Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs are an American football team that is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas City Chiefs are a member of the American Football Conference West division of the National Football League.
The Dallas Texans were created by industrialist Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a founder member of the American Football League. The club moved to Kansas City in the spring of 1963 and took on its present moniker. The Chiefs entered the NFL in 1970 as a consequence of a merger, and the franchise is now worth more than $2 billion. Clark Hunt, Hunt's son, is the company's chairman and CEO. While Hunt's ownership shares transferred to his wife and children following his death in 2006, Clark remains the Chiefs' operations president; he represents the team at all league meetings and has final say on personnel moves. In 1962, 1966, and 1969, the Chiefs won three AFL titles and were the second AFL club to defeat an NFL team in an AFL–NFL World Championship Game, defeating the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. The win on January 11, 1970, was the final game before the leagues officially merged. The Chiefs were also the second club, after the Green Bay Packers, to play in multiple Super Bowls (and the first AFL team to do so), as well as the first to do it in two distinct decades. Despite early postseason success, winning five of their first six postseason games, the club failed to find success in the postseason for decades, losing ten of eleven playoff games from 1993 to 2017, including an eight-game losing streak. The Chiefs have won five of their past six postseason games since then, including Super Bowl LIV in 2020 against the San Francisco 49ers, giving them their first championship in fifty years. The squad made it to Super Bowl LV in February 2021, but lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The franchise's name, fans, and owner have all been accused of exploitation for appropriating Native American imagery, culture, and religious traditions throughout the years.
- Formation
Lamar Hunt initiated talks with other businesspeople in 1959 about forming a professional football league to compete with the National Football League. After viewing the 1958 NFL Championship Game between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts, Hunt became even more determined to own a football franchise. Hunt approached the NFL and wanted to launch an expansion team in Dallas after failing to acquire and transfer the NFL's Chicago Cardinals to his hometown of Dallas, Texas. After being rejected by the NFL, Hunt founded the American Football League and formed his own club, the Dallas Texans, which began play in 1960. After Bud Wilkinson and Tom Landry refused the job offer, Hunt selected Hank Stram, a little-known assistant coach from the University of Miami football team, to be the squad's head coach.
- Early success
For three seasons, the Texans shared the Cotton Bowl with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys. The Texans were supposed to have exclusive use to the stadium until the NFL decided to add the Dallas Cowboys as an expansion franchise. Despite drawing a league-best 24,500 fans in the Cotton Bowl, the Texans received less attention due to the AFL's lower notoriety than the NFL. The squad only had an 8–6 and 6–8 record in the first two seasons of the franchise. [19] The Texans cruised to an 11–3 record in their third season, earning a place in the team's inaugural American Football League Championship Game against the Houston Oilers. The Texans won 20–17 in double overtime in a game that was aired nationally on ABC. The game was the longest championship game in professional football history, lasting 77 minutes and 54 seconds.
The game turned out to be the team's final game as the Dallas Texans. Hunt determined that the Dallas–Fort Worth media market could not support two professional football clubs, even competing against a Cowboys team that had a 9–28–3 record in its first three seasons. For the 1963 season, he explored moving the Texans to either Atlanta or Miami. However, an offer from Kansas City Mayor Harold Roe Bartle eventually convinced him. To accommodate the team, Bartle vowed to treble the franchise's season ticket sales and enlarge Municipal Stadium's seating capacity
On May 22, 1963, Hunt decided to transfer the franchise to Kansas City, and the club was christened the Kansas City Chiefs on May 26. Hunt and head coach Hank Stram had intended to keep the Texans name, but a fan vote decided on the new "Chiefs" moniker, which was inspired by Mayor Bartle's nickname as Scout Executive of the St. Joseph and Kansas City Boy Scout Councils and creator of the Scouting Society, the Tribe of Mic-O-Say. Despite the employment of Native American symbols in the past, it has been accepted that the team's name was not a direct reference to Native Americans, but rather to Bartle's nickname "Chief." Bartle "insisted on the squad being named after himself," according to Business Insider journalist Meredith Cash, and "Bartle was known as Chief Lone Bear inside Mic-O-Say circles, and soon the term "Chief" took on."
