Five weeks ago today, the Raiders became the Grinch who stole Kansas City’s Christmas. Next week, the Chiefs will have the last laugh. Repeatedly.
As noted by Peter King in his Football Morning in America column, the Chiefs will spend the days before the Super Bowl practicing in their arch-rival’s facility.
That’s how it works when the AFC is the home team in a Super Bowl, as the Chiefs are. They’ll practice in the facility normally used by the team hosting the game.
At least the Raiders can root for the 49ers. Oh, wait, the Raiders hate them, too.
The feelings are so strong between the fan bases of the two teams that, when the Raiders were still in Oakland and the 49ers were just down the road in Santa Clara, the two teams had to stop playing their annual, no-travel-expenses preseason games against each other because of the violence that erupted between their fans.
Heck, the Raiders could still be in Oakland. The Raiders and the 49ers could have jointly developed and shared a stadium in the Bay Area. They couldn’t. They wouldn’t.
And now the Raiders will see the AFC team they hate the most and the NFC team they hate the most playing in the ultimate game in their swanky new stadium.
That’s the risk of hosting a Super Bowl. There’s no way to control the colors of the teams that will be playing in the game.
Of course, for Raiders owner Mark Davis and everyone else in Vegas who will profit from hosting the Super Bowl, the only color that really matters is green.
