By Eshan Singh, Co-Copy Editor
On Feb. 9, football fans rejoiced at the Philadelphia Eagles’ 40-22 dismantling of the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, denying the Chiefs their third straight Super Bowl win. We as fans despise Kansas City (just look at any social media platform) but must stop doing mental gymnastics to explain our loathing.
Our hatred of dynasties isn’t complicated. We simply grow tired of seeing the same team win again and again. We hope such teams lose, and when they keep winning, our hatred grows stronger. It’s a feedback loop of hatred that only breaks when the team finally stops winning: Few people hate the New England Patriots now that they’re one of the worst teams in the NFL.
Some may claim that there are reasons why they hate the Chiefs other than them being so good, but those “reasons” are just the result of confirmation bias. When we hate something, we find reasons to justify that hatred.
A big “reason” that Chiefs haters use to justify their contempt is their belief that referees favor Kansas City — some even claim that the NFL rigs games to ensure the Chiefs’ success, even though doing so provides no benefit to the league: Super Bowl LVI between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams drew about 10% more viewers than Super Bowl LV between the Chiefs and Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Do referees often make bad calls that favor Kansas City, like the questionable pass interference call against Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown in this year’s Super Bowl? Yes, but they make many other poor calls that don’t favor the Chiefs, including some that go against Kansas City, like the suspect unnecessary roughness penalty against Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie that led to the Eagles’ first touchdown of the game. We don’t notice these calls as much because we don’t look for them. Maybe Kansas City does tend to get more calls, but that’s only due to chance. And don’t try to say you hate the Chiefs because they’re lucky — there was no disgust toward the 2022 Minnesota Vikings, which in the regular season went 11-0 in their one-score games and finished with a 13-4 record despite having a negative point differential.
People also say they hate the Chiefs because of the attention given to pop star Taylor Swift, Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce’s girlfriend. But a woman on screen for less than a minute of a game that lasts longer than three hours doesn’t justify such strong hatred and neither does that woman supporting her boyfriend’s team even though she’s originally from Pennsylvania and used to be an Eagles fan.
Ultimately, Kansas City is a good football team that will probably return to the Super Bowl yet again. It’s fine to root against them — just be honest about why you’re doing so.
Eshan Singh can be reached at [email protected].
