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NBC Sports Boston’s Amina Smith talks about what she experienced at the Chiefs’ championship parade
Smith has been married three years this month to Deon Bush, a Chiefs safety and special teamer the past two seasons.
In a week of triumph for Kansas City and then an all-too-familiar kind of tragedy, Amina Smith found herself on the immediate edge of both.
The amiable studio anchor for NBC Sports Boston’s Celtics broadcasts has been married three years this month to Deon Bush, a Chiefs safety and special teamer the past two seasons.
Smith missed last year’s Super Bowl, having recently given birth to their son. She was excited to be able to join Bush — who had a crucial interception of Ravens quarterback and league MVP Lamar Jackson in the AFC Championship game — for the Chiefs’ playoff run this year, which culminated with a 25-22 overtime victory over the 49ers last Sunday in Las Vegas.
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“I got to experience what I missed last year, which was amazing,” she said. “But that’s not what you really think about right now, you know? What happened after the parade doesn’t leave your mind for very long.”
Smith was among the friends and family of Chiefs players and personnel that joined the champions on their parade route through downtown Kansas City on Wednesday. The players and their companions were already offstage when gunfire broke out outside Union Station, leaving one woman dead and 22 injured, including several children.
Smith had gone inside Union Station to find her husband and head to the bus that would take them back to Arrowhead Stadium when chaos erupted. The shootings occurred on the opposite side of Union Station from where Smith and the Chiefs contingent was located. She did not hear gunfire, but the stampede of panicked parade goers signaled that something had gone terribly wrong.
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“All of a sudden we turn around and we see hundreds of people running, trying to get inside Union Station,” she said. “It was a mad panic. I ran. Everyone ran. You get scared and your immediate reaction is to run because you don’t know what’s going on. Kids were crying, some adults were, too. People were in the corner having panic attacks.
“My immediate reaction was, ‘OK, we need to get out of here. I don’t know what’s happening, but we need to get out.’ ”
Smith and Bush — whose son was not at the parade but with a babysitter — ended up in an area inside Union Station near a first-aid station. “There were people talking about barricading themselves in there,” she said. “So that’s when it started to get really scary because we don’t know exactly what’s happening. I hadn’t checked social media or anything because I just wanted to get to a secure spot until it was safe again.”
Days later, Smith is still trying to process everything she experienced.
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“I hate to even say that you always hear about these stories, but you do,” she said. “These are the times that we live in. And still, you kind of think to yourself, you convince yourself, ‘Oh, I don’t think I’ll be in a place where that will happen.’ But I found myself in that situation on Wednesday.
“It was surreal and awful and incredibly tragic, and it made me step back and think about how you can’t even go and celebrate with a parade without looking over your shoulder and thinking, ‘OK, is this secure enough? Are there enough police here? Are we really safe?’ It’s sad. It’s just so sad.”
Celtics have plans
Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck revealed on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” Friday morning that the team is collaborating on a docuseries.
“Nothing to officially report yet, but we are in production on a multi-part, absolutely top-quality fantastic documentary series along the lines of, hopefully, ‘The Last Dance,’ ” he said. “We are deep into that. We have signed contracts. Film is being filmed, archives are being gone through, and it’s in process.”
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Grousbeck didn’t reveal who the Celtics are working with, but my understanding is that it is one of the most prominent streaming services. It’s also not a season-inside type of thing like “The Last Dance,” but rather a look at the entire history of the Celtics. Bob Cousy was the first person interviewed for the project. Fitting, because you always want to get the ball to the point guard right away.
Ratings for game were super
As noted here in a piece leading up to the Super Bowl, the Taylor Swift Effect on ratings when the Chiefs were playing was actually negligible during the regular season, in part because female viewership among younger demographics was already strong. But it sure looks like her connection to the league and relationship with Chiefs star Travis Kelce boosted Super Bowl ratings. The game was watched by 58.8 million women, accounting for 47.5 percent of the audience, both all-time highs for a Super Bowl . . . Maybe part of the issue with Tony Romo’s regression in his seven years as CBS’s top NFL analyst is boredom. I thought he got better as the Super Bowl became more interesting. His instant lament when 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy called a timeout despite having favorable matchups might have been Romo’s most incisive comment in years.
‘Dynasty’ not perfect
One small gripe about “The Dynasty,” Apple TV+’s 10-part epic on the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady Patriots: Commentary from talking heads on the various phony-take debate shows was used as bridges from one topic to another. For those of us who try to avoid hearing Skip Bayless’s voice at all costs, it was a little much . . . JJ Redick’s addition to ESPN/ABC’s top NBA broadcast team was no surprise. But two or three more lousy weeks from the Bucks and they probably could have made an inquiry to Doc Rivers about coming back.
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