Here is the strange and laughable story of how a So Cal native and life-long 49er fan became a Chiefs fan;

I grew up a 49er fan (still am, to a slightly lesser extent than the Chiefs) with Joe Montana being my idol. In 1992 I got married to my wife Amy who happened to be a huge football fan. (The good news) She and her entire family are all die-hard Dallas Cowboy fans. (The bad news)
The first years of our marriage were brutal as it relates to football. The ruthless smack talk I endured after the Cowboys beat the Niners (at Candlestick, no less) in the 1993 NFC championship game didn’t stop until 95 when the Niners finally got them back. (At which point I was nearly skinned alive)
In late 1992 The Army moved to me to Ft Riley Kansas and a few months later Joe Montana and Marcus Allen went to the Chiefs. (Allen was a USC Trojan don’t forget) To appreciate how excited I was you must know that coming from So Cal I was a fish out of water in Riley KS. The arrival of Joe and Marcus was good medicine for my football soul. I began to follow the Chiefs pretty closely and more importantly, so did my wife. For the first time in almost two years of marriage we could watch a game together and have a high-five after a big play. Even better, we began to talk Chief’s football with the locals and made some new friends. What really set the Chiefs in our hearts for good was when we realized just how devoted the Chiefs fans were and that they root for their local team, not some team in some city they couldn’t find on a map if their lives depended on it. (I.E. My little brother is a Steelers fan, I don’t know why, neither does he) Here in southern California you just don’t see that kind of devotion, heck, LA doesn’t even have a team anymore and NOBODY CARES!
We are a Kansas City Chief’s family now. We moved back to So Cal after I got out of the Army in 1995. I immortalized this fact by getting the KC arrowhead tattooed on my arm in 1997.
My highlight as a Chiefs fan was meeting Len Dawson here in Southern California a few years ago. He was speaking to a group of doctors at a local hospital about surviving prostate cancer. When I heard about it I left work early to go meet him which was an amazing experience. He spent about 30 minutes with a small group of us talking Chiefs football, signing footballs, and making jokes about my silly tattoo. I got to catch a pass from him before he left. He had signed a football for me and the ink was still a little wet when he threw it so I have his finger-print on my autographed ball. (He scolded me for catching it with my arms and not my hands and made me catch it again…lol)
That’s my story, thanks for reading it. I hope you got a laugh out of it. When NFL Sunday ticket came out I was elated that I could see the Chiefs every Sunday, having just found the Arrowhead Pride I feel that way again!

Go Chief’s!

-Andy

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