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Arrowhead: 'An all-out hellhole'

Unbeaten Patriots to test Chiefs' home advantage

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Posted: Tuesday October 05, 1999 05:41 PM

Chief concern: The unbeaten Patriots could have their hands full with Rashaan Shehee and the unruly fans at Arrowhead. Allsport

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Every week the Kansas City Chiefs are home, visiting writers do stories on Arrowhead Stadium -- the sellout crowds, the deafening noise, the tailgaters filling the air with intoxicating aromas of barbecued meats.

The Chiefs figure their home off Interstate-70, which seats nearly 80,000 and shares the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex with baseball's Kauffman Stadium, is the toughest road game in the league.

"It gets so loud," guard Dave Szott says, "that you can feel the contact when you crash into somebody. But you can't hear the contact."

Once again, the Chiefs (2-2) are off to a flying start at home. They've beaten Denver and then-unbeaten Detroit while losing both road games, at Chicago and San Diego.

If only the Chiefs could arrange to play every game in Arrowhead.

"Kansas City has no idea what it has," said head coach Gunther Cunningham. "In my mind, it's the football capital of this country. This is an all-out hellhole to come into."

The Chiefs will host New England, the only 4-0 team in the NFL, this Sunday before the 71st consecutive sellout. Going into this season, only San Francisco had a better regular-regular season home winning percentage since 1990 than the Chiefs' 59-13.

Arrowhead has led the NFL in attendance every year since 1994.

Cunningham, who spent the past four years as the Chiefs' defensive coordinator, first visited Arrowhead as an assistant with the Los Angeles Raiders and the San Diego Chargers.

While with the Raiders in 1992, he smashed his headset in the pressbox.

"I smashed it on the table, walked out five minutes before the game was over," he said. "I could not hear myself think. We're screaming back and forth."

It's always funny, Cunningham said, when the Chiefs get a player who played his college ball at Nebraska. Like the Cornhuskers, the Chiefs' home color is red. But nowhere in football does a crowd present such an ocean of red-clad fans.

"The Nebraska kids walk out on that field and they're shocked."

One reason for the Chiefs' Arrowhead advantage is the configuration of the stadium. It's completely enclosed, giving the noise nowhere to escape. False start calls on the offense are common as linemen strain to hear their quarterback's snap count.

"I've been in some great games on both sides of the ball in this stadium," Cunningham said. "You can take all the rest of the stadiums in the United States. There will be no equal to this one in the NFL. They all try to emulate it. They all want to have their tailgates. They all want to do what Arrowhead does. But nobody does it like this. It isn't even close.

"It's not as though Arrowhead's the only challenging place to play," Cunningham added. "Oakland's a tough place. You just have to duck," he said. "I remember in 1995, going through the end zone ... batteries were flying over my head. At Arrowhead, the fans are tough but they respect the game."

 

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