In this season of super everything in the NFL comes the story of a super-rabid Kansas City Chiefs fan.
It all began in December 2017, while Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas was under construction. Gerard DeCosta posted to Facebook a picture of himself with a “Chiefs Kingdom” flag, indicating he was burying it there.
A few weeks later, a Raiders fan claimed to have dug it up, but as DeCosta posted on Facebook, “This guy claiming he found my Flag!!! Why are you standing on the outside of the job site.”
The flag photo appeared off and on over the years, along with another one from 2018, when DeCosta continued to troll Raiders fans with another post on Facebook.
“If Burying the Flag wasn’t good enough.. I’m officially the First Chiefs Fan to sit with my Chiefs gear on the New Raiders Bleachers in Las Vegas!!!! Before they are set on the New Stadium!!” he posted.
The legend of the buried flag has bounced around the internet with renewed fervor ever since the Chiefs won the AFC Championship and a trip to Allegiant stadium to meet the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl.
Sports Illustrated even suggested there might be something to the tale by noting that Kansas City is 4-0 at what is supposed to be the home field of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Throwback to the time Chiefs fan Gerard DeCosta trolled the Raiders by burying a Chiefs flag in their new stadium and being the first person to sit on their new bleachers #TBT pic.twitter.com/RkwS2BfdnZ
— Chiefs Kingdom Memes – CKM (@kcchiefsmmz) March 23, 2023
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Some new accounts are suggesting that the tale might have as much veracity as the ballyhooed claim that labor leader Jimmy Hoffa was buried under New Jersey’s Giants Stadium.
Las Vegas labor leader Tommy White said the flag was never actually buried, according to KLAS-TV.
White said that as the legend spread, he asked DeCosta about it, and got the lowdown and the flag in response.
“He just told me the full story about it,” White said. “This is his flag. It’s never been buried.”
But DeCosta preferred the enigmatic route when contacted by the Kansas City Star.
“I’m pleading the 5th,” he said, referring to the Fifth Amendment that allows an accused person to avoid self-incrimination.
DeCosta also suggested to skeptics that the power of the flag to help the Chiefs win might be working.
“The real question is if it was all a hoax, why did it take 7 years to come forward that I gave the flag (to White)?” he said.
“And the Chiefs have never lost there but as soon as the Super Bowl is held there and the Chiefs are playing in it they have it. Just saying.” DeCosta wrote in a Facebook message.
