KANSAS CITY, MON – Clark Hunt proudly held up the AFC championship trophy, which bore his father’s name, which marked his Kansas City Chiefs’ return to the Super Bowl for the third time in four years, and reflected that not so long ago, success was hopeless seemed.
It had been 50 years between trips to the Super Bowl when Chiefs coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes guided them back to the top of the NFL in 2020 — five full decades of heartbreak, disappointment, and often despair.
The always pragmatic Hunt uses the stretch in the wilds of football to keep an eye on current developments.
“I don’t know if it’s going to get better,” Hunt said this week, “but we know we shouldn’t take it for granted. One of the things about going 50 years between Super Bowls is that it teaches you to appreciate it. You know, in the last five years we’ve certainly been blessed to play five straight AFC championship games, all at home , and the three Super Bowls you mentioned.
“It’s special, but we won’t take it for granted,” he said.
So did his counterpart, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie, who bought the franchise in the 1990s and lost four conference title games and a Super Bowl before eventually winning his first Lombardi Trophy. The Eagles made two more playoffs before slipping to a 4-11-1 record two years ago.
Most of those years of agonizing disappointment came when Reid was the coach, which only adds to the subplots in the Super Bowl on February 12 in Glendale, Arizona.
“Jeffrey is a phenomenal owner,” said Reid, whose affinity for the man who gave him the chance to become head coach was little dented when Lurie fired him. “He did a great job for me, my family, everything.”
In truth, both owners have done a good job for their franchises and their cities.
Hunt had unimaginably big shoes to fill when his father, Texas businessman Lamar Hunt, died in 2006. The elder Hunt remains a popular character in Kansas City. He helped found the AFL, formed the Chiefs, and even coined the term “Super Bowl.” He was also one of the key figures in the formation of Major League Soccer.
Clark Hunt made many early missteps, including a string of coaches and general managers whom he hired with great fanfare but achieved little results. Slowly, steadily, and often behind the scenes, Hunt rose to become one of the NFL’s most respected owners, sitting on key committees and even helping to end the 2011 lockout.
Two years later, Hunt changed the Chiefs’ entire career with a trip to Philadelphia.
Reid had just been fired when Hunt, who had just fired Romeo Crennel, picked up the phone and set up a meeting. The interview took place on January 2, 2013 in a conference room at a Philadelphia-area airport, where a plane sent by the Cardinals to take Reid to Arizona for another interview was waiting on the tarmac.
Hunt proved two things that day: he was a shrewd businessman and an exceptional salesman. The owner convinced Reid they could build a winner in Kansas City – he never got on that other plane. In the past decade, they’ve done just that: seven straight AFC West titles, four conference titles and, they hope, a second Lombardi Trophy.
“Internally, we had high expectations,” Hunt said, “but if you listen to a lot of the national media, you know, you would have thought we didn’t stand a chance this season. I remember Andy commenting in response to a question, “We’re not going to be that bad ourselves,” because people were talking about these other teams in the AFC West.
“Obviously the credit really goes to Andy and the coaching staff.”
Together with the owner.
In Philadelphia, Reid’s firing made way for highly successful college coach Chip Kelly to take the reins. When that experiment failed, Lurie, a film producer, took away Reid’s offensive coordinator, Doug Pederson. In two years, Pederson had done what Reid couldn’t: win the Super Bowl.
Pederson went to two more playoffs before things fell apart. He too was fired. Lurie’s replacement off the radar was Nick Sirianni, then the Colts’ offensive coordinator.
While Hunt’s hiring of Reid underscored his sales talent and business acumen, Lurie’s decision underscored his keen eye for talent and willingness to take risks.
The Eagles lost in Sirianni’s first season in the wild card round, and in his second they are back in the big game.
“I can’t overstate the value of the coaches,” said Lurie. “Nick is outstanding – smart, connects with everyone, caring, is passionate. And at the same time, its staff is outstanding. They’re all the same age, they’re young, they get along great. They must have a great culture of a coaching team. He has.”
But it is Lurie who has established a culture of success within the Eagles organization. Just like Hunt did with the Chiefs.
“I’ve had dinner with him a few times. I talk to him when he’s near the building because he’s here a lot,” Eagles’ Dallas Goedert said of Lurie. “I’m just really grateful for him and everything he gives to the team to enable us to be as successful as we have been. It fits right in with the culture of Philadelphia. He knows how important Eagles football is to the city.”
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