Kansas City Chiefs HistoryÂ
The man responsible for creating the AFL and naming the Super Bowl is the same man who created the Kansas City Chiefs. Although Lamar Hunt first envisioned the team they were the Dallas Texans, filling a need for professional football in Dallas.
The NFL wasn’t going to concede Texas to the new AFL. They immediately greenlit their own expansion team, the Dallas Cowboys.
Realizing that the best way to compete against the NFL was to fill absent markets, Hunt moved the team to Kansas City. He renamed them the Chiefs, the nickname of the mayor of Kansas City who was instrumental in making the move happen.
So the Texans, born in 1960, became the Chiefs in 1963, and they became one of the dominant forces in the AFL. They were AFL champions in 1962 as the Texans and again in 1966 as the Chiefs. That was the same year the two leagues had agreed to a merger. This included the addition of an AFL-NFL World Championship Game to end the season.
That game, now known as Super Bowl I, didn’t have a site or date until December of that year. The L.A. Coliseum was chosen, but 33,000 seats remained empty by kickoff. However, the television ratings were a success. It would grow into the biggest sporting event in the United States was off and running.
The Chiefs lost that Super Bowl, but they have played in three others, winning two of them.
The Early ChiefsÂ
Those early Chiefs teams turned out some of the game’s best players. This including Len Dawson, Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier, Buck Buchanan, Emmitt Thomas, and Johnny Robinson – all of them Hall of Famers.
More recent Hall of Fame Chiefs include Derrick Thomas, who had 126.5 career sacks, Will Shields, a 12-time Pro Bowl guard, and Tony Gonzalez, the NFL record holder for most receptions and receiving yards by a tight end.
NFL Big Changes from Last Season – Kansas City Chiefs
In 2021 the Chiefs won their sixth consecutive AFC West title and they hosted the AFC Championship for a record fourth consecutive season. NFL world was quite surprised when they traded away one of the best offensive players in the NFL, wide receiver Tyreek Hill.
Hill wanted to get a big contract and be closer to his home in Florida, and he got both, orchestrating a trade to the Miami Dolphins. The Chiefs in return got a total of five draft picks, and three of them in 2022. They used those picks to move up to draft cornerback Trent McDuffie from Washington, to draft wide receiver Skyy Moore from Western Michigan, and to move picks and eventually get linebacker Leo Chenal from Wisconsin. They still have two more picks from the Hill trade for next season.
As for the replacement for Hill, there really is no replacing a player of his quality. As one coach put it, Hill makes you defend every single blade of grass. But the Chiefs are going to try to at least replace his targets with a number of new wide receivers. One including the rookie Moore.
Free Agent Signing
Joining Moore in the wide receiver room is free agent signing Juju Smith-Schuster, formerly of the Steelers, and free agent signing Maquez Valdes-Scantling. Valdes-Scantling is formerly of the Packers. Former second round pick Mecole Hardman is also back.
Along with the rookie McDuffie starting at corner, there is a new safety in Kansas City, as Justin Reid comes to the Chiefs from the Texans. He replaces Tyrann Mathieu in the secondary. Second round safety Bryan Cook will also be in the mix.
The Chiefs defensive line features their other first round pick, EDGE George Karlaftis from Purdue. Kansas City also signed veteran EDGE rusher Carlos Dunlap as training camps got underway in July.
* All odds provided by Action247 Sportsbook and all odds subject to change.
AFC West
* All odds provided by Action247 Sportsbook and all odds subject to change.