Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. They are members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL).
Originally called the Dallas Texans, the club was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League. The team moved to Kansas City and became the Chiefs in 1963 after then-Kansas City mayor H. Roe Bartle guaranteed the team they would have increased ticket sales. The Chiefs then joined the NFL as part of the AFL-NFL Merger.
The Chiefs hold the distinction of being the second AFL team (after the New York Jets) to defeat an NFL club in an AFL-NFL World Championship Game when they defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV.

Franchise history

AFL
In 1959 Lamar Hunt, son of oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, began discussions with other businessmen to establish an American football league that would rival the National Football League. The new league was called the American Football League, and Hunt established it after being denied ownership of an NFL franchise. Hunt established his AFL team in Dallas, Texas. The Dallas Texans, as they were known then, shared the Cotton Bowl with the NFL's cross-town competition, the Dallas Cowboys. In one of the Texans' biggest games, they defeated the Houston Oilers in a dramatic 1962 AFL Championship that went into double overtime. Until the December 25, 1971, playoff game between the Chiefs and Dolphins, the game was the longest ever played at over 77 minutes.
After three seasons, including an AFL championship in 1962, it became apparent that Dallas couldn't support two teams. Hunt decided to investigated opportunities to move his team to a different city for the 1963 season, wanting to find a city to which he could commute easily from Dallas. Persuaded by H. Roe Bartle, the then mayor of Kansas City, Hunt eventually moved the team to the midwest.
The team received support from the community even before the team announced the move. Hunt made the move dependent upon the ability of Kansas City Mayor H. Roe Bartle and the Kansas City community to guarantee him 35,000 in season ticket sales.
Hunt, with a roster replete with players who had played college football in Texas, wanted to maintain a lineage to the team’s roots and wanted to call the club the "Kansas City Texans". However, the team was renamed the Kansas City Chiefs, one of the most popular suggestions Hunt received in the contest, along with "Kansas City Mules", and began playing in Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium in 1963.
The franchise became the flagship team of the American Football League, with the most playoff appearances for an AFL team (tied with Oakland), the most AFL Championships (3), and the most Super Bowl appearances, playing in the first Super Bowl, and in the last to be played between League champions. The Chiefs dropped the first Super Bowl to the Packers, then went on to beat the Vikings in the final AFL-NFL World Championship game after the AFL's last season in 1969. They had just one coach throughout their AFL history, Hall-of-Famer Hank Stram.
The Chiefs' first Kansas City home was located at 22nd and Brooklyn, called Municipal Stadium, which opened in 1923 and seated 49,002 people. In 1972, the Chiefs moved into the new Arrowhead Stadium. Municipal Stadium, also formerly the home of the Kansas City Royals, the minor-league Kansas City Blues and, most successfully, the Negro Leagues' Kansas City Monarchs, was demolished in 1976 and is now a community garden. The Chiefs' first game at Arrowhead Stadium was against the St. Louis Cardinals, a game which the Chiefs won 24-14.
Arrowhead Stadium is half of the Truman Sports Complex, along with Kauffman Stadium (formerly Royals Stadium). Kansas City was viewed as taking an unnecessary risk at the time by building two stadiums instead of the popular multi-use stadiums being built in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. However, with demolition of St. Louis's Busch Stadium in 2005, the Truman Sports Complex has now outlived all of the multi-use stadiums built in the same era. While many have applauded the Kansas City decision makers for this decision, the move was not quite by design. When it became readily apparent the Municipal Stadium was not adequate for the Chiefs, the decision was made to build a multi-use stadium for the Chiefs and Charlie Finley's Kansas City A's. Finley, however, proved to be too difficult to work with, demanding a "baseball stadium that could also be used for football" or a baseball only stadium, instead of the other way around.
After much vitriol behind the scenes, Finley decided to move the team to Oakland. However, the discussion made Bartle and his advisors convinced that one stadium would be good but not great. Thus, the decision was made to build two separate stadiums after Finley left town. Coincidentally, Finley moved to Oakland's Alameda County Coliseum, a multi-use stadium in which the A's have played since moving there in 1967.

