Why I am a Chiefs fan part 4 - Sam Devereux

When a thirteen year old boy picks up a PlayStation one copy of Madden 2001 with Eddie George on the front cover and has never seen a live NFL game before he has a decision to make. Once he’s understood the game he needs to pick a team to play with.

Now I have grown up I am a huge fan of defensive football, but as a young maddenite all I wanted to do was score points. I played with a few fun teams (the Colts & the Ravens) and then I stumbled upon the now love of my life, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Trent Green was a top 10 Quarterback with a huge redzone target who so happens to be my favourite Chief of all time and future hall of famer. The receiving corps was nothing special (somethings never change, right?) And to top the offence off I could run the ball with the human juke move called Priest Holmes, behind a line including Willie Roaf and Will Shields. I was hooked. What a team I thought.

It wasn’t until the following season I tried to follow the NFL and Chiefs. But it was hard to convince my parents to give me the sky remote on a Sunday evening. I followed scores online and even streamed radio commentary of the Chiefs games. My earliest memory of the Chiefs on TV was Trent Green’s 99 yard TD pass to Marc Boerigter against the Chargers. I was jumping around the living room with no concept of the records or playoff implications (we went 6-10 that year) and the game was late in the season. That was me done. The Chiefs were my team.

Since then I’ve been a diehard fan, and I thought I was on my own until I came across Arrowheads Abroad on twitter in the middle of last season. Some of my personal highlights of being a Chiefs fan are ending the Packers unbeaten run in 2011 and beating the Pats and Seahawks last season were high points. I love the Chiefs but they may be the most stressful team to follow in the entire NFL. No Playoff wins since I supported them and numerous heart breaking regular season losses (Dallas in overtime a few years back, the Raiders in Oakland last season the Broncos at home this season.) I was gutted that Tony Gonzalez never won a playoff game with us and the 45-44 loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the playoffs almost sent me into a depression.

But my love for the red and gold team from middle America keeps me coming back every season, and I am counting down the days until Wembley.