The Kansas City Chiefs will vie for another Super Bowl victory in a few weeks.
No, not those Kansas City Chiefs.
The Kansas City Chiefs Wheelchair Football Team will host the fourth annual USA Wheelchair Football League’s Super Bowl Nov. 23 at Kansas City’s Bartle Hall.
It just so happens the wheelchair-bound Chiefs have been just as dominant as their NFL counterparts.
These Chiefs will appear in their fourth consecutive Super Bowl and are seeking their second trophy. The Chiefs carry a perfect 9-0 record through the regular season, capped by a 13-12 victory over the Chicago Bears to win a qualifying tournament in Las Vegas Oct. 20.
Local football fans are likely quite familiar with this Chiefs quarterback as well.
Matt Bollig, who starred for the Chanute Blue Comets in high school, has been dubbed by one media outlet as “the Mahomes of wheelchair football,” and is the quarterback who directs his team’s high-flying offense.
“We hope Kansas City really shows out,” Bollig told the Register in a telephone interview. “There’s no reason for it to be quiet. It should be a lot of fun.”
In wheelchair football, teams of 7-on-7 play on a 60-yard field. “Tackling” consists of one-hand touch, but that’s a bit of a misnomer.
See, getting 14 wheelchairs onto a field, and half of the players doing their darnedest to prevent the other half from scoring means the occasional collision.
And injury.
“I think people would be surprised to see how aggressive these guys are,” Bollig said. “One guy broke his collarbone. If you’re trying to go somewhere and you have two wheelchairs, where there’s only room for one, you can have quite a few collisions.”
Games are typically fast-paced, Bollig noted. In his most recent outing, Bollig threw a touchdown pass on the first play of the game.
“I’ll probably throw a couple of interceptions each game, too,” he noted sheepishly.
BOLLIG’S journey from high school hot shot to a successful business owner, family man and wheelchair sports enthusiast has several twists and turns.
