LENEXA, Kan. — The energy of Chiefs fans for the first game of the season is like no other.
"If there's a game you don't want to miss — it's the home opener," said Jim Waechter, a season ticket holder.
Jim Waechter can say he's a die-hard Chiefs fans partially because he can rattle off all the players from the New Orleans Superbowl team by name.
He grew up with the Chiefs and his family was there for a lot of firsts, starting with being season ticket holders since Arrowhead Stadium opened.
"That's a long history of going to football games," he said.
When he says a long time, he means decades of games even back in the original Municipal Stadium.
"I've lost track," Waechter said. "I've been going since I was wee-high."
The man who started it all had quite the reputation in the stands.
"My dad watched the game and made the call before they threw the flags," Waecther said.
A seat in the stands wasn't enough, so the Waechters decided to bring a couple of them home.
"All four of us either sat in seat 12 and 13," he said.
There's been one person missing from those seats for a while now. When you go through seasons with your team, sometimes that means seasons of life too.
"My dad he passed in 2019 and he hasn't gotten to see the last two super bowls," Waecther said.
His son thinks he would've only been proud to see they've kept the tradition going and it's being noticed. Last week, the family got the 55-year football in the mail.
"It's a little like,55 years — wow," he said.
If his dad could see his Chiefs now, he knows exactly how the conversation would go.
"I’d say, 'Dad, can you believe it? Look at the Chiefs now. All those years and they had the good years and the bad years. Can you believe the Chiefs are the champs? The Super Bowl champs?" Waecther said.
His father's response would be: "The rats, yeah we got it. Yeah, we got this, we got this. Let's keep it going. That would be my dad. He really admired Hank Stram, so he'd probably say the rats because Hank Stram used to call everyone a rat — 'Ya dirty rat'."
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