Report: The Chiefs equipment has arrived (UPDATED)

UPDATE 1:28 p.m. Arrowhead Time: According to a report from friend-of-the-site Matt Derrick of Chiefs Digest, the team’s missing equipment has arrived in Foxborough, and will be in the hands of the team shortly.

Derrick also reported that the airline may have some responsibility in this mess — and the problem would have been discovered earlier if there hadn’t been a game being played in Gillette Stadium on Saturday night.

And CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson provided some visual evidence.

The Kansas City Chiefs have arrived in Foxborough, Massachusetts for Sunday’s critical AFC matchup with the New England Patriots.

But according to a report from ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter, a significant part of the team’s equipment — said to be shoulder pads, helmets and footballs for up to 35 of the team’s players — is not in Foxborough.

In a twist that will be familiar to regular air travelers, the missing equipment apparently ended up in New Jersey instead of New England. In this case, however, the report says it isn’t the fault of airline employees who simply routed luggage to the wrong plane. It appears that the missing equipment arrived at the right destination, but was all in a container that the team itself failed to remove from the plane.

The missing container is now being rushed to Foxborough, where it is expected to arrive between 2 and 2:30 p.m. Arrowhead Time, which should be in time for the team to be ready for the 3:25 p.m. kickoff.

It does, however, raise the question of how — potentially without the use of some of its equipment — the team will be able to do their pre-game warmups in the usual way. In addition, a source has told Schefter that if the container arrives later than expected — that is, if it doesn’t arrive in time for the Chiefs to be ready to be play by 3:25 p.m. — there is the possibility Kansas City would have to forfeit the game.

Such an extreme outcome would be nearly unprecedented. In its history, the NFL has never had a team forfeit a game — although there was a game in 1921 that some historians have characterized as a forfeited game.