The clock hit 13 seconds late in the first half Sunday, and a sold-out crowd inside Arrowhead Stadium began to chant the number in unison. A venue that spent more than two decades as the provider of its team’s most cruel heartbreak had progressed to moments so fond that they were stamped onto T-shirts across Kansas City.
You see, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes told us just one week ago that this organization had buried days like these deep into its past.
But those 13 seconds, as they will be remembered now, were more of a set-up than some sort of miracle.
They fooled us into thinking what came Sunday would not come — could not come — as long as No. 15 was here.
We fell for it. Which makes the fall that much harder.
The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Chiefs 27-24 in overtime of the AFC Championship Game on Sunday, erasing an 18-point deficit but rekindling memories of Arrowhead past.
A franchise history that could be separated into two distinct eras — Pre-Mahomes and Post-Mahomes — now bleeds together more easily than thought.
The Chiefs once spaced 25 seasons between home playoff wins, and not for lack of opportunity. Their defeats came with nicknames, shock and torture.
This will fit there.
But it’s worse.
In 2017, the Chiefs drafted a quarterback from Tyler, Texas, and he squashed whatever evil had cursed this place. But for all of the greatness he provided — the Super Bowl title, the historic comeback wins along the way, the four straight AFC Championship Game appearances — this is part of the package, too.
The past.
And the present.
But worse still.
It’s easy to overreact to the moment — easy to call last week’s comeback against the Bills the best in team history, for example — but the comparisons here are easy. Yes, there have been larger blown leads. There have actually been games in which the Chiefs were larger favorites than the 7-point closing line against the Bengals.
