KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs aren’t the only football dynasty in town.
For the fourth time in the USA Wheelchair Football League’s four years, the Kansas City Chiefs Wheelchair Football Team reached the championship game, which takes place Saturday in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.
The Chiefs Wheelchair Football Team lost the inaugural “Wheelchair Football Super Bowl” three years ago but won the title a year later in a rematch against the Los Angeles Rams Wheelchair Football Team.
Kansas City’s squad lost to the Cowboys Wheelchair Football Team during last year’s championship in Dallas, but the Chiefs hope to cap a perfect season against the Chicago Bears Wheelchair Football Team. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Kansas City Convention Center.
“From everybody outside of Kansas City, it's pretty annoying that they can't find another city to be good at football, whether it's in a chair or out of a chair,” quarterback Matt Bollig said.
Bollig, a native of Chanute in southeast Kansas, was a junior quarterback at Ottawa University when he lost the use of his legs in a weightlifting accident.
Now, he’s known as “the Patrick Mahomes of Wheelchair Football.”
“I think our team started it, to be honest with you,” Bollig said with a smile. “I think the Chiefs, we started and then it kind of took hold with everybody else.”
But it’s also fitting because of the swagger Bollig plays with and the fact the Chiefs Wheelchair Team never feels out of a game with him at QB.
“The things that he does, I can't even begin to imagine, to describe,” said Kolton Kincaid, who was paralyzed below the waist in a heavy-equipment accident 11 years ago. “He makes some plays sometimes that it's the same thing as when you watch Mahomes on TV — you know, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing? Don't do that.’ Then, all of a sudden, it works and you're like, ‘OK, I can't even complain.’”
Kincaid plays defensive back, wide receiver and offensive line. He also serves as director of Chiefs Wheelchair Football Team for Midwest Adaptive Sports.
“We've been down double digits before, and Matt's always the guy in the huddle to get everybody to calm down — ‘We've got this. Let's play our game,’” Kincaid said. “The next thing you know, it's a tie game, we take the lead and we pull out the win.”
After his injury, Kincaid gravitated to wheelchair basketball before discovering wheelchair football.
“It's very similar to wheelchair basketball in the aspect of how the chairs are played — the speed, the finesse aspect of it — but you get to add in a little bit more of that football aspect with the physicality,” he said. “We like to say rubbing is racing, so you're swapping paint, you're out there grinding away, you're out there absolutely just hitting each other as hard as you can, putting guys on the ground. It really adds a whole new physicality aspect to the game.”
Kincaid relished the chance to strap in and play football again.
“It brought me back into a team sports environment that, unfortunately, I wasn't able to play in prior to my injury due to concussions,” he said. “It's a great feeling, a great environment to get to be back in with my teammates.”
For Bollig, he’s the only former college quarterback in the USA Wheelchair Football League, which is funded through a joint grant from the NFL’s Salute to Service program and the Bob Woodruff Foundation.
The Chiefs Wheelchair Team is 9-0 this season, having won the two tournaments it entered to qualify for the championship game. Chicago won the other and the fourth was canceled with a hurricane battering Tampa, Florida.
Bollig, Kincaid and company are eager to vie for a title in front of their hometown fans.
“It's going to be amazing,” Bollig said. “The crowd, I assume, being Chiefs fans is gonna be pretty loud.”
Kincaid added, “It brings a ton of motivation. We have all of our family, all of our friends, all of our fans here supporting us in Kansas City.”
Registration to attend the game has closed, but additional fans could be accommodated if there are any no-shows.
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
