How the Kansas Chiefs’ playoff matchup with the Buffalo Bills turned them into the antagonists
If the two-time defending champs defeat Buffalo in Sunday’s AFC championship and make it to the Super Bowl, it’d be their fifth appearance in the big game since 2020.
Familiarity must breed contempt because the dynastic Kansas City Chiefs have become America’s antihero of pro football, triggering a groundswell of support for the Buffalo Bills to halt the perpetually reigning champs at Sunday’s AFC championship.
There’s slightly better than a 50-50 chance that the two-time-defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs will appear in their fifth title game in six seasons, much to the chagrin of football fans across the country.
Judging by social media content and sports talk phone calls, many football diehards would like to see someone other than Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and his girlfriend, Taylor Swift, reveling in New Orleans on Feb. 9.
“People are simply tired of the Kansas City Chiefs,” Rob Holub, who teaches sports management at the University of New Haven, told NBC News. He recalled how the Chiefs, not that long ago, were themselves an inspirational Cinderella story.
“America always wants an underdog and always wants a new underdog,” Holub said.
The Chiefs play host to the Bills in the AFC title game on Sunday night at 6:30 p.m. ET and are 1 1/2-point favorites to win and advance to the Super Bowl.
There are any number of justifications, real or imagined, why American sports fans would root for seeing fresh faces in the NFL title game.
Been there, done that
The Chiefs are now firmly in the villainous heel spot, long occupied by the New England Patriots and their all-time great quarterback Tom Brady.
Americans have long complained about sequels after sequels in their sports title matchups. There was a time when the NBA finals used to be exclusive territory of Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors and LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers.
Despite this alleged disdain America has for the Chiefs, there sure seems to be a lot of eyeballs on them every Super Bowl.
“There’s that whole aspect of, ‘Here comes another dynasty. Do we really need another dynasty?'” said Daniel Green, director of the master of entertainment industry management program at Carnegie Mellon University.
“But watching that team play is always fascinating. Fox (this year’s Super Bowl broadcaster), I’m sure, is hoping that the Chiefs get in because the storylines are so great,” Green said.
The 2019 Super Bowl, a 13-3 snoozer of a New England Patriots win over the Los Angeles Rams, drew 98.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen estimates.
In three of those four big games involving Kansas City since 2019, the TV audiences not only surpassed those numbers, but shattered records.
Kansas City drew 123.7 million Super Bowl viewers last year on CBS, becoming the most watched telecast in history. There were also 115 million viewers in 2023 on Fox, 95.8 million in 2021 on CBS and 102 million in 2020 on Fox.
“I watch a lot of sports talk shows, and on these shows they talk about the Chiefs as if they’re like the new Dallas Cowboys. America loves to hate on the Chiefs,” said former U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman, an avid football fan who has never been shy about sharing his gridiron takes on social media.
