Recap
The Kansas City Chiefs club was founded in 1960 as the Dallas Texans by businessman Lamar Hunt and was a charter member of the American Football League (AFL). In the spring of 1963, the team relocated to Kansas City, and assumed its current name. The Chiefs joined the NFL as a result of the merger in 1970, and the team is valued at over $2 billion. Hunt's son, Clark, serves as chairman and CEO. While Hunt's ownership stakes passed collectively to his widow and children after his death in 2006, Clark is the operating head of the franchise; he represents the Chiefs at all league meetings and has ultimate authority on personnel changes.
The Chiefs won three AFL championships, in 1962, 1966, and 1969, and were the second AFL team (after the New York Jets) to defeat an NFL team in an AFL–NFL World Championship Game, when they routed the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV. That victory on January 11, 1970, was the final such competition before the leagues' merger went into full effect. The Chiefs were also the second team, after the Green Bay Packers, to appear in more than one Super Bowl (and the first AFL team to do so) and the first to appear in the championship game in two different decades. Despite post-season success early in the franchise's history, winning five of their first six postseason games, the team struggled to find success in the playoffs for many years, including losing 10 of 11 playoff games from 1993 to 2017, which included an 8-game losing streak. Since then, the Chiefs have won 5 of their last 6 playoff games, including Super Bowl LIV in 2020 over the San Francisco 49ers, which earned the franchise their first championship in 50 years. In February 2021, the team made it to Super Bowl LV but lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Across the decades the franchise's name, fans, and owner have faced charges of exploitation regarding the appropriation of Native American iconography and cultural and religious practices.