- Logos and uniforms
When the Texans first started playing in 1960, their emblem consisted of a white state of Texas with a yellow star indicating the city of Dallas' location. Hunt had intended for the Texans' jerseys to be Columbia blue and orange, but Bud Adams picked Columbia blue and scarlet for his Houston Oilers team. Hunt went back to red and gold for the Texans' jerseys, which have remained the franchise's colors even after the club relocated to Kansas City.
The state of Texas was replaced on the team's helmet with an arrowhead design drawn on a napkin by Lamar Hunt. The "SF" inside an oval on the San Francisco 49ers helmets was Hunt's inspiration for the interlocking "KC" design. Unlike the 49ers' design, Kansas City's overlapping initials are enclosed by a thin black outline and appear inside a white arrowhead rather than an oval. The Chiefs had grey facemask bars on their helmets from 1960 to 1973, but switched to white facemasks in 1974, making them one of the first teams in the NFL to do so (along with the San Diego Chargers, who adopted a yellow facemask the same year).
Throughout the club's history, the Chiefs' uniform design has stayed mostly unchanged. It comprises of a red helmet and either red or white jerseys with numbers and names in the opposite colors. From 1960 to 1967, and 1989 to 1999, white trousers were worn with both jerseys. Since the Pioli/Haley era began in 2009, the squad has rotated between white and red trousers for away games throughout the season. Prior to September 15, 2013, the Chiefs wore their red uniforms with white trousers. Although unauthorized alternate jerseys are marketed for purchase, the Chiefs do not have an official alternate jersey.
For the 2006 season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Chiefs donned their white jerseys with white trousers at home. The rationale for the clothing choice that day was that the Bengals would be compelled to wear their black jerseys on a day with high temperatures expected. The only other occasion the Chiefs wore white at home was during Marv Levy's tenure as coach in 1980.
Lamar Hunt and the AFL were honored with a unique patch by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2007. It displays a 1960s AFL emblem with Hunt's initials "LH" inside the football. In 2008, the patch was permanently placed to both Kansas City's home and away jerseys' left breast.
The Chiefs, along with the other original clubs of the American Football League, donned "throwback" jerseys in certain games during the 2009 season to commemorate the league's 50th anniversary.
In their home opener against the Dallas Cowboys on September 15, 2013, the Chiefs donned their red jersey with red trousers for the first time in franchise history, completing an all-red combination. Their all-red outfits have subsequently become an official uniform combination that has been used several times. It is frequently utilized at home for prime-time games. The Chiefs' Color Rush design was similarly based on the all-red aesthetic.
- Ownership and administration
After an unsuccessful effort to acquire an NFL team and transfer it to Texas, Lamar Hunt formed the franchise in 1959. Until his death in 2006, Hunt was the team's owner. Following Lamar's death, the Hunt family retained ownership of the club, with Clark Hunt, Lamar's son, representing the family's interests. Hunt's formal position is CEO and Chairman of the Board, but he also serves as the team's representative at all owner meetings. Hunt took over as CEO and chairman of the board of directors in 2010. According to Forbes, the franchise was valued at $2.93 billion entering the 2021 season, ranking 22nd out of 32 NFL teams.
From 1960 through 1976, Lamar Hunt, the team's owner, served as president. The AFC Championship trophy is named after Lamar Hunt in honor of his services to the NFL. In 1977, he appointed general manager Jack Steadman to president of the team. Steadman retained the position until Hunt selected Carl Peterson to take his place in 1988. In 2008, Peterson resigned as president of the team. Following Peterson's resignation, Denny Thum was named temporary president before being promoted to full president in May 2009. On September 14, 2010, Thum resigned from his job.
Don Rossi was the team's general manager for half of the 1960 season until stepping down in November. Rossi's duties were taken up by Jack Steadman, who remained in the role until 1976. Steadman was named team president in 1976, and after being dismissed of those responsibilities in 1988, he stayed with the organization in various capacities until 2006. Jim Schaaf took over as general manager when Steadman was sacked in December 1988. Carl Peterson, the team's general manager, chief executive officer, and president, was recruited in 1988.
