Scary.

And good.

Scary good.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the Kansas City Chiefs.

They are scary. No one wants to play them. Oh, they may say they do, but they don’t. It’s because they know what will happen. They’ll lose. History tells them so. Nobody wants to lose, anything at any time. It cuts into people’s legacies, and pride. “You play to win the game,” as Herm Edwards drills into our heads. He’s oh, so right.

Before this vestige of the Chiefs came along, replete with quarterback Patrick Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid, there was Tom Brady and Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots scaring the bejabbers out of everybody on their way to winning championships.

And before them, it was Troy Aikman and Jimmy Johnson with the Dallas Cowboys; Joe Montana — and Steve Young — and Bill Walsh with the San Francisco 49ers; Terry Bradshaw and Chuck Noll with the Pittsburgh Steelers; Roger Staubach and Tom
Landry with the Cowboys; Bob Griese and Don Shula with the Miami Dolphins; Bart Starr and Vince Lombardi with the Green Bay Packers; and Otto Graham and Paul Brown with the Browns.

A Murderer’s Row of pro football through the years.

All of this brings me, once again, to that last group, the first 10 Browns teams from 1946-55 that played in 10 straight league championship games, with seven titles, including one in 1948 when they were 15-0 and became the first team to finish the season with no losses or ties — all wins, a perfect season in every way, shape and form — while capturing a league championship. They were joined 24 years later by the 1972 Miami Dolphins who went 17-0 while winning Super Bowl 7.

Even those Dolphins don’t get their due anymore. That was 52 years ago, which is a long time. 

But go back 76 seasons to those 1948 Browns, and it’s even worse — much worse — because so few people still alive saw them play. They’ve faded into history. But if there were a team today that played in 10 straight Super Bowls, winning seven times, the powers to be would do the pro football version of canonizing them.

Perhaps these Chiefs will do that. Probably not — there is so much parity, despite this run — but it’s possible. Anything is, really.

Now, that would be crazy good on steroids.

Steve King