Hearne: Renaissance, Anybody?

Brace yourselves…

The way things are going the Cowtown may be poised to rise from the dead.

Don’t take that the wrong way.

Not since the heady days of Joe Montana and Marcus Allen living here has Kansas City appeared on the world stage as much more than a flyover or nice place to raise a family.

And don’t think for a single second that fact has fallen on deaf ears.

For something like centuries local luminaries have wrestled with inferiority complexes. Over KC not getting much, if any respect.

You know the drill…

We don’t have mountains; nor oceans;  nor lakes of any magnitude. We don’t have Disneyland or Universal Studios; nor year-round balmy temps.

The awful truth: Kansas City’s a nice place to live but you wouldn’t want to visit there.

Unless you live in Iowa or Nebraska.

What we do have:

Decent restaurants, upscale movie plexes, a decent slate of touring concerts and musical theater productions. And of course, three usually outgunned pro sports teams -= the chiefs, Royals – and to a far lesser extent – Sporting Kansas City.

Our local mantra: Having the Chiefs and Royals makes KC a major league city.

Sans those teams, we’d be Omaha or Des Moines..

Fast forward to Sunday – and perhaps an upcoming Super Bowl appearance…

Owing to a single individual – Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes – this city is in a position to  burnish its lackluster image and take things to another level.

Make no mistake though, it’s a perilous journey.

One career ending injury and KC’s bubble could (and likely would) burst.

So  enjoy it while you can.

The hoopla’s already started with a national stories about Mahomes’ new puppy and a Hunt’s ketchup spokesmodel deal.

And that’s just the tip of the coming iceberg.

I  remember years ago when Joe Montana did some kind of goofy underwear promotion at a local retailer and hundreds (maybe thousands) of mostly women lined up to meet him. That and radio station KY102’s Tanna Guthrie talked a small Montana town into changing its name to “Joe.”

That and thew stock of ancillary Chiefs stars like Travis Kelce could soar.

The biggest loser in all this:somewhat obviously, disgraced former Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt.

None  of which will to do diddly to help the plummeting fortunes of the Kansas City Star and The Pitch.  Not that they won ‘t try to capitalize on it, like when they billed subscribers extra for Thanksgiving issues because of the extra pages of sold ad inserts.

The economic laws of the jungle and political miscalculations will seal those fates.

That said – oceans, mountains and theme parks aside – things are starting to get a lot more interesting around here.