Kansas City Chiefs: The Playoff Curse is Finally Over

After 25 years of waiting patiently, Kansas City Chiefs fans will finally have their AFC Championship Game at Arrowhead Stadium. The playoff curse is over and now we can have nice things in Kansas City.

Prior to Saturday evening, the last time the Kansas City Chiefs had participated in an AFC Championship Game was in 1994. I was three years old. I don’t remember that game at all, but I’ll remember the one taking place next Sunday, that’s for sure.

Sandwiched between that game in 1994 and the one we witnessed on Saturday, there was a lot of heartbreak for Chiefs fans in the playoffs. And I mean A LOT of heartbreak.

I was too young to truly understand the significance of Lin Elliott missing three field goals in a 10-7 playoff loss in 1996. I was too young to understand how brutal it was to have the number one seed in 1998 and lose in the Divisional Round, especially to the hated Denver Broncos, who would go on to win it all that year.

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The playoff losses since then, however, have been ones I’ve remembered and they weren’t good memories whatsoever. In fact, some of them were downright miserable.

The 2003 season resulted in the infamous “No Punt Game” in which neither the Chiefs or the Colts punted at Arrowhead. KC lost that game. The Chiefs barely got into the 2006 playoffs, but lost in embarrassing fashion, once again to the Colts.

In 2010, KC won the division and got humiliated by the Ravens in the Wild Card round. That one didn’t hurt too badly since fans weren’t expecting much from that 10-6 team that was very up and down.

The 2014 playoff loss was a tough one and was the first Chiefs playoff game that really got to me. KC led 38-10 at one point and wound up losing 45-44.

The only playoff win that people my age had witnessed since that 1993 season was in 2016 (the 2015 season) when the Chiefs shutout the Houston Texans on the road in the Wild Card round. I remember watching that game and even though the Chiefs ended up winning 30-0, I still thought they were going to blow it. That’s what this curse has done to me, and I’m sure to other fans.

The next season they’d lose in the playoffs despite the opposition not scoring a touchdown. I remember I started crying when the Chiefs got the two-point conversion because I thought the curse was over, but nope. Eric Fisher was flagged and the curse lived on.

In the 2018 playoffs, KC was leading 21-3 and lost 22-21 after Marcus Mariota threw a touchdown pass to himself and Derrick Henry ran all over that Chiefs D. I attended that game and when the Mariota touchdown happened, I turned to my brother and said, “Here comes the implosion.” It was the damn curse eating away at my confidence once again.

We all knew the storyline heading into this weekend’s game was going to be the past heartbreak we’ve all endured. That’s why when the Chiefs got off to a 17-0 lead, I didn’t get ahead of myself. There were still three quarters left to be played and after the 38-10 debacle and 21-3 implosion, I wasn’t going to consider this a win until there were zero seconds left on the clock.