KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Some students at UPJV-Université de Picardie Jules Verne in northern France undoubtedly thought William Burrus was a madman when they’d hear him alternately cheering or barking angrily at his laptop during fall Sunday evenings.
Others, including Salim Belkacemi, were strangely drawn to it.
“I sort of dragged them in, because they were wondering why I was so tired on Monday and Tuesday mornings after primetime games that kickoff at 2:30 in the morning here," Burrus said. "In a way, I think that they thought I was a little too obsessed about this to not investigate for themselves."
Burrus is a Shawnee Mission East and University of Missouri-Kansas City graduate working toward a master’s degree in banking and finance at UPJV’s Amiens campus nearly 4,500 miles from home.
He’s also a diehard Kansas City Chiefs fan.
Studying for the last 18 months in Amiens has made keeping up with Patrick Mahomes and company a challenge at times.
“It’s hard,” Burrus said. “There are certain websites of varying degrees of legality, where I can find streams to watch. I just hope that they stay up long enough during the game that it doesn’t cut out when a Mahomes rocket is halfway to the receiver in mid-air.”
Burrus’ passion for the NFL and the Chiefs specifically has drawn Belkacemi, who is from Algeria, and three other students from Morocco — Sara Bougotaya, Loubna Ourahma and Mouad Souilk — to become fans as well.
He’s even come to consider it something akin to his “job to bring as many people to Chiefs Kingdom as possible,” Burrus joked. “But it’s been relatively easy, because there really aren’t many Americans in Amiens. I think I’ve met four total over the year and a half. If I say the Chiefs are cool, they sort of take my word for it.”
Belkacemi has long been fascinated by the western United States. He loves “cowboys and country music and all of that,” Burrus said.
But he didn’t know anything about football and never expected to become an NFL fan when he left his home in northern Africa to study in France.
“Not (for) a second — I can tell you that and assure you that,” Belkacemi said. “William was actually the first American I met here in France. I didn’t know anything at the time about football, so everything I know about football William taught me. But not a single second I was thinking I was going to become an NFL and football fan here in France.”
Now, catching a game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium is now on Belkacemi’s bucket list — and Burrus has an idea.
“I was telling my parents that we need to figure out a way Salim and Mouad and Loubna and Sara — my friends who have had to suffer through me going from being calm and collected to just screaming at my laptop — we need to figure out a way to get them to be collectively banging on the drum before the game starts (at Arrowhead),” said Burrus, who is interning in Paris this semester and plans to watch Super Bowl LVII at a dorm watch party.
“I know I have at least one ally,” Burrus said. “There’s a guy on my wing — interestingly, he was raised in Philadelphia, but his dad’s a big Giants fan, so he’s a Giants fan. He’s not really cheering for us. He’s cheering against the Eagles, but I’ll take the support.”
The Super Bowl kicks off after midnight in France, so Belkacemi, who is still in Amiens, plans to watch the game after he gets off work Sunday night.
“Maybe call William to watch it together — virtually watch it together,” he said.
It took a few months “to wash the (Cowboys fan) arrogance off of him, as my friend Caleb put it,” Burrus said, “but, in the end, we decided to let him in and to do the right thing.”
After all, there’s plenty of room in Chiefs Kingdom.
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