With the Super Bowl just three days away, the Kansas City Chiefs will face the Philadelphia Eagles for the second time this decade and play in their fifth Super Bowl since 2019. Super Bowl LIX is Sunday, Feb. 9 in New Orleans at the Caesars Superdome with kickoff at 6:30 PM ET. To many fans across the NFL, the Chiefs are starting to become what the New England Patriots used to be.

Ever since quarterback Patrick Mahomes took the starting job in 2018, the franchise has seen a complete resurgence and has solidified itself as the NFL’s new dynasty. Before head coach Andy Reid was hired back in 2013, the Chiefs were a fairly average franchise that saw moderate success, winning a playoff game or two every couple of years. The highs were met with plenty of lows and mediocre seasons. While the team had two Super Bowl appearances to their name, those were back in 1966 and 1969, a loss to the Green Bay Packers and a win against the Minnesota Vikings respectively.

Reid took the helm in 2013, and the team instantly saw success and made the playoffs with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith taking the reins on offense. Minus missing the playoffs in 2014 after a second-place finish in the AFC West and a 9-7 record, Kansas City has been in the playoffs every year since. 

The biggest problem for the Chiefs in the pre-Mahomes era was being unable to make a deep run in the postseason. This frustration led them to take a chance on Mahomes with the 10th pick in the 2017 NFL Draft after trading up with the Buffalo Bills. After taking a year to develop as Smith’s backup, Mahomes was named the starter in 2018 and inherited a very talented offense. 

With speedy wide receiver Tyreek Hill and all-pro tight end Travis Kelce as his main targets, alongside running back Kareem Hunt and wide receiver Sammy Watkins, Mahomes stormed onto the scene as the next greatest player in the game. That season, he became the third quarterback to throw for 50 touchdowns in a season, joining hall of famer Peyton Manning and consensus GOAT Tom Brady.

Brady and the New England Patriots stopped the Chiefs in their tracks that year en route to their third Super Bowl win in five seasons, and sixth Super Bowl win in 18 seasons against the Los Angeles Rams. New England was the reigning dynasty with a chokehold on the NFL for so long, and was resented by fans across the NFL. Fast forward to today, and we’re now seeing the same thing happen to the once beloved Chiefs.

Emerson freshman and New England Patriots fan Brian Donahue pointed out through his own experience how, “Unless you’re a fan of the team, you’re going to hate the fact that there’s a dynasty, because it is just constantly seeing one team win over and over again.”

Over the last couple of seasons, the disdain for the Chiefs hasn’t purely come from their dominance in the sport, but fans are questioning the legitimacy of many officiating decisions.

“I wouldn’t say for sure there’s 1,000% cheating going on,” said freshman Peyton Rhoda who has no partiality to either team. “But I mean, if there’s a 50/50 call, it’s more like 70% chance the Chiefs are gonna get it.”

However, this isn’t a new point. 

“Brady definitely got his fair share of calls,” said Donahue. “But with the Chiefs, it feels like you can’t even tackle Patrick Mahomes without a flag being thrown or if he makes a mistake there’s a flag to reverse it.” 

Statistics can back up some of these claims. In the last four postseasons, the Chiefs have received one roughing the passer, one unnecessary roughness, and two defensive pass interference or defensive holding penalties. Conversely, their opponents have received seven, four, and eleven such penalties respectively. All of these penalties are extremely game-altering, as they are either 15-yard penalties, or spot fouls, which place the ball wherever the officials determine the penalty occurred. 

Another reason why fans have been turning against Kansas City is related to being exposed to them extremely often—not only in championship games, but also on social media. Rhoda sees how a lot of this attention is valid as Mahomes and the Chiefs are very marketable.

“They have plenty of good players. They have the face in the NFL on their team,” said Rhoda. “There’s also [Travis] Kelce and with him comes Taylor Swift, and her fans who give the NFL a bigger market to reach, even if they don’t care about football like other fans.”

Donahue said he found the attention given to Swift a little distracting from the sport and that “The NFL’s Instagram page really turned into a Taylor Swift Fan Page last season.”

So what do Chiefs fans think about NFL fans turning on them?

Emerson freshman and Kansas City native Tristan Young has been a fan of the team her whole life, but started following the team closer in the 2021 season.

“It’s hard to perfectly replicate a team like the Patriots,” said Young. “However, on a success standpoint, the Chiefs have done a very similar job to New England and are in that realm of dominance.” 

Young views the Chiefs animosity born out of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s relationship to be very extreme: “The extent they go to is a little vile almost,” she said. “They bring in Taylor and say that she’s the reason the Chiefs are losing or she’s the reason they’re winning.” 

On the issue with the referees, Young hopes for clean games and no game rigging in favor of the Chiefs. 

“You can obviously have your opinion on who you want to win the game, but if you’re an official, there should be no favoritism,” said Young. 

In the wake of the Chiefs’ dominance, fans are starting to change their mind on the Patriots dynasty, despite current complaints. 

“I think people are looking back on this past era with rose-tinted glasses on and nostalgia, but they should be reminded how they were saying the same things they now say about the Chiefs,” said Rhoda. 

“People come around to appreciate greatness after the fact in all sports,” said Donahue. “We’ve seen it with the ’90s Chicago Bulls in the NBA or the ’70s Pittsburgh Steelers where fans have come to love those eras. I think we’ll see that with the Patriots and probably in the future with the Chiefs.”

With the chance to become the first team in NFL history to win three championships in a row, the Chiefs will play the Eagles in a highly anticipated football rematch.