KC Chiefs should not raise Super Bowl banner without fans present

By Leigh Oleszczak | May 6, 2020

Members of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrate after defeating the San Francisco 49ers 31-20 in Super Bowl LIV (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

The NFL is set to announce their 2020 schedule on Thursday and with that, the KC Chiefs’ run to repeat begins. If they do get the season started on time, the team should not raise the Super Bowl banner until fans are allowed to attend.

Normally when a team wins a championship, they spend a significant amount of time in the first game of the following season to raise their championship banner and let the fans soak in the moment. Even though a new season is starting, your team was the best team the pervious season and this is the final chance to celebrate before the season starts fresh and it’s time to move on.

The 2020 season has the potential to be very different due to Covid-19. Sports haven’t been played in over 50 days and there’s a chance the NFL’s start date could be affected and pushed back as a result of coronavirus.

Even if the season does start on time, it’s unknown if fans will be able to attend games and if that’s the case, the Kansas City Chiefs MUST wait until fans can attend before they raise their Super Bowl LIV banner at Arrowhead Stadium.

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Yes, it might be silly if that moment can’t happen until the 2021 season when it’s possible another team is crowned the victor, but what would be even sillier would be raising the banner in a fan-less stadium with no cheering. That would be sad.

The Washington Nationals – last season’s World Series victors – announced they would wait until they had fans in the stands to raise their World Series banner.

"“Those are once-in-a-lifetime things to do and our fanbase is such a big factor in helping us win that thing. They earned it, they deserve to be involved in it and we’re going to wait for them to do it.” – Mike Rizzo per the link above"

This quote above is exactly why the organization needs to wait. If this were a franchise like the Patriots or the Warriors (different sport, but you get the idea), then it’d be different because the fans have experienced that many times in recent years. But for the Kansas City Chiefs and their fan base, who hadn’t experienced a Super Bowl victory in 50 years, this moment needs to encapsulated in front of a full stadium.

It might seem weird not to do it in the season opener, but waiting to raise the Super Bowl LIV banner when fans can safely attend sporting events again is the right call for the KC Chiefs.

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