Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team plays its home games at Arrowhead Stadium.

Established in 1959 as a charter member of the American Football League (AFL), the Chiefs started playing in 1960 as the Dallas Texans, owned by league founder Lamar Hunt. In 1963, the team moved to Kansas City, and adopted its current name. The Chiefs joined the NFL in 1970 as a result of the AFL–NFL merger; entering the 2024 season, the team is valued at over US$4.85 billion. After Hunt's death in 2006, his wife, Norma, and children became legal owners of the team. After Norma's death in 2023, the Hunt children inherited her stake in the franchise. Clark Hunt, one of the Hunts' children, has served as chairman and CEO since 2006 and is the ultimate authority over personnel decisions. He is also the team representative at league owner meetings.

The Chiefs were victorious and won three AFL championships, in 1962, 1966, and 1969, and were the second AFL team (after the New York Jets) to defeat an NFL team in a Super Bowl when they won Super Bowl IV, which was the final game before the league merger went into full effect. The Chiefs were also the second team, after the Green Bay Packers (whom they played in Super Bowl I), to appear in more than one Super Bowl (and the first AFL team to do so) and the first to appear in the championship game in two different decades. Despite this post-season success, the team failed to find success in the playoffs for decades, including losing ten of twelve playoff games from 1993 to 2017, which included an eight-game losing streak.

Since then, the Chiefs have risen to dynastic success under head coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce, and defensive tackle Chris Jones, appearing in five Super Bowls since 2019 and being victorious in three: LIV, LVII, and LVIII.

History

American Football League

In 1959, Lamar Hunt began talking with other businessmen about creating a professional football league to rival the National Football League. Hunt's desire to secure a football team rose after watching the 1958 NFL Championship Game between the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts. After he tried and failed to buy the NFL's Chicago Cardinals and move the team to his hometown of Dallas, Texas, Hunt went to the NFL and asked to create an expansion franchise in Dallas. The NFL turned him down, so Hunt established the American Football League and started his own team, the Dallas Texans, to begin play in 1960.

Hunt hired a little-known assistant coach from the University of Miami football team, Hank Stram, to be the team's head coach after the job offer was declined by Bud Wilkinson and Tom Landry. Don Klosterman, hired as head scout, was widely credited for luring a wealth of talent to the Texans from the NFL, often hiding players and using creative means to land them.

The Texans shared the Cotton Bowl with the NFL's Dallas Cowboys for three seasons. The Texans were to have exclusive access to the stadium until the NFL put an expansion team, the Dallas Cowboys, there. While the team averaged a league-best 24,500 at the Cotton Bowl, the Texans gained less attention due to the AFL's relatively lower profile compared to the NFL's. In the franchise's first two seasons, the team managed records of 8–6 and 6–8.

In their third season, the Texans tallied an 11–3 record and a berth in the team's first American Football League Championship Game, against the Houston Oilers. The game was broadcast nationally on ABC and the Texans defeated the Oilers 20–17 in double overtime. The game lasted 77 minutes and 54 seconds, setting a record for longest game in professional American football. It is still the longest championship game in American Football League history.

It turned out to be the last game the team would play as the Dallas Texans. Despite competing against a Cowboys team that managed only a 9–28–3 record in their first three seasons, Hunt decided that the Dallas–Fort Worth media market couldn't sustain two professional football franchises. He considered moving the Texans to either Atlanta or Miami for the 1963 season. He was ultimately swayed by an offer from Kansas City Mayor Harold Roe Bartle. Bartle promised to triple the franchise's season ticket sales and expand the seating capacity of Municipal Stadium to accommodate the team.

