MERRIAM, Kan. — KSHB 41 News anchor Taylor Hemness reports on stories across the Kansas City area, including a focus on consumer issues. You can contact Taylor by email.
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Kansas City spent a lot of time over the World Cup summer talking about international fans, mostly in the context of those fans supporting their teams playing here.
We don't have to stop that conversation as the Kansas City Chiefs kick off their season. I met a French Chiefs fan, who lives in Mission, and learned not only how his love for Chiefs Kindgom grew, but also how he is reaching even more European fans.
Emilien Murigneux first came to Kansas City in 2016 for work.
"It was under a French program that basically allows French companies to send people under the age of 28 to their subsidiaries abroad," he told me.
During that time, he was invited to a Chiefs preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. He told me he knew nothing about American football.
"People are crazy - they tailgate. I was like, ‘What is tailgate?’” Murigneux said. “So sports culture is just so different. I have no idea what's happening; They keep stopping every five seconds. Those guys are gigantic."
But his fan flame was lit, and not long after going back to Paris, he moved back to his new home.
"I love Lenexa and Kansas City so much that I pushed as hard as I could for them to ship me back,” Murigneux told me. “Miracles happen, and they shipped me back in early 2019."
Emilien knows a little about miracles too. He was in the stands for the now legendary “13 Seconds” game in 2022.
"Yeah, I was at the 13-seconds game, and I didn't leave,” he told me with a smile. “I was like, ‘Three timeouts, 13 seconds, you never know, it's the Bills.’"
Ten years after his first game, he's more than just a fan. He's a podcast host. The idea to launch a French podcast for Chiefs fans, came along during conversations on X, and Emilien said, “Why not?”
"Kansas City, I think, is called the Paris of the Plains,” Murigneux told me. “So we can be some connection here."
The podcast, “Chiefs France,” covers the season, the draft, free agency, and any other thing you want to know about the Chiefs, all in French.
Emilien is one of four hosts. Elvin Petit is another. Fifteen years ago, Petit came to Kansas City to work as an assistant teacher at Academie Lafayette.
I spoke to him via Zoom from his home outside of Paris about sharing his love of the Chiefs with other fans.
"Not everyone listens to, Nick Jacobs, and 41 is the Mic, you know, but I do," Petit told me. “We have this common passion that unites us, and that, you know, interests a little bit of people that listen to us every week, just talk football."
Just talking football, in Murigneux’s case, surrounded by his young daughter's toys.
I asked him about his evolution as a fan, and what the 2016 version him would say about this podcast.
"I think he would say, ‘Wow dude, you have a lot of time on your plate because when did you find the time to learn all that stuff, because you knew nothing.’"
As for what's next, Murigneux and Petit both tell me they're hoping to be recognized by the Chiefs as an official international partner.
The team already lists other organizations from Spain, Mexico, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Germany, Austria, and Switzerland on their website.
That's why Murigneux and the team formed an official organization, so they're more than just a fan podcast.
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