How a childhood dream became a reality
Growing up a fan of Kansas City sports influenced a life and a career
by Matt Derrick
Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for me, not just as a football writer but also as a sports enthusiast in Kansas City.
The launch of KC Sports Network is the beginning of a bold adventure. The media landscape is ever-changing, and most of the time as readers, viewers and listeners we're just trying to keep up with the latest developments and the most interesting stories. Finding exactly what we want to know and need to know from people we trust is demanding.
We're aiming to make that much easier at KC Sports Network, and we're starting with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Our creator and partner BJ Kissel has assembled an amazing opening day roster of talent dedicated to providing daily coverage of the Chiefs. The KC Laboratory podcast features the talented crew of Kent Swanson, Craig Stout and Matt Lane diving deep inside the minutiae of Chiefs football. Outside the Trenches with BJ Kissel and former NFL lineman Nick Leckey will continue to take you inside Chiefs postgame as well as deliver insight from outstanding guests.
We're also excited to have former Chiefs players Jeff Allen and Mike DeVito joining the squad for a brand new podcast dedicated to covering the club and the NFL. I have the privilege of serving as editorial director and Chiefs beat writer working to cover this team better than anyone else around.
The start of this venture takes me back to when I decided I wanted to be a sportswriter. I wrote my first sports story when I was nine years old, assigning myself to cover Super Bowl XV between the Oakland Raiders and the Philadelphia Eagles. I kept track of stats and big plays during the game then wrote my story on deadline (bedtime, of course) and read the report to my family (perhaps foreshadowing the future of podcasting).
But it was a year earlier when sports truly became the center of my life. When I was eight years old, the United States won the Olympic gold medal in hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics. George Brett chased .400 and my mom took me to Kansas City for my first Royals game. I also began collecting sports trading cards. The first set I collected was the 1979 Topps football set. I have all the Chiefs from the season, as dutifully marked off on the team checklist card.
(Let me be “the old man yelling at cloud” for a moment and say that NFTs and trading cards of today can't touch football cards of the 1970s. Those cards are oozing with greatness. Just look at them. Every one of these players looks like they could jump off the cardboard and make a play right now.)
That was also the year my mom bought me a scrapbook and encouraged me to clip from newspapers my favorite stories and photos. The pages of that scrapbook are filled with Chiefs news, Royals stories, Star Wars memorabilia and other souvenirs. Below is the first Chiefs story I clipped from the Springfield News-Leader, featuring an Associated Press story by Doug Tucker. I still remember sitting at my grandparent's dining table in the kitchen clipping out that picture of Ted McKnight hurdling a Seahawks defender because I thought it was so cool.
Many dreams include detours along the way, and so does my journey. Shortly after graduating from Missouri with my journalism degree, I began dating a wonderful woman named Nancy and decided I didn't want to leave Kansas City to start a journalism career (spoiler: We're still together!). I eventually landed in public relations. One of my last PR jobs was at Time Warner Cable, where I met Herbie Teope, who developed “Fantasy Huddle,” a fantasy football show syndicated to cable systems across the country. We worked together promoting the show, and when Herbie launched ChiefsDigest.com, I was there at the beginning setting up the website and later writing content. When Herbie left Kansas City (briefly, as it turns out), I took over as beat writer for ChiefsDigest.com and The Topeka-Capital Journal in 2016.
Growing up in Springfield, Mo., I watched every Chiefs game I could on TV. I remember the Chiefs falling 3-0 to Tampa Bay in the 1979 season finale. In 1982 my favorite Chiefs was the late Joe Delaney. I saw Stephone Paige go off on San Diego for an NFL record 309 passing yards. In 1990 I watched Derrick Thomas collect seven sacks against Seattle and narrowly miss No. 8. On my birthday in 1991, the Chiefs routed the Buffalo Bills 33-6 on Monday Night Football. When playing Tecmo Super Bowl in my college dorm, I always chose Christian Okoye over Bo Jackson.
Now I'm watching Patrick Mahomes take the Chiefs to Super Bowls. I'm seeing Travis Kelce rewrite record books. On my birthday in 2018, I watched the Chiefs rollover Jacksonville 30-14 from the Arrowhead Stadium press box. When I play Madden football, it's Tyreek Hill who can't be tackled. Serving as a beat reporter is different than being a fan. You must set aside biases and remain objective — “there’s no cheering in the press box,” as any sports reporting pro will tell you. But this is still an amazing job.
Now it's my job – the job of everyone here at KC Sports Network – to create lasting memories for Kansas City fans. I hope you have as much fun following along as we do in providing the coverage. Everyone who is a part of this team has a deep passion not just for the job but for our duty to bring you inside the game.
We believe this is the future of sports media.