Luck or skill, there’s no denying a great Chiefs season

By Alonzo Weston

Friend and former News-Press editorial page editor Mark Sheehan used to allow himself two columns a year about the Kansas City Chiefs. I’ll allow myself only one maybe ever.

Here it goes.

The Kansas City Chiefs this year give everyone near heart attacks with their last-minute wins over opponents. You can call them flukes if you want but NFL analyst Damien Woody says differently.

“You don’t fluke into 12-1,” the former NFL pro said on one sports talk show. “It’s really as simple as championship DNA. We can talk about point differential and lack of explosives, but at the end of the day when there are plays to be made, they make them and the other team doesn’t. More teams find ways to lose games than win them.”

I’ve watched the Chiefs long enough to remember when they too found more ways to lose games.

Remember the Chiefs divisional playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts in 1995 when kicker Lin Elliott missed three field goals in a 10-7 defeat at Arrowhead Stadium? I do. I was in Sheehan’s living room watching the game and cussing along with him the whole time. That was our luck, we surmised then.

I remember the Marty Schottenheimer, Marv Levy and Dick Vermeil years and wishing we could get back to the Hank Stram era when the Chiefs last won the Super Bowl in 1970. I hoped for luck or anything to get us over this hump.

We have them winning now by what some say is luck and we’re still complaining.

The Chiefs tied an NFL record last week by winning their 10th game this season by seven points or fewer with a 19-17 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. This was a feat only accomplished once before by the 1978 Houston Oilers.

Kicker Matthew Wright, substituting for Chiefs veteran kicker Harrison Butker, doinked a 31-yard field goal on the final play of the game for the victory.

This was another heart-stopping victory for the Chiefs, whose fans saw them win by a botched snap, a toe-nail catch and other last-second antics on the way to clinching the division title this year.

Compare this luck or whatever you want to call it to the New York Giants who have the worst team in games decided by seven points or fewer with a 1-7 record this year. The Jets Jaguars and Bengals each have lost seven out of nine close games this year as well.

I’ll take the wins no matter how we do it. I see it helping in close games when playoff season begins. Karma or good coaching is finally on our side so take advantage of it.

If it is all luck, remember that doesn’t come around often. Enjoy this run.