing
So, my fan status didn’t begin until I moved to this side of the state. I grew up with the St. Louis Cardinals football team until they moved to Arizona. The Rams didn’t arrive in St. Louis until I moved away.
What I discovered here, however, is a fanbase of individuals who loved their team. So dedicated is Chiefs Kingdom that playoffs are mentioned before even the first game is played. We have been through winning seasons and really bad losing seasons (Romeo comes to mind), we’ve had our hopes up and dashed so many times, we were skeptical of this new and very young quarterback. Why would they let him play the whole game against the Broncos?
But the 2018/2019 season showed that something had changed. We took unlikely shots; we didn’t have to settle for field goals time and again, and we had a quarterback who could throw a pass lefthanded – what?!
Fast forward to February 2, 2020. We reached the third quarter of the game and I had a hard time watching. I believed in this team, but I’ve been disappointed so many times before I’m worried it’s another artificial hope. It’s just a fluke that we made it this far; we’re going to be taught a lesson by the 49ers. It brought back a lot of disappointing moments. Then the 4th quarter hit and all of a sudden, our offensive line starts to hold their ground, our defense gets their heads on straight and the 49ers start to fall apart. We not only took back the game, we beat them by more than just one score.
It was surreal, it was phenomenal and it was fun. It took a few hours for it to sink in, although tears were flowing when the Lombardi trophy was handed over to the Hunts. It’s so exciting to be a part of Chiefs Kingdom in 2020. I believe this is just the first of many winning seasons.
Jessica Stewart, Account Manager
I’ve been a Chiefs fan all my life. My dad is a huge Chiefs fan and I watch every game with him if I can. He taught me almost everything I know about football.
My favorite memories are of the years when Derrick Thomas and Neil Smith were the dominant defenders in the NFL, scaring most quarterbacks around the league. I was very sad when I heard Derrick Thomas had passed away. It was a tough day for Chiefs fans.
After college, I became a photojournalist at a local paper and was lucky enough to photograph my favorite team. I went to Riverfalls, Wisconsin several times for training camp and covered more home games than I can count. My dad has photos that I took of Priest Holmes, Trent Green, Derrick Johnson and many more in the basement. There is even a small shrine to the Chiefs with other memorabilia.
I really thought last year would be our year, but being a Chiefs fan all my life the ending was not a surprise. This year, even though I knew that Mahomes is an amazing quarterback and Andy Reid is an incredible coach, I hate to say it I thought it was over in the third quarter. I think that’s why I’m still in shock that we are Super Bowl Champions. I hope that we make it to the big game many more times in my lifetime. My dream would be to take my dad to a Superbowl to cheer on the Chiefs!
Dylan Cutitta, Client Project Coordinator
My Chiefs fandom began at age 11. I was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri but didn’t watch a lot of sports at the time (which is weird to think about now as a die-hard fan of the Chiefs, Jayhawks, and Royals).
The year was 2008, and my uncle Rick had just moved back to town. I had already started watching Chiefs games here and there with my parents the year prior, but with my uncle back in town, my dad and I started getting together with him to watch the games. We switched off each week on whose house we would watch the game at.
That first season we all watched together was rough. The Chiefs went 2-14 and didn’t seem close to even sniffing the playoffs. Despite their struggles, there was something I had noticed. We still got together for every game, even when they weren’t playing well (which was most of the time back then) and we would still have so much fun together. We just bonded over our “loveable losers” and said something to the effect of, “Well, maybe someday they’ll finally make it to the top.”
Then the Chiefs hired Andy Reid in 2013 and everything changed. The team finally started winning consistently and had become a perennial playoff contender. After years of ups and downs and more playoff heartbreaks like Chiefs fans are used to, they finally drafted their franchise QB in Patrick Mahomes and I couldn’t have been more excited. I watched hours of his college highlights the night we picked him and I knew we had hope with Reid as his coach.
The 2018-2019 season was insane. Mahomes won NFL MVP and the Chiefs got to host the Patriots for a spot in the Super Bowl. Being in attendance for the game with a couple of friends, I thought we finally had it won when Charvarius Ward intercepted Tom Brady’s pass with a minute left in the game. We were all embracing yelling, “WE’RE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!”. I look up at the jumbotron and saw we got called for offsides and the interception didn’t count. I was crushed, as was Chiefs Kingdom. So, SO close.
When we finally made it to the Super Bowl this year, I was fortunate enough to watch the game with a lot of family at my parents’ house. When we were down 10 points late in the game, I had a small bit of hope only because we had Patrick Mahomes and I knew he was more than capable of turning this around and getting us the big win. Sure enough, with some help from the defense and special teams, the Chiefs pulled off the comeback and I got to celebrate a Super Bowl championship with my fiancée Taylor and both of our families. We all hugged and tears were shed, it was truly a beautiful moment I will never forget for the rest of my life!