A few people or more than a few have told me that I’m a little too negative at times. For me, I call it being a realist. I look for the good in things but I also am aware that not everything is perfect. I think part of that goes back to growing up playing all kinds of sports and having coaches preach to you the importance of perfection or striving to be perfect in all aspects.
I think a little dose of my negativity might be why the Chiefs won the Super Bowl the other day.
Hear me out but let’s go back a few weeks.
Cody Thorn
After the Chiefs beat the Titans, I decided to apply for credentials for the Super Bowl. My thinking was, might as well try. If they say no, I totally understand it. I had prepared myself for the ‘we do not have room’ message you get often for being a small paper. It happens. There is limited space and bigger papers with more circulation get that call.
It’s how things work.
When I got an email last Tuesday from the NFL with information from Homeland Security needing me to get clearance I got a little excited. When I got an email back about where to pick up credentials in Miami, I was down right giddy.
In 2014 and 2015, I had the chance to cover the Royals in the World Series in the games in Kansas City. I saw some heroics and heartbreak but I still regret not making the trip to New York City in 2015 to watch the Royals clinch. I saw it at my work that night but it wasn’t quite the same.
I got a chance to watch another one of my teams I grew up rooting for playing for a championship and I wanted to make sure I was there in person in case they won.
Then, I realized that I didn’t exactly plan for a trip to Miami. I had a week to prepare for being gone and I had a lot of help back here to get the paper out and got helping hands from some longtime friends and former co-workers to make sure games got covered when I was trading snow and 20s for sun and 70s for awhile. I did however get rain the first four days here, but nothing on Sunday and Monday.
Flash forward a bit to the game on Sunday, which hundreds of millions of people watched. It was crazy walking around the stadium when we got there and seeing all the fans. I recognized some of them from their face paint they wear at Arrowhead Stadium. I even heard from a few people in my hometown of Carl Junction that made the trip to the game. One watched it there, another watched it at a local bar, just to take in the event and history in Miami.
I ran into people from Overland Park, Kan., Kansas City, Cameron and St. Joseph during my time there, just casually talking to fans I was in line with for food or drinks at different times during the week.
Chiefs Kingdom showed up and I’d say there were two Chiefs fans for every one 49ers fan I saw in Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
So the game started. The offenses were ugly. The first half lacked many big plays but the Chiefs caught a break at the end of the first half when an offensive pass interference called off a potential scoring drive. Tied at 10 after the two quarters, this was only the fourth time in Super Bowl history the game was tied at the break.
The third quarter didn’t go in the Chiefs favor and the 49ers started to pull away.
And here is where my negativity ties into this but stay with me for a second. I spent a lot of time this past week with Fred Liggett of the Lee’s Summit Tribune. We have sat by or near each other at Chiefs games for about a decade. He was amped to be there as a Chiefs fan and a reporter. He planned on going to the Monday press conference which was scheduled at 8:30 a.m. following the Super Bowl with the winning team coach and the MVP of the game.
I decided before getting down here I wasn’t going to go to that. I knew it would be a late night. I stayed a long way from Miami and I never understand those press conferences. You talk to the same people you talked to the night/day before. It seems like a chance for me to sleep in.
So the 49ers go up 20-10 and the Chiefs just had another bad offensive drive. Dustin Colquitt came out to punt. San Fran was going to get the ball and face a defense that hadn’t stopped them in the third quarter.
I knew Fred was going to go to the press conference so I shot him a text, thinking in my mind the Chiefs would be down 23-10 or 27-10 within a few plays.
I typed, ‘Are you going to the press conference to talk to Jimmy G (Garoppolo) and Kyle Shanahan?’
I mean, if I was him, I wasn’t going to go if the team I covered wasn’t going to be there.
Well, Fred never responded to my snarky question. I didn’t see him until after the game was over in the press conference for Chiefs coach Andy Reid.
I had plenty of friends message me during the third quarter asking what the Chiefs were doing? Even my mom did that and told me it didn’t look good. I agreed.
Maybe my little bit of negativity turned into a blessing. And guess what, Fred didn’t get to cover a press conference with the 49ers on Monday. I will take credit for it for having doubt in the Chiefs’ chance to come back for a third time this postseason.
It was a very magical run and season. One that I thought would happen last year, but Dee Ford lined up offsides and now is regarded in the same class as Elvis Grbac, Lin Elliott and most Chiefs defenses after Derrick Thomas and Neil Smith.
It is time we soak in what this team did. Relish it. Enjoy the parade. Enjoy being called champions for at least a year. Expect the waiting list for season tickets to grow even longer.
“I told these guys I could coach another 20 years if I could have that group right there,” Reid said. “They are a beautiful bunch. They are resilient. They are tough. Tough minded. Dirty. As you saw tonight. I’m so proud of them.”
Later in the press conference, in his final question he answered on Sunday, Reid also gave a foreshadowing of how the NFL works.
This group of 53 players won’t be the same group of 53 that shows up in St. Joseph or Kansas City — still up in the air — for training camp in July. There will be a lot of changes. Players will leave. Some will get cut. Some will retire. Some may get traded. New players will come in.
“We have to continue to build that competition and that will be the most important thing, we’ve got to keep going forward but things change,” Reid said. “I told the guys last night (Saturday) and they know that, but I reminded them it will never be the same as it is tonight. That is the sick part of this job. This is such a unique group.”