The Top 5 Ways to Manage the Pain of the Chiefs AFC Championship Loss

Turning the channel to the NFC Championship game was no easy task after watching the Kansas City Chiefs blow a lead in the AFC Championship. The pain was too much to be watching other teams play the game we love so much, knowing the winner of that game would not be facing our team from K.C.. To help us deal with the burn of this loss, let’s first pinpoint the pang.

After coming off of what many have been describing as the “Greatest game ever played” – versus the Buffalo Bills – you could typify the game against the Bengals as: the worst loss following the greatest performance, ever. I’ve heard some call this a more painful loss than the Chiefs loss in the longest game ever played back on Christmas day 1971. That may be true, but what is also true is that Chiefs fans have endured decades of losing so when they are gifted with the most talented QB ever, and after getting to the last two Super Bowls which includes winning one of them… the loss to the Bengals is more than just a loss, it represents a real fall from grace. Jared Koller of Channel 5 News called it an, “unfathomable collapse” and I think that best describes the defeat.

It was more of a disaster, than merely a loss to this Chiefs fan.

Sure, Patrick Mahomes is the biggest reason for the Kansas City Chiefs loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.27-to-24 in the AFC Championship game. No, he’s not perfect, we know that now. Can he cave in under pressure? That’s a big maybe, but now that we’ve seen it, that’s more like a probability. So, he has a Mr. Hyde side to his performance… and who doesn’t? In fact, in the first half, we almost completely got the Dr. Jekyll version of Patrick Mahomes, that is, before his alter ego raised his evil little head, which happened just before the first half ended.

Joe Posnanski wrote about Mahomes AFC Championship performance (subscription required):

“What the heck happened to Patrick Mahomes? For 29 minutes and 55 seconds, Mahomes played about as well as he has ever played — and that’s saying a lot because Mahomes has played about as well as any quarterback in NFL history.” 

Then Posnanski goes on to site five plays by Mahomes that doomed the Chiefs and followed that up by saying:

“You honestly cannot have a worse series of plays than that.”

One question I have is: how does Patrick Mahomes not know he doesn’t have a Time Out in his pocket before the last play before the half?

I hold many responsible for that one like: Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid and Eric Bieniemy and….

On Sunday evening I had the privilege of watching my grown daughter on her live Tik Tok event. I also had the good fortune of watching a funny TV show that made me gut laugh on Monday (South Park). Plus, writing and researching this topic was on my planner as well as taking care of some household chores. If you’ve ever spent any extended time in the hospital, then you know that getting to do even household chores is a pure privilege.

We love our Chiefs so much so that taking a loss in a game, which could have sent the team whose name bears the name of our city, to the Super Bowl, can be more than distressful. However, let’s make sure we keep things in perspective and also make sure we live our lives and say thank you for all we do have ( I used to teach my students that you can’t be in a state of “Thanks” and also be “Angry” simultaneously)… such as, the Chiefs and their ongoing success, among other things.

Let’s make sure we keep our perspective as Chiefs fans. Here’s a list of the Chiefs winning record in the past nine years with Andy Reid at the helm.

Two important stats to point out here: 1) the Chiefs haven’t had a losing record since 2012 (pre-Reid), when they went 2-and-14 and we were all in a “real” melt down, and 2) the asterisk (*) by each season represents the seasons the team went to the playoffs. That’s eight (8) out of nine (9) years, unlike the previous nine seasons which only produced two playoff seasons… and we remember how those ended. Here’s the previous nine years record:

While there were only two playoff years, there were also only three winning records and two double digit winning seasons. Now… that… was nine season of nerve damage!

Perspective –> It’s good to keep it.

From ChopraTreatmentCenter.com comes 5 suggestions:

1. Awareness and Observation
2. [Be] Non Judgement and [Have] Self-Compassion
3. [Develop] Acceptance
4. Meditation and Deep Breathing
5. Self Expression 

That last one is key. I’ve gotten no fewer than 50 text messages from a friend and/or family member offering condolences and more importantly, conversations. Stay in touch with the one’s you love or this can get out of control. Those who know and love you best, can help. Big time.

Statistics are just numbers, but the Kansas City Chiefs organization is made up of quality people from top to bottom. They are all in greater pain than any of us fans are right now. However, let’s be thankful for all the high quality people who make up this fine organization.

Please don’t take any of this post too personally. I wrote this more for me, than anyone else.

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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