There was a bit of symmetry between Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt’s Super Bowl LIV trophy speech and the one his father Lamar Hunt gave in Super Bowl IV.
During the team’s Super Bowl watch party on Wednesday, Hunt was asked about the similarities between the two speeches by team reporter Matt McMullen. In Hunt’s eyes, it only could have worked during this specific year celebrating the NFL’s 100th season. Had it happened during any other season, he wouldn’t have been able to have the call back to his father’s speech which commemorated the 10th season of the AFL.
“It’s something that had always been in the back of my mind,” Hunt explained. “That clip you’re referring to was when my dad (Lamar Hunt) received the trophy after Super Bowl IV and he more or less said, ‘It’s a beautiful trophy and I can’t think of a better conclusion to the 10 years of the American Football League.’ Now, it’s hard to come up with something that actually replicated that. Last year (2018) we were approaching the Super Bowl and playing in the AFC Championship Game, I had the thought about using it if I had the opportunity but it really wouldn’t have fit. This year, of course, with it being the 100th season of the National Football League, it gave me the perfect launching point to really do the same thing. So I said something like, ‘It’s a beautiful trophy and I can’t think of a better conclusion to the NFL’s 100th season.’ You must be a real fan to have picked that up, an aficionado to have gone back and seen what we did in Super Bowl IV.”
If you happened to pick up on this moment in Hunt’s trophy acceptance speech, consider yourself an owner-approved Chiefs aficionado. 50 years was certainly a long time to wait between Super Bowl titles and I’m certain Hunt would have gladly given a speech earlier. However, it has to be pretty special to have the opportunity to imitate the words of his father, who accepted the first Super Bowl trophy in franchise history.
