KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Maybe this sounds familiar: Once upon a time, the Chiefs lost three straight times in less than a year to a bitter (and cocky) rival. Those defeats were lowlighted by an agonizing collapse on the cusp of the Super Bowl, a loss that propelled them into the offseason.
And along the way back to that stage a year later, they still proved vulnerable to the very foe they would face again, with a berth in the championship game once more on the line.
To what degree any of that past might be prologue remains to be seen. But the circumstances that season and today lend themselves to some compelling parallels, both tangibly and below the surface.
Then as now, with the Chiefs preparing to play the Bengals in the AFC Championship Game after losing to them thrice in a calendar year, the matter of what it might take to end the trend hovered over the 1969 AFL Championship Game at Oakland.
To some degree, that was as much about mindset as the superior team.
“It was all over town,” then-Chiefs defensive end Aaron Brown told Sports Illustrated in 1970. “KC, the jinx club. You don’t believe it, but you can’t help but think about it. It makes you want to fly in the face of the fates.”
With the “entire nation,” as The Boston Globe put it at the time, saying Oakland had the “psychological advantage” — four wins in a row overall against Kansas City — the Chiefs surely believed otherwise.
Just in case, though, coach Hank Stram turned to his so-called “secret weapon”: Monsignor Vincent Mackey, the team chaplain Stram dubbed “Blackbird,” who told the Globe he led a pre-game prayer in the locker room thusly:
“‘Dear Lord. We don’t believe in whammies or superstitions. But we know we need your help.’”
One way or another, those Chiefs helped themselves to a 17-7 win that Stram afterward called “the greatest victory in our history considering the circumstances in our series with Oakland. The harder it is, the more you appreciate the triumph.”
Even more so seeing the Raiders leaving Oakland Alameda County Stadium lugging the suitcases they’d brought to the game — a point Chiefs legend Bobby Bell brought up right away as he spoke of the game by phone the other day.
The Raiders had presumed a direct trip from there to New Orleans for Super Bowl IV, to which the Chiefs instead proceeded (and where they’d stomp the Vikings, 23-7).
Whether the Chiefs can duplicate such a turn Sunday when they play host to the Bengals and Joe Burrow in an entirely independent event can’t be known — especially in a matchup underscored by the mystery of Patrick Mahomes’ ongoing recovery from a high-ankle sprain.
But there also are plenty of comparisons to consider from 1969-70 and the ever-simmering conflicts with the Raiders. Including this:
Not unlike the bluster and mind games of the Raiders in the Al Davis era, the already edgy dynamics between the Bengals and Chiefs are being stoked anew by such jabbering out of Cincinnati as cornerback Mike Hilton and others referring to Arrowhead as “Burrowhead.”
Other than linebacker Willie Gay lapsing into saying “nothing” about the Bengals’ offense impresses him, by clear design trash talk from the Bengals’ camp has gone unrequited ... even if Chiefs coach Andy Reid’s understated response to the noise said plenty.
“That’s OK,” he said. “We’re still going to play the game.”
No matter how anyone else looks at it.
For his part, Mahomes scoffed at the idea of being considered an underdog, a story in itself. And he was incredulous at any suggestion the Bengals’ three-game winning streak against Kansas City might somehow occupy a problematic place in his mind entering the game.
“I don’t know how it would be (in) a negative way,” he said, smiling. “I mean, you won’t relax. You’ll focus in even more on the details. We’ll be ready to go, and I’ll be ready to go. For sure.”
Which brings us to the intersection of all this: How much will Sunday’s showdown be purely about matchup issues … and how much is it about which team holds a psychological edge?
As it happens, there are numerous related variables to consider. So many that the psychological element could “potentially be a push,” said Dan Wann, a sports psychologist at Murray State and ardent Chiefs fan.
While past events can absolutely “haunt you after the fact and stick with you,” he said, the properly prepared athlete and team is motivated to change the narrative and attuned to the moment at hand.
That means the Chiefs should be expected to have been readying themselves with acute purpose and to begin the game with distinct intensity.
That might be particularly anticipated, considering Mahomes’ history of being at his best when he feels underestimated and the Chiefs’ likely sense of rallying around him … and perhaps even fortified by the Bengals’ babbling.
When Chiefs safety Justin Reid gave the Bengals some fodder before their meeting in December, KC coach Andy Reid scolded him. And other than Gay’s ”nothing” bit, the Chiefs have had nary a provocative thing to say this time around.
That apparent strategy might have multiple benefits, Wann said. For one thing, the Chiefs aren’t giving the Bengals any bulletin-board material of their own. For another, some of Cincinnati’s jaw-jacking loses its impact when given no oxygen.
Don’t doubt that they will be inclined to talk back on Sunday, though, which is fine and good unless it leads to being goaded into or otherwise drawing a penalty.
Until then, you can believe the Chiefs are getting ample juice from the Bengals … who of course are generating their own motivation, including with contrived outrage over such matters as logistics of ticket sales.
“In psychology, we always say that perception is reality …” Wann said. “If you’ve convinced yourself you’ve been disrespected, that’s all that matters.”
Then there’s the matter of convincing yourself to fight off any “here we go again” moments. Like if the game unfolds as the aforementioned three-point losses have: into the final moments or overtime, in which a series of Chiefs miscues largely decided those games.
Because even being the professionals that they are, and deny it as they might, Wann said, “people are aware of their past events, right? It’s not like you can block that out of your mind completely. ... When you get down to the last moments and if the game is still in doubt, that’s when those doubts can creep in and make a difference.”
Can. Not necessarily will.
“It depends,” Wann said, “on the athlete.”
If the Chiefs need a reference point for one way to snuff any of that out, they can look to their 1969-70 ancestors.
By phone, Bell recalled the 41-6 drubbing in Oakland the year before and the silent postgame locker room and flight home richly described in my friend Michael MacCambridge’s book, “‘69 Chiefs: A Team, A Season, And The Birth Of Modern Kansas City.”
“It wasn’t a good flight; I’ll tell you that,” said Bell, who remembered thinking, “We said that’s not going to happen again.”
That loss, then the most lopsided in franchise history, drove and consumed Stram and the team in the offseason … as did the Chiefs’ 27-24 overtime loss to the Bengals last season after they botched an 18-point lead.
Like the Chiefs suffering a 27-24 loss in Cincinnati this season, the Raiders in 1969 handed the Chiefs two of their three regular-season losses (27-24 and 10-6) along the way to an encore showdown for the AFC championship.
So …
“Yeah, it gets in your head,” Bell acknowledged.
Then he paused and added, “But that’s got to stop.”
Simple as that or otherwise, this is the essence of the task for the Chiefs, who face another question among others: If not now ... when?
