The Milwaukee CHIEFS and a Week One Recap

Josh Kingsley

[Written on Wednesday]

Week 1 is in the books, and I can finally talk about a real football game!! I will start this week with a quick story, and stop me if you’ve heard this one. Full disclosure: I did not go through all of my year plus articles to confirm, but I am fairly certain I have yet to tell the true origin story of the Milwaukee CHIEFS group. Quick note about me: I’m a spreadsheet guy. In the near future my plan is to create a spreadsheet of all my stuff here noting all topics covered by piece. This will make it easy to search and reference. It will also make it easy to not waste anyone’s time reading my internal monologue. If I’ve told this story before, I hope it’s better this time. Let’s call it a standard issue Hollywood reboot, if it isn’t.

MKE CHIEFS

The group started in 2010 when my good friend Kris and his 10ish year old son walked into a Buffalo Wild Wings somewhere in the Milwaukee Metro Area… I believe it was West Allis or Wauwatosa. Then he did the dance of the transplant CHIEFS fan, which includes asking for your game on a TV and enduring a bad view and no sound. They noticed a couple other people, Nick and Bob, dressed like them, and struck up a conversation with them. Casual standoff became exchanged phone numbers and set plans to meet back up… and voilà –> the Milwaukee CHIEFS fan group was born. I met these guys September 8, 2013. That’s right, I joined Andy Reid in finding a new crew.

Misty’s mom was in town seeing her not quite 6 month old grand-baby, Viv, and I know I told the story of her grand entrance. We hit church, and I picked the lunch spot –> the West Allis Buffalo Wild Wings. Our group got a table in the restaurant area just in time for kick off. The CHIEFS won that game big, and I totally forgot we only allowed a safety. Here’s the thing that dawned on me writing this: the blowout factor was key that day. Why?

A Chance Meeting

I was content that day. My company was my wife, mother-in-law –> who I truly enjoy, and new baby. The game was a win starting the Reid Era and following a 2-14 campaign… the blowout provided something of a signal. About halfway through the game I noticed a noise from the bar every time the CHIEFS did well. There were people up there cheering every time I did. I picked up Viv and we went to investigate. The repetition made me curious, and I probably don’t notice 1-2 cheering sections. I repeated the Kris stumble situation, and we have been watching ever since.

There are all kinds of stories of characters, growth in numbers and whatnot, but that is essentially the story. I met a group of VIP in my life on 9/8/13, and it was totally by chance. My intention with the story is to simply say I missed the crew, and Sunday brought elation. We had an awesome group for the season opener, and I am simply grateful to be back.

Week 1 Recap

The offseason produced one major question: can the CHIEFS live without WR Tyreek Hill? I believe most fans answered yes, but the confidence level traveled the globe. The sports media world capitalized greatly trying to answer that question. There were optimists, skeptics, realists, and Bart Scott (not even going to justify him with a link). Fans and writers for teams like the Chargers and Broncos leaned into the skepticism, and most said things in a more hopeful than analytical fashion. National media mostly gravitated to the potential doom and gloom for Mahomes in similar fashion to the attempts to scoop Tom Brady being old and washed speculation era. I have said this before: the big networks pay people to do things like: burn Mahomes and predict his demise.

I truly believe the actual belief rate in the guys spewing Mahomes stuff this past season clock in at 25% max. My columns about pro wresting talk about the existence of heels or villains. Networks seed these guys to stir the pot. Skip Bayless got rich telling Steven A. Smith that Tebow was the second coming and LeBron James sucks. Bart Scott may be down on the CHIEFS some, but I cannot fathom him actually believing his full narrative and also having the brain power to tie his own shoes.

Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes emphatically answered yes to the question. Five TD passes was a statement. There may be potholes, but Patrick Mahomes will find people to pass to.

Observations & Thoughts About CHIEFS Stuff

Patrick Mahomes has developed a tradition of September record setting and breaking and stat accumulation. Last Sunday became five season openers with 3+ TD passes, which is a record. He is approaching the death and taxes realm with this stat. Travis Kelce became the third TE with 30+ 100 yard receiving games, and the other two are Gronk and Tony G. At 8-ish minutes left in the third quarter there were 8 CHIEFS players with at least one catch. That is the true “no Tyreek effect.” Harrison Butker played tough kicking the 54-yard FG with one step on a rolled ankle. I really hope that injury passes quickly because we need #7. Justin Reid was a nice safety net. Reid was a excellent on kick offs, and I want him to keep that job. He can boot for touch-backs, but he adds an extra tackler when needed.

Observations & Thoughts: Non-CHIEFS Stuff

Aaron Rodgers is like a good hitter in a baseball game. Great plate discipline and working the pitch count almost dictates watching the first strike. Rodgers is a master of watching the first strike. The issue is that the first strike in this analogy is game 1 of the regular season, and the plate discipline is not participating in the preseason.

Nebraska made a solid move in the direction of mediocrity and fired Scott Frost. I grew up around many Husker fans in the Tom Osborne era, and went to school with a bunch during college. The State is full of Husker pride, and they love their tradition. Unfortunately, all of the care and concern for the Nebraska Husker football tradition ends with the State borders, the alumni and stagger fans remaining in adjacent states like Kansas. This is not Notre Dame, and Nebraska pride has limits and borders.

Scott Frost is fine with his $15M buyout. I imagine the conversation with the AD was similar to Ed Orgeron’s when he left LSU:

“What time do you want me to leave and what door you want me out of, brother?!”

Monday night I began to mentally prepare myself to write about the Russell Wilson led Broncos comeback win. Thankfully, Nathaniel Hack-Job (his name until further notice) gloriously and majestically rescued us all from that horror. His two minute drill looked something like this:

• Acquire Russell Wilson
• Give him an obscene $250M raise
• Waste a bunch of time around the 50
• Opt for a 64 yard FG over Russell Wilson gaining 5 yards

It was pure poetry.

One More Kind of CHIEFS Note

I cannot think of a team that dictates play better than the Steelers. They consistently pull teams to their level. This is good for them because their level is not very high, and they have a Tomlin winning record streak to mind. We as CHIEFS fans got to see the nonsense that was Steelers/Bengals in entirety because CBS picked it as the flagship for noon. Most of us Chiefs fans missed the a good chunk of the first quarter of the CHIEFS/Cards in favor of the clunkiest OT in recent memory. My watch party was furious, but the CHIEFS game was worth the wait. However, the ire did resurface when the game became a blowout and CBS switched the feed early to Raiders/Chargers. I mostly take the move as a compliment to the CHIEFS, but it sucked the air from our watch party.

How did we cope? We found the Mitch Holtus broadcast on 610 and played it through the speaker which I brought in for commercial music. All that said, I look forward to seeing a full game this Thursday.

Safety Tip

Tyreek Hill had a decent day out of the gate with his new team in Miami. He did not quite get to 100 yards and did not find the end zone, but 8 catches for 94 is not a bad day. The true highlight from the Miami game happened in the parking lot. Someone left their grill on in the parking lot, and now a big group of football fans get to find out how accurate the Farmers and All State Mayhem commercials are in real life {Dolphins and Pats game lot].

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Check out the full article. People like this are responsible for not edible warnings on paint cans.

Movie of the Week: Across the Universe

This one is timely. Across the Universe was released on September 14, 2007. This was the Beatles movie before we had Yesterday. The movie is a fantasy like love story following characters named after Beatles music. Definitely a fun way to revisit the catalog.

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Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne and Arrowhead Kingdom

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