Football Footnotes: The ideas of ‘Chiefs fatigue’ and Steelers fans adopting the Lions
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For “Football Footnotes” this week, we explore the concept of “Chiefs fatigue” and why it’s time for Steelers fans to become a part of #OnePride
“Chiefs fatigue” is something that has been talked about in the NFL ether since 2020. It’s really starting to spread now, though. Do a Google search and see the number of hits you get.
The theory of “Chiefs fatigue” is that everybody outside of their own fan base is sick to death of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. In other words, they are the new New England Patriots.
Minus the spy equipment, deflated footballs, curmudgeonly coach and murderous tight end, of course.
A less hateable version of the Patriots, sure, but quickly fading from new, fresh and fun to becoming tedious and overexposed.
Like Tom Brady when he was with the Pats, they’ve got the Golden Boy quarterback you aren’t allowed to touch. Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid are in every commercial. They are all overplayed (yes, even the “nuggies” one). You’ve got Travis Kelce, the star, goofball tight end like Rob Gronkowski that’s in any commercial Mahomes didn’t get (and even some together), intentionally playing up the meathead jock persona.
Plus, you’ve got another network television, significant other and cutaway queen in the luxury box. In this case, Taylor Swift is out-Gisele-ing Gisele Bündchen by about a million-to-one. She gets more airtime than the opposing quarterback week-to-week.
There’s also the small matter that the Chiefs are really, really good. As a result, they are in a primetime window almost every week, and they are constantly in our faces. They win the AFC West every year (eight in a row). They get to the AFC Championship game every year (Sunday marks a sixth straight appearance). They are on the verge of a fourth Super Bowl in the last five years, with two rings already in their back pockets.
So is “Chiefs fatigue” just another way of saying “football jealousy”?
Yes. Yes, it is.
If we are being honest, that’s about 90% of what we are talking about for any fan base out of their divisional rivals in the AFC West.
We are starting to hate the Chiefs because we just wish our teams could be the Chiefs. They win titles. They are exciting. They have a few celebrity players and the biggest celebrity in the world is at their games.
Not only are they becoming the Patriots of the 2000s, they are becoming the L.A. Lakers of the 1980s and the Yankees of the 1920s. Obviously, everyone outside of Kansas City hates them, but we are always going to watch them.
The NFL needs teams like that. The NFL is always better with teams like that. It is a league built for parity, but somebody has to stand out. The Packers of the ’60s begat the Steelers of the ’70s, who begat the 49ers of the ’80s, who begat the entire NFC East of the ’90s, who begat the Patriots of the 2000s.
If it wasn’t for teams like the Chiefs, this whole league would be nameless gray faces that win divisions with 11 wins one year and miss the playoffs with nine wins the next.
We want the Chiefs on that wall. We need the Chiefs on that wall.
But, yeah. I’m sick of ‘em too.
It’s too bad because they are not a dynasty that had the taint of Spygate or Deflategate. Reid was fuzzy and fun as opposed to Bill Belichick, who was dour and ghoulish. Mahomes has always been personable and improvisational, whereas Brady was calculating and programmed in his style.
And Kelce and Gronk are, well, Kelce and Gronk.
But a lot of that has shifted recently. The whole team — particularly Reid and Mahomes — came off looking spoiled and petulant in the wake of the offsides controversy in their loss to Buffalo this year.
Furthermore, the popularity of the Chiefs has now stirred an undercurrent of favored status. You sure do hear a lot of fans and media members speaking about the Chiefs with a great deal of cynicism and skepticism about how many calls (Kadarius Toney’s offsides notwithstanding) they seem to get.
Why didn’t Patrick Mahomes have to leave the game to get checked for a concussion when his helmet exploded on national TV a few weeks ago? Did he get flagged or fined for lowering his helmet? I’m sure Jaylen Warren would like to know.
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The NFL is so openly ratings-conscious, so blatantly pandering to all things television, that they have even messed with the sanctity of the playoff schedule to the point of squeezing in a Monday night game in the first round to get one extra primetime rake. In the regular season, some teams (like the Steelers) are getting multiple Thursday night games.
So when you see eye-popping ratings like the ones Swift seems to generate from the previously untapped demographic of young females merely by her presence for a handful of camera shots at Chiefs games, I can’t blame fans for wondering, “Is the fix in? Does the NFL just want the Chiefs to win all the time so they can constantly be on TV?”
That’s to say nothing of the NFL’s now openly symbiotic relationship with the gambling industry, which also has to love increased action whenever the Chiefs are on TV. According to Casino.org, there was a boost in bets on Chiefs games and bets on Travis Kelce’s props ever since he started dating Swift.
I’m not accusing the NFL of being crooked. I’m just telling you a lot of fans are starting to wonder if the level is tilted whenever the Chiefs happen to be playing.
So what are you going to do about it, Steelers fans? Root for the Ravens to beat K.C. on Sunday? No. We can’t do that. That’s a high crime against football’s moral order of right and wrong.
Root for the 49ers to beat them in the Super Bowl? Then what? San Francisco can wind up with its sixth ring like the Steelers and Patriots? Pfft! No way.
That leaves us with one option and one option only. Let’s! Go! Lions!
C’mon! The Lions are basically the Pirates in 2013. A franchise fraught with failure and mockery in the midst of its first magical run in decades.
Bust out the Honolulu Blue and Silver. Pittsburgh should be Lions Country the rest of the way in the playoffs.
Listen: Matt Dery of the “Locked on Lions” podcast joins Tim Benz to discuss the emotional ride of the Detroit Lions to the NFC Championship Game.