The Kansas City Chiefs are back-to-back Super Bowl Champions and are also leading the way in off-the-field issues. Whether it is the latest Isaiah Buggs news, the Rashee Rice car accident, the two offensive linemen arrested for marijuana possession, or even the Harrison Butker drama, the Chiefs have been in the news lately, and not for anything to do with football.
So why is this happening?
Kansas City is Very High in Crime Despite Lacking Extreme Poverty Areas
Typically, felonies occur where there is a lot of poverty. This truth is universal across just about every culture, country, religious belief, or government structure. In the U.S., when people think of poverty-stricken areas, cities such as New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, and Detroit are normally the first ones brought up. With that comes the assumption that there is high crime, and in many cases, there is.
Most of the time, there is a correlation between poverty and high misconduct, but Kansas City is an anomaly.
Kansas City ranks 57th in the nation among poverty rates in the U.S., around cities like Wichita, Kansas, and Forth Worth, Texas. Among NFL markets, Kansas City is 21st out of 30 NFL markets (LA and New York each have two teams).
Despite the low poverty rates, Kansas City ranks 6th in the nation among criminal acts per 1,000 people. The only two NFL markets ranked higher than Kansas City are Detroit and and Minneapolis, both areas with high poverty.
So what’s the deal?
NFL Players Have Money, Avoid Poverty Crimes
Of course, NFL players are very well off. They make millions of dollars, so it makes sense that cities with high-poverty areas would be far from where any NFL players live. For example, you won’t find many NFL players living near the poverty-stricken areas of San Francisco or in the Bronx of New York. But what about Kansas City?
Again, Kansas City ranks very low in poverty but very high in crime. This suggests one of two things: either the poverty areas are significantly higher in crime than anywhere else in the U.S, or crime is simply more common in Kansas City as a culture than anywhere else.
Having first-hand experience in Los Angeles and Detroit, I can almost guarantee that it’s more of a city culture issue than a small, poverty-stricken area, considering that the poverty areas in LA and Detroit can’t be that much worse.
With this unique combination of a high crime, low poverty area being the culture of Kansas City, it makes sense that players would have more off-the-field issues here than anywhere else.
Is There a Culture Issue With the Kansas City Chiefs?
There is also the question of whether or not the Chiefs as an organization have a culture issue that leads to more off-the-field problems. Sometimes, when players are winning or having success, they feel invincible or aren’t likely to be cut from a roster. After all, why would a starting player of any position feel like their position is in jeopardy when they just won a Super Bowl?
Could this lead to other areas of life? When players feel comfortable with their job security on the field, they feel more comfortable pushing the limits off the field.
The problem is, there isn’t a great case study on this. Winning back-to-back Super Bowls is rare, so comparing how other players reacted after winning two straight championships is tough.
All we know is that for some reason, it seems like there is some kind of off-the-field issue in the NFL every other week, and lately, it has been with Kansas City.
