The Chiefs Multiverse: How Tom Brady’s Knee Gave Kansas City Patrick Mahomes
When Bernard Pollard dove into Tom Brady’s leg in the first game of the 2008 season, it was the first tangible domino in a series of events that eventually led the Chiefs to drafting Patrick Mahomes and becoming Super Bowl 54 champions.
No, seriously. Stick with me here.
If you’re reading this, you’re a Chiefs fan, so you know the story. The Chiefs ironically dug their own Matt Cassel-sized hole to claw out of the moment Pollard’s helmet met Brady’s knee. Cassel was bad, then he was okay for a second, then everything got a lot worse. The Chiefs hired Andy Reid, and seven years later they’re champions.
But what if Pollard just hits Brady flush in the chest? What would the Chiefs’ fate be heading into the 2020 season? Fortunately, in my two months of combined furlough and self-isolation, I’ve discovered how to peek outside our own universe to find the answers to these questions that are very important, pressing, and not-at-all brought on by the crushing loneliness of quarantine.
First of all, obviously the Patriots win Super Bowl 43. “11-5 with Matt Cassel” translates pretty exactly to “Super Bowl champs with Tom Brady”. So, yeah. Seven rings for Brady and Belichick. I’m sorry. It’s only going to get worse.
But let’s turn our focus back to the Chiefs. After the loss in New England, the 2008 season plays out exactly the same. 2-14, Herm Edwards fired, Todd Haley hired. Unaffected during the regular season by the Brady injury in the NFC, Haley’s Cardinals still make it to the Super Bowl and still lose. So Haley is still in. Scott Pioli is also still in as GM. Cassel, of course, isn’t in at QB.
Cassel never plays during the 2008 season, so the big Matt Cassel Sweepstakes never happen and the Chiefs never have a chance to be the lucky winners.
There weren’t a lot of options at QB in the free-agent market that offseason, so after failing to court Brett Favre, the Chiefs were left having to find a Quarterback of the Future in the 2009 NFL Draft.
The 2008 NFL season was a bad year to suck. 2-14 was only bad enough for the third overall pick in the draft. The Chiefs, in true Chiefs fashion, chose to hit their Rock Bottom Part One in the same year the Lions went 0-16. The Chiefs couldn’t even lose right.
In desperate need of a QB, the Chiefs turn to Mark Sanchez with their first-round pick in 2009. Again, I know, it’s bad. Please know, I am sorry.
The Sanchize lands in KC and everything is really bad, really fast. Removed from the New York market, Sanchez doesn’t face the constant media circus he did in our reality. Removed from existing on a team with Rex Ryan’s defense, however, also means he doesn’t experience any of the failing-upwards he did with the Jets, going to back-to-back AFC Championship games in 2009-2010 on a combined passer rating of 70.2.
The Chiefs' defense of the Cassel era wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t the Jets’. Without an all-world defensive effort to carry him, the Sanchize collapses almost immediately.
The team wasn’t particularly talented in 2008, so the immense struggles of 2009-2010 get chalked up to growing pains. The bottom falls out for the Chiefs in 2011, though, as they hit Rock Bottom Part Two one year earlier than the Chiefs we know did. They go 3-13 and are saddled once again with the third overall pick, stuck behind the Rams and Colts. Clark Hunt clean-slates the coaching staff but keeps Pioli around.
Looking to bring some “stability” to the franchise with a known-quantity coach who “has been there before” and “knows how to win”, Hunt hires — wait for it — Jeff Fisher in 2012. Look, I only report what is happening in these other realities. I do not control the fates. I cannot help how bad this gets.
Leading up to the 2012 Draft, it’s pretty much a given at this point that the Sanchez Experience in KC is over, so the Chiefs trade up one spot with the Rams to secure their ability to select Robert Griffin III.
Much like in the world we know, RGIII is initially a revolution. The Chiefs finally experience a winning season, becoming a 10-6 Wild Card team in 2012 on the strength of RGIII’s electric play catching the NFL by surprise. Injuries become an early concern for RGIII, though, and after 2012, he’ll never play another full season in KC.
