The Kansas City Chiefs and Las Vegas Raiders have an age-old rivalry in the NFL. As of late, the rivalry had gotten rather stale because it has been rather one-sided. That’s not the case heading into an important Week 11 game, as things are starting to get heated between the two teams.
The new fire in the rivalry is stemming from an incident following the Week 5 game between Kansas City and Las Vegas. A report from KSHB-TV producer Nick Jacobs said that the Raiders had requested police escorts to allow them to take a victory lap around Arrowhead Stadium after their win. Las Vegas basically treated like they’d just won the Super Bowl after losing their past five games to Kansas City.
Chiefs HC Andy Reid spoke to the media on Monday morning and he set the record straight — his team isn’t out for any revenge from their Week 5 loss to Raiders.
“I think it’s just two good football teams playing each other,” Reid told reporters. “I don’t think either team likes each other that much as they’ve stated before. We’ll just get ourselves ready to play a good football team. I think that’s most important.”
Reid also didn’t seem to care much about what Las Vegas chose to do after the game. He seemed more concerned with the outcome of the game and making sure that his guys come away with the win this time around.
“Well, listen, they won the game, so they can do anything they want to do if they end up winning the game,” Reid said. “That’s not our style, but we’ll get ourselves back, ready to play, and that’s where we’re at.”
Raiders HC Jon Gruden was asked on Monday if he thought the Chiefs would use the victory lap as bulletin board material. Instead of putting out the growing fire, he stoked the flames with his comments.
“Not really,” Gruden said. “I mean, you can find a smart-aleck bus driver in Kansas City who made some snide comments when we got on the bus. Maybe that’s why we drove around the stadium— to tick him off. This is ridiculous. Next question.”
All Gruden had to do was to deny the veracity of the story and this would be a non-starter. Instead, his answer confirms that his team did take a victory lap around the stadium. It’s a confounding explanation too, rather than simply owning up to it, he makes up an excuse involving a bus driver. If the Chiefs players and coaches weren’t angered by the post-game victory lap, Gruden’s comments certainly throw some fuel on the fire.
This drama comes ahead of a game where a victory would go a long way for both team’s aspirations toward winning the AFC West division. A Raiders win would put them within one game of the division lead. A Chiefs win would see Kansas City pull away from the rest of the division. In fact, whoever wins in Week 11 might actually have a better reason for taking a victory lap.
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