DE Shaun Smith has mentioned a few times this year that the Kansas City Chiefs are underdogs and it's just fine by him. Small market, not a very good team recently and not many marquee players entering the season is the reason the Chiefs aren't on ESPN very often. In fact, the Chiefs had the lowest preseason Super Bowl odds -- by a long shot -- of any current playoff team.
Now the Chiefs are hosting the Baltimore Ravens at Arrowhead Stadium as AFC West champs...but they're still the underdog.
"We've been [underdogs] all year," Smith told a horde of reporters in the Chiefs locker room following practice on Wednesday. "I'm used to that now. It's nothing new. I like being the underdog because they usually come out on top. Everybody's not counting us [and] people are still not talking about us.
"I'm surprised we have this much media attention this week but it's the playoffs and you got nothin' else to cover. Being the underdog is fine. We live through all the hoopla. What matters is at the end of the game, who's up."
I like this attitude and I'm sure Todd Haley's used this as a motivating tool. This isn't the first time Shaun Smith hsa talked about being the underdog. I think he's one of those guys (like me in my short-lived grade school athletic career) that thrive off of that attitude.
There's also really no other attitude to have. It probably won't be until the next year or two before people really start to realize what the Chiefs have going (assuming it continues to go in the next year or two). And even then you're still a small market.
"All year you have people that jump on the wagon, jump on and jump off. Those that have been on the bandwagon all year know what type of team you're going to get -- a team that's going to play hard and fight to the end."
I did blow it not asking Shaun Smith one question -- how many touchdowns will he score?