Hunt agreed to move the franchise to Kansas City on May 22, 1963, and on May 26, the team was renamed the Kansas City Chiefs. Hunt and head coach Hank Stram initially planned to retain the Texans name, but a fan contest determined the new "Chiefs" name in honor of Mayor Bartle's nickname that he acquired in his professional role as Scout Executive of the St. Joseph and Kansas City Boy Scout Councils, and founder of the Scouting Society, the Tribe of Mic-O-Say. Despite the historical use of Native American features, it has been acknowledged that the team's naming was not a direct reference to Native Americans but only to Bartle's nickname "Chief". Business Insider journalist Meredith Cash even stated in January 2020 that Bartle "insisted on the team being named after himself" and that "Bartle was known as Chief Lone Bear within Mic-O-Say circles, and eventually the nickname "Chief" caught on among people throughout Kansas City."

The franchise became one of the strongest teams in the now thriving American Football League, with the most playoff appearances for an AFL team (tied with the Oakland Raiders), and the most AFL Championships (three). The team's dominance helped Lamar Hunt become a central figure in negotiations with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle to agree on an AFL–NFL merger. The leagues' officials agreed to hold a merged league championship game in January 1967, after the 1966 seasons ended. Hunt insisted on calling the game the "Super Bowl" after seeing his children playing with a popular toy at the time, a Super Ball. While the first few games were designated the "AFL–NFL World Championship Game", the Super Bowl name became its officially licensed title in years to come.

The Chiefs cruised to an 11–2–1 record in 1966, and defeated the defending AFL Champion Buffalo Bills in the AFL Championship Game. The Chiefs were invited to play the NFL's league champion Green Bay Packers in the first AFL–NFL World Championship Game. Kansas City and Green Bay played a close game for the first half, but Green Bay took control in the final two quarters, winning the game by a score of 35–10. The Chiefs lost the game but gained the respect of several Packers opponents after the game. The Chiefs' inter-league match-up with the Packers was not the last time that they would face an NFL opponent, especially on the championship stage. The next August, Kansas City hosted the NFL's Chicago Bears in the 1967 preseason and won the game 66–24.

Despite losing to the division rival Oakland Raiders twice in the regular season in 1969, the two teams met for a third time in the AFL Championship Game, where Kansas City won 17–7. Backup quarterback Mike Livingston led the team in a six-game winning streak after Len Dawson suffered a leg injury that kept him out of most of the season's games.

While getting plenty of help from the club's defense, Dawson returned from the injury and led the Chiefs to Super Bowl IV. Against the NFL champion Minnesota Vikings, who were favored by 12+1⁄2, the Chiefs dominated the game 23–7 to claim the team's first Super Bowl championship. Dawson was named the game's Most Valuable Player after completing 12-of-17 passes for 142 yards and one touchdown, with 1 interception. The following season, the Chiefs and the rest of the American Football League merged with the National Football League after the AFL–NFL merger became official. The Chiefs were placed in the American Football Conference's West Division.

From 1960 to 1969, the Chiefs/Texans won 87 games, which is the most in the ten-year history of the AFL.

Hank Stram leaves team

In 1970, the Chiefs finished 7–5–2 and missed the playoffs. The next season, the Chiefs tallied a 10–3–1 record and won the AFC West Division. Head coach Hank Stram considered his 1971 Chiefs team as his best, but they failed to capture their championship dominance from 1969. Most of the pieces of the team that won Super Bowl IV two years earlier were still in place for the 1971 season. The Chiefs tied with the Miami Dolphins for the best record in the AFC, and both teams met in a Christmas Day playoff game which the Chiefs lost 27–24 in double overtime. The Dolphins outlasted the Chiefs with a 37-yard field goal. The game surpassed the 1962 AFL Championship Game as the longest ever at 82 minutes and 40 seconds. The game was also the final football game at Kansas City's Municipal Stadium.

In 1972, the Chiefs moved into the newly constructed Arrowhead Stadium at the Truman Sports Complex outside of downtown Kansas City. The team's first game at Arrowhead was against the St. Louis Cardinals, a preseason game that the Chiefs won 24–14. Linebacker Willie Lanier and quarterback Len Dawson won the NFL Man of the Year Award in 1972 and 1973, respectively.