I’d like to introduce you to our newest writer, Rick Lust. Rick shared with me, “If you would have told me, at age 46, I’d be writing about the Kansas City Chiefs on a regular basis, I would have punched you in the face!” That statement, and the fact that he’s from California, like me, and a teacher like me on top of that, helped me know he was the perfect fit to write for ArrowheadOne. Being a teacher… he’s someone I admire greatly!
Rick was born and raised in the small California Central Coast town of Hollister, where his parents were also born and raised. Rick knew by his early teens that he wanted to have a career in the media field. Rather than talking and arguing sports, Rick spent a great deal of time in his teens, not playing sports, but sitting on his high school football team bench. For two years.
Rick and his friends would look on the back of baseball cards, where they used to place a player’s home town, and they’d call the telephone information for that city and see if they could “talk” to one of his heroes. It was there that Rick’s fondness for Kansas City Sports blossomed.
Rick shared,
“In about 1991, when looking at the card of a not-well-known baseball player of the Kansas City Royals, Matt Winters, we called his home town information. My neighbor, who had just moved in the summer before, had become my best friend and because his dad lived in Kansas City, was a HUGE Royals and Chiefs fan. When we took all the Royals player’s cards that we owned and started calling information — of course players like George Brett, Bret Saberhagen, Mark Davis, Bo Jackson came first — we were finally able to get the home phone number of Matt Winters. Winters, a utility outfielder, was from Buffalo, NY, which could have been on Mars, to us 15-year olds in California. His dad answered the call and talked to us about how Matt was playing in Japan and would love to hear from us. We gave him our mailing address and about a month later we each got an autographed card in the mail!”
So, Rick’s Love for K.C. Sports grew. Please help me give a warm welcome to Rick Lust. You can also follow Rick on Twitter: @Lust2Learn –Editor, Laddie Morse
Learn more about Rick below, following his piece: “The 1993 Chiefs vs Today”
The 1993 Chiefs vs Today – by Rick Lust (@Lust2Learn) – In 2021 it’s hard to imagine a Kansas City Chiefs team going to the AFC Title Game during a season in which your starting QB throws for 2,144 yards and only 13 touchdowns. Where your starting RB runs for a mere 764 yards while averaging under 4 yards per carry. Your leading receiver catches 52 receptions while averaging less than 56 yards per game. The last time the Chiefs met the Buffalo Bills with a chance to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, this was the reality of not only the Chiefs, but the NFL as a whole.
The great Bills teams of the 90’s went to four straight Super Bowls and lost them all. The last year of their run they met up with a Chiefs team that was led, by not one, but two, living NFL legends: Joe Montana as their QB and Marcus Allen in the backfield. Though their stats on paper are like the Mini Me to Dr. Evil stats, compared to those in 2020, the result was the 1993 AFC Title Game, their first title game in the Super Bowl era.
Montana never had out of this world stats, but was considered by many the G.O.A.T. during the late 1980’s and leading into the 1990’s. He won 4 Super Bowls, rivaled Michael Jordan in TV ads, and when he played for K.C. was just a couple seasons removed from possibly the most iconic Super Bowl win in history, a 55-10 over the Denver Broncos in S.B. XXIV.
In 1990, Montana led his San Francisco 49ers to the NFC Title game and though he lost to the eventual champion New York Giants, there was no way of telling that he would only play one more game in the Red and Gold. Placed on injured reserve for the 1991 season due to a severe elbow injury, it was clear upon his return that another future Hall of Famer, Steve Young, had taken over the reins in San Francisco, and Montana asked for a trade. The Chiefs stepped in and after an offseason of negotiations, K.C. brought in their QB G.O.A.T, as well as signing another G.O.A.T — a RB named Marcus Allen — to complete their backfield.
If you were a child of the 80’s and 90’s you most likely played a video game or two. When the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) brought football video games from a dot on a small screen to, players looking like cartoons (TECMO BOWL), Marcus Allen was the running back everyone wanted. After a college career that saw him win the Heisman Trophy (1981) while playing for the University of Southern California (USC), Allen was drafted by the then, Oakland-soon-to-be-Los Angeles Raiders. By his third season, Allen led the Raiders to a Championship and by his fourth he was leading the league in rushing. He was the golden (okay… silver and black) child of the league. What did the Raiders do to reward him? They drafted the best college (maybe even the best to ever live) athlete out of Auburn named Bo Jackson (1986) to play the same position that Allen was already dominating. Allen’s relationship with Raiders was never the same. After 11 years with the only professional organization he knew, his contract expired and Allen was free to sign with any team. After the trade for Montana, signing not only to play with the greatest quarterback to ever throw the ball, it was a chance for Allen to show the division rival Raiders — twice a year — that he had a lot left in the tank!
The Prime of Derrick Thomas and Neil Smith
With a brick-wall defense, plus legendary Derrick Thomas and Neil Smith rushing the QB, and with two new offensive weapons, the Chiefs were on their way to challenge the three time Champion Buffalo Bills for American Football Conference supremacy and the Lamar Hunt trophy.
Alas, those 1993 Chiefs were sent home 30-13, but the Bills went on to lose their fourth straight Super Bowl. Joe Montana played one more season, Marcus Allen 3 more. Both retired: ages 38 and 37 respectively. The Chiefs made the playoffs the following season, but lost to the Dolphins on the opening weekend. The 1993 and 1994 seasons may not have led to the success the Chiefs ultimately wanted, but it led to quite a bit of fun arguing: Bay Area Joe and Marcus vs KC Joe and Marcus. That kept us Bay Area teenagers entertained! Go Chiefs!
Rick Lust — ArrowheadOne
@Lust2Learn More
More About Rick Lust
Baseball was my true love, but because of the friendly sports arguments with my K.C. neighbor, football and the Chiefs always were brought into the conversation. I was a Cowboys fan living in 49ers country, but in the Bay area, even though they were still in Los Angeles, the Raiders were always a topic of our conversations. I think this might have been the Bo Jackson (who I still argue was the most talented professional athlete to ever live) connection. No matter what, we would still sit in our garages, looking at our cards with stats on the back, and talk about the backfield of the Raiders vs the Chiefs.
As my early teens grew into young adulthood, my neighbor and I grew apart. He now lives in K.C. and was married in Kauffman Stadium, and still posts K.C. Chiefs pictures all over his Facebook page! My love for talking sports never died. I graduated from high school in three years with my mind set on talking sports for a living. I attended college and quickly became the sports editor for my local community college paper (I was 17!). I attended a day of interning for KNBR, the largest Sports Radio Station in the US at the time, and I instantly fell in love with the passion of talking for a living. I left Hollister and attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas as a Communications Major (eventually switched to Political Science), interned at more radio stations, graduated with my B.S. and hit a brick wall!
My Dad passed away in 1993 and I felt this certain responsibility to help my Mom and my younger sister. I attempted to intern after college, but needed to work and make some money to help pay their bills (and a few student loans). That’s when I started substitute teaching. After a few months passed, I was offered (with very little experience) a full-time position (on a California Emergency Teaching Credential) as a Special Education Teacher. Was I in the media talking about sports? No! Was I working with students that really needed a role model that I could pass my love of sports onto and have a positive, possible world changing role in their lives? Yes!! Jump forward 22 years and I have spent a career in public education currently working as a Special Education Administrator. The desire to talk about sports for a living never died.
That brings me full circle to now writing about the Kansas City Chiefs! I hope over time my love of this game adults play for millions of dollars, is evident in my writing and I hope that my passion leads to more kids (or any reader) thinking they could turn their passion into a dream someday too!
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