the week to come ...

I'll skip the usual theme song and/or video ...

* Sunday, 2:07pm CT, Titans at Chiefs.  It is -- and I know this could be said about last year's AFC Title Game too, but whatever -- this is, simply put, THE biggest game of my Chiefs fandom, and I just turned 43 years old.

Because for the first time?  The Chiefs have no excuse to lose, one step short of a Super Bowl.

In 1994, they faced the last gasp of the Bills AFC Dynasty ... a gasp that proved successful.

In 2019, they faced the greatest coach / quarterback combo, on arguably their last gasp, with one hell of a tight end to boot ... a gasp that proved successful.

In 2020?  They face a fired quarterback, a former Chiefs linebacker turned Titans coach, and a running back that owes Tyrann Mathieu a sh*t ton of back rent.

Sunday, peoples and peepettes?  Is going to be the greatest party this fine city has ever thrown.  And it is going to be real, and it is going to be spectacular.

* So the plan is a post a day, until GameDay, like last week.  (Pause).  What?  (Pause).  You're godd*mned right I'm within shouting distance of Post 1,000!  (It's eight away after this one.)

I have half the recap of Sunday done -- I have everything through tailgating, and my thoughts on the second quarter.  I still have to deal with the opening quarter debacle, and Eric Fisher channeling his "Stone Cold" Steve Austin so brilliantly (plus a few other things).  I hope to have that done tomorrow, but my work schedule is a b*tch right now, so I can only work on this place before or after the job I get paid to do.  So it may be Wednesday before that is up.  (But it will go up.  Sunday needs to be preserved for the ages, if nothing else, from my perspective.)

* If I can chug enough shiraz, I might try to look back at "Fat" Andy Reid's title game performances.  Emphasis on "if"; I'm not sure there's enough red wine in the five-county metropolitan area to look back at a 1-5 (so far) mark of abject failure.

* On the other hand, this is "Fat" Andy Reid's seventh conference championship game (five in Philly, two here).  To put that into perspective?  "Fat" Andy has made as many conference championship games in his twenty one years as a head coach (seven) ... as seasons he has missed the playoffs (seven).  So basically, he's a one in three shot to reach a title game when the season kicks off ... and a one in two shot to make it there, if his team is playing in January.  That is f*cking incredible.

* I'll just go ahead and ask it, assuming a couple outcomes on Sunday: will Kansas City implode on itself from 2,400,000 plus people simultaneously laughing out loud, when Dee Ford jumping offsides on a 3rd and 4 with 0:39 left, hands the Chiefs a 38-34 victory over the 49ers in the Super Bowl?   I mean seriously, can two and a half million people laughing so hard at the same time they (justin timberlake voice) cry (us) a new river through Midtown, cause buildings to collapse?  Cause traffic signals and regulations to cease to exist?  I really hope we get to find out in twenty days.

* No word yet on a menu and/or game plan for Sunday.  Just please be polite to my buddy Andrew coming in for this one.  He's about the biggest Titans fan you'll ever meet.  He's dropped more for his ticket, than I'm paying for mine.  (#stmperks)  He's also driving 8 hours in (projected) miserable weather on Friday, to be here.  Whatever one may think of "the enemy", you HAVE to respect a dude who is literally risking his job, to be here for his team's shot at a Super Bowl.  I'd have done that when I was 25 (like Andrew is ... no wait, he just turned 26, my bad).

I'm not sure I'd do that at 43 ... well hell, of course I would, only thank God Monday is a holiday for us controlled by the accounting, finance, and/or banking industry.

* If I Could Pick The Ceremonial Drummer Sunday, It Would Be Marty Schottenheimer.  I know he can't do it physically and mentally (godd*mmit), but he'd be my choice if there was even a 2.49% chance of it working.  Having said that, Bill Cowher honoring his greatness Saturday night, when he was notified on the pregame show on CBS that Mr. Cowher had made the Hall of Fame?  Moved me to tears.

* Finally, there were two moments from yesterday that made me simply have to (literally) take a seat, because the moment overwhelmed me.

One was during tailgating.  (You'll have to wait for the recap ... and at least three of you (possibly?  hopefully?  drunkenly?  Since it involved you) reading this, can guess the moment without even thinking about it * .

The other one?

Was the most underrated moment in yesterday's comeback.

The only person who seems to have noticed it so far, is Bill Barnwell.  (As always -- just assume anyone Bill Simmons hired for the late, great Grantland, is way too qualified for their job.)

And that second "I had to sit and think" moment, probably deserves a spot in my all-time "What If Game" moments that is ten years overdue to be updated.

Because "What If Bill O'Brien Uses His Pair and Goes For It On Fourth and One, Instead of Kicking The Gimme Field Goal That Opened Up the Back Door To the Comeback Of The Year?"

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(*: I apologize for nothing of how I felt, at the four of us realizing, we have been amazing ... (sh*t, I'm tearing up) ... amazing, incredible friends for damned near our entire lives ... well over half of them in all cases ... and that realization, just brought the conversation to a deader silence than you could imagine.  Sometimes, you just have to step back and realize ** , how amazing God is, to give us this gift we call "life" ... and more importantly, just give thanks for those of us, He chooses to let us share it with.)

(**: one of my most underrated posts ever.)

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Until tomorrow, just be you.  Unless if it violates criminal law.  Then ... don't be me.  (Rimshot!)

In all seriousness, just be you.

You are who God made you to be.

And these Chiefs?

Are who God made them to be.

Or at least I hope so ...