There are two different levels of how the “news” that the Kansas City Chiefs have the “audacity” to wish to claim the NFL title of “The World’s Team.” One, it’s really not that “audacious” at all, the way Chiefs president Mark Donovan discusses the franchise’s grandiose plans of becoming the NFL’s most prominent team worldwide; as pointed out in this Associated Press story, the Chiefs have created the proper foundation to trying to make that claim, from their on-field successes in the Super Bowl to the marketing department’s cultivation of overseas market.
“It can be looked at as maybe arrogant. I like to look at it as ambitious, but we want to be the world’s team,” said Donovan. “We think the opportunity exists today for us to set a foothold that we are the world’s team, that people look at the Chiefs as an international representation of the NFL.”
Again, nothing wrong with that. Kansas City has been in the Super Bowl three times in the last four years, has won twice, has made five straight AFC Championship Games, and features appealing characters led by Patrick Mahomes at quarterback … and now including Travis Kelce’s romance with pop star Taylor Swift.
But then comes the second level of the goal – or rather, of the coverage of that goal. Nowhere in the entire AP interview can we find Donovan making a reference to the Dallas Cowboys. But in the aggregated coverage of his quotes? Ah, yes, there it is: Suddenly, the Chiefs story is being treated by some as a Cowboys story. To wit …
From our friends at TheSpun, the headline: “Chiefs Hoping To One-Up The Cowboys, Become ‘The World’s Team.” And where did TheSpun get that angle? From ProFootballTalk.com, which with snark writes, “The Cowboys can have America. The Chiefs will take everything else.”
The Cowboys? Why are the Cowboys a part of this story?
It is likely that the most recognized NFL brand in the world is the Cowboys. But there is nothing “official” there. Meanwhile, as we have detailed many times, “America’s Team” is essentially an “official” title; it’s a Cowboys nickname. But the Cowboys “officially” claim no more than that. So the Chiefs’ pursuit of some sort of global recognition is both admirable … and irrespective of what the Cowboys are pursuing.
A key example of the two franchise’s differences in focus: The Chiefs intentionally accept NFL assignments to play overseas; the Cowboys generally decline sacrificing a home game at AT&T Stadium (and the revenue and recognition that comes with it) for whatever value is available by playing outside the U.S. “We feel like this is our era,” the Chiefs’ Donovan said. “Based on the timing, the success, and the stars, it’s a responsibility to take advantage of this. If we don’t aggressively take advantage of this, that’s a failure.”
That’s not “audacious” and that’s not “arrogant.” The Chiefs working to be embraced as “The World’s Team” is as smart an idea as the Cowboys having put in the work to be “America’s Team.” And the only conflict there is one trumped up by the trolling media.
