Ten Thoughts for Monday Morning
So let's start with this: If you're one of those who gets mad at me when I start with something other than Mizzou, skip ahead to thought number three. Just don't read the first two. Or read them after the other eight. If you feel that the Mizzou women beating Texas A&M or the Mizzou men losing Alabama is the place I am obligated to start, just skip to Number 3 on the list. Because we'll get there and we're going to talk about it.
1) But as a fan of sports, I'm starting with the greatest football game I've ever seen. Ever. I'm not saying it's the greatest one ever played (but it might be). It's just the greatest one I've ever seen. And I would say it even if the team I was cheering for was on the other side of the result. Because this isn't about the Chiefs, per se. It's about why we watch these stupid games.In a nutshell, here's why we watch: We watch because every single time you go to a game you might see something you've never seen before or will never see again. You might see Patrick Mahomes go 45 yards in ten seconds and a guy who was going to have his name etched next to Lin Elliott and so many others as the reason the Chiefs lost a playoff game drill a 48-yarder at the wire. You might see Josh Allen do every single thing a human being can possibly do to win a football game except call a coin flip correctly. You might see 31 points...after the two minute warning. You might see the greatest game you've ever seen.
This is why we watch. This is why we go. This is why we invest our time and our money and our hearts. There's been a thing circling on Instagram the last few weeks weeks. It says "Men really pick their favorite sports team when they're like 11 years old and then let it upset them the rest of their lives."
You know what? You're GD right we do.
I was offered three tickets to the game on Friday. My wife wasn't sure she wanted to get back from KC at midnight and work Monday morning. She likes sports fine, she wants the Chiefs to win, but she's not really emotionally invested. She said if she didn't go that I should find two friends who are bigger fans to go with me. But she said she'd go if our son wanted to. I called him, he took about 1.5 seconds to say yes, got Monday off work and drove five hours from Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Sunday morning. And for however long we live, we're going to remember being at that game. So are the dad and his two sons who sat in front of us. So is the Bills fan who turned to a Chiefs fan behind him at the end of regulation and said "No matter who wins, this is totally worth it. Game of the year." So are almost all 78,000 people who were there (a few were likely blackout drunk by then). I told my son the same thing before the overtime coin flip (more on that in a minute). I said "No matter who wins, totally worth being here." We got back around 11:30 and I think I could have run from Arrowhead to Columbia and not been that tired.
I remember Mizzou/Kansas in 2007. I remember going to College Game Day in 2010. I remember the Border War (both parts) in 2012. I remember the 2014 AL Wild Card game and Game Seven of the 2014 World Series. And now will remember last night right there with all of those. Yeah, I'm glad my team won. But it's not just that. It's that there are 78,000 people who 20 years from now will be able to say "I was there." And I'm one of them. I'll remember hugging my wife and high fiving my son and screaming with some people I don't know and will never see again. What else in our lives gives us that? There are probably some things. But there aren't very many.
2) As far as the actual game, you don't need me to tell you what happened. You all saw it. But I had two overarching takeaways:
*First, last night Chiefs fans found out what it's like to be a fan of the team the Chiefs are playing. Because what Josh Allen did was every single bit as good as what Patrick Mahomes did. He just didn't get the ball last. Every single time the Chiefs needed one play to end it, Allen made the play for his team. He is special. All you can do is admire it. You can be frustrated your team didn't make some plays, but you've got to tip your cap to the guy that did. Allen didn't win this one, but he's gonna win some. This truly could be Brady/Manning for the next 10-15 years. Throw in Joe Burrow and maybe Justin Herbert and man the AFC is going to be a lot of fun.
*I thought the overtime rule was stupid in 2019 when it beat my team and I think it's stupid now when it's the reason my team won. Because if the Bills win the coin flip, they win the game 42-36. There's absolutely no doubt. You can't hate the rule four years ago and like it now. It's a dumb rule. Both teams should get the ball one time regardless. Sure, the Bills could have gotten a stop just like the Chiefs could have stopped New England in 2019. Does it take away from the game overall? Maybe if you're a Bills fan. I don't know. Honestly, if the game required a defensive stop by either team, they might still be playing.
I could write so much more about the NFL weekend, which featured three games that were one by the underdog on a field goal on the last play of the game...and absolutely were not the best game of the weekend. But that's not why most of you are here, so I won't.
3) The biggest Mizzou story of the weekend was Hayley Frank and the women's basketball team.
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