The 5 Most Soul-Crushing Chiefs Defeats Ever

The 5 Most Soul-Crushing Chiefs Defeats Ever – For all sports fans, there are soul-crushing losses their favorite teams suffer, and they, too, in commiseration with the players on the field. Such losses are inevitable. Unavoidable, even. As Wadsworth penned over 150 years ago, “Into each life some rain must fall.” If such is true — Narrator’s voice: “It is” — then the Kansas City Chiefs, and Chiefs Kingdom, have weathered some hellified storms.

Now that our team has scaled the heights and are the current Super Bowl Champions… let’s take a brief peek from our lofty perch, but one that is recognizably a painful pilgrimage down memory lane, to look at the five most soul-crushing defeats ever in the Chiefs 60-year history. One stop on our oft-excruciating journey of games chock-full of ‘would’ve, could’ve should’ve beens’, however, before we start our mournful journey, I warn you that the Chiefs loss to the Green Bay Packers, 35 -10, in Super Bowl I is notably absent from this list. There are two reasons for this.

One, while I am older than dirt, I’m not that old! I was just under a month shy of making my debut (February 14, 1967) in this weird, wild, and wonderful world when Vince Lombardi and his Packers whipped the Chiefs on January 15, 1967. Second, if you’re unfortunate enough to lose a game the magnitude as big as the Super Bowl, there’s no shame in losing it to the coach whose name emblazons the winner’s trophy. BTW, it was Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt who suggested the name “Lombardi Trophy” shortly after the untimely death of Coach Lombardi of cancer at age 57 in September 1970.

With formalities dispensed, get your kleenex ready — if need be – and mosey on down the Chiefs Trail of Tears.

1997 AFC Divisional Playoffs – January 4, 1998 – Kansas City Chiefs vs. Denver Broncos, Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO

Many Arrowhead readers might think the Super Bowl I in 1967 loss trumps this one as a soul-crushing defeat, but I protest. Loudly. We were beat, 14-10, by a division rival in the playoffs! You know, the Denver Broncos, our rivals in a division that we won that year.

The Broncos would advance to win Super Bowl XXIII, beating the Packers, 31-24, that year. I was absolutely ecstatic that an AFC team won. However, you know what? Blank the Broncos! Always! No matter the decade, blank the Broncos.

Blank the Broncos yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever.

Oh, yeah, Raiders fans? And that goes for you, too!

1995 AFC Divisional Playoff – January 7, 1996 – Kansas City Chiefs vs. Indianapolis Colts, Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO

This one gets not even a paragraph from me. I … I just can’t. Or rather, I won’t. Colts win, 10-7.

Lin Elliott, you had ONE job! I’ve got a great aunt who works at IHOP with only one eye and a single leg. We call her Aunty Eileen Cyclopes. She would have made at least one of the three you missed.

1993 AFC Championship Game – January 23, 1994 – Kansas City Chiefs vs. Buffalo Bills, Rich Stadium, Orchard Park, NY

As a Chiefs fan, this loss cuts me the deepest. I was a new Chiefs fan in 1992. A Joe Montana refugee. I came to Chiefs Kingdom in search of greener pastures and Lombardi’s galore. That’s not what happened, though. The Chiefs, with Montana and Raiders cast-off Marcus Allen, were as good as I thought they were. They were that all season long. Their upset of the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-24, in OT two weeks prior, coupled with their victory against the Houston Oilers, 28-20, the week prior to their loss against the Bills, solidified that.

In both games, Montana was… well, Montana, lead the Chiefs to come from behind victories in both comebacks.

But the Buffalo Bills? Well, that was another story. A sad story. One I’ll not get into details about for fear of my falling tears short-circuiting my keyboard. Suffice to say, Montana was hit hard, but legal, in the 3rd quarter by a trio of Bills, including HOFer Bruce Smith, suffering a concussion. I knew then the game was over.

I was right, the game was over. Backup Dave Krieg tried valiantly, but failed to rally the Chiefs. Our beloved Red and Gold succumbed to the Bills 30-13. The Bills would advance to the Super Bowl only to lose… again... to the Dallas Cowboys, 30-13.

2018 AFC Championship Game – January 20, 2019 – Kansas City Chiefs vs. New England Patriots, Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO

This wound is still fresh. Whether you blame this loss on the officiating in it, or Dee Ford’s faux pas at the line of scrimmage, is of no consequence now. The Patriots would go on to defeat the Los Angeles Rams, 13-3, in the most boring championship game ever, Super Bowl LIII.

However, we had such a chance and were knocking on the door. A jittery Patrick Mahomes had a horrid first half. Our mighty Chiefs didn’t even sniff the touchdown until the 3rd quarter. Our sophomore QB that took the NFL by storm that year had only three opportunities in the first half, each resulting in Colquitt punts. At the end of the half, the Chiefs were down 14-0.

