By now the tastiest Kansas City brisket, ribs and sauce should be headed to One Chargers Way in El Segundo.
In care of John and Dean Spanos.
“Enjoy the barbecue. Best, the Chiefs.”
Providing comfort food is the least the Chiefs should do in appreciation of what the Chargers – rivals since 1960 – have done to help Kansas City dominate
Andy Reid’s club will try to win a record three Super Bowls in a row during an NFL season that begins Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chargers have served as a Chiefs benefactor for the past decade-plus.
The shift began in early 2013, when Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt made one of the great coaching hires in football history.
The son of wealthy former team owner Lamar Hunt wasn’t off to a great start as a team executive. But by leveraging family relationships with brilliant Andy Reid, Hunt set the franchise up for greatness by hiring the former Eagles head coach.
As a bonus, Reid brought with him scout Brett Veach.
The Chargers’ scion didn’t keep up.
Dean Spanos, son of former Chargers owner Alex Spanos, responded by hiring Mike McCoy as coach and promoting son John Spanos atop the football front office.
John would hire Tom Telesco, a collegial replacement to the gruff A.J. Smith.
The rout was on.
In 11 years under Reid, the Chiefs have recorded a .715 win rate that leads the league. They’ve played in the AFC’s past six Super Bowl qualifiers.
The Chargers, meanwhile, have posted a .469 win rate that ranks 19th out of 32 teams. They haven’t won the AFC West during that span or earned a home playoff game.
They’ve gone 3-17 against Reid’s Chiefs excluding two games in which Reid, assured a playoff berth, held out his QB and many others.
By now, most local football fans know what happened in the final San Diego-based draft conducted by John Spanos and Telesco.
At the soon-to-be vacated team’s offices at Murphy Canyon during the 2017 Draft Night, the Chargers passed on Patrick Mahomes.
In Missouri, the Chiefs exhaled.
The Chiefs planned to draft Mahomes — who excited Veach and reminded Reid of Packers Hall of Famer Brett Favre — and stash him behind veteran Alex Smith.
But they figured the Chargers planned to do likewise, placing him behind Philip Rivers.
Because the Chargers had stunk up their final season in San Diego, they held the No. 7 overall pick.
The Chiefs picked 27th. They knew they couldn’t vault the Chargers to get Mahomes. The best they could do was rise to No. 10, via a conditional trade with the Bills.
The Chargers took wide receiver Mike Williams with their first-round pick. Kansas City exhaled.
“At the end of the day the only one I was scared of was San Diego,” John Dorsey, the Chiefs’ general manager then, told The Athletic’s Bob McGinn. “They were at 7. That’s the one I worried about more than anything in the world. Philip Rivers was 35 (the previous season). Once they took Mike Williams, we said, ‘We got this guy.’ ”
Three years later, in their final season with Rivers, the Chargers lost their way to the sixth draft slot in 2020, enabling them to select Justin Herbert.
Even with Herbert performing as a top-10 QB for the most part, the Chargers wasted his cheap contract by losing 54 percent of their games, 20th in the NFL.
The blue-and-gold gift-wrapped victory in Kansas City last October stands first among the Chargers’ favors since not drafting Mahomes.
Aided by Brandon Staley’s oddly passive zone defense against the Chiefs’ struggling offense, Mahomes and Travis Kelce ripped off a big first half. The breakout led to a crucial mid-season victory that enabled Reid’s club to weather homefield losses to come against the Broncos and Raiders — mediocre West clubs that shut down K.C.’s offense — and secure a wild-card berth.
What’s more, the dismal showing by Staley’s defense helped to ensure the Chiefs could use their regular season’s final week as a de facto playoff bye and hold out Mahomes and other stars.
It was quite a perk. In their three trips to the Super Bowl, the Reid-Mahomes Chiefs had to play only two playoff games thanks to early byes.
It would take three playoff victories this time, including two on the road.
Refreshed, the Chiefs won all three playoff games and outlasted the 49ers in the Super Bowl.
It’ll be different under Jim Harbaugh, but under the past three head coaches hired by the Spanoses, the Chargers have been to the Chiefs what Taylor Swift is to pop music fans.
The San Diego connection
Players with San Diego connections on 2024 Opening Week NFL rosters:
On active rosters
Name/Position/Local HS or college/NFL team
Matt Araiza/P/Rancho Bernardo HS and San Diego State/Chiefs
Daniel Bellinger/TE/San Diego State/Giants
Aaron Brewer/LS/San Diego State/Cardinals
Daniel Brunskill/OL/Valley Center HS and San Diego State/Titans
Joe Cardona/LS/Granite Hills HS/Patriots
Ross Dwelly/TE/USD/Falcons
Darren Hall/DB/San Diego State/Cardinals
Josh Johnson/QB/USD/Colts
Damonte Kazee/DB/San Diego State/Steelers
Dalton Kincaid/TE/USD/Bills*
Devin Lloyd/LB/Otay Ranch HS/Jaguars
Chris Olave/WR/Mission Hills HS/Saints
Segun Olubi/LB/San Diego State/Colts
David Quessenberry/OL/La Costa Canyon HS/Vikings
Rashid Shaheed/WR/Mt. Carmel HS/Saints
JL Skinner/DB/Point Loma HS/Broncos
Cameron Thomas/OL/Carlsbad HS and San Diego State/Chiefs
Zach Thomas/OL/Carlsbad HS and San Diego State/Patriots
Casey Toohill/DE/Cathedral Catholic HS/Bills
Devaughn Vele/WR/Rancho Bernardo HS/Broncos
Fred Warner/LB/Mission Hills HS/49ers
* Kincaid transferred from USD to Utah after two seasons
On practice squads
Name/Position/Local HS or college/NFL team
Michael Bandy/WR/USD/Broncos
Alex Barrett/DE/San Diego State/49ers
Tony Jefferson/DB/Eastlake HS/Chargers
Keith Ismael/OL/San Diego State/Cardinals
Jesse Matthews/WR/Christian HS and San Diego State/Falcons
Tim Patrick/WR/University City HS/Lions
Kyle Phillips/WR/San Marcos HS/Eagles
Tyrell Shavers/WR/San Diego State/Bills
— John Maffei
Originally Published: