Neal: Don’t hate the Chiefs, emulate them

Vikings fans should be Chiefs fans on Sunday, and not because Kansas City’s barbecue is better than in the Twin Cities.

The Chiefs are a dynasty. It’s hard to root for a dynasty if it’s not your team, you say. Travis Kelce is over-commercialized, you say. Taylor Swift gets too much airtime during games, you say. The Chiefs are a cause you can’t get behind, you say.

I say the Chiefs are who the Vikings can emulate.

No NFL fan base has had more of a tortured existence than those who follow the Purple. But Kansas City was once a woebegone franchise as well. I was there to see it in person.

I worked for the Kansas City Star from 1989 to ’97. Steve DeBerg was the quarterback that first year, with a few appearances by the aging Ron Jaworski and Steve Pelluer. Remember when the Vikings turned to Brett Favre in 2009 in hopes he would lead them to the promised land? The Chiefs turned to Joe Montana in 1993 with the well-worn Marcus Allen in the backfield. The furthest they got was the 1993 AFC title game.

While my friends were tormented by not reaching a Super Bowl, head coach Marty Schottenheimer earned a reputation of being unable to win big games. They weren’t called the Chiefs around town, they were referred to as the Chefs.

Exit Montana, enter Steve Bono. Exit Bono, enter Elvis Grbac. Then Trent Green. There were a few Rich Gannon sightings in the late 1990s, too. The coaching carousel included Gunther Cunningham, Dick Vermeil, Herman Edwards, Todd Haley and Romeo Crennel.

And then it got fixed.

John Dorsey became the general manager. He hired Andy Reid, who had future head coaches in Doug Pederson, Brad Childress and Matt Nagy on his staff.

Kansas City has had 10-plus wins in 11 of Reid’s 12 seasons. No longer the Chefs, they are shooting for their third consecutive title, which would be a first in the Super Bowl era. They have played in a whopping seven consecutive conference championship games. Patrick Mahomes, the quarterbacking savant, hasn’t turned 30 yet. Their front office hits on players, over and over.

Let’s look at the Vikings. Favre didn’t take them to the promised land, and neither did Kirk Cousins. But they hired Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as GM, who hired his own offensive guru in Kevin O’Connell. KOC has coaches who have drawn interest from other organizations. Brian Flores will be a head coach again one day. Defensive backs coach Daronte Jones is highly thought of. Assistant quarterbacks coach Grant Udinski was hired away this past week to be Jacksonville’s offensive coordinator.

And quarterback J.J. McCarthy was forced to observe this season because of knee surgery. Mahomes appeared in one game his rookie season — then became the Tom Brady of this era.

My friends in Kansas City have not forgotten their pain and suffering through the ’90s. That Boulevard Beer they used to drown their sorrows with goes down more smoothly. Their Royals even won a World Series in 2015, which they feel was even more improbable than the three Lombardi Trophies on display at 1 Arrowhead Drive.

The Vikings are putting some pieces in place. Adofo-Mensah must draft better. But his free-agent signings clicked this season and he hired this year’s NFL Coach of the Year in O’Connell. KOC has won 13-plus games in two of this three seasons and is a Cousins injury away from going 3-for-3. He also knows how to put together a coaching staff, and he revitalized Sam Darnold’s career.

It looks like things are being fixed here.

You want Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell to continue to procure and develop talent. McCarthy doesn’t have to become the Mahomes of the NFC — which Vikings fans wouldn’t mind — but he simply has to maximize his talent. He appears to be in the right system to do so. Flores is back for at least another year as defensive coordinator. Even if they have to rebuild the secondary, B-Flo will find a way to make his unit effective.

So tune in Sunday, where Kansas City will make history by defeating Philadelphia in Super Bowl LIX. They have navigated through turbulent times to become the gold standard of the NFL. And they are showing the Vikings how it can be done.