When I moved to Kansas City, a friend from my old neighborhood called to ask whether Chiefs home games lived up to the hype.
Admittedly, the Arrowhead Stadium game-day experience is a thrilling one. The fans in Kansas City are loyal to their team, and their parking-lot tailgates are legendary. Wood-fired Kansas City barbecue, swimming in their signature peppery-yet-sugary-sweet sauce is the featured food of choice. Even though it gets cold, the sun always shines in Missouri, there's not much traffic and the 86-year-old Bill Grigsby, longtime voice of the Chiefs, can be heard from the car radios, shilling everything from steak seasoning to home heating during the commercial breaks. Everyone wears red, everyone drives an American car or truck and everyone drinks American beer (much of it locally brewed at the outstanding Boulevard Brewery).
And, you know, the Chiefs have a history of winning at home, with an all-time record of 104-41 as of this writing. And Arrowhead has the record for consecutive sell-outs at home with 150 games. That's 17 full seasons, home slice.
Still, my answer to my friend was, "Yes, but ..." For how can I say that the fans in Green Bay and Minnesota (also great tailgaters with their brat-heavy diet), New York (traditional hot dogs, cheeseburger and Italian sausage fare -- but with much better bread), Buffalo (wings, yes ... but ever have a salty beef on weck?), Pittsburgh (where they wave towels and put French fries on their sandwiches), Baltimore (pit beef and the odd crab feast now and again), Washington, Denver, Oakland, Dallas ... how can I really say that those fans aren't just as enthusiastic? (Chicago and Philadelphia also bring the noise, but their tailgate scenes are eclipsed by the pre-game bar scenes in town.)
Reading that over, my sporting view is clearly swayed by the food and beer offerings of the hometown fans.
That said, food or no food, the quickest way to quiet the crowds is to begin losing. Take the Chiefs, for instance (please!). They announce every game as a sellout, but by halftime the place is half-full (or is it half-empty?). Nobody wants to identify with a losing team -- unless, of course, you're a Raiders fan.
But there's more to it than that. Morale really does factor in, and it can carry over outside the stadium. The Boston Globe reports that economist Michael Davis and psychologist Christian End have conducted research that shows people who live in a city with a winning NFL team make, on average, an extra $120 a year. When you're a city known for winning, that swagger seems to carry over into your workaday life, too.
So is it just a game? I don't know -- is it only money?

Mark Vasto is a veteran sportswriter and publisher of The Parkville (Mo.) Luminary.