The Chiefs are one of the jewels of professional sports

Sat here at the Houston airport on my way back to Kansas City and decided to take a look at the store. (Hopefully KCI’s new terminal has some of the same facilities!) Lots of Texas-branded souvenirs.

You can also see the sale of team goods. Lots of gear for the Houston Astros and Houston Texans. In Texas they are just as proud of their team as we are in Kansas City.

It made me think about how the Texans are an NFL team, much like the Kansas City Chiefs have been for years. He lacks good leadership and direction, and more importantly, his quarterback, which is very important to the franchise. Houston currently sits at the bottom of almost all power rankings.

The Chiefs (and their fans) know exactly what it’s like.

After Len Dawson, Hank Strahm’s glory days and Super Bowl IV victory, years of futility became the norm. But one thing the Chief had going for them was good ownership. Lamar Hunt was the principal architect of the American Football League and moved to Kansas City in 1963. He was the founder and owner of the Dallas Texans.

Photo by George Gojkovic/Getty Images

When he died in 2006, ownership and management passed to his son Clark Hunt. His first big decision was to fire General Manager Karl Peterson. To his credit, he hired him one of the best candidates of the time. That is Scott Pioli, his assistant general manager of the New England Patriots.

The new GM was given the keys to Chief’s Kingdom and given near-unilateral control of the team. Today, we may cringe when his name is mentioned, but at the time, the majority of Kansas City fans were celebrating his hiring, believing brighter days would come. .

Unfortunately, what happened was one of the darkest times in franchise history, shrouded in a horrifying murder-suicide involving Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher.

Hunt recognized that the entire Peoli era was a failure. The GM said he was fired on January 4, 2013 — the same day that former Philadelphia he signed Eagles head coach Andy Reid to his five-year contract. A week later, the team hired former Green Bay Packers executive John Dorsey as general manager. Both men were on equal footing, each reporting directly to Hunt.

This is one of Hunt’s best decisions.

He hired the best man for the job. When it didn’t work, he learned from his mistakes and tried again. Then he did the best an owner could do: get out of the way so his people could do their job.

Photo by Kyle Rivas/Getty Images

Hunt’s decision is what the Chiefs enjoy today: a championship-caliber team with a future Hall of Fame coach and one of the NFL’s best GMs, and the quarterback Kansas City fans dreamed of. It led to the team drafting Patrick Mahomes. The roster changes every season, but Chiefs fans know that the team will be competing for the championship year after year.

These decisions are part of why the Chiefs are one of the NFL’s most respected organizations, and why Hunt has become one of the league’s most respected owners. We should all be grateful to him. Many other his NFL fan base want owners like him.

The Chiefs now have one of the league’s top five teams of all time. A seven-game winning streak is just as likely, and he’s one of the top contenders for the Super Bowl. And after another incredible win over Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it’s going to be a great year capped off with a deep playoff.

Enjoy this ride, my friend. Chiefs fans are going through what would be considered the greatest era in franchise history. Thanks to a great owner, a great coach (and staff), a savvy general his manager and the best quarterback in the league.

This is our time. savor every moment.