KC Sports Replay: Chiefs trounce a rival, soccer teams make additions, Ol’ Roy returns
On Sunday night, the Chiefs will play host to Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the opening round of the NFL Playoffs
The Chiefs (12-5) are playing on Wild Card Weekend because, although they beat the Broncos in last weekend’s regular-season finale, the Tennessee Titans (12-5) also won. By virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Chiefs, the Titans thus claimed the first-weekend bye that’s given to the conference’s top seed.
It was a busy weekend across the Kansas City sports landscape. The KC Current hired a new head coach, Sporting KC announced the return of two big-name veterans and addition of several other players and former Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball coach Roy Williams took in a game in Lawrence for the first time in nearly two decades.
Chiefs beat Broncos again
Let’s start with this: The Chiefs flat-own own the Denver Broncos. Their win last Sunday in the Mile High City was Kansas City’s 13th straight over their divisional neighbor to the west.
The game was closer than it probably should’ve been for most of the afternoon, but quarterback Patrick Mahomes rushed for a 2-point conversion that gave the Chiefs a late lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Mahomes has never lost to the Broncos.
Zusi and Espinoza return
Two longtime Sporting KC fan favorites — defender Graham Zusi and midfielder Roger Espinoza, both 35 — re-signed with the club. But that wasn’t all that Sporting got done last week.
Sporting KC selected two defenders in Tuesday’s MLS SuperDraft: Esai Easley of Grand Canyon University and Brett St. Martin from the University of Maryland. And then, on Friday, the team announced the addition via permanent transfer of Belgian left-back Logan Ndenbe.
New coach for Current
The Kansas City Current of the National Women’s Soccer League hired a new head coach: former U.S. Women’s National Team assistant coach and U-23 head coach Matt Potter.
Potter, a 51-year-old Brit, also won national championships as a college coach with both Washington State and OU. His hiring follows the team’s introduction the previous week of new general manager Camille Levin. Potter succeeds former Current head coach Huw Williams, who in November transitioned to the team’s front office as director of soccer operations.
The Current are scheduled to open their preseason camp on Feb. 1.
Williams watches KU-ISU
Former KU hoops coach Roy Williams was in the house (Allen Fieldhouse, that is) for the first time since the 2002-03 season on Tuesday as the Jayhawks beat ranked Iowa State 62-61.
The hero? Dajuan Harris, whose driving layup with 7.1 seconds left kept Kansas from dropping back-to-back Big 12 games. The Jayhawks had lost 75-67 at Texas Tech the Saturday prior.
As assessed succinctly by Williams afterward: “Harris made a big-time shot.”
Royals still making news
We may be in the midst of an ongoing Major League Baseball lockout, but that didn’t stop the Royals from making some news.
On Thursday, the club announced the addition of 31-year-old Dominican free-agent reliever Arodys Vizcaíno, who most recently pitched in the big leagues for Atlanta in 2019 but had, more recently still, been with the Mets organization.
On Friday, the Royals unveiled their minor-league coaching staffs for 2022. Scott Thorman will manage in Omaha, Chris Widger at Northwest Arkansas, Brooks Conrad with Quad Cities, Tony Peña Jr. with the Columbia Fireflies and Omar Ramirez in Surprise, with the Surprise Royals. The Dominican Royals summer league teams will be led again by Ramón Martínez and Sergio De Luna.
