Blowfish's Pre-Game Speech: AFC Championship

[gblowfish]

I haven't left my house all day. I've been doing little busy work like paying bills on-line, applying white shoe polish to my multiple pairs of sneakers in various states of repair; doing laundry and such. I think I've just wanted to stay indoors as long as possible, as it's going to be a cold mofo tomorrow night at Arrowhead. Yes, Hell must be frozen over, the Chiefs are one game away from returning to the Super Bowl.

I don't remember the first Super Bowl much. I remember watching it with my dad, but I was only seven and didn't really understand. In 1967 we started going to games as a family. In 1969 I was fully invested and the Chiefs ruled my world. They have ever since. That was 50 years ago.

I was at the 1971 Dolphins game, and every playoff game in KC since then. We finally broke our streak of bad home playoff luck eight days ago. So it's a new world, and here's the way it stacks up as I see it:

Both sides of the coin, why we should be worried:

New England has been in the playoffs every year except two since 2001. That's 17 out of 19 years. In 55 playoff games they're 35 and 20. They've won five out of the ten super bowls they've been in. They're 10-4 in AFC Championship games. The current team includes the Pats all time passing leader, all time scoring leader and most winning coach. Last time we played them, we lost by three. Last time we played them, Michele ran for over 100 yards and Brady threw for 340, 1 TD, no picks. Gostkowski kicked five field goals. New England had NO penalties.

Here's the good news: New England has been a very average team on the road. Brady's last two games at Arrowhead, we kicked his ass. He got benched the last time he played us here. This is the first AFC Championship game EVER at Arrowhead; something fans like me have WAITED OUR WHOLE LIVES FOR. Mahomes has a whole season under his belt since that last game. We didn't have Berry or Houston on defense. We'll have both of them tomorrow. Gronk beat a guy off the street named Josh Shaw for the game changing play last time. He's not on the team any longer, along with Ron Parker, who was another defensive liability - gone. We don't have Kareem Hunt, but Damien Williams rushed for over 100 yards on the Colts last week. The Canadian Doc is back. Sammy Watkins will play.

And despite what the national pundit shitheads think, Arrowhead will be LOUDER THAN **** no matter HOW cold it is. The Lamar Hunt Trophy is sitting over in Arrowhead right this very minute, and guess what? We're going to be very motivated to never let it leave the premises.

If we lose, everyone will say "oh well...we finally got out over our skis, lost to the GOAT, lost to Hoodie...but we made progress." And yeah, all that will be true.

The year the Chiefs won it all, they were unlikely underdogs. They won on the road in terrible, frigid, windy weather in New York, having to beat the world champion Jets and Joe Willie Namath. Then they had to go to Oakland to play in the very last AFL game and win that game as heavy underdogs. They did both. This time, we get to play for all the marbles in our home. In front of our fans, with nothing to lose. I hope our guys come out loose, leave it all on the field, and go balls to the wall all day long. Last week was great. This week could be greater, and one of our finest hours.

See you at the yard, meat.