by Josh Kingsley
Today I am going to tackle one of the most polarizing topics I have seen in my 40 years of life: a Star Wars movie countdown. What’s not polarizing here? The Chiefs. If you’re seeking a topic for a more spirited debate, that, will lead you down paths for politics, religion, Covid vaccines or best fast food hamburgers (In-N-Out, BTW), to name a few. Star Wars is a giant topic, so are the Chiefs, but together I feel these should be discussed here at ArrowheadOne and I plan to take you on a ride as usual, so buckle up and get in the car.
The Parameters/Rules
Note: The main thing I want to make clear is that I genuinely love the Star Wars franchise and do not hate any of the movies. I say this to get the potentially biggest arguing point off the table.
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Parameter/Rule 1: is this is my countdown of the films in the order I like them, but with a Chiefs twist. The order of movies is how I personally feel about the movies. The seasons attached are comparisons I have manufactured in my mind, and not necessarily the order I view them. It’s not far off, but not exact either. Clear as mud? Perfect, moving on.
Parameter/Rule 2: I will not be dumping heavily on any of the 11 movies. I have clicked play on every single movie on Disney+, and I have done so outside of a marathon where they all had to be viewed.
Parameter/Rule 3: It seems like there should be a Parameter/Rule 3, but there is not one. I just wanted to say, I am ready for this season to actually start. So let’s get into…
The Countdown!
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Attack of the Clones <-> Chiefs 2012 Season
I believe I made myself pretty clear that I like all the movies, but there does have to be a last place. This one is clearly last place in my mind. The overuse of CGI, bad casting for the future Vader, and general silliness put this at the bottom of my list. Again, I like all these movies, so not saying I hate the movie. Just that I like it least.
Now when it comes to the Chiefs season this was an easy choice. The 2012 season was the biggest train wreck of a dumpster fire I have ever witnessed a team I like go through. We hit offseason 2 years removed from a playoff berth and belief that we were back. Todd Haley, Matt Cassel and Scott Pioli had us on the track, and 2011 was a speed bump in the learning process.
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Except it wasn’t. It was way worse. The hands down worst moment/sequence of the season was the Belcher situation. That was the most shocking and sad thing I have personally experienced in watching pro sports. I still have fairly vivid memories of the way the news leaked on that, and the reality ended up being so much worse than I could have imagined.
This was also the year of the Cassel injury against the Ravens. We then had to go through the “did the fans cheer” thing, which was capped with Eric Winston’s rant in the locker room interview. And of course it ended with the final record being 2-and-14 and the Chiefs sitting on the undisputed 1st overall pick. We sucked a year too late to draft Andrew Luck and went into the most QB void draft in recent memory.
To close this one out and tie it back to Star Wars, the end of Clones and that season had some personal parallels. Hurling toward 2-and-14 was watching the Yoda-Dooku fight when they are throwing all the stuff in the room at each other. Watching Yoda pull his light sabre was realizing we got the 1st overall pick… and seeing the Anakin robot hand generation while a lame wedding attended by only a robot was realizing we may be talking ourselves into Geno Smith.
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A Solo Story <-> Chiefs 2017 Season
This will be much quicker. Solo is a fun movie. I overall enjoyed the ride and the cast, but it seemed to be a tad off throughout. There was a massive focus on explaining every back story from the original trilogy. Almost as if to ensure fans could not come back with continuity complaints.
The 2017 season was when everyone was forced to have the realization that Alex Smith was our ceiling. In fairness, most fans had that feeling, but some resisted a bit more. The season went fine and we made the playoffs. We draw the Titans, and while the playoff demon was exorcised, all that was left was to take care of business at home against the Titans. What actually happened was a trademark fast start, followed by a parked bus, and ended with a squandered opportunity for another crack at the Patriots.
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Rise of Skywalker <-> Chiefs 2016 Season
The end of the Skywalker Saga had some stuff going on. This could have, and probably should have been a trilogy. Then you get to the part about bringing back Palpatine. I don’t think that was necessary, but understand the reasoning. Two families duking it out to run the universe makes enough sense. I like the movie, but did not feel fulfilled.
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The Chiefs 2016 season felt the same. Overall it has to be viewed a big success at 12-and-4. We got the bye as the 2 seed. We got to host the Steelers. The defense held up their end of the deal by not allowing any of the 6 scores to be a TD. Then we capped it off by taking a holding penalty on the game tying 2 pt conversion. I was sitting next to my cousin for the game. The energy was high for the majority of the game and peaked as the 2 pt score happened. About 20 minutes later I got a pat on the back and a “I’m gonna beat the weather home.” It was real, it was fun, but it wasn’t real fun.
