The Chiefs new history is a minute old, maybe two, and here comes Andy Reid up the stairs and into the happiest moment of his six years in Kansas City. He catches eyes with his grandson, does a sort of grandpa two-step, then lifts him up for a hug. The old coach has known so much disappointment this time of year. Not now. Finally, not now.
The Chiefs new history is three minutes old, maybe four, and here comes Patrick Mahomes up those stairs like a bolt of lightning. He swoops in, smile stretching his face, and gives his headband to a small fan wearing a No. 15 T-shirt. The boy screams, poses for a picture, and yells toward nobody in particular.
This is Mahomes!
Even if winning a playoff game at home is a basic sign of competence in a league built for parity, this is a joy that Chiefs fans have not known in 25 years. Their team beat the Colts the COLTS! 31-13 in an AFC division-round playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday.
For longer than any reasonable person would think is fair, Chiefs fans wore that old playoff heartbreak so hard and so intimately. Twenty-five years without a home playoff win. The drought is old enough to have graduated college, to rent a car, to have a mortgage.
They drove through a blizzard to get here and sat through a pile of abnormally large snowflakes to watch. Jordan Lucas, the Chiefs safety, nearly drove his truck off the road. The snow and cold pushed some tailgaters inside their cars, or inside the stadium earlier than they would have liked, but it did nothing to freeze their spirit.
The old building rocked, over and over, from the defense forcing the first punt to Mahomes sidearm throws all the way until the clock expired, with the Colts going through the motions of a desperate drive that had long become pointless.
This is an afternoon that changed the Chiefs sorry postseason history, and the gift is the franchises first AFC Championship Game in a quarter-century next weekend against Sundays Patriots-Chargers winner.
The game will be the biggest in Arrowhead Stadium history, and the first AFC Championship Game ever played in Kansas City.
Its been a long time coming, chairman Clark Hunt said.
So damn good about time, defensive lineman Chris Jones said.
We know we can help the city a lot, fullback Anthony Sherman said.
A necessary disconnect exists between fans and the players they root for. When the Chiefs blew that 38-10 lead in Indianapolis after the 2013 season, Mahomes was in high school, getting ready for baseball season. The burden of the fan is not the burden of the player, but the two are by definition entwined because ones success is the others.
Over and over and over again, both during the week and after the game, Chiefs players have been asked about the sorry postseason history of the uniform they wear.
Over and over and over again, both during the week and after the game, Chiefs players have told anyone who would listen that they dont care about any of that. Its not their focus. Cant be. Shouldnt be.
