NFL fans secretly want the Chiefs to fail (Getty Images)
And when Kansas City collapsed to a 6-11 record in 2025, their worst season since going 2-14 back in 2012, the reaction across the league was less concern and more celebration. Joe Burrow reached the game in 2022 and came up short. Because we had Chiefs fatigue, “It’s easy to do that. Because we’d gotten sick of the Chiefs, i think we’re more quick to embrace the demise of the Chiefs.
“I think a lot of people are sleeping on the Chiefs,” Florio said. Three Super Bowl wins in five years. Five appearances in seven title games. At some point, rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs stopped feeling like football and started feeling like watching the same movie on repeat. NFL fans noticed. That reaction tells you more about human nature than it does about the Chiefs. There was that sense that football fans had enough. What makes the Chiefs’ situation sharper is that the hatred came with genuine frustration from the rest of the AFC. Josh Allen has been one of the best quarterbacks in football for years and has yet to win a Super Bowl. Lamar Jackson, a two-time MVP, has never made it that far. Florio even made a half-serious plea on air, saying, “Give one of the other kids a turn, please. Let one of the other kids play in a Super Bowl. You got Josh Allen, who would like to play. You got Joe Burrow that would like to play. You got Lamar Jackson that would like to play.”
Does hating a dominant team ever actually make sense?
The defense needs significant improvement, and the secondary ranked 28th in the league against the pass in 2025. None of that is easy to fix in one offseason.