Dominate the Super Bowl

Brittany showed a curious expression, "So, what about that night?"

Mahomes blinked, "Nothing, what happened? Li Wei? What night, what happened? I don't remember at all."

Li Wei widened his eyes, looking astonished, "Did you completely forget?"

Mahomes became anxious, scratching his ears and cheeks like the Monkey King; whereas Brittany appeared calm and composed.

Li Wei gently lifted his chin, "It was that night when we all played the football game, and McCaffrey rolled on the floor throwing a tantrum after losing '0:6'. We still need to protect our buddy's image a little."

McCaffrey: Achoo! Who is cursing me? Who is secretly bad-mouthing me?

Mahomes: ...just this?

But Brittany had already caught on, realizing Li Wei was joking, and effortlessly played them both for a fool.

After the draft, people kept discussing whether picking Li Wei was the right choice, from his physique, confrontations, skills, and so forth. But now to Brittany, they had missed a crucial point:

Wisdom.

A full score on the Frederick Test definitely wasn't just a reference data.

However, looking at Mahomes' carefree, clumsy demeanor, the words Brittany almost uttered ended up being swallowed back, and Brittany turned to look at Li Wei.

"Patrick is an idiot, sold out and still dutifully counting money. Since you're entering the team together, I'm counting on you to look after him." Explore more stories at empire

Li Wei: ??? This works?

Li Wei looked at Mahomes, who seemed to fully agree, which made Li Wei laugh in disbelief, "Aren't you guys mistaken? This guy here is the quarterback, I'm the running back, I rely on the quarterback."

Brittany was undeterred, saying meaningfully, "It's good that you believe that."

Then, Brittany took a step forward, "I'm very pleased to meet you, Li Wei. I'll cook dinner at my place sometime and treat you properly."

Li Wei smiled along, "Then I'm really looking forward to it."

In just a short meeting, Brittany turned and walked towards the moving van to continue her busyness. Li Wei's gaze followed Brittany's figure, slightly overwhelmed by the size of the truck, with its dazzling array of furniture filling the entire carriage—

A true moving process, bringing the whole house over.

The NFL's rookie contract is four years, though there are cases of early termination and renewal, but generally, rookies play the full four years.

Because the salary cap for rookie contracts is relatively low, if a team selects a group of outstanding rookies, it then has ample cap space to sign reinforcements in the free market and build a championship-contending team.

This is also known as the "rookie benefit window". Once this window passes, the pressure of the salary cap hits, and the team must make sacrifices and adjustments, possibly disrupting the team's balance as a whole.

This is especially true for quarterbacks.

Therefore, teams often hold tightly to the quarterback's rookie benefit window, using this period to build a championship team. From this perspective, Mahomes' choice was right; for at least the next four years, he would be settling in Kansas City.

Compared to him, the lightly equipped Li Wei seemed to just be sightseeing.

Li Wei shifted his gaze away and bumped shoulders with Mahomes as a greeting.

"Hey, Sherlock."

Li Wei's old habit had flared up again: not remembering names.

Mahomes, simply by pronunciation, sounds very similar to Holmes, so Li Wei naturally associated it with "Sherlock Holmes". Every time he saw Mahomes, the name came to mind, and rounding it off, Mahomes' nickname just came to be.

But what was truly interesting was that Mahomes had never asked Li Wei for the reasons, nor did he correct him, so it just continued on.

Mahomes looked toward the end of the street again, where West's car had almost disappeared, "So, did you ride with him all the way from Tuscaloosa to Kansas City?"

Li Wei followed Mahomes' gaze.

"You could say that. He was a devout Chieftain fan, wholeheartedly believing in the Chieftains and resting all his hopes in life on this team."

Mahomes, unaware of the backstory, looked at Li Wei with a puzzled face.

Li Wei burst into laughter, "A playoff victory is all they ask for, just one playoff victory."

Mahomes stared, "How is one enough? Shouldn't the goal be to be Super Bowl Champions?"

Li Wei laughed out loud, "Yes, Super Bowl Champions, of course, that's the ultimate aim."

The Super Bowl, the crown jewel, the ultimate annual goal of every player in every team in the NFL, naturally included the Kansas City Chieftains, but for this team, there were more painful memories.

Since their loss to the Buffalo Bills in the American League final in 1993, the Kansas City Chieftains hadn't won any playoff game.

From the 1994 season all the way to the 2014 season, for a full twenty-one years, the playoff curse became a tight spellbinding curse over the Chieftain's minds, even Andy Reid's arrival hadn't turned around such a situation, making it the second-longest playoff losing streak in the league—

An inglorious record.

Only behind the Cincinnati Bengals, who from the 1991 season to the 2021 season, went thirty-one seasons without a playoff victory, until finally breaking the streak in the 2022 season.

Of course, the Kansas City Chieftains also ended their embarrassing record in the 2015 season, defeating the Houston Texans in the first round of the playoffs, finally securing a victory.

However.

In the 2015 postseason, they turned around and lost to the New England Patriots, failing to welcome consecutive wins; In the 2016 season, they again lost their first playoff game to the Pittsburgh Steelers and were promptly eliminated.

The nightmare awakened once again.

After waiting a full twenty-one years before finally embracing a playoff victory, could Kansas City really wait another twenty-one years?

When other teams aimed for the Super Bowl and pursued the championship, Kansas City, mired in an economic crisis, had the simplest of wishes:

Just one playoff victory would do.

Of course, they could hope for Super Bowl Championships, they could proudly mention claiming the championship, but reality was both brutal and cold.

They weren't like the New York Giants, the Los Angeles Rams with their huge market and robust box office, not like the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers with their rich historical heritage, nor were they like the Green Bay Packers, enjoying unique support and backing in a town of a hundred thousand people.

They were just an ordinary small town, a group of farmers and workers, struggling daily on the edge of poverty and persisting through gritted teeth.

In fact, their wishes were really simple—

On game days, they'd go to the stadium or to the bar to enjoy a beer and a game, and then use a victory to ignite a glimmer of dawn in the darkness, guiding them to keep going through the mire and quicksand.

This, was already enough.

They truly hoped not to have to wait another twenty-one years for the next playoff victory.

Now, the heavy responsibility fell on this generation of young people.

Could they do it?

Li Wei looked at Mahomes, "But, the starting point toward the championship summit begins with a victory. How about it, are you ready?"