The Chiefs' aura is dead, and has been for a while. To me, the Chiefs are sort of like the 2006 Patriots. A good team. A tough team to beat, but not one you have nightmares at the prospect of facing anymore. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing the Chiefs on my team's schedule right now, if my alternative was Detroit or Minnesota or Buffalo or Baltimore or maybe even the Eagles. Give my guys the Chiefs all day over any of those teams. That I can say that sentence with honesty means the aura is dead.
The Chiefs this season have ridden absurd one possession game luck to a record that far outstrips the quality of the actual team on the football field, which is why the Bills were favoured. Everybody just kind of knew the Bills were better. Looking at it through this lens, I would agree that this win doesn't really matter. Not to either team. The Bills merely defeated a formidable AFC opponent, but without doubt one that they're better than, no different than when they defeated Miami a few weeks ago. The Chiefs lost to a team that they never really had any realistic prospect of defeating.
You're correct that the reason things are perceived the way they are is the artificial giving of more weight to some matchups rather than others via the end of season tournament. As far as the play on the field goes, these two teams are 4-4 in the Allen-Mahomes era. Nobody has anybody's number. They've fought it to a draw. This narrative of the Chiefs having the Bills number is a patent falsehood, created and arranged by the tournament. It's certainly got nothing to do with the play on the field.
Much like Peyton Manning ending up with a 3-2 playoff record over Tom Brady once all was said and done, I believe the better player will end up with the better playoff record eventually. It's yet to be decided whether Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen will finish their career as the better player. Neither are even halfway through their career yet, knocking on wood as I say that, but whoever the better man is will win out in the artificial tournament setting too, once we give it time to settle.
Look at me now, giving weight to the artificial tournament. Let's get back to the question at hand. We are more or less in full agreement. Winning this game matters insofar as winning all games matters, but as far as disproving the false narrative that the Chiefs somehow are or have ever been better than the Bills in head to head matchups, it doesn't do anything, because narratives that are false to begin with cannot be disproven. The only thing that will change it will be emotion, and this definitive Chiefs loss evoked an emotional response in some fans, but not most.
I’d be pretty amenable to it as a fan, but international rivalries drive the economics of the sport in Europe as far as I understand it — and not sure there’s enough interest in/audience for the players themselves that it would really work commercially
The Chiefs' aura is dead, and has been for a while. To me, the Chiefs are sort of like the 2006 Patriots. A good team. A tough team to beat, but not one you have nightmares at the prospect of facing anymore. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing the Chiefs on my team's schedule right now, if my alternative was Detroit or Minnesota or Buffalo or Baltimore or maybe even the Eagles. Give my guys the Chiefs all day over any of those teams. That I can say that sentence with honesty means the aura is dead.
The Chiefs this season have ridden absurd one possession game luck to a record that far outstrips the quality of the actual team on the football field, which is why the Bills were favoured. Everybody just kind of knew the Bills were better. Looking at it through this lens, I would agree that this win doesn't really matter. Not to either team. The Bills merely defeated a formidable AFC opponent, but without doubt one that they're better than, no different than when they defeated Miami a few weeks ago. The Chiefs lost to a team that they never really had any realistic prospect of defeating.
You're correct that the reason things are perceived the way they are is the artificial giving of more weight to some matchups rather than others via the end of season tournament. As far as the play on the field goes, these two teams are 4-4 in the Allen-Mahomes era. Nobody has anybody's number. They've fought it to a draw. This narrative of the Chiefs having the Bills number is a patent falsehood, created and arranged by the tournament. It's certainly got nothing to do with the play on the field.
Much like Peyton Manning ending up with a 3-2 playoff record over Tom Brady once all was said and done, I believe the better player will end up with the better playoff record eventually. It's yet to be decided whether Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen will finish their career as the better player. Neither are even halfway through their career yet, knocking on wood as I say that, but whoever the better man is will win out in the artificial tournament setting too, once we give it time to settle.
Look at me now, giving weight to the artificial tournament. Let's get back to the question at hand. We are more or less in full agreement. Winning this game matters insofar as winning all games matters, but as far as disproving the false narrative that the Chiefs somehow are or have ever been better than the Bills in head to head matchups, it doesn't do anything, because narratives that are false to begin with cannot be disproven. The only thing that will change it will be emotion, and this definitive Chiefs loss evoked an emotional response in some fans, but not most.
👋🏻
Will believe it when I see it! One of these rumours was overdue — feel like they pop up every couple of years…
e.g “rugby’s answer to cricket's Indian Premier League” from 2021: https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/international/126314973/steve-tew-and-steve-hansen-in-world-12s-rugby-evolution
I’d be pretty amenable to it as a fan, but international rivalries drive the economics of the sport in Europe as far as I understand it — and not sure there’s enough interest in/audience for the players themselves that it would really work commercially