RICHARDSON (CBSNewsTexas.com) – Is America’s team even DFW’s favorite NFL team anymore?
The NFL season kicked off Thursday night with a game featuring the Kansas City Chiefs, whose fan base is starting to get a significant foothold right in the middle of Cowboy country as CBS News Texas’ J.D. Miles discovered.
The tailgating started hours before the game, outside Wizards Sports Cafe in Richardson.
“We come out here for every Chiefs game,” said Chiefs fan Jamar Sawyer.
The Chiefs have one of the fastest growing fan bases in pro sports and with strong Texas ties from the team’s owners to the star quarterback, it’s luring away some former Dallas Cowboys fans like April Brown.
“I’m from Tyler and that’s where Patrick is from,” Brown said. “I went from casual watching to a full on Chiefs fan.”
There’s even the recently opened Arrowhead Sports Grill in Plano that’s named after the Chiefs’ stadium.
“Oh for sure we’re taking over, especially here, we have Dallas roots,” said Chiefs fan Carlos Lavat. “You know the owner Clark Hunt, he went to SMU.”
An analysis of NFL ticket data back in May by Vivid Seats found that the Chiefs actually edged out the Cowboys as the most popular pro football franchise by county across the U.S.
“It’s the fan base, they’re all good people it’s not like I wanna say, Eagles fans are a bit rude, aggressive, Chiefs fans invite people in,” said Arrowhead Sports Grill manager Shane Dunn.
The Chiefs were originally the Dallas Texans. The Hunt family has brought its Super Bowl trophies from two of the last four years back to North Texas to show off.
The Chiefs Kingdom seems to be working hard to win over frustrated Cowboys fans on their home turf.
Of course, winning super bowls play a big role in growing a fan base which is what the Cowboys hope to do at the end of this season.
