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There have been many times of late where it's been easy to get down on the world of professional sports - riddled with scandal, protected by lawyers and driven in almost every way imaginable by the almighty buck.

It's enough to make a sports fan cynical, or at the very least make them struggle to remember what it is that drew them to professional sports in the first place.

And then you get a couple of nights like the folks of Kansas City have experienced this week. And well, it isn't hard to understand that living there might feel just a bit different than it did a few days ago.

The Chiefs' victory at home over New England on Sunday night, combined with their stunning comeback against Oakland in the American League wild card game on Monday night are a couple of wins for the ages.

Now let's be clear - great moments in sports are merely entertainment spectacles that don't lower crime rates, help the tax base, improve roads or build better schools. 

But that doesn't mean they can't positively affect quality of life in a place. 

If you lived in Kansas City today, chances are you'd have a little more in common with your neighbor, with the person who sits at the desk across from you at work or the business associate you're meeting for dinner. 

Because sports provides a shared emotional experience unlike anything else there is. 

It is that sense of oneness, that feeling of being in it all together as members of the same tribe that has real value in an age where society is so fragmented in so many different ways. Sports really does provide a sense of commonality or community unlike anything else.

Here in Toronto, which may be one of the most diverse places on earth, it sure seems like the moments we've shared to the greatest extent have been centred around sporting events.

If you're old enough, think back to either of the Blue Jays' World Series wins in the early 1990s, the Leafs' run to within a game of the Stanley Cup Final in 1993 or the Argos ending the city's long Grey Cup drought in 1983. 

If you're not old enough to recall those, then think back to the Raptors and Brooklyn Nets last spring.

And if you're from another part of the country, well, think back to Canada 1972 or Vancouver 2010 and ask yourself whether you ever felt more Canadian?

I can recall back when the Toronto Blue Jays reached the World Series for the very first time in 1992, people took to the streets in their cars and on foot. They shouted, they screamed, they celebrated - and they wanted to share it all with complete strangers.

I stood on a downtown street with a friend who was not a huge sports fan and he made a simple observation - that there was nothing else that could have happened, no civic announcement or other kind of good news that would send people into celebration with strangers in a way that was happening before our eyes.

And as we stood there, this great big city felt like a much smaller place, a place where everyone could relate to the same experience on at least one thing because we were all experiencing great moments together. 

Chances are that's what it feels like this week in Kansas City. 

A great reminder that even when sports gives us reason to toss it aside, we stay with it because it gives us moments we can share like no others.