The Kansas City Chiefs were consistently knocking on the door of postseason success in the late ’90s, but they were stalled by an AFC West rival. The division rival was usually the John Elway-led Denver Broncos, who won consecutive Super Bowl titles during that period.
Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. recently sat down with Vaughn W. Hebron to reflect on his father’s time with the Broncos during the late ’90s battles with the Chiefs. He also shared how his dad’s career helped inspire him to pursue a professional football career.
“I don’t know how you can be a son of a football player, an NFL player who’s won the Super Bowl twice, and not grow up thinking like you’re going to be in the league,” said Hebron. “You’re gonna be an athlete to that caliber, you know, so definitely when I was younger, Pop Warner, JV, Varsity all day, even through college. I had NFL aspirations. I wanted to be just like my dad. So he played a huge part in inspiring me and molding, like, the type of dreams I had when it came to football. You know, obviously, when you get to college, you start being a little more realistic and figuring out, okay, do I really want to do this? This is really something possible for me. And obviously, my path took a different turn. But, yeah, throughout my childhood and throughout high school, I definitely had a lot of inspiration from my father.”
Wasn’t able to get around family for the holiday, but I did hang with my father this season. And I give thanks for that! (SN: we’re 20 years apart and I’m a #90sbaby so y’all can stop asking if I’m 50 🙄😂) #happythanksgiving #happyturkeyday #vhs #vh1 #vh2 #thehebrons pic.twitter.com/Z48tWV9YmF
— Vaughn W. Hebron (@vheb_official) November 24, 2022
Hebron Sr. played three of his five NFL seasons with the Broncos, helping them win back-to-back Super Bowl titles in 1997 and 1998. The Chiefs fell short to Hebron and the eventual champion Broncos during the 1997 divisional round 14-10. Hebron had two kick returns for 51 yards during that game.
According to his son, Kansas City was always a tough and well-respected opponent.
“He would always say it was just a hard game when it came to (the Chiefs). It was just a hard game,” said Hebron. “It was one of those gridiron games for them like it’s gonna come down to the wire. You know that with y’all, it’s gonna be a dogfight. So that’s really the things that he’s telling me about the Chiefs when it came to playing them like it was gonna be a dogfight. It’s gonna come down to the wire, no matter how much you plan. We’ve got to adjust to them because they always got weapons. They were a sound team. He was playing in 1997-1998. They were fundamentally sound; they were very close very well. And so were the Broncos, so it was really like, who wants it more? It’s gonna be a dogfight. So that’s why I specifically remember him talking about that being the experience with them.”
In 1997, the Chiefs were 13-3 in the regular season finishing as the AFC’s top seed before falling to Denver. In 1998, again under head coach Marty Schottenheimer, the Chiefs missed the postseason with a disappointing 7-9 record with Elvis Grbac at quarterback. Kansas City was 1-3 during the regular season matchups with the eventual Super Bowl champion Broncos.