1963-1970
For more details on Kansas City's championship season, see 1969 Kansas City Chiefs season.
As the Chiefs, under coach Hank Stram and with quarterback Len Dawson at the helm, the team played in the first Super Bowl, losing 35-10 to Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers.
They earned revenge three years later, upsetting the over-rated Minnesota Vikings 23-7. The team's victory has been considered the "proof" that the American Football League's (Jets) win the previous year was "no fluke". With the Chiefs as enormous underdogs going into the game, they cemented a future merger for the AFL and NFL. The Chiefs dominated on all sides of the ball in Super Bowl IV, both defense and offense. They wore a Ten-Year AFL patch in contrast to the Vikings' "50-NFL" patch, and according to player comments, were greatly inspired by it. Ironically, the merged leagues did not retain the name and logo of the AFL.
With a high powered offense and blistering defense, Hank Stram's innovative play-calling would revolutionize the game. Stram would utilize audibles and line changes that would confuse opponents on the field, giving the Chiefs the advantage. The Chiefs would go on to win 43 games between 1966 and 1969. Five Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinees played for the Chiefs in the era: quarterback Len Dawson, linebackers Bobby Bell and Willie Lanier, defensive tackle Buck Buchanan and placekicker Jan Stenerud. Other notable players included wide receiver Otis Taylor, linebacker Jim Lynch, back-up quarterback Mike Livingston and running back Mike Garrett.

NFL

1990s
In 1989, Carl Peterson became the team's new president and general manager. Peterson hired Marty Schottenheimer as the team's coach. Schottenheimer led the team to six straight playoff appearances, three AFC West championships, nine winning seasons, and 76 consecutive soldout games at Arrowhead in the 1990s. Schottenheimer's impressive 101-58-1 regular season record (.634) made the Chiefs the winningest team (by percentage) of the 1990s. The Chiefs re-established a strong fan base, and Arrowhead Stadium quickly began to sell out every home game, a streak still alive nearly 20 years later.
The Chiefs' popularity rose in the 1990s with their "college football game atmosphere", a traditions still alive today. Much of the "college atmosphere" has arrived due to the popularity of local Big 12 college football games, often held at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs used a "Big 12" formula in rebuilding their team with players from the local universities throughout the nineties, such as Neil Smith and Will Shields, both from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The team also had superstars in the early 1990s such as Derrick Thomas, Christian "The Nigerian Nightmare" Okoye, Dale Carter, and Deron Cherry.
The Chiefs 1990 season was their first return to the playoffs in 5 years and marked the best team they had fielded since the 1970s, finishing 11-5. Led by Steve DeBerg, Christian Okoye, Barry Word, and a ferocious defense, the Chiefs won a wild card berth but subsequently lost to Miami 17-16 in the first round of the playoffs.
1991 saw much of the same faces and results, this time a 10-6 finish and another wild card berth and a trip to the playoffs. On the strength of their defense, the Chiefs defeated the Raiders in the first round of the playoffs 9-7 before losing to Buffalo in the divisional playoff round.
After acquiring veteran quarterback Dave Krieg for the 1992 season with similar results to the previous years (wild card berth, 17-0 loss to San Diego in round 1), the Chiefs traded for Joe Montana from the San Francisco 49ers prior to the 1993 season. Along with Marcus Allen from the Los Angeles Raiders, the Chiefs gained both a powerful passer and rusher to assist their powerful defense, advancing to the AFC Championship Game. The Chiefs lost the AFC Championship 30-13 to former coach Marv Levy and the Buffalo Bills.
Montana retired after the 1994 season and was replaced by Steve Bono, with Rich Gannon as backup. In 1995, the Chiefs went 13-3 and were the odds-on favorite to represent the AFC in Super Bowl XXX. However, on a cold night full of dropped passes and missed field goals, they lost 10-7 against the Indianapolis Colts in the 1996 playoffs. During that game, kicker Lin Elliot made himself infamous for missing multiple field goals.
In 1997, Schottenheimer chose to start newly acquired Elvis Grbac as quarterback to begin the season, with long time journeyman (and future NFL Most Valuable Player [2002 season] and Pro-Bowl MVP {2000 and 2001 games]) Rich Gannon serving as the primary backup. After a season opening loss to Denver, Grbac led the Chiefs to wins in 7 of their next 8 games before being injured in a home win against Pittsburgh. Gannon took over in the 4th quarter against the Steelers, and was dreadful in his next three starts filling in for Grbac (1 TD, 4 INTs, QB rating of 55.3), though the Chiefs did manage to win 2 of those 3 games (by a combined margin of 7 points). His next two starts, against a good 49ers team and an awful Oakland team, the Chiefs won both games -- by a combined score of 74-9. Gannon played well, throwing 4 touchdown passes and only 1 interception in those two games. However, despite a 29-7 win in the next game against San Diego, Gannon again played poorly, completing only 8 of 29 passes for 116 yards (61 QB rating). Grbac returned in the final week of the season, and in the snow and freezing rain of a dreadful Kansas City winter day, the Grbac was not on target but the Chiefs defense was, giving them the division title and a 13-3 record. With a healthy Grbac on board for their divisional playoff game against Denver, both defenses were stellar and Denver won a hotly contested contest 14-10.
The choice to play Grbac over Gannon still remains controversial in the minds of fans, though a clearer look at the numbers and performances of the two quarterbacks should make it a moot point (and it was Gannon's later performance at the beginning of the 1998 season and in Oakland that really caused this controversy). Grbac was the leader of the team and was brought in prior to the season to be the #1 starter. While Gannon did lead the Chiefs to a 5-1 record as a fill in, his numbers and play were strikingly similar to one Brodie Croyle, the Chiefs 2007 part time starting quarterback. The stats don't lie; the Chiefs did not go 5-1 because of Gannon; they went 5-1 IN SPITE of Gannon & because of their running game and ferocious defense.
The 1998 season started with a bang, with the Chiefs starting 4-1 under the quarterbacking of Rich Gannon (Grbac was injured in the opening game against Oakland). After a loss to New England, the Chiefs put Grbac back into the starting position (this is what fans remember as controversial) and promptly lost their next 5 games, ultimately finishing at 7-9 in 1998. Marty Schottenheimer took much of the blame for his failed attempts in the playoffs and conservative style of coaching ("Martyball"), and resigned following the 1998 season.
After Schottenheimer's resignation,Gunther Cunningham the defense coordinator was promoted to head coach. He coached the next two seasons. Though in 1999, Cunningham's Chiefs (at the time 9-6) lost to the Oakland Raiders in the final game of the season in overtime. This loss meant the Chiefs would miss the playoffs for the second season in a row. In 2000 the Chiefs finished 7-9. Fed up, the Chiefs did not resign quarterback Elvis Grbac and fired head coach Gunther Cunningham (Cunningham supposedly found out about his firing on the Internet).

