Red Kingdom Burnout: Why We’re Tired of the Chiefs
Ah, Super Bowl LIX matchup has been set, and once again, a majority of America finds itself rooting for a meteor over either team to win- and honestly, after the first few weeks of 2025, I don’t blame them. But back to sports. After Sunday’s divisional matchups, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs have progressed to be the final matchup of the 2024 season. (Deja-vu much?) And since I’ve seen this film before (and I didn’t like the ending), I hardly have any excitement about this. Instead I find myself feeling something completely opposite: fatigue.
Look, I want to preface this piece with telling you I have no skin in this game. I haven’t cared about a team since the Manning brothers left the scene years ago. I now resort to cheering for former LSU QBs (Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow respectively) and any underdog (I will forever have a soft spot for the 49ers. Probably because someone once compared Coach Kyle Shanahan to Kendall Roy, and I am who I am.)
When I say I am feeling fatigue, I mean I am tired of seeing the Kansas City Chiefs.
This does not come from a “Oh they beat your team so you can’t handle it” schtick. I’m a grown woman, and I know how to separate my personal bitterness (say what you want, Travis Kelce, but I will forever believe you all lost to the Broncos in Week 18 to avoid playing Joe Burrow in the playoffs), and speak as an actual longtime viewer/ fan of the game itself. As someone who has watched football all her life, this is getting old.
They are everywhere. There is absolutely no mystery when it comes to any of them. They are in my commercials. They are in my podcast queue. They are all over my social media feed—yeah I’m a Swiftie, but even I’m tired of seeing her with her beau from all my non-sports related pages. I’m tired of seeing anything about the Mahomes and their clan of children (imagine being the first born named Sterling and your baby sister gets to be the gold!) I’m tired of knowing what Brittany said on social media or where any of them went to dinner. Why do I know any of this?! I do not care, yet I cannot run from it.
This may seem controversial, but it’s almost like the media is shoving them down my throat to consume constantly to brainwash me into thinking they’re the best when I don’t have a say. It’s like half their fanbase is just people cheering for them because they don’t have exposure to anyone else.
It’s important to know I have not always been like this. There was a time when watching the Chiefs was somewhat enjoyable. Probably the 2019-2021 era. Patrick was young, putting up numbers like no one could believe. It was fun. New. Fresh. Then things changed.
It’s no surprise that I was very pro Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers in last year’s Super Bowl matchup against the Chiefs. It was an underdog story. Brock was still on his rookie contract (not having enough money to buy his O line flashy Christmas gifts, having teammate McCaffrey step in), and he had finally gotten the NFC Divisional win to send his team to the big stage.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs were touted as the reigning champs returning once again. They had the celebs in their suites, looking down from their status onto the game I would like to bet no one ever really cared for before then (except you, Bradley Cooper.)
After the crushing end result, I found myself a little down about the 49ers loss/ Chiefs win as any fan would. But the feeling wouldn’t go away. It lingered, and I couldn’t explain it. Then I had a friend so simply explain, “It was the popular kids versus the average, go lucky guys. And the popular kids won.”
That’s it.
This goes against everything we have been conditioned to cheer for. They’re the popular kids who get away with everything (yeah, I’m referring to the ref treatment all season long), the ones who gloat their greatness in their letterman jackets and Rolexes non-stop, never giving us a break. It’s like we are constantly waiting for them to end up covered in sloppy joe mix after a food fight. We aren’t told about any of their struggles (even the storyline about Mahomes and Kelce’s home robbery didn’t stay in the media long), we aren’t given any reason to care for them as people. We are just shown that they are the cool kids who are untouchable and aren’t going away.
Truly, some of us just want a break. We want to cheer for a story we haven’t seen. Watch a new player perform under the big lights.There is a reason the Jayden Daniels storyline was shared all post-season. There’s a reason the whole nation was praying to Josh Allen Sunday night.
And for those of you who’ve been here a while, I get that this may be nothing new. I see the comparisons to Tom Brady and the Pats during his reign. Every year you had Brady and the constant storyline of him being the GOAT all season long. He himself was known to get the refs to go in his favor (Tuck Rule, anyone? ) However, I think this goes to show how much the media has ruined this because I didn’t know a SINGLE thing about Tom Brady off the field besides his occasional UGG advertisement (really). Sure, I knew he was married to supermodel Gisele Bündchen, but she wasn’t posting or tweeting obnoxious things in her spare time (although she did give us “my husband can’t throw and catch the ball” expletive greatness, and I for one am thankful.) I was familiar with other Pats players like Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman, but I couldn’t tell you a single thing about them. Nor would I want to be able to.
And that’s what I miss. I miss the mystery, and I miss having the chance to get away from it. I even miss having a valid villain in the league. I love to hate a villain. But this Kansas City team is different. I am not hating them because they are good. I hate them because I can’t escape them.
I know this is probably just the tip of the iceberg on a deeper conversation where we blame the media (do I sound like a boomer?!) But I think what I really want at the end of the day is a choice on whom I consume. When I was younger, I chose to go down the rabbit hole of Peyton Manning commercials (and the greatest SNL skit of all time). I got to choose what I learned about the players and storylines I favored. If I didn’t like Tony Romo, I never had to learn anything about him against my will. I just got to watch him get beat by Eli Manning every season. All by choice.
I can’t escape State Farm commercials while I’m watching games. I can’t escape seeing Travis Kelce vacaying at Taylor Swift’s summer home when that’s news for every pro-girly page on my feed (I’m not hating on Taylor! Do not lose focus. I’m hating on the Chiefs. The media. Life!) I feel as though I have no choice in this simulation to know anything about any other team and player unless I put the extra effort to go find it myself. And in today’s world, more effort like this is the last thing a millennial like me wants to give (keeping a consistent gym routine is enough!)
Call it “winner’s fatigue” or “greatness overload.” Call it what you want (see what I did there, Swifties? 3 references so far. I don’t hate her!) But I think I speak for a majority of football fans when I say we just want a break.We want a great story where we can’t predict the ending. And we want to root for someone we feel like we had a choice in rooting for.
I personally will not be watching the Super Bowl this year. Like I mentioned earlier with my Swift lyric, I’ve seen this before. Do I think the Eagles could make a change this time with powerhouse Saquon? Absolutely. But I don’t find myself wanting to put forth that effort. Instead, I’m most likely going to see “A Complete Unknown” in the theaters once more, because that’s one film I do like the ending.
Disclaimer: Before anyone comes at me, I do not think this is related to Taylor Swift at all. If you don’t believe me, you can read this piece I wrote claiming I really like what she has done for sports, so save your hate for Kanye!)
Written by Meredith LaBorde