At Super Bowl watch parties, superstitions and faith that the Chiefs would come through

Like a lot of Chiefs fans, Amy Blickhan believes in superstitions.

For every post season game, she’s woken up early and saved the same table at Maloney’s Sports Bar & Grill in Overland Park for her family and friends. On Sunday, she and a friend got there around 10:30 a.m. when doors opened and talked with other bar regulars to pass the time until kickoff.

Before the second half of the Super Bowl, Blickhan turned her Chiefs hat backwards. She thinks the move might have helped the team secure a lead in the fourth quarter.

When the Eagles later scored and tied the game 35-35, Blickhan thought it might have been because she switched spots at her table to speak to a reporter with The Star.

Throughout the second half, Blickhan and other fans packed into Maloney’s cheered and high fived as Kansas City made big scoring drives to take a second half lead.

If there’s one thing she’s learned as a Chiefs fan, Blickhan said it’s that you have to hold onto hope until the end.

“As long as there’s time on the clock,” she said, “you don’t give up.”

Sunday’s game showed why, as the Chiefs won on a field goal with just seconds to play.

Singing and dancing to Rihanna

At least 100 fans packed into multiple rooms at The Combine, 2999 Troost Ave., where they danced to songs during commercial breaks, even when their team was down.

Dwayne Miller, who comes to The Combine for every Chiefs game, sports a different hat each time. He owns around 400 hats, and at least 50 of them have a Chiefs insignia.

Tia Harris said she didn’t plan to go out for the Super Bowl, but at The Combine she danced and sang with family and friends to Rihanna’s hits like “Diamonds” and “Wild Thoughts.”

“I love her. I’m a fan,” Harris said of the halftime performer. “She played every hit song she had. Every song in her catalog, and I loved it.”

‘Chiefs. Rihanna. What more could you ask for?’

Sophie Genovese, Jane Gray and their friends come to Woody’s, an LGBTQ bar in Kansas City, a lot to watch the Chiefs play.

After Kansas City scored a touchdown in the first quarter of Sunday’s Super Bowl, Gray and Genovese threw back some complimentary shots from the bar.

“It’s like the perfect Super Bowl,” Genovese said. “Chiefs. Rihanna. What more could you ask for?”

Shauntoray Grisby drove from Wichita to spend the weekend with her sister Essence Belton and watch the game at Woody’s.

As kids, their uncle taught them to love football. Now that he’s passed, they watch Kansas City play to feel like he’s there with them.

The sisters showed up 90 minutes early to the watch party and got “the best seats in the house,” right next to a TV.

Chris Desert also came to Woody’s with one of his friends. Neither of them pay much attention to football, but they wanted to come out for the biggest game of the year.

“It’s more about coming together than anything,” he said.

Kansas City proud

Across the metro area, fans filtered into bars and clubs to watch the Chiefs take on the Eagles.

For the first time, Dayonne Richardson came to catch the game at The Blakk Co., a social club in Kansas City.

In past years, the third- and fourth-grade teacher at Hogan Preparatory Academy made lesson plans while surrounded by friends watching the Super Bowl. But with Valentine’s Day and a possible day off for Kansas City Public Schools on Wednesday if the Chiefs won, Richardson said she had time to relax this time.

Richardson doesn’t follow football much, but she watched in honor of her grandfather Jim Kearney, who won a Super Bowl with Kansas City in 1969. Her family watches in separate places, but when the team brings home a win, they always call Kearney.

Last week, Richardson had her students vote on who they thought would win the game. Three kids voted for the Eagles, but everyone else thought the Chiefs would win and were excited for the victory parade.

“They’re proud of their city,” she said.

Joy Williams also came to The Blakk Co. to cheer for the Chiefs. When Kansas City played in past Super Bowls, she said it brought the city together like nothing else. Fans wave to anyone wearing red and yellow, and everyone buys each other drinks.

“It was like no one was a stranger,” Williams said.

Standing on their seats

Back at Maloney’s, a field goal in the final seconds of the game brought the crowd to its feet as fans cheered for another Super Bowl victory in Kansas City. The crowd screamed and high-fived as “Red Kingdom” played through the sports bar.

Clayton Harrison and his friends were some of the fans who stood on their seats in the game’s tense final moments. Watching Kansas City play so well with Patrick Mahomes the last few years, he said, has felt like a blessing.

“It’s just so fun to watch a team that comes together,” he said, “and plays their hearts out for themselves and their city.”