Last year, the Chiefs were a Cinderella team. Fueled by hopes and dreams, along with a cupcake schedule, they surprised everyone but themselves by going 3-0 out of the gate. After a year of solid, mistake free football, everything imploded all at once. One week, they looked like the belle of the ball against the Tennessee Titans, then midnight struck and they lost their glass slipper. No, screw that, it was more like the pumpkin exploded in their damn face. They were brought back down to reality ferociously and had to be scraped off of the collective boot of the Raiders and Ravens to end the season. No fairytale ending. It was more like the Brother’s Grimm version, if Cinderella were the one to get her eyes poked out by pigeons instead of the evil stepsisters. Tim Burton would direct.

This year, the Chiefs were considered a contender going into the season, ready to have a fun time at Camp Crystal Lake. A rough looking schedule curbed expectations some, but nothing like getting slaughtered the first two games did. The beginning of the schedule was supposed to be the easy part, just playing grabass with the other camp counselors, so why did it feel like they were getting chased through a corn field by an unnatural behemoth with a hockey mask and a machete? All they could do is watch their comrades get mangled as their odds of survival slimmed. (more…)

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Union executive committee member Brian Dawkins(notes) believes NFL owners and players have a sense of urgency to avoid a lockout because they don’t want to alienate fans.

“I would think common sense would say at the end of the day, after all the fighting and after all the words are said, we understand who butters our bread,” the veteran Denver Broncos safety said Tuesday. “That’s where the urgency comes in at.”

Dawkins and fellow NFL Players Association executive committee member Mike Vrabel(notes) alternated between optimism and expressing frustration with the league’s proposals during a conference call about negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement.

via NFL players, owners sense urgency in talks – NFL – Yahoo! Sports.

I moved this past weekend from my apartment of four years to the apartment complex next door. I love the neighborhood too much to leave, but I had grown tired of the management of my now former complex leaving me voicemails and handwritten notices on my door hinting at eviction if I did not rid myself of my dog, whom they wrongly believed to be a chronic barker (he isn’t–the chronic barker belongs to the family down the hall). They were careful not to use the word eviction, as they had no legal grounds for actually following through on their threats.

One of my least favorite aspects of moving is dealing with our local cable company. Prompt isn’t in their vocabulary. I placed the call to have service transferred on Thursday. I was told they’d have a rep out to take care of it on Tuesday. That means no cable for the weekend. That means no football. No football to watch on my new 42” flattscreen. Yes, for the first time in probably 20 years, I was going to go an entire weekend without seeing a single snap. I did catch enough of the Redskins/Eagles game on radio to know that one of the subjects of this article was injured, but I don’t think I could tell you right now the final score of a single game. Thank God it’s the bye week. (more…)

On paper, 83 yards rushing doesn’t sound bad. Top 10 rushing teams average 125 yards a game or better. Most teams run some form of a two-man platoon at tailback these days, so if the top dog pulls down 83, his backup only needs 42. Any additional ground yardage from reverses or broken pass plays is icing on the cake.

When the starter needs 22 touches to get that 81 yards, however, it doesn’t sound good.

Don’t get me wrong. I like Thomas Jones. He’s the third best skill position player on Kansas City’s offense right now. I’m just not sure why he’s starting. He doesn’t move the chains the way a starting running back should. First string tailbacks usually average a 1st down every four carries–25%. Jones’s career average is 19.4%. Jamaal Charles’s, on the other hand, is 27.6%. That disparity, applied to a starter’s workload of 300 to 350 carries, equals 24 to 28 1st downs over the course of a season. That’s far too many to leave on the bench. (more…)

Three weeks ago I ended my article The Ell Roberson Effect with the line “who wants to talk about Brett Favre?”. Well…. who wants to talk about Brett Favre? Well, I do, and I’m the one with the magic electronic pen that makes words appear on the front page of the website, so we’re going to talk about Brett Favre.

I’m about to take a very unpopular stance: Brett Favre may be the best thing in professional football right now. He’s a flawed but redemptive hero–a guy who acknowledges and atones for his failings, both as a player and as a human being. He’s a good front face for the company too–he’ll do everything from commercials to cameos in R-rated comedies to locker room renditions of week one American Idol tunes. To top it off, he’s still one of the sport’s best athletes–entering his 20th season, he’s a legitimate Pro Bowl candidate, and, in the eyes of his teammates, he’s still the missing link that can take a team from a playoff berth to a Super Bowl appearance. (more…)

Every year, it never fails. I always end up watching at least one preseason game on tape delay. My two poor, beleaguered VCRs are challenged with the task of making sure I don’t miss the action. I trust neither of them, however, so I always end up with two copies of any game I miss.

Yes, that’s correct. I am the proud possessor of not one, but two copies of the Green Bay Squeakby. What will become of them? They’ll probably be recycled to catch bits and pieces of regular season games. Even though it was a victory, and victories have been few and far between over the past few seasons, I don’t see any pressing reason to relive this one after I’m finished re-watching it tonight. (more…)

To begin, I want to touch on something I touched on briefly in a mid-week article last season. Football players are on performance-enhancing drugs. Let’s not kid ourselves into believing the NFL’s testing policy works. The average playing weight at most positions has increased 30-50 pounds in the last three decades. A large part of that is the result of advancements in sports nutrition and physical training, but it’s also because players are on performance-enhancing drugs. When talking about concussions, we talk about changing the rules and designing better helmets, but we skirt around the major factor at play: these guys are really big, and getting hit by someone large is more painful than getting hit by someone small. This might not have been a major factor in Cameron Sheffield’s or Maurice Leggett’s injuries, as in both cases the collision was with a running back of similar size, but it’s a subject that definitely warrants much more open dialogue than is presently exchanged.

I’m curious to hear from my readers whether they think the defense’s success says more about Kansas City or more about Philadelphia. I myself am at a loss. I see few, if any, parallels between last night’s game and the game six days prior. Did the unit turn the corner sometime last week, or is Tampa Bay with their backup quarterback a more formidable offense than Philadelphia with their starter? I hope it’s the former, but I’m far from convinced. (more…)

Yet again I’m dispensing with the cute titles and semi-obscure musical references. They’ll return with the regular season. For now, I’m just gonna talk football. The second preseason game is my favorite of the four. The starters play the full first half, which means it looks something a bit like a regular season game. In the second half, the scrubs get probably their best chance to audition for the coaches. Thus, there are really two separate games taking place. Accordingly, I’ll evaluate each half individually.

FIRST HALF

I have no choice but to admit this–Matt Cassel had an okay game. Whereas his passes generally range from questionable to bad, tonight they ranged from good to questionable. He kept the ball in the hands of his receivers and out of the hands of the Buccs’ defense. He amassed two successful scoring drives. Better yet, he improved dramatically on last week’s paltry average of four yards per completion. This is undoubtedly partly attributable to improved playcalling from the sideline. Charlie Weis might not be much of a college head coach, but it’s hard to deny that he has a bit of a Midas touch with an NFL offense. (more…)