Life Lessons from the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl win 2024

Maybe you’re not a Kansas City Chiefs fan, but hang with me for a little bit and see if there aren’t some life lessons from their recent Super Bowl victory that may be valuable to know.  

Yes, I am a die hard KC fan, and have been for more than 25 years, but as I was recently scrolling social media, and reading some of the amazing stories, and opinions of people on all aspects of the game, a few things drew my attention due to their lack of parallel in my life.  Basically, I started asking the question, “What makes a champion?”.  

What makes Patrick Mahomes special, what makes the team pull out the most amazing plays at the last minutes, how do they manage their mindset in such an impactful situation.  Here are the lessons I took away for myself.

Fight to the End

I heard myself saying throughout the game, “The Chiefs are a second-half team.”  If you’ve followed them throughout the recent years, they have become known as a come-back team. But 13 seconds left in overtime…come on, even us Chiefs fans were starting to doubt.

Reflecting on how I would have handled a similar situation, and comparing it to other projects in my life, I decided I would have given up a lot sooner.  When I’m looking at my monthly business goals, I don’t push up until the last minute with every bit of effort I can. When my weight loss isn’t moving as fast as I’d like, I don’t try a random approach that is seemingly impossible.  The truth is, I give up early.  

In this game, not sure how early I would have given up.  I like to think I would have hung in there for awhile, but if I’m being honest, there would have been more than 13 seconds on the clock.

So I’m implementing a new rule.  The 13 second rule.  I’m going to try pushing through obstacles in my goals, all the way up to the 13 second mark.  I’m going to stop giving up early, because you never know what amazing things could happen in the last seconds.

Let your Passion Show

Poor Travis Kelce has taken quite of a bit of negative press based on his passionate conversation with Coach Reid.  I don’t subscribe to the approach of screaming directly in peoples faces to get their attention…even though my kids may disagree.  

But when I watch that interaction over and over on social media, what I saw and heard was “Put me in the game coach”.  What I felt was Travis’s belief in his own ability to make a difference.  

He knew that he had the skills, experience, and motivation to make big plays happen and help lead the team to victory.

Do I feel the same passion for what I do, how I can help?  The answer is yes, I have the belief, but maybe I’m not letting other people in on my belief.  I don’t need to go around screaming in people’s faces, but maybe I could start by being very clear and direct when there is a situation where I  know I can help.  Maybe I can say, “Put me in, I can make a difference”.

Focus on the Task at Hand

One of the stories I didn’t know about until a few days after the Super Bowl was told by Patrick Mahomes.  Referring to the last big play of the game, he told the press that Mecole Hardeman didn’t know they had won the game until Patrick told him.

What!?!  If it were me, listening to the call that put me in the path of making the game winning Super Bowl play, I would have over thought that play more than you can even imagine.  I would have thought things that put so much pressure on myself.  I would have worried about what would happen if I missed it, how can I make sure I’m going to be fast enough to get there, and all the other things that could go wrong.  I would have said things to myself like “everything depends on me” or, maybe like I do at home, “why do I have to do everything.”

But not Mecole.  He was laser focused on running the play he was told to run.  He wasn’t thinking about the situation he was in and all the possible outcomes.  He was only focused on doing the next actions that he needed to do.  And it paid off perfectly.

How can I reduce the drama in my head and execute the next step that needs to be executed?  If I don't overthink, or put to much pressure on myself, would I be able to execute on higher level?  This is an experiment I am going to try.

Haters Gonna Hate

I have been shocked by how many people hated the Chiefs as they headed into this Super Bowl.  As a loyal fan, for the last 25+ years, the Chiefs have been a Conference winning team, but by no means a Super Bowl favorite…until recently.  

They have had a difficult season.  Some would have argued they weren’t going to make it to the big game.  But all of a sudden, they did.  Again.  And they were deemed the bad guy…the team no-one wanted to win.  Why?  

All I can figure out is because they are winning, consistently.

I guess what my mom taught me in middle school was right.  People will hate on you when they are jealous.  And, it’s actually more of a reflection on their own internal struggle instead of having anything to do with you.

When the Kansas City Chiefs made it to the Super Bowl for the 4th time in 5 years it wasn’t a fluke.  They must be good, and if you’re good, haters gonna hate.

The moral of the story, if you’re getting haters, you must be winning.  Don’t let the haters bring you down.  Focus on your own game and let everyone else sort out their own stuff.