Now look, I was going to let this whole “nobody believed in us” thing pass because I chalked it up to the “heat of the moment” following the Super Bowl — but it’s got the stop. Since the final whistle of Super Bowl LVII, the Kansas City Chiefs have been gaslighting everyone.
The Chiefs are also the Super Bowl champions of gaslighting
NOBODY SAID THE CHIEFS WERE BAD! STOP LYING!
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
It started with Travis Kelce ranting about “us against the world,” and the “haters,” and now this weird myth keeps getting more steam that nobody but Chiefs fans and players believed Kansas City could win this season.
This seriously feels like I’m taking crazy pills. Nobody either said the Chiefs were “done,” nor did anyone say this team was rebuilding. Sure, there may have been some questions about how the offense would retool without Tyreek Hill, and whether JuJu Smith-Schuster could be a close enough approximation on the outside to keep things rolling — but again, nobody of note said this team was “done.”
Vegas didn’t think the Chiefs were done
The Chiefs were THIRD in preseason odds to win the Super Bowl. (And they’re already next year’s favorite)
ESPN didn’t think the Chiefs were rebuilding
Sports Illustrated didn’t count this team out
They had the Chiefs finishing 11-6. If you want to grind an axe over three wins I guess you can.
The Ringer didn’t “hate” on the Chiefs
Here at SB Nation we sure as hell believed in the Chiefs
In our season preview our own JP Acosta absolutely nailed his analysis of the Chiefs, predicting that they would start slow (they did, opened 2-1 with a disappointing loss to the Colts in Week 3) — but also predicting the Chiefs would pull away from the pack and win the AFC West, which they did.
EVERYONE BELIEVED IN THE CHIEFS
Now look, you can absolutely find some outliers everywhere. Bart Scott went on First Take and claimed the Chiefs would miss the playoffs — so okay, there was some bad analysis out there. However, from top to bottom people universally believed in the Chiefs.
Were there playoff questions about the Bills potentially pulling ahead of Kansas City after the Hill trade? Sure. Was there a small contingent of people who were confident the Chargers might put it together in 2022? Absolutely. That said, this kind of widespread “disrespect” the Chiefs keep talking about since winning the Super Bowl is a figment of their imagination.
Nobody said this team was rebuilding. Everyone acknowledged Patrick Mahomes as the best QB in the NFL (and if not first, no lower than second). There really was not any grand movement towards calling the Chiefs “done.”
I know teams need motivation and love to cut out headlines during the season, but it’s done. Y’all won. Can chill a little on all this and stop gaslighting everyone.
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