Kyle Long inadvertently touches off new clash in border war

For Kansas City Chiefs offensive lineman Kyle Long, it started innocently enough...

Among the many hundreds of responses was a retweet featuring his original tweet — and Long felt compelled to explain further.

Things were getting out of hand quickly.

Then, Long tried his best to understand.

And finally... threw in the towel.

But after time to reflect and learn — not to mention a couple of mornings working out at Arrowhead — Long tried a different tack.

Then he asked the all-important question...

And got an answer from someone who is now one of the most important people in his life.

Long is hardly the first member of the Chiefs to unexpectedly stumble into the Missouri-Kansas Border War (known by some partisans as the “Kansas-Missouri Border War”). One of the respondents to his original tweet noted a previous incident.

It’s hard for those from outside the area to fully understand.

With its roots in the time before the Civil War, the Border War goes back far beyond the memory of anyone now living. And it’s made worse by the remarks of poorly informed TV announcers and touring musicians who never seem to realize that the metropolitan Kansas City area is bisected by the border between two states — not to mention a certain series of college football and basketball games, along with perceptions that drivers in one state are worse than those in the other. (And no... I’m not going to weigh in on that — except to say that I have lived on both sides of the state line and drove exactly the same way whether my license plate was from Missouri or Kansas).

Welcome to Kansas City, Mr. Long!