Fisher’s Fisher-ness and a parade of competent journeymen, backups, and journeymen backups keep the Chiefs from hitting rock bottom again, though. For the next five seasons, the team hovers between 7-9 and 9-7, but doesn’t again reach the playoffs.
Meanwhile, in 2013, the Arizona Cardinals hire Andy Reid, who along with new GM John Dorsey, immediately trade for Alex Smith. While it doesn’t seem wise for the 49ers to trade Smith within their division, the 49ers of this era aren’t known for wisdom.
The Cardinals experience an immediate turnaround. They are perennial Super Bowl contenders, but never quite get over the hump. The Smith v. Kaepernick battles are classics, with them trading wins until the 49ers stupidly blow up the Harbaugh regime and attempt to retool. Even after the 49ers manage to kill their own momentum, the Cardinals can’t quite get past Russell Wilson and the Seahawks.
In 2016, the Chiefs go 7-9 with Sam Bradford at quarterback. Fisher is feeling good about Bradford’s consistent-but-unexciting play, so the Chiefs trade out of their #10 overall draft spot with the Cardinals to stockpile picks and “retool other areas of need”. The Cardinals take Texas Tech gunslinger Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs use the 27th overall pick they got from Arizona to select Michigan DE Taco Charlton.
Bradford’s 2017 begins promising, but is cut short when it’s revealed he needs season-ending knee surgery. The Chiefs start 2-0, and attempt to keep the ship afloat. They can only manage a 5-11 finish behind their recently-acquired journeyman backup Matt Cassel.
Hunt decides it’s finally time to clean house again, firing both Pioli and Fisher before the end of the season. The Cardinals surprisingly parted ways with GM John Dorsey in the summer of 2017, installing Brett Veach to replace him. Hunt announces Dorsey as KC’s new GM soon after firing Pioli.
Hunt and Dorsey bring in Reid protégé Matt Nagy to be the Chiefs’ new head coach. Nagy helped orchestrate Alex Smith’s finest season as a Cardinal, and KC wants some of that new-wave offense. Almost immediately after the announcement of Nagy’s hire comes a trade for Smith. The Chiefs have two first-round picks, the eighth from their 5-11 finish and the 22nd from the Cardinals’ trade-up for Mahomes. They use these picks to add Georgia LB Roquan Smith and Alabama WR Calvin Ridley.
The Nagy/Smith marriage is immediately successful enough to go 11-5 and win the AFC West in 2018, but doesn’t provide anything in the way of playoff success. Smith never plays for Washington, so he never breaks his leg and I don’t ever have to see those photos. Meanwhile, in the NFC, Reid and Mahomes ride a 50 TD/5,000 yard season all the way to the Super Bowl, where they defeat New England.
In the first round of the 2019 Draft, the Chiefs pick up Oklahoma WR Marquise Brown. They, with the rest of the league, are playing catch-up with the Cardinals’ unique brand of speed. In Chicago, the Bears hire Kliff Kingsbury, who pulls the plug on Mitchell Trubisky and drafts Kyler Murray.
Another year under Nagy sees the Chiefs jump to 12-4 and make it all the way to the AFC Championship, where they ultimately fall to the Titans. The Titans’ Cinderella run is vanquished by the Cardinals, who repeat as champs in 2019.
After watching the Cardinals become an unstoppable powerhouse, Tom Brady opts to stay in the AFC and signs with the Los Angeles Chargers, immediately making them pre-season favorites to win the AFC West, which is something completely foreign to this universe.
As we enter the 2020 season, the Cardinals are primed to three-peat, the Bears have Murray, the Chargers have Brady, and the Chiefs’ starting quarterback is Alex Smith. Chiefs fans continue to watch their team make the playoffs and lose, as the quarterback they didn’t select devours worlds. Instead of a new dynasty, the 2020s Chiefs are the answer to the trivia question “What dumb team traded away the chance to draft Patrick Mahomes?”
So next time you see Bernard Pollard, thank him for the Super Bowl.
