Chiefs celebrate Super victory with parade
Bears get property for new stadium
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and AllPro tight end Travis Kelce promised thousands of fans celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl championship Wednesday that the team will be back for more.
During a boisterous victory rally at downtown’s Union Station after a parade, Mahomes and Kelce joked about “experts” who predicted the just-concluded NFL season would be a rebuilding year for the Chiefs, who defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 on Sunday.
“We’re back again, we’re back again,” Mahomes, the NFL’s regular season and Super Bowl MVP, told thousands of cheering fans clad in the Chiefs’ red and gold team colors.
“When we started this season the AFC West said we were rebuilding,” Mahomes said. “I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know what rebuilding means. In our rebuilding year, we’re world champs, we’re world champs.”
Kelce noted that some “haters” predicted the Chiefs wouldn’t even make the playoffs.
“In all reality, this was this best season of my life,” Kelce said. “I owe it to (the fans), I owe it to the guys on this stage, I owe it to everybody in Chiefs Kingdom and the organization we’ve been able to create.”
Celebrating his second Super Bowl win with the Chiefs, coach Andy Reid told the crowd that “there’s no place you’d rather be, and no greater place to be than right here, baby . ... Not very often are you able to say you’re the greatest team in the world, you have the greatest players in the world, have the greatest organization in the world and, most of all, the greatest fans in the world.”
The rally festivites wrapped up a day that began with some fans who slept overnight — and others arriving before sunrise —to get a prime spot downtown to celebrate the Chiefs’ second Super Bowl championship in four NFL seasons.
BEARS: The team has bought the property it has been sizing up for a new enclosed stadium in suburban Arlington Heights — it paid $197.2 million for the 36-acre plot. The Bears cautioned, however, that the purchase doesn’t mean plans for a new stadium and an entertainment district will come to fruition.
“There is still a tremendous amount of due diligence work to be done to determine if constructing an enclosed state-of-the-art stadium and multi-purpose entertainment district is feasible,” the Bears said in a statement.
PANTHERS: Parks Frazier, 31, has been hired as the passing game coordinator. He was part of Frank Reich’s staff with the Indianapolis Colts since 2018, where he served as assistant quarterbacks coach.
SAINTS: The team hired Joe Woods as defensive coordinator and Todd Grantham as defensive line coach Wednesday. Saints coach Dennis Allen also added secondary coach Marcus Robertson, tight ends coach Clancy Barone and assistant offensive line coach Kevin Carberry.
OBITUARY: Former Detroit Lions defensive back Stanley Wilson died earlier this month, according to TMZ., at age 40. He had collapsed at Metropolitan State Hospital in Los Angeles County on Feb. 1. He was in the process of being transferred to the facility after being declared incompetent to stand trail for twice breaking into a Hollywood Hills home in August.