Grandview, MO – A Kansas City Chiefs fan’s obituary has gone viral for its claim that the man died from “heartbreaking disappointment” over the team’s losing streak.
Eighty-one-year-old Loren G. “Sam” Lickteig passed away on November 14 from “complications due to MS and heartbreaking disappointment caused by the Kansas City Chiefs football team.”
The obituary was originally printed in The Kansas City Star .
Lickteig’s daughter, Jennifer, said her father was a longtime Chiefs fan.
“My dad was such a comedian,” she said. “He loved the Chiefs, so we had to let him have the last word.”
“If we weren’t laughing, we’d be crying,” daughter Diana Hennessey said.
Lickteig was an Air Force veteran and former Grandview councilman. He married Mary Joan Lickteig (nee Hoey) in 1956. They settled in Grandview and had five children; he was preceded in death by son Matt “Mickey” Lickteig in 1999 and by his wife in July 2012.
Lickteig did not write his own obituary, but his daughters said he would have approved of its humor. One commenter wrote in Lickteig’s Legacy.com guestbook , “I must tell you that I am sorry for your loss but thank you for sharing your father’s humor and his love for the Chiefs.”
Another wrote:
“From one Vet to another Thank You for your service to our country. As a Chief Fan here in Colorado, now that you’re up there please see who you can talk to about help for those of us here on earth that are Chief Fans, if you pull this one off I will do what I can about getting you nominated for Sainthood ’cause only a miracle could ever help us. The Pope could never turn us down with a million witnesses to your intersession [sic] and the miracle.”
Kansas City is 1-9 so far this season, and has been on a seven game losing streak since Week 4 when they lost 37-20 to the San Diego Chargers. Loren Lickteig’s obituary was printed the same day the Chiefs lost 28-6 to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Many Chiefs fans wore black at Arrowhead Stadium to protest the team’s season and General Manager Scott Pioli.