Peterson held the job for 19 years before announcing his departure from the squad in 2008. Denny Thum served as temporary general manager until the Chiefs hired Scott Pioli, a former executive with the New England Patriots, as their new general manager on January 13, 2009. Pioli was fired in early January when Andy Reid was hired, and John Dorsey took his position. Pioli's tenure as General Manager of the Chiefs was 23–41.
Dorsey was dismissed by the Chiefs on June 22, 2017. On July 10, 2017, they recruited Brett Veach as the new general manager.
- Head coaches
Since the franchise's inception in 1960, the Texans/Chiefs have had thirteen different head coaches. The Chiefs' first head coach, Hank Stram, led the club to three AFL championships and two Super Bowl trips. Stram served as the team's head coach for the longest time, from 1960 to 1974. Marty Schottenheimer was appointed as Kansas City's head coach in 1989 and led the team to seven postseason berths in 10 seasons. Schottenheimer led all Chiefs coaches in winning percentage (.634). Gunther Cunningham was a member of the Kansas City Chiefs' coaching staff from 1995 to 2008, serving as head coach in between stints as defensive coordinator. In the 2003 season, Dick Vermeil led the squad to a franchise-best 9–0 start. Hank Stram and Marv Levy, two of the Chiefs' 10 coaches, have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame; however, Levy is better recognized for his tenure with the Buffalo Bills. From 2006 to 2008, Herm Edwards was the team's head coach, collecting a 15–33 record and a franchise-worst 6–26 record in that time. From 2009 to 2011, Todd Haley has a 19–26 record with the squad, including an AFC West division title in 2010. With three games left in the 2011 season, Haley was sacked. In January 2012, interim coach Romeo Crennel was promoted to full-time coach. Crennel was sacked on Monday, December 31, 2012, with a 2–14 record during the 2012 season. Andy Reid was named as the Chiefs' next head coach on January 5, 2013. The Chiefs have been constant competitors during Reid's stint as head coach, making the playoffs in six of his seven seasons, winning the division four times, and winning Super Bowl LIV.
- Fan base
The Kansas City Chiefs have one of the most devoted fan bases in the NFL. Despite being the sixth-smallest media market with an NFL club, Kansas City has had the second-highest average attendance over the last decade. Bizjournals rated the Chiefs excellent grades in 2006 for routinely drawing capacity audiences in both good and dismal seasons. From 1996 through 2006, the Chiefs averaged 77,300 spectators each game, second only to the Washington Redskins in the NFL. Chiefs Kingdom is the franchise's official fan club, which provides members with ticket priority advantages and VIP treatment.
Many Chiefs supporters purposefully cry out "CHIEFS!" rather than singing "brave" at the end of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before home games. Carl Peterson, the general manager at the time, stated in 1996: "We're all looking forward to that stanza of the National Anthem, not just at Arrowhead, but also on the road... It's a hit among our guys." Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Chiefs fans refused to do so in commemoration of those who died in the disaster, and they did so for the rest of the 2001 season. Fans gave the rival New York Giants a standing ovation during the Chiefs' home game against them on September 23, 2001. "We're going to knock the crap outta you...you...you...you, you, you, you!" fans chant after every Chiefs score during home games, while pointing in the direction of the opposing team and fans, over the music "Rock and Roll Part 2." The chant begins after the song's third "hey!" Gary Glitter's original version of the song was originally used until the NFL banned his music from its facilities in 2006, following the British rocker's conviction in Vietnam on allegations of sexual assault. From 2006 through 2015, a cover version of the song performed by Tube Tops 2000 was utilized.
Like many other NFL clubs, the Chiefs' fan base has grown across the world. However, there is a Twitter account dedicated to Chiefs supporters in the United Kingdom that has been recognized by the Kansas City Chiefs as their official fan page in the United Kingdom. They have a lot of loyal fans that write articles and interview players like Tamba Hali.
Arrowhead Stadium is also the loudest outdoor stadium in the world, according to Guinness World Records. This was accomplished on September 29, 2014, during a Monday Night Football game against the New England Patriots, when the crowd reached 142.2 decibels, which is equivalent to standing 100 feet (30 meters) from a jet engine, which can inflict lifelong harm even with short-term exposure.
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