There’s plenty of reason for cheer in the Kansas City Chiefs locker room.
A 29-10 Christmas day blowout of the Pittsburgh Steelers improved their record to 15-1 and clinched the AFC’s No. 1 seed in their quest for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl championship. They can rest key players in next week’s regular-season finale before a first-round bye in the postseason.
So if you’re Andy Reid, there’s really only one thing to do: play Santa Claus for your postgame speech. That’s exactly what he did on Wednesday. Because of course he did.
Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce donned NFL-branded Santa coats to get the postgame party started. Then Reid followed in full Santa regalia, much to the delight of the Kansas City locker room.
“Merry Christmas,” Reid said, his voice muffled by his Santa beard. “I’m proud of you dudes. Proud of you. For the present, you get home-field advantage.”
Indeed, they do. It’s been a season filled with questions about the Chiefs following close game after close game. But there are few who can reasonably challenge Kansas City’s credentials at this point.
They’re now 15-1 and will finish the season no worse than tied for the best record in football. The last-second wins are thing of the past. They beat the Browns, 21-7 in Week 15, the Texans 27-19 in Week 16 and now the Steelers by 19 points on Christmas. The wins over the Steelers and Texans came against fellow AFC playoff teams.
Wednesday’s dominant win over Pittsburgh arrived on the road. And the 15 wins are a new franchise record.
Again, there’s plenty of reason for cheer in Kansas City.