Sitting here at the Houston airport on my way back to Kansas City, I decided to look around the stores. (Hopefully our new terminal at KCI will have some of this same equipment!) You see a lot of Texas brand memorabilia.
You also see team merchandise on sale. There is plenty of Houston Astros and Houston Texans equipment available. In Texas, they are proud of their teams, just like we are in Kansas City.
It got me thinking about how the Texans are an NFL team much like the Kansas City Chiefs have been for so many years: without good leadership and direction – and more importantly — without that all-important franchise quarterback. Houston now sits at the bottom of almost every power ranking – and after Week 4, is the only winless team in the league.
The Chiefs (and their fans) know exactly what that looks like.
After the glory days of Len Dawson, Hank Stram and winning Super Bowl IV, years of futility have become the norm. But one of the things the Chiefs had going for them was good ownership. Lamar Hunt was the principal architect of the American Football League and founder and owner of the Dallas Texans, who moved to Kansas City in 1963. He was a fantastic owner who provided stability throughout the years the team struggled.
Upon his death in 2006, ownership and control passed to his son Clark Hunt. His first big decision was to release general manager Carl Peterson. To his credit, he hired one of the best candidates then available: New England Patriots assistant general manager Scott Pioli.
The new general manager has been handed the keys to Chiefs Kingdom – and almost one-sided control of the team. Today, one can cringe when his name is even mentioned. But at the time, the vast majority of Kansas City fans celebrated the rental, believing better days were ahead.
Sadly, what happened was among the darkest days in franchise history – capped off by the horrific murder-suicide involving Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher.
To his great credit, Hunt acknowledged that the entire Pioli era had been a failure. The general manager was fired on January 4, 2013, the same day former Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid signed a five-year contract. A week later, the team hired former Green Bay Packers executive John Dorsey to become the general manager. But there was a significant change: the two men would be on equal footing, each reporting directly to Hunt.
It was one of the best decisions Hunt made.
He had hired the best man for the job. When it didn’t work, he learned from his mistake and tried again. Then he did the best thing an owner could do: get out of the way, allowing his people to do their job.
Hunt’s decisions led to what the Chiefs now enjoy: a championship-caliber team with a future Hall of Fame coach and one of the NFL’s top general managers — and the team that drafted the quarterback -fullback Kansas City fans have been dreaming of: Patrick Mahomes. And while the roster will change each season, Chiefs fans know that each year the team will compete for a championship.
Those decisions are also part of why the Chiefs are one of the most respected organizations in the NFL — and why Hunt has become one of the league’s most admired owners. We should all appreciate it. Many other NFL fanbases would love to have an owner like him.
Right now, the Chiefs regularly field one of the top 5 teams in the league. He’s on course for a possible seventh straight division title – and is once again one of the favorites to go to the Super Bowl. And after another incredible win over Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it’s going to be another incredible year that ends in a long playoff streak.
My friends, enjoy this ride. Chiefs fans are living through what will likely be considered the greatest era in franchise history. Be thankful for a great owner, a great coach (and staff), a savvy general manager, and the best quarterback in the league.
It’s our time. Savor every moment.
