KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The star of this week’s NFL Monday night show isn’t a future Hall of Fame quarterback, one of football’s best running backs or even the iconic coaches who will patrol the sidelines for the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The real celebrities in this game, maybe the reason the NFL placed it on "Monday Night Football," will be in the Arrowhead Stadium stands. They’ll be wearing red and, as always, making their presence felt.

ESPN’s TV promo for the game features Chiefs fans, a nod to a group of followers known to be as loyal and loud as any in the league. ESPN’s promos don’t showcase fans often, but this week they’ve made fans the attraction.

Chiefs fans are shown in their gear during a game at Arrowhead doing their trademark tomahawk chop under the superimposed words, “IF YOU MAKE A STATEMENT MAKE IT LOUD.”

“Arrowhead Stadium in my opinion is right there with Seattle with the loudest stadium in the game," said Mike Tirico, ESPN’s "Monday Night Football" play-by-play announcer. “It really comes through on a Monday night."

The day of a "Monday Night Football" game at Arrowhead is, in Kansas City, like a national holiday. Chiefs fans take off prematurely or altogether from work and head over to the stadium for tailgating. One year, on a windless afternoon before a Monday night game against the Green Bay Packers, the stadium was shrouded in the smoke from hundreds if not thousands of barbecue grills in the vast Arrowhead parking lot for hours before kickoff.

“There’s a special electricity that goes with a Monday night game in Kansas City that frankly is very hard to describe," Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said.

Monday night, the Chiefs and their fans will attempt to break the Guinness world record for the loudest crowd at an outdoor stadium. The record was set at Arrowhead last year during a game against the Oakland Raiders but broken a few weeks later by Seahawks fans during a game in Seattle.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs will hand out earplugs at stadium gates to fans interested in preserving their hearing for future home games.

“I have this feeling that they’re probably going to set a new record," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “It’s going to be a lot of red, and we look forward to it and bringing the Patriots in here and letting them enjoy that part of it.”

The past two Monday night games at Arrowhead were classics. In 2010, the Chiefs held off San Diego 21-14, but only after stopping the Chargers on four plays from inside the Kansas City 10 in the final moments.

The next season, the Chargers also played at Arrowhead on a Monday night. With the score tied late in the fourth quarter, the Chargers were in field goal range and just burning clock when quarterback Philip Rivers fumbled a snap.

The Chiefs recovered and eventually won in overtime.

Crowd noise no doubt affected the outcome each time.

“Reputation over time can really set a tone," Tirico said. “If you think about it over the years, Arrowhead has stood out as a unique environment and difficult place [for visiting teams] to play. The passion of the fans -- so many people wear red to a Chiefs game -- to me indicates an intense pride of helping the defense with crowd noise and false starts."

The game against the Patriots has other attractions, too. New England and quarterback Tom Brady haven’t played in Kansas City since 2005. That, too, was on a Monday night and, aided by a boisterous home crowd, the Chiefs intercepted Brady four times in a 26-16 victory.

The Chiefs are likely to have their own offensive star, running back Jamaal Charles, back in the lineup after he missed last week’s game because of a sprained ankle.

The coaches are draws as well, Reid in his red short-sleeved, quarter-zip jacket and New England’s Bill Belichick in his hoodie.

It all comes together Monday night in a most interesting environment.

“To put all of that in one big mixing bowl," Tirico said, “I don’t think you could ask for a better script for a good show."