By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
It’s official.
The Kansas City Chiefs are the official NFL team of Missouri.
The governor says so. And, well, there really isn’t any competition.
Gov. Mike Parson has signed SCR 4, a resolution designating the Kansas City Chiefs as the official NFL team of Missouri.
“For over 50 years, the Kansas City Chiefs have played an important role in the city and the state,” Parson said in a written statement released by his office. “Sports are a big part of Missouri’s heritage, and we are proud to have the Chiefs represent our great state in the NFL.”
While the Chiefs might be the official NFL team of Missouri, the team isn’t native to the state.
Founder Lamar Hunt moved the team to Kansas City in 1963, changing the name from the Dallas Texans to the Kansas City Chiefs. Hunt was part of what now has become affectionately called the “Fools Club,” the group of owners who founded the American Football League in competition with the established National Football League.
The Chiefs played in the first Super Bowl, losing to the Green Bay Packers, then won the championship after the 1969 season.
The Chiefs begin training camp in St. Joseph Saturday, July 27th, with the first session scheduled to begin at 3:30pm on the Missouri Western State University campus in St. Joseph.
St. Louis no longer has an NFL team. The Cardinals moved from Chicago to St. Louis in 1960 and played there until 1988 when the team moved to Arizona. The Rams, one of the NFL’s oldest franchises which actually began life in Cleveland, moved from their long-time home of Los Angeles to St. Louis in 1995. The Rams brought a Super Bowl championship to St. Louis in 1999, but moved back to LA in 2016.
St. Louis did get something, though.
Gov. Parson did sign, HB 677, which modifies qualifications of a tourism infrastructure facility, allowing the home of the Blues, the Enterprise Center, to have access to the same funding available to Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums in Kansas City. The newly crowned Stanley Cup champs now can get up to $70 million in state subsidies over the next two decades to make improvements to the home ice. St. Louis officials also hope improvements will lure major college and Olympic sporting events to the city.