KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A distant era back yet merely five years ago, the Chiefs’ playoff history was among the most tormented in the NFL. And Andy Reid was a 62-year-old coach with a neon void on an otherwise stellar resume.

Through the half century since their last Super Bowl berth, for those joining us late, the Chiefs were 5-17 in postseason games marked by soul-crushing losses often underscored with a certain slapstick flourish.

The dynamic of hopes raised only to be razed was demoralizing enough to make some fans question whether it was worth the distress or wonder if GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium was cursed. And it seemed Reid might well finish a distinguished career without the distinction of winning a Super Bowl.

That’s why Reid and the then-cuddly perpetual underdog Chiefs were the overwhelming sentimental favorites in Super Bowl LIV against the 49ers. Around NFL coaching and playing circles, among national pundits and even in Philadelphia, where Reid coached from 1999-2012, that 31-20 victory was widely celebrated as an overdue breakthrough — and perhaps a sort of lifetime achievement award for Reid.

A fine tale of redemption and inspiration for all … if the Chiefs had just had the consideration to end it there.

Except that moment rudely turned out to be not the pinnacle for Reid and the Chiefs.

Instead, it was the christening of a juggernaut now seeking to extend a dynasty with an unprecedented third straight title as it prepares for the AFC championship game against visiting Buffalo Sunday night.

With that, the novelty of the new sensation has long since yielded to what might be considered Chiefs fatigue for all but their own fans — a notion perhaps aptly paralleled by Patrick Mahomes appearing in so many commercials that a recent Doritos ad with Mahomes and teammates mocked his omnipresence.

Which helps explain another phenomenon:

As the Chiefs are immersed in glory days approaching any of the most hallowed in NFL history, not to mention having the temerity to let Taylor Swift in on the fun, you can see signs everywhere of how that initial admiration has been swamped by resentment.

Paradoxical as it might be, as the Chiefs on one hand are enjoying global popularity, they also are “Public Enemy No. 1,” as offensive coordinator Matt Nagy put it last week.

He was speaking about how they get every team’s best shot all season long.

But his words also reflect something far more widespread as the Chiefs prepare for a severe trial against the Bills.

Envy funneled into pettiness and conspiracy theories fueled through the online echo chamber of cynicism ... and perhaps an NFL broadcaster or two.

Because it’s apparently too complicated to fathom what the Chiefs have earned. Or too painful to accept their success without essentially calling them frauds or cheaters.

Maybe it’s only human nature to want to diminish something that seems too good to be true and out of your grasp. So you do what crabs in a bucket do: try to pull an escaping one back down with you.

“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful,” the old Pantene ad went.

But haters gonna hate, you might say.

So instead of even grudging appreciation for a franchise that will be playing in its seventh straight AFC title game, is looking for its fifth Super Bowl appearance in six seasons and has won 22 of its last 23 games with its regulars playing, the narrative has descended into tiresome and irrational rationalizing.

For some inexplicable reason, it goes, the league itself has scripted out the brilliant scheme of propping up a franchise in its 26th-largest market set in so-called flyover country. With that, referees now are required to sway games in favor of the Chiefs.

That’s typically asserted with some cherry-picked anecdotal observations.

But it’s also debunked by actual data.

Let’s count some of the ways.

Since Mahomes became QB1 for the Chiefs in 2018, according to The 33rd Team FB, no team in the NFL has more penalty yards.

In the last five regular seasons, only the Bills (16) have had more touchdowns called back for penalties than the Chiefs (13).

In the 2024 season, incidentally, the Chiefs tied the Dolphins for the most offensive holding penalties with 31.

As for Mahomes having some sort of velvet halo around him, well, as of late December he was 21st in roughing the passing penalties incurred per 100 pass attempts (0.603) among active quarterbacks; Buffalo’s Josh Allen is third (0.954).

Oh, then there’s the timeliness of the penalties, which Adam Chernoff of Right Angle Sports called “Myth No. 4” about the Chiefs in his analysis: “This season, in a year when the Chiefs are being labeled as the luckiest team ever, in the second half of games that are within one score either way, no team has had more flags thrown against them than the Kansas City Chiefs.

That, he added, is “the complete opposite of what is the most common talking point.”

A talking point recklessly amplified on Saturday.

That’s when ESPN’s Troy Aikman blasted a Houston unnecessary roughness penalty on Mahomes (and a Mahomes flop on the sideline that Mahomes regretted, he said Tuesday on his weekly radio appearance on 96.5 The Fan.).

And when Houston’s Will Anderson said “we knew it was going to be us against the refs going into this game.”

Trouble is, the unnecessary roughness call and Anderson’s earlier roughing the passer penalty were affirmed as correct to the letter of the rules by NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson in an interview on the NFL Network.

If you didn’t like the calls, in other words, your issue is with the rules themselves. And, boy, is the other team in your head if you enter games thinking that way.

Especially when the facts say otherwise.

But here’s the thing:

No matter how you feel about those calls, the reason the Chiefs handled Houston, 23-14, was because they played their NFL-record (at least since 1960) eighth straight game without committing a turnover and sacked Houston’s C.J. Stroud eight times.

It was because the Texans’ special teams were horrendous: They missed a field goal and an extra point and had another field-goal attempt blocked. They allowed a 63-yard kickoff return on the first play of the game, didn’t recover the fumble and committed an obvious unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to let the Chiefs start the game on the Houston 13-yard line.

They let Travis Kelce have his best game of the season, and they couldn’t stop a superhuman Mahomes touchdown pass when the Chiefs needed it most.

But sure, OK, it was because of the officiating.

And ... the script.

Look, no one is pretending officiating doesn’t matter and that there aren’t bad calls at times. Not to mention infinite 50-50 ones everyone sees through their own lens.

The Chiefs have some history themselves with bona fide bones of contention over postseason calls, from the bizarre interpretations of “forward progress” in the 22-21 loss to Tennessee in 2018 to the correct-but-costly Dee Ford offside call against New England.

Those were important plays.

But as a wise guy I know likes to say, it’s the ballad of the loser to harp on officiating.

Was then. Is now.

Speaking of those Patriots, I remember naively thinking along the way these last few years that these Chiefs wouldn’t incur the same sort of backlash that those teams did if they kept winning.

After all, there’s been no Deflategate or Spygate with the Chiefs. Reid is far more publicly amiable than the grim Bill Belichick was. And if you see Mahomes day-in and day-out you can only be compelled by his winsome ways as opposed to, well, wait, why don’t a lot of people like Tom Brady?

Maybe it’s really as simple as Mahomes put it during a training camp interview with The Kansas City Star before the 2023 season.

“It’s not as fun for other people to root for us because we’ve won so much recently …” he said. “No one likes when a team is winning a lot. I remember growing up, and I didn’t like the Patriots because they won all the time.

“Everybody wants change. They all want their opportunity to win.”

The Chiefs learned that five years ago. They’re learning it a whole new way now.

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