Chiefs Stay Loose As Pressure Looms

A Kansas City player stood in the middle of the locker room trying to auction off the shoes of a teammate. Dominoes games were going on at both ends of the room. Players were laughing, mouthing the words to music on the loudspeaker and generally having a ball.

Are the Chiefs ready for today’s AFC playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts? Is it cold in Kansas City in January?

“It’s been like this all year,” linebacker Tracy Simien said. “I think everybody is ready to play. It seems like forever since we played a game.”

The Chiefs had the NFL’s best record (13-3) and were the only perfect team at home (8-0). That earned them the AFC West title and a bye in the first round of the playoffs for the first time.

They got there with the same kind of loose attitude they displayed Friday after their final workout.

“We’ve felt no pressure,” Simien said. “I felt last year there was a lot of pressure because Joe (Montana) was here. This year, nobody expected us to do anything - we got picked for next-to-last in our division.

“Nothing has changed from week to week this year. We have the same work habits. We worked hard all year. But we were relaxed.”

Cornerback Mark Collins attributes the easy-going approach to the success the Chiefs have had recently. They are the only team to make the playoffs every year this decade and got to the AFC Championship game in 1993.

“I think we have to have been doing something right all year to be 13-3,” he said. “We’re loose, which comes from confidence. We believe in ourselves and in the scheme. We know what we’re doing.”

Just like Kansas City’s players, the Colts are relaxed. And why not? If, as Simien said, expectations outside the organization were low for the Chiefs, they were minuscule for the Colts, who must face the Chiefs without the services of running back Marshall Faulk, who is injured.

“What helped us was that we felt our last two games, against San Diego and against the Patriots, were playoff games,” coach Ted Marchibroda said. “We had to win one of the two games (to get into the playoffs). That first San Diego game was played with playoff intensity. When we lost it, we then had to win the second game against the Patriots.

“Those two games gave us an indication of what the playoffs would be like.”

Unlike the Chiefs, who make a habit of qualifying for the playoffs, the Colts are in for the first time since ‘87. Yet they aren’t uptight.

“This is great,” quarterback Jim Harbaugh said. “This is the kind of situation you want to be in, playing in playoff games with a chance to win a championship. This is the fun time.”