The Missouri Governor's Cup was a trophy awarded to the winner of the football game between Missouri's two National Football League (NFL) teams. The local press occasionally referred to the game as The Battle of Missouri, The Show-Me State Showdown, or the I-70 Series. Originally played for between the Kansas City Chiefs and the St. Louis Cardinals, the series went into recess after 1987 following the Cardinals' relocation to Phoenix, Arizona at the end of the season, leaving the Chiefs as the only NFL team in Missouri. In 1996, the year after the St. Louis Rams relocated from Los Angeles, the Governor's Cup series returned and was played until 2015 in the preseason and the interconference regular season matchups between the Chiefs and Rams. The series ended once again after the Rams returned to Los Angeles in 2016, leaving the Chiefs as the only NFL team in Missouri for a second time.

The 2006 season was the Kansas City Chiefs' 37th in the National Football League (NFL), their 47th overall, their 44th in Kansas City, and their first under head coach Herm Edwards. The team failed to improve on their 10–6 record from 2005 after starting at 0–2 start and ending the year with a 9–7 record.