Local News
Super Bowl: Once the plucky underdog, the Chiefs have become the NFL juggernaut fans love to hate
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs were once the loveable NFL underdogs, led by the good-natured coach who couldn’t win the big one, the plucky quarterback with the Kermit the Frog-like voice, and the superstar tight end with charisma to spare.
Five years after their first trip to the Super Bowl in five decades, though, things have changed.
As the Chiefs prepare to face the Eagles next Sunday in New Orleans with an opportunity to win their record third consecutive Lombardi Trophy, football fans are seeing Andy Reid’s bushy mustache popping up on TV commercials. They are hearing Patrick Mahomes’ voice seemingly everywhere. And Travis Kelce? He’s only dating the biggest pop star on the planet.
All of that and more has contributed to a profound sense of Chiefs fatigue that has turned many NFL fans against them.
“Chiefs fatigue was inevitable,” explained Mike Lewis, author of “Fandom Analytics” and a professor of marketing at Emory University. “Pre-Mahomes, the Chiefs were an afterthought of a team; a small-market team was never a consistent winner. As the Chiefs grew into a dynasty, they became rivals to multiple teams, adversaries to overcome.
“In 2025, the Chiefs are perhaps the main rivals for the Ravens, Steelers, Eagles, Chargers and any other team that aspires to championships. Now, the Chiefs are the team that prevents other fandoms from reaching the promised land.”
Indeed, the Chiefs have long been the rivals of the Raiders and Broncos, who play in the same division. But that team tucked away in Middle America also has become the biggest thorn in the side of the Bengals, whom they’ve played in consecutive AFC title games, and the Bills, whose season they have ended in four of the past five years.
Including this one. Kansas City once again denied a Buffalo a spot in the Super Bowl with a 32-29 win in the AFC title game.
“Fandom, at a fundamental level, is about identity. Being a fan is being part of community,” Lewis said. “When an NFL fan’s team wins, he wins. Likewise, when his team loses, he loses. All dynasties inspire fatigue and good-natured hate because it is tiring to lose to the same guys over and over.”
In that respect, Lewis said, the Chiefs have taken on the role that the Patriots of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady held for more two decades — another once-floundering franchise that found the right mix of coach and quarterback and became a dynasty.
“If you’re a Pittsburgh fan and it’s 10 years ago, and the Chiefs are floundering and they have a good year here or there, it’s easy to be like, ‘I kind of like the Chiefs too,’ because they don’t threaten your team,” said Dr. Dan Wann, who teaches psychology and studies fandom at Murray State University.
“When that team gets successful and passes you,” Wann said, “it goes from, ‘Oh, isn’t that cute?’ to ‘They beat our (butt) again.’ It changes the perspective. Think of the Cubs; they were the loveable losers. And then they started winning.”
Embrace the hate
Mahomes and Kelce are the most visible members of the most successful franchise in the NFL, so of course they hear what fans say about them, especially when the quarterback and tight end team up for celebrity golf tournaments and other events.
They have their share of fans. Everyone still wants their photo or autograph. But they also hear plenty from the detractors.
“I try not to listen to it too much,” Mahomes said. “I try to to embrace who we have in this locker room, the personalities and how we enjoy playing football, and I believe if we play football the right way and compete, I’ll always have my guys’ backs.”
Even when conspiracy theorists claim that NFL officials are calling games so that Kansas City will win.
That was one of the prevailing storylines from the AFC title game, though almost every data point — whether it be number of penalties, penalty yardage or the time in the game in which the flags flew — proved the exact opposite.
Still, there were several Chiefs players, including linebacker Drue Tranquill, who spoke out against the perceived favoritism on social media.
“Yeah, I don’t care,” Reid said of the conspiracies, quite matter-of-factly. “I don’t get into that. I don’t use it with the guys.”
Nevertheless, all those detractors seem to have galvanized the Chiefs, just as they have their fan base. Take the Kansas City-based streetwear brand Made Mobb, which sells a line of shirts and hoodies in Chiefs colors that read simply: “Villains.” Another apparel company, Charlie Hustle, has shirts that read: “Kansas City Versus The World.”
