Kansas City - 30, Houston - 24
CLARK HUNT: First of all, I want to congratulate Coach Reid, his staff, and all the players on a hard fought victory today. We ended up clinching the division for the seventh year in a row. That's really quite an accomplishment, very hard to do in the National Football League.
And it's a testament to the hard work of Andy, BretT, and their staffs for putting together a team that has a lot of players who's able to come out and get that done today.
However, the team recognizes that we've just given ourselves an opportunity. The most important football is in front of us. We've got some important regular season games over the next three weeks, and then the opportunity in the playoffs to hopefully get back to the Super Bowl.
Q. Obviously seven in a row doesn't get old to you, but what's it say about the stability in how you have your organization with Andy and Brett and Mark Donovan, trickling down to where this kind of success is what it is?
CLARK HUNT: I think one of the most difficult things in the National Football League is consistent success. The rules are designed to make that difficult, whether it's the draft or the salary cap. So it's a real testament to the job that General Manager Brett Veach and Coach Reid have done over the last several years.
We obviously have a bunch of young players and we've got some new players, and Andy and his staff have done a tremendous job of incorporating them into the team. That's just part of the National Football League, and they've really done a fantastic job, and I couldn't be more proud of them.
Q. Is there anything about this title that stands out to you from the others?
CLARK HUNT: Well, every one of them is special, and you certainly enjoy clinching this early, but as I said, there's a lot of football ahead of us. We've got to make sure we stay focused starting with the Seahawks on Saturday. We need to bear down these last three weeks, hopefully get some home field advantage in the playoffs because that's important.
Then the other thing that really stands out about this year is the number of young players. We heard Coach talk a little bit about their contributions. It's difficult when you have as many rookies as we do to get them to play at a high level on a week-to-week basis. I think Coach Reid and his staff have done a tremendous job this year.
Q. What about the way the other AFC West teams seemed to come after you this year. In the off-season, loaded up all three teams really. Does that make this one any different or make it stand out?
CLARK HUNT: I think that's true every year, whether it's the AFC West or just the other teams in the AFC. They're going to focus on trying to knock off the reigning champion. It feels like every week when we come out that it's a Super Bowl for the team that we're playing. The game's that important. We're going to see their best.
I think that was certainly true of the Texans today. My hat goes off to them. They gave us all we could handle today.
That's true on a week-to-week basis, same thing with Denver last week, and I'm sure Seattle will be of a similar mindset when we get there on Saturday.
Q. You had a sea of red out there today. That was almost like a home game for you, wasn't it?
CLARK HUNT: Yeah, I just can't say enough about what a great fan base we have. I know many of them took the opportunity, as we approach the holidays, to travel down here to Houston. We had a bunch of fans out there. You heard it in the national anthem and then throughout the game.
Our fans are a big part of our success, whether we're at home or whether we're on the road. We really have a tremendous fan base. The Chiefs kingdom is very broad.
Q. Clark, this is Patrick's sixth season. I just wonder this year, this type of a team, do you notice anything that makes you marvel more?
CLARK HUNT: Well, I think you can see that he's maturing as a player. He came into the league as a remarkably mature young man, and the responsibility that he had coming right out of college was tremendous, and he handled it well.
But his game's evolved as we've moved on in his career. Certainly there were some question marks about the offense this year, given the changes that we had at the receiver position, and I think he's showed that he is the best quarterback in the National Football League, and he's continued to adapt his game to be able to win and put up impressive numbers on a weekly basis.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports