SHAWNEE, Kan. — As the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to face the Baltimore Ravens Sunday afternoon in the AFC Championship, some fans are preparing through a game of their own.
Electric football has been alive since the 1940s, and some fans still play it today as a way to celebrate football, the Chiefs, and their friendship.
The game is played on a metal table designed like a field with a wood frame, an electromagnetic motor that makes the field move, and little figurines painted into players.
It functions like vibrating chess.
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“We all got together online as the internet became more readily available, and we figured out that we wanted a group to get started to organize the sport," Chiefs superfan Lynn 'Weirdwolf' Schmidt said.
The game was originally played before video games or the internet, of course. But this group of fans prefers the in-person comradery over anything else.
“We come from so many different backgrounds, but this hobby allows us to tap into our inner child," said Kelley Newton, a two-time electric football national champion. "That inner kid, sometimes for a couple of hours, sometimes for half a day, sometimes for a whole weekend."
So while football brought them here, friendship is why they stayed.
“It’s cherishable, especially in this fast-paced world that we have," Newton said. "These little plastic figures, this metal field, brings us altogether to where we've had lifelong relationships already, and it hasn't even been a lifelong amount of time."
This hobby also takes a national scale. Kansas City is hosting the Electric Football Tournament of Champions this July.
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