Kansas City, Mo. ? There was an empty seat Sunday near the 30-yard line amid the sellout in Arrowhead Stadium. Security men promised Trent Green it would stay empty, too.

“From an emotional standpoint, this was probably as draining as any game I’ve been a part of,” said Kansas City’s exhausted quarterback.

Four days after laying his father and No. 1 fan to rest, Green played through a pain that does not get noted on the injury report.

Ever since their son had joined the Chiefs in 2001, Jim and Judy Green had come to the stadium hours before kickoff and tailgated with other fans. They never had missed a game.

But Jim Green died unexpectedly Oct. 27 at 58. He was buried Wednesday, and Sunday, several hours before the Chiefs played host to Oakland, Trent was the one who came early.

“I put a little sign, or a little tribute on the seat and kind of taped the seat so nobody would sit on it,” he said.

“Hopefully the message got across. Somebody could always just rip the tape up and sit down. But security saw me doing it and they said, ‘We’ll keep an eye on it.’

“It really meant a lot.”

Judy and her other two children already had decided they simply could not bear to be at the stadium. They watched at home as Trent redirected his thoughts away from the shock and sorrow long enough to throw for 235 yards and a touchdown in a dramatic 27-23 victory.

“It wasn’t something they all felt comfortable with,” Green said. “And I completely understood. I supported it 100 percent. My brother and sister and their spouse and my mom – it just became too emotional. He’s never missed a game in Arrowhead.

“They’ve gotten to know a lot of people who sit around them and that would have been very difficult for them and they just weren’t ready for it. They felt bad because they weren’t there to support me.”

Green told security people he didn’t mind if anyone moved down to take the seats his mom and siblings always had occupied.

But his dad’s seat was different.

After Larry Johnson took Green’s handoff and vaulted into the end zone in the final seconds for the pulsating win, coach Dick Vermeil and several of his teammates gathered near Green.

Vermeil announced in the locker room that he was giving the game ball to Jim Green.

“That really meant a lot,” Green said. “That was hard for me to control myself.”