A tribute to a Kansas City Chiefs fan with a shirt design – by Brieanna Botello
My dad, Scott Anthony Burson was born on February 25th, 1962. He was born and raised in Kansas City Mo, so naturally A HUGE CHIEFS FAN!! We grew up having a “red room” With darts, a bar area, ski ball, all kinds of games, and of course…. The away CHIEFS GAME PARTIES!! Every home game, dad went to the stadium for 18 YEARS!! Every away game we had parties! I Remember when we played the Broncos, my dad made a John Elway; stuffed jeans with newspaper, had a broncos jersey of Elway stuffed it and stuck arrowheads through it, and put it on the big telephone pole in the corner of our yard as we lived on a main road! My dad would also mow “CHIEFS” in the yard and paint it red before game days! It was all so fun and great parties. Naturally, my sister and I grew up HUGE CHIEFS FANS AS WELL with dad always having parties and our friends would come as well. I remember the first game my dad took me to and the first pair of tickets he gave my sister and me to go to! THE BRONCOS!! Our dad was a die-hard fan, the biggest one I’d ever seen! Every signing, he went, when Derek Thomas passed away, we held a memorabilia party in his honor. I remember listening to my dad pray for Derek’s family and the city. As my dad was Christian, and a high believer in Jesus and prayer!
The older my dad became, the more partying we did at home rather than him going to the games! My dad raised me as a single father, married our mom when I was 2 and sadly she passed when my sister and I were teenagers. He didn’t know how he was going to raise 2 teenage daughters without a mom. But he did one hell of a job. And the best he could for the cards that were dealt. In 2021, my dad became terminally ill with multi-organ failure. He tried to hide his sickness from everyone. My dad and I were very close.
In January of 2022, I quit my job and started taking care of my dad as his full-time caretaker, he was admitted into the hospital for a month. He Went home on his birthday. He was so happy to go home. Before he was admitted, he refused to go because he HAD to watch the Chiefs playoffs game AT HOME!! lol. Talk about dedication. We watched the football games in the hospital as well as other favorite shows. My dad’s health faded very fast once we got home and he was put on hospice. The day he was told he had about a week left, my heart shattered, and I didn’t leave his side. My dad slipped into a coma 1 day after he was told he had a week, he was in a coma for 9 days. My world was crushed. As I sat with him all I could think about was why?! And how could I honor him the best way I could knowing he would love it?!? So, when looking at urns as he requested for cremation, I thought OMG a Chief’s Urn!! Then I decided to do a celebration of life with everyone wearing their Chiefs gear!!
As dad would have wanted!! I found Darren and Dr. Tee’s Design & Screen Printing at his home-garage screen printing shop. Darren sat with my cousin and me for about an hour and I told him I had this idea of a Jersey-style shirt on the back with my dad’s picture on the front, in loving memory of… I left it up to Darren, I COULD NOT BELIEVE the results !! It came out EXACTLY AS I PICTURED!! This shirt means the world to me! I wear it all the time! I think my dad would think it’s such a cool shirt! I miss him like crazy and think about him every day, every game I’m still in hopes my phone will ring being my dad to ask, “ YOU READY FOR THIS GAME, YOU GOT IT ON?” This shirt is important to me as it represents my dad through and through.
Thank you Darren!♥️ you’ve given me something special!
