I belong to a men’s club that meets for lunch the second Tuesday of each month. This past week, during lunch the conversation at our table gravitated to the football season and when prompted on who I liked this week, I offered the Los Angeles Chargers getting the points in Kansas City over the Chiefs.
One of the group snapped at my suggestion by saying, “Do you know what Andy Reid’s (Kansas City head coach) record is the week following a bye?
The statement came in somewhat of an accusatory tone, like I hadn’t done my homework. It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes of all time. Lamar Hunt, who founded the American Football League and was one of the driving forces behind the merger with the National Football League in 1967, originally had his team in Dallas. They were the Texans then, and despite playing well the newly established Dallas Cowboys, who began play a year after the Texans in 1961, out-drew the Chiefs.
Hunt came to the realization that competing against the Cowboys for fans was a losing proposition even when he had the better team. This prompted Hunt to find a more advantageous home for his team, and he relocated it to Kansas City.
When introducing the Chiefs to the Kansas City market at a press conference in 1963, Lamar was at the podium with his dad, H.L. Hunt. A question was posed in an accusatory tone not unlike the one I received on Tuesday. The reporter asked with an arrogant tone, “Mr. Hunt, do you know that your son lost one-million-dollars with this football team last year alone?”
H.L. held his hand up to let his son know he would answer this question. He said while leaning into the podium and with eyes focused on the reporter asked him another question, “And do you know, that if does that for 126 more years he might run out of money?”