When a person, a place or a thing can be summed up with one word, you know there is a great status conveyed by those having the discussion.
When a pro football player or fan says, “Arrowhead,” it conjures up a loud stadium nestled in a sea of red.
Over my 30 years in the National Football League I have watched Kansas City’s home stadium go from a place where the visiting teams won regularly to one that is considered by many the most feared and intimidating venue in pro football.
The Chiefs’ home record bears that out of course, but the fans have a high degree of ownership in that record as well.
No team does any better than Kansas City in having their fans were the appropriate color, starting on Friday when many business people either abandon the suit and tie in favor of a red sweatshirt, or just add the neckwear to the necessary business uniform.
They carry it onto game day as well. Arrowhead Stadium will be full, red, and raucous this Sunday when the Broncos play the Chiefs.
The home team has earned its reputation as tough to beat at home, but Broncos fans should remember that the biggest game Denver ever played in Arrowhead Stadium was a Denver win — a 14-10 victory in the divisional round AFC playoff game in 1997, a win that sent the Broncos to Pittsburgh for the AFC title game and eventually to the team’s first world championship.
So I don’t buy the fact that you can’t win in KC, not at all. Each game is its own entity, and it is always about how you prepare and plan for that game, and how you execute that planning on game day.
After all, the Broncos this week are not trying to reverse the all-time won-lost record at Arrowhead. The goal is the same as it is every week — just win one game. Just win today.
How you execute is the key to winning, not the locale.
You can count on Mike Shanahan making every effort to have his Broncos (not his young Broncos, or his injury-depleted Broncos, just his BRONCOS) ready to play at Kansas City this week.
Right now every Denver fan is focused on the fact that the Broncos are 1-5 in their last six games, with a slate of statistics to accompany that mark.
And that viewpoint is understandable, because it represents what is current, and at all times, it is all about “now.”
But just as accurate, from a mathematical standpoint, is the fact that Denver sits just one game behind the Chiefs and San Diego Chargers in the AFC West.
We all remember the Super Bowl winners, but almost never can we recite the regular-season record of that team.
Ultimately, it is all about getting into the playoffs, and winning the division is still winning the division.
The Broncos just are not out of it, and that is where the coaches and players have their focus.
I understand entirely that everyone feels different from that, but we still have to have the season play out.
The game this Sunday actually is the type athletes like — a great, knowledgeable audience, and every player likes the opportunity to shine on the road, to show his wares before a hostile crowd, and do enough to make it quiet.
The Arrowhead fan base is a great one, loud, supportive, and in general polite. My wife has made several trips to KC to watch the Broncos play the Chiefs, and she has seen us play in many other stadia as well. By far, her comments about Arrowhead and its fans are positive compared to several other experiences she has had in the stands.
They are passionate; they are tough; they are supportive of the Chiefs — but they are great fans with great standards.
Solid midwestern values brought to the football venue.
The Broncos are in a tough spot, no question about it, but nobody ever said that lofty goals should be easy to attain.
Every game is a chance to excel, and the next one for Denver comes in the NFL’s classic outdoor venue.
This ought to be a classic battle at Arrowhead, and one that could revive the pulse of the Broncos and their fans as well.
The Chiefs may be classy, but they’re still our rivals. Let’s crush them and put all the pressure on them to fight for their playoff lives once we obtain a huge win this Sunday.
The chiefs are not classy and they do not have “Solid midwestern values” nor are they “polite”.. I live around 1 hour from arrowhead and have gone to several games there to see the Broncos play and have a ton of problems with the fans in the parking lot, the stadium and around this area in general so please don’t tell me they are anything but rude and most KC fans are A##es.. We have not been there in 3 yrs now ,we are offered tickets every year for face value”good tickets” and we turn them done because of the way we are treated as broncos fans. We only go to denver now..
Uhhh… I STRONGLY disagree about the fans in general being “polite”. I totally agree with you broncos_for_life… the fans are anything but classy – I like to call them trashy, if you will.
I’ve been to plenty of games in KC to say that the statement is underrated. You’re wife must sit in one of those boxes away from the fans b/c everytime that I’ve been the Chiefs fans that I’ve been surrounded by are just flat obnoxious and rude. Reason being why I’ve stopped going to those games, #1 I’m in no way a Chiefs fan and #2 the fans are nuts. You walk in there as a fan of another team and you just get hounded with uncalled for namecalling and all kinds of gestures that are better left unsaid.
My mom used to be a sales rep for an airline and she would get flight tickets for certain people and they would repay her back by giving her, my dad and I tickets to a Den @ KC game. So by that the actual person who got us tickets (for free!!) would take us down to the field and we would get to walk around the field while the teams practiced. So as we came around to the end that mattered most to me, where the Broncos were, there he was over 6 feet tall with the #7 on the back of his jersey facing me. I was in shock I was that close to the great John Elway so while I stood there in complete amazement just hoping he’d come give me an autograph my dad was standing behind me and heard some crazy nuts in the stands (Chiefs fans of course) and they were calling me all sorts of names. I didn’t hear anything, it was almost like a movie when the person is so focused on something everything in their surroundings just kind of disappears… that’s what happened to me and my dad almost lost it with those guys. He wasn’t too crazy about some nut jobs calling his 8 year old daughter uncalled for names. But my point is that those fans are not nice, their not fun to be around AT ALL, the stadium is not all that great of place as people hype it up to be. Its actually one of the worst stadiums in the NFL… no respect at all. I don’t like the Chiefs any more than the man in the moon but I’ve got more class than to call them names and have no respect at all. But if the Chiefs didn’t exist we wouldn’t have such a great rivalry team to play against.
That’s one of my many adventures at Arrowhead. And to top it off… b/c the majority of people that were on the little tour around the field were Chiefs fans they didn’t want to stick around where the Broncos were so I never did get an autograph and that was my big chance right there. So I’m still hoping one day I’ll run into the greatest QB that ever lived and at least get an autograph maybe even a picture of him and me.
But while I’m still stuck here in reality, this ought to be pretty good game. The Chiefs are coming across as a little bit vulnerable right now since LJ won’t be playing. I heard Priest Holmes say something last night on the news about how we won’t know how to stop him and all this stuff… what is he planning on doing, is he gonna fly across the field or something?? If the Broncos defense is going to change 100% we’ll stop the little sucker and his little football too. Lynch should play then everytime Holmes gets the ball, Lynch can just pound him into the ground. I’d love that!!!
Go kill those Chiefs on Sunday, I’d love to see them lost once more in their own nasty stadium.
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!!!
SAM BRONCO Says:
I do not think we win in KC
; We are not defensive (thanks to Bates and Shanahan). 2007 is over, thanks to decisions by Shanahan. I am angry and sad at the same time, there is nothing offensive, Cutler
It is very novice. I think the worst madness Shanahan was changed to Plummer. Bring to another head coach we need
Way to go team. Great effort all around. Keep it up in week 11.