The 3rd quarter welcomed a rejuvenated Mahomes. He finally put the Chiefs on the board with a bullet down the middle to TE Travis Kelce, the PAT true. Kansas City was on the board. The Patriots would garner a field goal, entering the 4th quarter ahead, 17-7.

Mahome’s Magic was on full display in the 4th quarter. Our — soon-to-be — half-billion dollar QB, guided the Chiefs to three touchdowns with Harrison Butker tagging another point on the end of each. Butker also sailed a 39-yard field goal through the uprights with 11 second remaining to end regulation tied with the Patriots, 24-24.

Enter overtime. The Patriots won the toss… but Mahomes never saw the ball again. Tom Brady and his crew marched down the gridiron from his 25-yard-line, driving 75 yards, sealing the Chiefs Super Bowl LIII plans with a 2-yard push up the middle by RB Rex Burkhead.

I realize we’re Super Bowl Champs now, but this one still smarts. I maintain, to this day, the Chiefs did not lose that game… we just ran out of time.

1971 AFC Divisional Playoff Game – Christmas, 1971 – Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins, Municipal Stadium, Kansas City, MO

This is the only Chiefs loss that I was not party to. On Christmas Day, 1971, I was neither a Chiefs fan nor an NFL fan. Rather, I was a snot-nosed four-year-old building amazing log cabins with the Lincoln Logs that Santa saw fit to leave under the tree that Christmas morning.

The Chiefs were for real that year. Just two years removed from their Super Bowl IV victory over the Vikings, the nucleus of that team was still in Red and Gold, plus they boasted a defense many said was better than that of the 1969 squad that sent the Norseman scampering back to their native land.

The Chiefs were facing the scrappy Miami Dolphins. Only slightly older than myself, the six-year-old Dolphins had put together an impressive 10-3-1 record on the year. They had stars like Jim Kiick, Bob Griese, Larry Csonka, Nick Buoniconti, Mercury Morris, Paul Warfield, and others, but those “Phins” were coming into the heart of Chiefs Kingdom at Municipal Stadium to take on the older more established Chiefs, on none other than Christmas Day.

To say that it was a slugfest would be an understatement. It was a Battle Royale! At the end of the first quarter, the Chiefs were up 10-0. When the teams hit the locker room at half-time, the Dolphins had tied it, 10-10. Come the end of the 3rd quarter, still tied with each team scoring a TD and each true on the PAT, 17-17. Ditto for the fourth quarter, 24-24. Hello, overtime.

Wait. Goodbye, overtime. Hello second overtime. In a game that lasted 82 minutes and 40 seconds and still stands as the longest game in NFL history: our mighty Chiefs were defeated by a sure-footed kicker, Garo Yepremian, who had two years prior played for the Michigan Arrows of the Continental Football League. Who… and who, you ask? Exactly! The 37-yard field goal by the former Arrow, was the death knell of the 1971 Chiefs, ruining Christmas for many a Chief fan that year. Some even says it was the beginning of a long curse for the Chiefs. It certainly was the beginning of a long playoff drought.

Despite the loss, Chiefs running back Ed Podolak set the bar for all NFL players for postseason play in this game, racking up 350 yards from scrimmage (85 rushing yards, 110 running yards, and 155 return yards) and setting a record that still stands nearly 50 years later. His two touchdowns helped, too.

It boggles the mind, that despite all the stars and future Hall of Famers that comprised the 1971 Dolphins, it was a 5-7 Cypriot placekicker name Garo who drove the final nail in the coffin of perhaps the best team the Chiefs have ever fielded.

After the loss, the dejected Chiefs went home. The Dolphins would go on to shutout the Baltimore Colts, 21-0, in the AFC Championship game only to lose to the Dallas Cowboys, 24-3, in Super Bowl VI (the precursor to the Dolphins perfect season in 1972).

There are many who say that had the Chiefs beat the Dolphins on that muddy mess of a sloppy Saturday, Christmas Day, 1971, the Chiefs would have beat both the Colts and the Cowboys in route to a second Super Bowl victory with their stellar defense. AFL and Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt felt likewise,

“I always thought that was the peak of our best team, our ’71 squad.”

Alas, it was not to be, and Chiefs fans remember Christmas Day, 1971, not only as a soul-crushing defeat, but both the Chiefs last appearance and the last game played in Municipal Stadium, but also their last appearance in the postseason for the rest of the 70s.

I won’t lie, all five loses hurt. Heck, it was difficult to even write the above without conjuring up some painful memories. However, like most citizens of Chiefs Kingdom, I’m kinda Okay now. It’s absolutely amazing what a Super Bowl Championship can do to mend a broken heart and a crushed soul.

Michael Travis Rose — ArrowheadOne

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