Chiefs Super Bowl run shares similarities to Royals 2014 run to World Series
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — This year’s Kansas City Chiefs run to the Super Bowl shares some striking similarities to the 2014 Royals run to the World Series.
It started last week as the Chiefs went to Baltimore to take on the Ravens. In 2014, the Royals took on the Baltimore Orioles.
Cody Tapp of 610 Sports Radio said that it was a lopsided game against the favored Ravens.
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“It just felt like the Chiefs, once they had control of that game, they were never going to let up,” he said.
In 2014, the Royals swept the Orioles, dominating the series against the favorited Orioles. Just like in 2014, Kansas City would advance to play San Francisco.
It doesn’t stop there. Soon after Brock Purdy would take a knee against the Detroit Lions, fans on social media were quick to make the parallel to the 2014 series.
One team, the Royals at the time and the 49ers this year, have not won a championship in exactly 29 years. The other team, this year’s Chiefs and 2014’s San Francisco Giants, have been to the title game in three of the last five years.
“The situations are kind of backwards when it comes to Kansas City versus San Francisco,” Royals’ announcer Ryan Lefebvre said. “San Francisco is on a high right now because they’ve overcome some obstacles and now, they’re facing a team that’s very comfortable in the Super Bowl. The Chiefs are like the Giants in 2014: Been there, done that.”
If you examine both teams, the two matchups are even more similar.
“Brock Purdy’s more like the plucky underdog like the Royals were, and Patrick Mahomes is Madison Bumgarner, right? Come playoff time, you think they’re great and in the playoffs they’re even better that’s where the comparison is,” Tapp said.
Both Lefebvre and Tapp say that there’s two main factors that lifted the Giants over the Royals almost a decade ago, the first being playoff experience.
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“I think the experience is going to come through and that’s really what happens in the postseason,” Lefebvre noted. “It’s whoever’s hot and if both teams are hot it’s going to be the team that’s most comfortable in the postseason.”
The second factor in the Giants win in 2014 was the record-setting performance of Madison Bumgarner.
Tapp said Mahomes has the star-power to lift the Chiefs to the same kind of win.
“I don’t have an exact score yet, but I do think the Chiefs will win this game for a number of reasons, one team has Patrick Mahomes, and the other team has Brock Purdy which is a big difference,” he said.
