In Defense of the Kansas City Chiefs Dynasty

Kansas City Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce celebrate after the AFC Championship Game against the Buffalo Bills at Arrowhead Stadium on January 26, 2025. Credit - Aaron M. Sprecher / Getty Images

Do you hear all that whining about the Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s, the one forged by Michael Jordan and forever immortalized by The Last Dance docuseries? Or, say, the three-headed Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal-Novak Djokovic tennis dynasty, which won all those tournaments in the 2000s, and gifted fans memorable duels and wondrous points and fevered appreciation for their sport? Or complaining that Serena Williams or Tiger Woods, in their primes, won too much?

Of course not. Because history looks quite fondly upon sports dynasties, of both the team and individual varieties. Jordan and the Bulls, through their six NBA championships, were international rock stars who helped grow basketball into the global phenomenon it is today. Tiger and Serena and the tennis guys, they’re called GOATs.

Sports dynasties are pretty great. And the current NFL royals, the Kansas City Chiefs—who on Feb. 9 will try to become the first team ever to win three straight Super Bowls—are no different.

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You’d never know it, however, judging from all the Chiefs hate out there. A segment of the NFL’s fan base seems convinced that the refs rig the games in the Chiefs favor. Barstools Sports founder Dave Portnoy claimed he was done watching the NFL after Kansas City’s win over Buffalo in the AFC Championship game cost him $1 million in a bet. The hashtag #boycottsuperbowl trended on social media.

Yes, the Chiefs received some favorable calls against Buffalo. But jokes about how the refs favor Kansas City, just like they did New England and Jordan back in the day—remember that pushoff on “The Last Shot”?—are just that, jokes. There’s no real evidence of a Chiefs conspiracy to speak of.

Kansas City draws record audiences. Some 57.4 million viewers tuned in to Chiefs-Bills, the most ever for an AFC championship game. The second Chiefs-Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl—KC beat Philly two years ago—is safe money to set another audience record, and for good reason Sure, Taylor Swift’s presence at these games since she started dating Travis Kelce has undoubtedly attracted new fans to football. But plenty of fans love watching Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes work his magic, or KC’s somewhat underappreciated defense grind out wins, while appreciating the team’s penchant for exciting comeback victories. Don’t forget, the Chiefs trailed by double digits in each of the last two Super Bowls—against Philadelphia and San Francisco, respectively—only to pull both games out.

And a healthy portion tunes in hoping the Chiefs get their comeuppance. Rooting for underdog opponents is what sports is all about.

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Plus, compared with the NFL’s most recent dynasty, the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick New England Patriots, Kansas City comes up roses. There’s been no whiff of scandal—no spying, no football deflating—attached to these Chiefs. KC coach Andy Reid isn’t a professional grump like Belichick. He seems pretty jovial, he’s not afraid to make a fool of himself, we have the always amusing clip of him competing in a youth football competition as a giant 13-year-old, he looks like a walrus, and that baby dressed up like him for Halloween. There’s a lot to like there with Andy.

Mahomes might be the MJ of his day. He rocks a dad-bod, sounds like Kermit the frog—something he gleefully acknowledged while firing back at haters the other day—but constantly delivers on the football field, with both his arms and legs. With a win on Feb. 9, not only would Mahomes become the first three-peat QB in Super Bowl history, he’d join Brady, Joe Montana, and Terry Bradshaw as the only QBs with four or more Super Bowl titles. Brady was 37 when he won his fourth. Montana was 34. Bradshaw was 31. Mahomes would be 29. Brady’s seven titles would be in reach.

What’s so bad about that?

Then there’s Kelce. He caught some flak for taunting Damar Hamlin of Buffalo after Mahomes scored a late first-half touchdown in the AFC Championship game, then for allegedly flopping after getting shoved by another Buffalo player, drawing an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Bills. Obnoxious? Sure. As was his bumping Reid during last year’s Super Bowl.

But the football field breeds impolite behavior, on every snap actually. The goal is to wrestle your opponent to the ground. And Kelce paid his respects to Buffalo and its quarterback, Josh Allen, after the game.  “I f-cking love that guy,” Kelce told The Athletic. “He’s one of the most awesome competitors I’ve gone against, and I have so much respect for him.”

Kelce’s a future Hall of Famer who during this Chiefs postseason run set the new NFL record for most playoff games with at least 100 yards receiving. His New Heights podcast, which he co-hosts with brother Jason, was recognized with the Sports Business Journal’s Best Sports Audio award for 2024. It was one of Apple’s top podcasts of the year. The Kelces signed a $100 million deal last summer, and the program’s popularity shows Kelce’s a true crossover star.

And enough with the Swift complaints. The cameras don’t show her as much as they did last year: she’s now part of the football firmament, which is a boon to the game. It’s been well documented: Swift is an incredible worker and performer who makes millions and millions of people happy. She and Kelce seem to really dig each other. Good on them.

Why hate when it feels so much better to appreciate?

Write to Sean Gregory at sean.gregory@time.com.