Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Don't look for a rivalry when Chiefs meet Rams

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Placed next to the Super Bowl XXXIV trophy at team headquarters in suburban St. Louis sits an award presented by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon after the Rams beat the Kansas City Chiefs in a 2012 preseason game, the last meeting between the teams.

"I’m actually more fond of the Governor’s Cup trophy than I am of the Super Bowl trophy," Rams coach Jeff Fisher said.

Fisher’s sentiment is understandable. He coached the losing team in Super Bowl XXXIV, the Tennessee Titans. But nobody else shares that thought.

To most everyone else involved, players and fans from both sides, the Governor’s Cup, presented whenever the NFL football teams from Kansas City and St. Louis face one another, is just a meaningless piece of hardware.

Though the Rams and their backers get worked up about games with Seattle, San Francisco and Arizona, and the Chiefs look forward to their AFC West rivalries, this Missouri battle is just another game.

"When I was in college, there was never a rivalry," said Chase Daniel, a former Missouri quarterback who now backs up Alex Smith with the Chiefs. "We don’t play each other every year. We play every third or fourth year. We’re both just trying to win.

"It would have been pretty cool actually if (the Royals and Cardinals) were playing in the World Series. But it didn’t work out like that."

The teams have tried to kindle a rivalry by playing most years during the preseason. For various reasons the teams haven’t met during the summer for the past two years, and nobody seemed to care.

The 3-3 Chiefs and 2-4 Rams will play for real on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, but there is little buzz about the game other than each team needing a victory to stay relevant in its respective playoff race.

"Anytime you have two teams in the same state, you’d think you’d have a little bit of intensity in that," Rams linebacker James Laurinaitis said. "You’d think there would be a lot of bragging rights for everybody in between, especially with both cities on the border (of Missouri). There’s a whole lot of space in between there. You’d think it would be more heated.

"As players, we’re plenty motivated. But I really don’t get the sense from the fans ... not as many people try to hit you up on Twitter about this one as they do the Niners and Seahawks rivalries."

When the teams have played during the regular season, the series hasn’t been competitive. The Chiefs are 5-0 against the Rams since they moved from Los Angeles in 1995. The smallest margin of victory was eight points in 1997. The Chiefs won 54-34 in 2000 and 49-10 in 2002.

That can explain some of the apathy. So can the distance between the cities, about 250 miles.

The biggest reason is the teams play in separate conferences. Laurinaitis played in college at Ohio State, where he had a good view of the rivalry between the Bengals and Browns. Cincinnati and Cleveland are also separated by about 250 miles, but because the teams meet twice each season as members of the AFC North, their rivalry goes well beyond that of the Chiefs and Rams.

"It was great," Laurinaitis said. "It was one or the other. In between there, there was no 'Oh, gosh, if they’re not playing each other I’m rooting for both of them.' There’s none of that. If you’re a Browns fan, you want the Bengals to lose all the time and vice versa. It was very heated in the state of Ohio between those two franchises. They were in the same division as well. I think that had a lot to do with it."

The winner of Sunday’s game gets custody of the Governor’s Cup until the next meeting between the Chiefs and Rams. Each team wants possession, though that has far more to with winning a game than beating an in-state rival.

"The trophy’s downstairs and I was advised it needs to remain downstairs," Fisher said. "We’re going to work hard at that this week."

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