Fascination and oversaturation
Turn on the TV and there is Reid, chowing down on “chicken nuggies” or drawing up the “bundlerooskie” for insurance company State Farm. Or Mahomes, pitching Subway sandwiches, watching TV with the Coors Light bear or slinging a ball around the field in his Oakley sunglasses. Or Kelce, hosting game shows and dropping in on “Saturday Night Live.”
None of which is surprising when you consider that a study by digital marketing agency Hennessey Digital late last year found that Kelce was the NFL’s most marketable player. Mahomes was right behind his good buddy at No. 2.
It’s all fun for Chiefs fans, who are rightfully proud of their own. It’s oversaturation for fans of other NFL franchises.
“Athletes and other entertainers need to be wary, every time you turn around, there they are. It can start to grate on peoples’ nerves,” Wann said. “People are going to be like, ‘Oh, my gosh. Them again?’ A good example is the Yankees. They are always the Saturday game of the week, and people get tired of it. I don’t know if it’s jealousy or too much of a good thing.”
Maybe a little bit of both.
Some of that oversaturation is a byproduct of Kelce’s relationship with pop star Taylor Swift, which has created thousands if not millions of new Chiefs fans, but which also has alienated other NFL fans. Over the past 18 months, they’ve grown weary of game broadcasts constantly showing Swift in stadium suites, often with celebrity pals such as WNBA star Caitlin Clark.
At least, that’s their perception. The reality is Swift had 54 seconds of screen time during the CBS broadcast of last year’s Super Bowl, when the Chiefs rallied to beat San Francisco in overtime. The entire broadcast lasted 4 hours, 8 minutes.
“These guys bring ratings and impressions,” Lewis said, “but to other fandoms, it feels like rivals are tormenting them. Not only do they regularly lose to Mahomes, but they also have to see him and hear his ‘non-traditional’ voice in ad after ad. Kelce is the future Hall of Famer with movie star looks and is dating Taylor Swift. No fan wants to see their rivals living this well.
“Taylor is part of the story as well,” Lewis added. “She brings Swifties and anti-Swifties.”
They in turn become pro-Chiefs and anti-Chiefs.
There are plenty of the former. There are becoming more and more of the latter.
“Look, we love to see people on top fall, right? That’s one thing we know from sports fan research,” Wann said. “We love to see these people on top crumble and get theirs, and now they’re down here with the rest of us losers. So you can get that at a team level. Everybody loves a championship story. But then you’re like, ‘You got to be kidding me. They’re winning again.’”
LAS VEGAS — Rickea Jackson had the hot hand for the Sparks on Wednesday night.
Jackson scored a career-high 30 points and grabbed seven rebounds, Azura Stevens had 19 points and 10 rebounds and the Sparks scorched the nets early before holding on to beat the Las Vegas Aces, 97-89, on Wednesday at Michelob ULTRA Arena.
The Aces were without three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson for the final 11 minutes of the game after she left with 1:17 left in the third quarter with a head injury. She was accidentally hit in the face on a drive to the basket by Sparks forward Dearica Hamby.
Jackson shot 11 for 17 from the field, including 4 for 8 from 3-point range, and went 4 for 5 at the free-throw line to top her previous best of 25 points against Dallas last season.
Hamby scored 19 points to go with eight rebounds and seven assists for the Sparks (4-7). Kelsey Plum had 13 points and nine assists in her second game in Las Vegas since being traded to the Sparks in the offseason.
The Sparks shot 56.9% from the field, including a 9-for-20 showing from 3-point range and outrebounded the Aces 38-28.
Jackie Young tied her career high with 34 points and Chelsea Gray made six 3-pointers and added 28 points for Las Vegas (4-4), which has lost two straight games. Wilson was 2 for 12 from the field and 9 for 10 at the free-throw line to finish with 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots in 28 minutes.
Young, who added eight rebounds, four assists and three steals, scored 14 straight Las Vegas points in the second quarter.
A 3-pointer by Gray pulled Las Vegas within 60-56 with 3:11 left in the third quarter, but the Sparks scored seven of the next 10 points with Jackson’s three-point play giving the Sparks a 67-59 lead with 1:12 remaining.
The Sparks led 71-65 entering the fourth quarter but opened a 14-point lead before the midway point of the period. Hamby made back-to-back shots to start a 10-2 run and Jackson’s basket finished it to give the Sparks an 86-72 lead with 5:22 left.
