The Kansas City Chiefs will face plenty of obstacles on the journey to trying to accomplish a three-peat this season. Their recent triumphs have not just viewed them as a dynasty but also as the top target on every team’s bulletin board and rival fans’ hate list.
Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. spoke to award-winning actor Don Cheadle about being competitive in this weekend’s American Century Championship and the public’s recent perception of the Chiefs as the league’s villains due to their success.
“I don’t get like that [competitive],” Cheadle explained. “I mean, I know that people are taking bets on certain things. My friends have “last-longer” bets and better performance bets with other players. But like I said, it’s to see these dudes that I don’t, you know, necessarily get to see all year in that setting.
“It’s the tournament (American Century) that does a great job of taking care of us, providing entertainment, and it’s for charity. It’s really the reason to get together and do this. There are a lot of guys that I would like to bump into again and be with Michael Pena, and he and I are in a movie coming out this year together, so it’s good to kick it with him.”
During Super Bowl LVIII media week, the Chiefs were considered the league’s villains after consecutive winning seasons. The reaction from most of the crowd in attendance preferred the San Francisco 49ers as the heroes for reasons beyond the game’s proximity.
“I think it’s all [a] hype thing to sell tickets and get people to watch. And, of course, if somebody is sitting on top of the hill, you have to knock the king off the top,” said Cheadle. “So I’m sure they’re viewed as villains, but to see what they’ve done and to all the different iterations of personnel that they’ve had, and still been able to be as successful as they’ve been able to be.
“It’s a real testament to the team and to [what] Andy Reid has been able to do, and what the front office has been able to do, and how to put these people together and kept, the key pieces together to continue to make them the championship level, caliber team. So, yeah, they should be; they should be the bad guys. They’re the bad guys until they get beaten.”
Cheadle has played many roles in his illustrious career while continuing to work in various humanitarian efforts. In 2017, alongside Oceans 8 movie castmate George Clooney, he was presented with the Summit Peace Award by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates in Rome for work to stop the genocide and relieve the suffering of the people of Darfur.
Check out the website for more information about the American Century Championship.