The Kansas City Chiefs can make NFL history if they win another Super Bowl, but many will be rooting against them. It’s been a theme all season despite the team’s success.
Heading into this 2024 NFL season, all eyes were on the Kansas City Chiefs.
Winners of back-to-back Super Bowls. Stars bigger than the game itself on the roster. Most importantly, NFL history on the line as the potential first team to ever win three straight Super Bowls.
The pressure was immense for this Kansas City squad, but when the regular season came to an end, the Chiefs came out as the No. 1 seed in the AFC, co-owning the best record in the NFL at 15-2.
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But throughout the season, there was a large contingent of fans that scoffed as the wins piled up, minimized the team’s success because of how close the wins were, and the ol’ “refs were on their side” conspiracy theory was amply used.
So, as the Chiefs get ready for their divisional round matchup this week against the Houston Texans, Fox News Digital wondered what the players themselves thought about their regular season amid this massive pressure and scrutiny, even with the record speaking for itself in the end.
What gets overlooked with this team?
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“I’d say the resiliency of this team,” three-time Pro Bowl center Creed Humphrey told Fox News Digital while also discussing his role, alongside teammates Chris Jones and Xaviery Worthy, in Doritos’ “Crash the Super Bowl” ad campaign. “Battling close games, one-score games, two-minute drives to win games. Defensive stops to win games. All those situations where we’ve shown up and played our best ball. That comes with the work you put in through the offseason, through training camp, all those things.
“That resiliency you building through those dog days of camp and stuff. It’s shown week after week for us, and it’s something we practice a lot – those critical situations. I’m glad we’ve been able to step up.”
Jones, the Chiefs’ defensive captain and game-wrecking defensive tackle, agreed wholeheartedly with Humphrey, especially because of the injury bug forcing so many to step up during the season.
“We had a lot of players go down, a lot of important players go down throughout the season,” Jones explained, touching on the offense with Rashee Rice, Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, and Isiah Pacheco all suffering serious injuries.
“We’ve been able to adjust and continue to build off that, and that’s not an easy task. When your best wide receiver goes down, your starting running back goes down. There’s a lot factors that can play within that. We’ve been able to continue to build, and we’ve faced a lot of adversity this season.”
One of those players is Worthy, the Chiefs’ first-round draft pick who set a new NFL Scouting Combine record in the 40-yard dash. Worthy’s speed has been a weapon for head coach Andy Reid in his offense, and though it took some time to get acclimated to the NFL, his chemistry with star quarterback Patrick Mahomes has gotten better by the week leading into this latest playoff.
Battling adversity in the NFL, specifically when a key player goes down, means the next man has to step up. That’s been Worthy, who is ready to continue building off a successful regular season.
“I’m just looking to be myself,” Worthy said of his first playoff trip. “Continue to build and grow as a player in this league. I feel like that’s the biggest thing, where guys get in trouble with it is [when] they look at the end goal versus their own journey. I just want to take it week by week and do what I do.”
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Worthy is a prime example of what Jones pointed out about this group of Chiefs: Strong character.
Character has been built by winning 15 straight one-score games like the Chiefs had, dating back to last season. When the naysayers were viewing Kansas City’s games in a negative light, the team was the exact opposite.
The blocked field goal against the Denver Broncos to remain undefeated wasn’t a fluke. Nick Bolton crashing down on fourth-and-short against the Atlanta Falcons to ice a victory wasn’t because he knew what play was coming.
Sure, there is luck that has come the Chiefs’ way this season. Isaiah Likely’s toe out-of-bounds in Week 1 on a game-tying touchdown on the final play of the game? Yeah, it was a bit of luck that rolled the Chiefs way, but sometimes that’s just what happens in this crazy game.
The pressure, the naysayers and anything else that may be looking the Chiefs’ way in a negative light will only be heightened as they chase history.
But these Chiefs players will continue looking past what’s become a New England Patriots level villain role.
“I think it gives us a competitive edge, knowing everybody is against us. Knowing that nobody wants us to win,” Jones said. “…. For me personally, it feels like it gives us an edge against everybody else because it feels like us against the world.”
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While Super Bowl commercials are always a highlight of the “Big Game,” Jones, Humphrey and Worthy can all agree they don’t want to see them until after they air. That means they were playing for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
But these Chiefs got to view some fan-created ads that are part of Doritos’ iconic Crash the Super Bowl campaign, which is a competition that challenges the fans to make better commercials than the advertisers because millions believe they can.
These Chiefs got to preview the semifinalists, including the three ads that were chosen as the finalists for this $1 million competition.
“There were multiple ads that I actually completely enjoyed.… I think all of them had their own special uniqueness about it,” Jones said. “It was a fun environment that we were able to pick them out as a team, laugh about it, critique each one of them. But also feel heavily involved in the process.”
Humphrey added: “Each person in the room likes different pieces of each commercial. So that’s the cool part about it. The fans did a great job this year making these commercials.”
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