"Cause when push comes to shove,
You taste what you're made of!
You might bend til you break,
Cause its all you can take.
On your knees, you look up!
Decide you've had enough!
You get mad, you get strong!
Wipe your hand, shake it off!
Then you stand. Then you stand!"
-- Rascal Flatts, "Stand".
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Its currently 4:26am as I start to type this.
Unlike last year about this time, however, the dogs aren't stirring. Because there are no dogs to, uuh, not stur. The roommate isn't sound asleep. Because there's no roommate to be, uuh, sound asleep.
But one thing isn't changing.
We're winning this f*cking game.
It has been 357 days since Arrowhead last saw a Chiefs team leave the field as a winner. Today, that streak ends.
Because we have historical precedence for this.
1989.
Twenty years ago, this franchise was pretty much in the same position it is today. Embracing regime change, a new GM, a new head coach, a new QB, a new defensive philosophy, a whole new organizational attitude. The old, complacent way of doing things, kicked to the curb.
You might remember that first team under Carl and Marty. They came in to do the impossible. Take a team with little to no success (aka zero playoff wins) over the previous 15 years and work a miracle.
The 1989 Chiefs were nothing more than a shell of a team that three years earlier, stole, absolutely freaking stole, out of thin air, a miraculous playoff berth on the last day of the regular season. (Sound familiar?) The next two years, entered with optimism and hope, instead turned into two of the darkest seasons in franchise history. (Sound familiar?)
Finally fed up, and with what remained of the fanbase at near riot-like conditions, Chiefs ownership stepped in, kicked the previous GM and his cronies to the curb, and hired one of the hot, up-and-coming executives in the league, a man with a world championship under his belt, and tremendous success at one of the league's model franchises. (Sound familiar?)
Said executive then went out, and after looking at various candidates, hired the "hottest commodity" available, a man who for some inexplicable reason, his previous organization was more than willing to say goodbye to, despite anyone with a brain knowing his departure would mean the end of the success of the previous team. (Sound familiar?)
And that 1989 team, opened on the road, against a likely Super Bowl contender (in fact, the denver broncos reached New Orleans that year before getting rolled by the 49ers). (Sound familiar?)
And that 1989 team, after playing well but ultimately losing on a couple late scores in the opener, then returned to Arrowhead, under a beautiful late September sunny sky, to take on ... the mike shanarat led los angeles raiders.
(Yup, we were still two weeks away from the first Art Shell era).
That Chiefs team had few believers. They beat the raiders 23-17 that afternoon, the first of eight wins that season. Had Nick Lowery hit ANY of his three whiffs at Cleveland in overtime, the Chiefs would have been the last team in. (Of course, had we simply beaten the 4-10 Chargers at home, the same would have been true).
The seeds for a decade of success, were planted twenty years ago, on this weekend. Week two. The home opener. The opener of a new era.
I firmly believe that today, history repeats itself.
Today, is the dawning of a new era. Today is the day the Chiefs launch themselves back into the national consciousness, where we resided throughout the 1990s and into the early years of the 2000s.
Today is ground zero! Don't look back five years from now, when the Chiefs are the model franchise in this league, and kick yourself in the nuts for missing out on the dawning of greatness. Don't look back five years from now with regret.
Instead, do what comes naturally as a fan of the greatest franchise on the planet. Show up! Be loud! Be the 12th, the 13th, the 14th man today! Its the effing oakland raiders! Put them in their place!
Chiefs 30, raiders 27. A win to end a year of futility. A win to get back to .500, to establish some momentum, some confidence, some purpose, some belief.
A win to allow me to send out my favorite text message of the season, probably about what, 3:15? 3:20 today?
Three magical words. Eternal optimism. A belief that all is right in the world.
Season! F*cking! On!!!
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