Travis Kelce expressed the notion immediately after winning Super Bowl LVII and Patrick Mahomes doubled down as Kansas City celebrated the team’s second championship in four years Wednesday: The Chiefs somehow perceived themselves to be underdogs this season.
“We’re back again. We’re back again,” Mahomes exclaimed during the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade, per ESPN. “Before we started this season, the AFC West said we were rebuilding. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know what rebuilding means. In our rebuilding year, we’re world champs.”
It comes just three days after Kelce screamed into the camera during the FOX broadcast: “Ain’t one of y’all said the Chiefs was gonna take it home this year! Not a single one!”
And while self-manufactured doubt isn’t exactly anything new in sports, the doubling and tripling down nevertheless is puzzling.
Was anybody actually saying the Chiefs were entering a “rebuilding” year? Of course not, they still entered the season with the best quarterback and tight end in the league.
Sure, each of Kansas City’s three AFC West rivals loaded up in free agency and via trades, but it’s not like that caused the Chiefs to be long shots to compete in the division or reclaim the Lombardi Trophy. DraftKings Sportsbook had Kansas City 10-1 at the beginning of the season while FanDuel Sportsbook gave them the third-best prices to win the whole thing. They were favored to win the division, too.
Mahomes and company likely will be happy to hear the Chiefs are 6-1 to win Super Bowl LVIII, +330 to win the AFC and the superstar signal-caller is +650 to win MVP — all of which currently are on the top line on the betting board.
Unfortunately for the defending Super Bowl champions, they’ll have to come up with a new schtick during the offseason.