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Phantom Menace <-> Chiefs 2011 Season
The rumor of George Lucas producing a prequel trilogy was true!! We flocked to theaters like it was our job. We all had to see where Darth Vader’s story began. Ewan McGregor was a slam dunk casting as Obi Wan Kenobi. For the Chiefs, this was the follow up to 2010, and we were back. The playoffs were going to happen again.
This was no longer the Broncos division to just win every year. And then the forest scene in Naboo introduces us to Jar Jar Binks. Darth Maul was a stone cold gangster villain. The battle was a cartoon. The movie was all over the place but a strong indication that we had a problem. The 2011 season felt the exact same.
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Revenge of the Sith <-> 2020 Chiefs
It should be abundantly clear that I place the prequels lowest of all movies. I distinctly remember leaving the theater happy after this one. It was a great blowup at the end with Obi Wan as Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. Perfect way to complete the story.
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We all saw what we knew happened. How does this tie to football? Because Brady is obviously Vader.
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The Force Awakens <-> Chiefs 2013 Season
Apparently the story wasn’t over like I thought in 2005. We were back and Disney was behind the wheel. I was genuinely excited to see what Disney was going to do. There was genuine excitement in the Adam Driver casting, and real intrigue at the rest of the cast. Han Friggen Solo was back. It was so much better than the feeling left by the prequels. I was hoping for a different ending than blowing up a planet killing weapon, but was not mad when it happened.
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The football season carried a bit more of a tumultuous path. My thoughts on the season have also changed a bit over time. I’ll start from the beginning. I love Andy Reid, and I absolutely loved this hire. I have a ton of personal connections to Philly, which is a story for another day, and followed Reid’s career. It never made sense to me hearing the rumble from Philly fans. My stance: the dude made the playoffs 9 times, went to 4 straight NFC Championship games, made a Super Bowl, and had the Eagles relevant his entire tenure. What can you possibly want more from the guy? Andy Reid was, is, and will always been an incredible hire by Clark Hunt.
Our 2013 offseason started with a trade for one Alex Smith, and a rapid roster overhaul. Reid and Smith marched the team into the season totally prepared and at the beginning of the season went 9-and-0. The most notable game for me was week 3 against the Eagles. I attended that game in Philly and remember 3 things distinctly. First was the number of times I had a conversation roughly like this one:
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Eagle Fan: “Hey, what’s with the red shirt?!?!”
Me: “Well, I’m a CHIEFS fan.”
Eagles Fan: “WHAT?!?! WHY?!?! Are you from KC?!?!”
Me: “I’m from Kansas a ways west of KC, but have been a fan my whole life.”
Eagles Fan: “Oh that’s cool I guess. What do you think of our stadium? You are so screwed with Reid. Terrible hire. You cannot be happy about that. He was horrible for us.”
Me: “I like the Linc…. (pause to accept the body language props from Eagles Fan for knowing that is the street name for the stadium), and I love the Reid hire.” (and then says all the stuff I mention above until we agree to disagree)
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It was the game Donovan McNabb was inducted to the Eagles Ring of Honor. It was perfect. The final was Jamaal Charles GOING OFF and the Chiefs winning handily.
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The 2013 season felt like playing with house money. I was happy to get the wins we did, and even more thrilled and grateful to go the playoffs. I attended the game in Indy as well. The game was a blast until it wasn’t, and we all know the massive blown lead story. The two lasting football memories from that game are Dwayne Bowe not making the catch on the final drive and essentially admitting he did not think it was worth it to chance getting hurt in the post-game conference, and Andrew Luck picking up that fumble. I felt like the fumble play was in slow motion horror movie style. My head immediately went to knowing we lose the game and picturing that play in every rise of Andrew Luck clip sequence NFL Films would ever make.
None of that seems as harrowing now in the Mahomes Era. And to actually tie this back to my Star Wars movie. The Force Awakens was an absolute blast to get back into the Star Wars franchise. I fell right back in love with the story and the characters. The 2013 Chiefs season did that for the team. This was also the year I found my watch party in Milwaukee, which is a column itself.
#5-through-# 1 –> Next Week
The rest will be revealed next week. Thanks for following this far.
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Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne
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You can follow Josh on Twitter at: @mkechiefsfan
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Editor’s Note: If you missed out on Josh in the recent Arrowhead Kingdom YouTube CHIEFScast., take a listen. The topic was:
“If the KC Chiefs Rookies were Member of New Kids on the Block“
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