The Aces made a charge and used a 3-pointer from Gray and a basket by Young to move within 93-87 with 1:44 left.
Plum put the game away with two free throws with 20.1 seconds left. Plum made all nine of her free throws.
The Sparks were especially hot over the first 14 minutes, making 15 of their first 18 field goal attempts (83.3%), including 7 of 8 from 3-point range, on their way to a 39-19 lead in the second quarter. Las Vegas responded with an 11-0 run to get back in the game.
The Sparks finished with 24 assists on their 33 field goals while going 22 for 27 from the free-throw line.
The Aces shot just 37.5% from field, including 9 for 35 from behind the arc. They went 26 for 29 from the free-throw line.
The Sparks improved to 2-2 in Commissioner’s Cup play, while the Aces dropped to 1-2.
Local News
‘ICE Out of OC’: In Santa Ana, roughly 300 people protest immigration raids as National Guard watches on
Roughly 300 people gathered Wednesday evening outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse in Santa Ana to protest the ongoing mass immigration raids in Orange County.
The peaceful protest began shortly after 6 p.m. and soon tripled in size as people from all walks of life congregated in front of a road closure, occupied by at least six members of the California National Guard on North Birch and 4th Street. Chants such as “ICE Out of OC” and “Trump Out of OC” could be heard throughout the group as people held up various creative signs and carried Mexican and American flags.
Donned in a cowboy hat, Navy veteran Jason Martinez, 28, stood in front of the National Guard with an American flag that read “I’m More American.” His parents were both deported in 2011, a few years before his military enlistment in 2015. “I still think this country can be great,” said Martinez. “There’s no borders up in heaven, there shouldn’t be (borders) here either,” he added.
Several people holding megaphones urged the crowd to “keep things peaceful” as at least 15 officers from the Irvine Police Department, dressed in riot gear, stood back around the perimeter of the protest. One person carried a Salvadorian flag while another waved a joint American-Pride flag.
For 28-year-old former Santa Ana resident David Vasquez, the protest was an opportunity to show support for the broader immigrant community.
The Corona resident carried a large cardboard poster with historic images depicting the displacement and mistreatment of Hispanic immigrants in America. “These people never got justice,” he said. Vasquez added that his mother was undocumented and had picked fruits and vegetables as an agricultural worker in the 90s, often for little to no pay. At times, he said his mother’s employers would call ICE to “chase out” the workers to avoid paying them.
“It feels like the federal government is trying to be as dramatic as possible to elicit a response from people,” said 30-year-old Kelsey Leach from Orange. “It’s important to come out and nonviolently exercise our First Amendment rights.”
The sound of engines revving and cars honking in support echoed in the background.
By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer
INDIANAPOLIS — Every time the Indiana Pacers have lost a game in the last three months, they have come back to win the next one.
Even in the NBA Finals – against a huge favorite who the Pacers now have in some trouble.
Bennedict Mathurin scored 27 points off the bench, Tyrese Haliburton finished with 22 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, and the Pacers retook the lead in the NBA Finals by beating the Oklahoma City Thunder, 116-107, in Game 3 on Wednesday night.
“This is the kind of team that we are,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We need everybody to be ready. It’s not always going to be exactly the same guys that are stepping up with scoring and stuff like that. But this is how we’ve got to do it.”
Pascal Siakam scored 21 for Indiana, which enjoyed a whopping 49-18 edge in bench points. The Pacers, who lost Game 2 in Oklahoma City, improved to 10-0 since mid-March in the game immediately following a loss.
“So many different guys chipped in,” Haliburton said.
Jalen Williams scored 26 points, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 24 and Chet Holmgren had 20 for the Thunder, who led by five going into the fourth.
Game 4 is back in Indiana on Friday night.
“We had a lot of good stretches of the game,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “But they had more good stretches than we did – and outplayed us over the course of 48 minutes.”
History says the Pacers are in control now; in the 41 previous NBA Finals that were tied at a game apiece, the Game 3 winner went on to hoist the trophy 33 times – an 80.5% clip.
Advantage, Pacers.
It was back-and-forth much of the way. There were 15 ties; to put that in perspective, there were 13 ties in the five-game entirety of last year’s Finals between Boston and Dallas. The last time there was a Finals game with more ties: Game 1 between Cleveland and Golden State in 2018, which was knotted 17 times and included a 51-point effort from LeBron James before the Warriors held on in overtime.
