Kansas City Chiefs

The matchup the Kansas City Chiefs have been waiting for

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:26 p.m. ET

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The football gods couldn’t have scripted a better start to the postseason campaign for the Kansas City Chiefs. Pay no attention to what appears to be the consensus of Chiefs Kingdom. The Chiefs drew the perfect opponent in the divisional round — The Pittsburgh Steelers.

If anything effectively sets this team on a course for Houston, for Super Bowl LI, it’s a re-match with the team that it suffered its greatest defeat to in the regular season. The Steelers are one of just a handful of qualifying playoff teams believed by pundits to be capable of making and subsequently winning an championship in this NFL season.

If ever there were a time for the Chiefs to prove they belong in that conversation, it’s right now. The Chiefs have achieved that level of visibility for the first time since Marty Schottenheimer was in the pilot’s chair at One Arrowhead Drive. No Chiefs team’s been this consistently good since the squads he assembled between 1990-1997. Sure, the Dick Vermeil-led Chiefs once earned the No. 1 seed, but that group wasn’t as solid from top-to-bottom. It was tough to believe that bunch was capable of the NFL’s ultimate prize.

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This football team is a legitimately viable Super Bowl contender. Even the talking heads around the league are beginning to see Kansas City in such a light. The Chiefs’ Rodney Dangerfield act may be approaching a curtain call. This team just enjoyed a postseason bye after winning its first division title in six years. It’ll enter the week as a home underdog to the Steelers, but that’s as much to do with the recent fortunes of both teams than the 2016 season.

The Chiefs were trounced in a Sunday night affair in Week 4, but this game — the one that will send one team to the AFC Championship Game — will not be played in the cozy confines of Heinz Field. The Steelers are the traveling team this time around and as I mentioned last week, Pittsburgh is a different team on the road.

Despite a warmer reception over the past two months, I expect the NFL gallery to pick the Steelers to win this game. A higher seed won’t be enough to warrant serious consideration for the right to play in Foxboro (or to possibly, albeit unlikely, play the championship round at Arrowhead). Beating the Steelers is the only way to establish championship potentiality for the Chiefs (at anything more than a whisper). A respectable showing won’t help them escape the “feel good team” optics surrounding them.

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The Chiefs won’t become the elite team bandied around the National Football League until they claim one, against one, in their pursuit of the Lombardi trophy. They’ll find it impossible to shed the label of long-time franchise of futility if they can’t take care of business this weekend. Just showing up for the dance doesn’t demand the respect of the prom committee when it comes time to crown a new king.

The gaze of the NFL media is of no consequence to the future fortunes of this football team, but what might a victory do for the confidence of this young squad? Could it create the kind of confidence that could send them fearlessly into Gillette Stadium for an opportunity to secure Super Bowl silver? I think we all know the answer to that question.

So what’s it going to be, Kansas City? Will you prove you belong here on this stage or have we been sold yet another bill of goods by a team that can only produce under regular season lights?

Can Andy Reid and company take another step towards winning the first NFL championship this side of a Richard Nixon presidency or are the Chiefs still a handful of players away from competing with the best in the conference? Time will tell. For now, you can begin the discussion below in the comment section. As always, we appreciate your readership and support.

Until next time, Addicts!