2000s
After coaching the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl and retiring, Dick Vermeil was lured out of retirement and took over as head coach in 2001. Vermeil brought many elements of "The Greatest Show on Turf" from St. Louis to Kansas City's own offense, but much like the Schottenheimer era in the 1990s, the offense didn't win any playoff games.
The Chiefs went 13-3 in 2003 and their offense, considered by many as one of the most powerful of all time, helped make Kansas City again a favorite to win Super Bowl XXXIX. After starting 9-0, the Chiefs began to lose momentum by November, but they still managed to gain the number two seed in the 2004 playoffs. The mighty homefield advantage of Arrowhead Stadium and their high-powered offense wouldn't lead the Chiefs to glory and the Chiefs lost to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Divisional playoffs 38-31 in an offensive shootout in which neither team punted, an NFL playoffs first.
The Chiefs managed to finish the 2004 season with a 7-9 record. For their 2005 campaign, the Chiefs brought in several new players to boost a defense that had finished among the worst units the past three years. The year also saw Larry Johnson start at running back in place of an injured Priest Holmes. But despite winning ten games, the Chiefs became just the fourth team since 1990 to go 10-6 and not reach the playoffs.

2006-present
A tearful head coach Dick Vermeil announced his retirement before the final game of the 2005 season. Within two weeks, then-New York Jets head coach Herm Edwards had signed a new 4-year contract to coach the Chiefs. The 2006 Chiefs returned to the playoffs for the first time in three seasons, only to lose 23-8 in the Wild Card round against their playoff nemesis, the Indianapolis Colts.
Meanwhile, Chiefs owner and founder Lamar Hunt died on December 13, 2006 due to complications brought on by a ten-year battle with prostate cancer. Hunt was remembered throughout the remainder of the 2006 season all throughout the NFL with moments of silence and ceremonies in Kansas City.
The Chiefs' 2007 off-season began with uncertainty over the contract of Tony Gonzalez, and the long-term career of Trent Green in Kansas City. Backup quarterback Damon Huard was signed to a three-year contract in February and Green was not only asked to restructure his contract but offered in trades to other teams.
On June 5, the Chiefs agreed to trade Green to the Miami Dolphins for a conditional fifth round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft, pending a physical from Green. The pick can be upgraded to a fourth-rounder if Green reaches certain predetermined playing time and performance levels.
The Chiefs' 2007 training camp was documented in the HBO/NFL Films documentary reality television series, Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Kansas City Chiefs The series premiered on August 8, 2007.
Five different running backs were used after Larry Johnson was injured in week 9 against Green Bay. The team also had no stability at quarterback with Croyle and Huard, while their offensive line depleted in the absence of their former Pro Bowl guard Will Shields.
The season ended with a nine game losing streak, the team's first since 1987 and a 4-12 record. It was the Chiefs' first season with twelve losses since 1978.
Head coach Herman Edwards continued to build upon the Chiefs' roster with young players, mostly on defense, and attempted stabilize a once record-setting offensive line. The Chiefs continue to rebuild a defense that may quietly creep its way back to respectability.
To honor their late owner Lamar Hunt, the Chiefs wore a special American Football League patch on their uniforms with the initials "LH" emblazoned inside the logo's football.

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