TJ McConnell finished with 10 points, five assists and five steals for Indiana; since all those stats started being charted, nobody had ever come off the bench and done all that in an NBA Finals game.
“We just had guys make plays after plays,” Haliburton said. “Our bench was amazing.”
The Thunder were 61-2 when leading going into the fourth quarter in the regular season. They’re 1-2 when leading going into the fourth quarter in this series. Indiana – at home in an NBA Finals game for the first time in 25 years, with Caitlin Clark, Reggie Miller, Oscar Robertson and many other stars in the crowd – simply owned the final 12 minutes.
Oklahoma City, often playing against full-court pressure after allowing the Pacers to score, missed nine of its final 10 shots from the floor. That ugly stretch started after a Williams floater pulled the Thunder within a point of the Pacers with 5:58 remaining.
The Thunder’s only basket down the stretch was a midrange pull-up by Gilgeous-Alexander, but that was the league MVP’s only field goal in the fourth quarter. He was held to three points on 1-of-3 shooting with no assists in the final frame.
“They were aggressive,” Gilgeous-Alexander said of the Pacers’ defense. “I’m not sure how many points they had, but it felt like when they scored, we’re going against a set defense, and it’s always harder against a set defense.”
Indiana outscored OKC 32-18 in the fourth, holding the Thunder to 35% shooting with the game and control of the series on the line.
“There’s a lot of areas we can clean up,” Holmgren said. “Everybody who stepped out there can be better.”
FAMILIAR TERRITORY
Game 1, a loss on the opposition’s final shot. Game 2, an easy win. Game 3, another loss to fall behind in the series again.
This formula is not the one that would be considered optimal by the Thunder, especially in the NBA Finals. But if there is some consolation for the overall No. 1 seed in these playoffs, it’s this: the Thunder have been in this exact spot before and found a way to prevail.
That resiliency will be tested yet again.
“I thought it was an uncharacteristic night in a lot of ways for us,” Daigneault said. “We got to learn from it and then tap back into being who we are in Game 4. If we do that, I think we’ll have a much better chance to win.”
It was not very Thunder-like in Game 3. They blew a fourth quarter lead for the second time in the series and gave up 21 points off turnovers.
“We’ll watch it. It wasn’t all bad,” Daigneault said. “But we definitely have to play our style and impose our will for more of the 48 minutes if we want to come on the road and get a win.”
There are uncanny similarities between the first three games of this series and the first three games of the Western Conference semifinal matchup between Oklahoma City and Denver.
• In Game 1 of the West semifinals, Aaron Gordon hit a 3-pointer with about 3 seconds left to give the Nuggets a win in Oklahoma City. In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Haliburton hit a jumper with 0.3 seconds left to give the Pacers a win in OKC.
• In Game 2 of the West semifinals, the Thunder evened things up with an easy win. In Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the Thunder evened the series with an easy win.
• In Game 3 of the West semifinals, Denver – at home for the first time in that series – played from behind most of the night before fighting into overtime and eventually getting a win for a 2-1 series lead. In Game 3 of the NBA Finals, Indiana – at home for the first time in the series – trailed for much of the first half before eventually getting a win for a 2-1 series lead.
The Thunder dug their way out of that hole against the Nuggets. And now, the same task awaits – with an NBA title at stake.
“I wouldn’t say that now is the time for emotions, to be thinking about how you’re feeling, emotional this, emotional that,” Holmgren said. “You kind of have to cut that out and look at the substance of what it is. We have a great opportunity here and the great thing is we have another game coming up, Game 4.”
GUEST LIST
Clark – wearing a yellow T-shirt emblazoned with the famed “In 49 other states it’s just basketball. But this is Indiana” saying along with a finals logo – was seated with Indiana Fever teammates Aliyah Boston and Natasha Howard for the game, in the same end of the court as the Pacers’ bench.
In addition to Hall of Famers Robertson and Miller, both seated near the court as well, former Pacers Mark Jackson, Dale Davis were also on hand. Former Indianapolis Colts running back Edgerrin James and Alex Palou, the winner of this year’s Indianapolis 500, were also in the arena. Palou arrived for the game in a pace car from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which was lit up in gold for the evening as a Pacers tribute.
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