Hard as it is to believe, the Kansas City Chiefs won’t be great forever. The Chiefs’ dynasty is still full speed ahead, even with a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl a couple months ago. With Patrick Mahomes at quarterback, Kansas City should be good for many years to come.
And that’s why it’s the right time to leverage their appeal into a more permanent, high-profile place in the NFL’s schedule.
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The Chiefs want to be the NFL’s Christmas team. They have requested to be a staple on Christmas, according to a report by The Athletic.
It’s a smart move because there will come a day when the NFL won’t want to feature the Chiefs in a prime television spot, but they’ll likely be grandfathered in.
Chiefs following lead of Lions and Cowboys
Chiefs owner Clark Hunt knows his NFL history. He understands how the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys became irreplaceable parts of the NFL’s Thanksgiving broadcasts.
In 1934, after the Detroit Lions had struggled with attendance the season before, the team scheduled a Thanksgiving game and convinced NBC Radio Network to broadcast it. That led to an annual tradition.
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The Dallas Cowboys were next. Former Cowboys general manager Tex Schramm is credited with the idea of pushing the Cowboys as a second Thanksgiving team because it would give them exposure every season. The St. Louis Cardinals got the second game in 1975 and 1977, but the Cowboys being the second Thanksgiving game stuck for good in 1978. The Cowboys are now the most valuable franchise in the entire sporting world. That’s not solely because of the Thanksgiving slot, but it hasn’t hurt.
Get used to seeing Patrick Mahomes on Christmas Day. (Photo by Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
(Aaron M. Sprecher via Getty Images)
The NFL remained loyal to those teams helping build up Thanksgiving as a huge day for the league. The Cowboys have had some down seasons, but their spot on Thanksgiving was never in doubt. The Lions have been bad for most of their history. In 2008 and 2009, when the Lions went 2-30, there were loud calls to remove Detroit from Thanksgiving. The NFL never budged, the Lions kept their spot and now they’re one of the NFL’s best teams.
The Chiefs took note of all that.
Will Chiefs be a Christmas staple?
The NFL ebbs and flows. The Chiefs went 50 years between Super Bowl wins. The Chiefs didn’t win a playoff game from the 1993 season to the 2015 season. As recently as 2008 and 2012, Kansas City posted 2-14 seasons. It might take a couple decades, but at some point the Chiefs will find themselves at the bottom again. And if their plan works out, they’ll always have at least one prominent television spot on the NFL’s schedule no matter their record.
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The NFL probably wants the Chiefs on Christmas every year during their dynasty. The NFL has decided to invade Christmas after decades of avoiding it, even putting two games on Christmas last year when it landed on a Wednesday. The NFL’s desire to take over Christmas isn’t going away (especially with Netflix paying a lot to stream Christmas games the past two years), and the appeal of having the holiday include a Chiefs team that has been in five of the last six Super Bowls has to be strong. The Chiefs have been on Christmas each of the last two seasons, and it seems likely to be on one of the three Christmas games this upcoming season too.
That will pay off for the Chiefs when they are in a playoff drought or flirting with another two-win season. At some point they’ll be the New England Patriots, whose dynasty turned into back-to-back 4-13 seasons in less than five years. And if the NFL treats the Chiefs’ loyalty in helping build up Christmas like it did the Lions and Cowboys for their Thanksgiving service, Kansas City will keep that spot no matter how bad it gets.
It’s a shrewd move by the Chiefs. It will pay off when the appeal of having the Chiefs on television fades, whenever that day comes.
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