To begin the season, I wrote an article praising the virtue of Brett Favre as the game’s redemptive hero–a guy who is prone to error both on and off the field, but finds his way to atonement for any and all offenses. This, of course, was prior to the infamous Dickturegate, wherein Favre sent pictures of his captain happy to a girl he shouldn’t have. In reality, he shouldn’t have been sending dicktures to any girl, even his wife. I have yet to meet the girl that enjoys receiving them, and I’ve met a lot of girls.

Call it a symptom of his age. Younger men who get the same idea in their head (no pun intended) figure out it has a 0% success rate sometime in their late teens/early twenties. Favre didn’t have a cell phone in his late teens/early twenties. In his youth, sending dicktures required an envelope, a stamp, and a trusting relationship with the fellow in charge of your local One Hour Photo franchise. Thus, it was later in his life when the idea for said mischief occurred. This is key only because it happened in proximity to his fall as a player. Had it happened two years ago when he was still kicking ass, we would have laughed for a week, and then we would have moved on. Instead, it was the only thing about Favre which anyone could latch onto this season. No longer could a sportscaster say the words “Favre threw two interceptions in an upset loss.” Instead, it was required that the following vernacular (or some paraphrase thereof) be used: “Favre, beleaguered by having sent dicktures to a hot chick that works for the Jets organization, threw two interceptions in a highly anticipated loss.” Read the rest of this entry »

I was always thankful in high school that our first semester report cards came out after the holidays. No kid wants to be confined to their room over Christmas break, and…. well…. I had more than a few report cards that got me in trouble. The flip side of that was returning back to school the second week of January and attempting to remember what had been taught to me well enough to get through final exams. The problem was that I had the capacity to be a straight A student, but none of the requisite drive. Like Matt Leinart, I was too busy chasing girls.

I’m going to do something a little different this year. Rather than just a flat out evaluation, I want to reevaluate my grades from last season to see how the team has progressed. I’ve done no prep work for this article (again with the chasing girls thing), so this is all straight from the hip. Here goes: Read the rest of this entry »

Scott Pioli is presently hailed as a draft genius. Everyone knows why: Eric Berry. Forget that all but one of the remaining picks made significant contributions through the season. Eric Berry was seemingly NFL posteason-ready the day he was drafted. That’s not normal, even for a top five pick. At present pace, Berry is going to spend a lot of Februaries in Honolulu.

In contrast to an overwhelmingly successful 2010 draft, the 2009 draft was not genius level, ultimately yielding four career backups, three goners, and a kicker. Two of those backups (Donald Washington and Quentin Lawrence) are probably going to have short careers. The historical perspective of that draft was going to hinge on the trade made in the 2nd round: the 34th overall pick to New England for quarterback Matt Cassel and veteran linebacker Mike Vrabel. The knock on the trade was that Cassel was too inexperienced and Vrabel was too old. Read the rest of this entry »

After a loss like this, the easy road for someone like me, only recently on the Cassel bandwagon and not yet fully committed to it, to jump right back off. It would be easy to look at the 19.1 passer rating, 33% completion rate, and two picks as an indication that my premonitions from the last two weeks were mistaken, and that Cassel is who I thought he was. I won’t, because I didn’t see a bad quarterback out there today. I saw a quarterback victimized by circumstance.

In most team sports the player/coach relationship manifests itself as that of student and teacher. In football the relationship runs deeper. Maybe it’s the fact that the game can never be won on the efforts of a single player (see: Detroit Lions, 1989-1998), thus making it more of a team sport than baseball or basketball. Maybe it’s the level of trust required to put one’s self in a position so vulnerable to physical harm. Whatever the cause is, rather than student and teacher, the relationship manifests itself much closer to that of son and father. Read the rest of this entry »

About a year and a half ago I wrote an article entitled Perspective. The focus of the article was the trade that brought us Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel. I stated at that time that if either one of the picks panned out, the trade would be worth it. Vrabel is closing out a second solid season, and Cassel is coming around too as of late. In perspective, that turned out to be a great deal, not because Cassel and Vrabel turned out so good for us, but because that 2009 draft was otherwise wasted. Ultimately it yielded a third string defensive lineman, a third string cornerback already in the process of being converted to safety, a third string wide receiver who makes fans pine for Terrance Copper, a third string tight end who will likely have his ass marched out the front door if Brad Cottam can come back healthy, and a kicker. The remaining three are employed elsewhere.

By comparison, Old Man Vrabel and Tom Brady’s clipboard holder look amazing.

I don’t know if the improvement in 2010′s draft was a result of perspective on the needs of the team, perspective on the quality of the prior year’s draft, or just dumb luck. Regardless of the why, the what is obvious: the 2010 NFL draft put Kansas City in the position they’re in now: the most improved team in the NFL, first in their division, and playoff bound. Despite this, and despite a solid showing on both sides of the ball, only three Chiefs were elected to the Pro Bowl: Jamaal Charles, Dwayne Bowe, and the errantly maligned Brian Waters. Charles and Bowe clearly deserved it. Waters probably deserved it, but not as much as Ryan Lilja. Meanwhile, Brandon Flowers, Eric Berry, Tamba Hali, and, in the eyes of some, Matt Cassel, were robbed of the opportunity. Read the rest of this entry »

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’ll apologize in advance for the length of this article. With everything that’s happened in the last 36 hours, brevity is not an option.

Last week we examined the current employment status of the four Brojans–former USC quarterbacks Matt Cassel, Matt Leinart, Carson Palmer, and the ever flamboyant, Freddie Mercury-esque Mark Sanchez. This week they united toward a common goal which I consider to be good above all other earthly goals: to help the Chiefs get a playoff victory.

Many of you will feel, given that the Chiefs are only hours removed from having clinched the division, and with one week of regular season play left, that it seems premature to discuss playoff wins. Maybe it is. But I’m encouraged. With a Cassel victory today (more on this in a moment) and a Sanchez loss (not entirely his fault, but he played a part), the playoff scenario in which the Chiefs play the Jets is increasingly more likely. Essentially, the following four teams must win their remaining game: Kansas City, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and New York. Their respective opponents: Oakland, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Buffalo. Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago a photographic caption cartoon entitled “A Tale Of Two Matts” circulated through Chiefs fan sites and forums. It featured a series of pics, mostly of former USC quarterbacks Matt Cassel, Matt Leinart, Carson Palmer, and an increasingly…. ummm…. eccentric Mark Sanchez, together dubbed the Brojans, and it profiled the ascent of Cassel along with the descent of Leinart and Palmer (making no mention of the fact that Sanchez has played no better than either of them for several weeks now). Toward the end of the cartoon, Cassel, sitting on the bench in his Trojans uniform, states that his time will come. Three frames later, Dwayne Bowe says to Cassel the four truest, most pointed words that he could possibly hope to hear in real life at this juncture: “the time is now.”

I’ve been accused for much of the season of being unduly harsh toward Cassel. I understand the accusations and don’t deny that to some degree they’re probably correct. I’m critical of him, however, because while a lot of his games have looked good on stat sheets, what happened on paper didn’t reflect what happened on the field. Also, in games where he showed a greater propensity for completing passes downfield, I’ve made mention of it. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of you are seeking a crucifixion of Brodie Croyle. I’m sure a few of you believe I’ll exonerate him instead. I’ll be doing neither.

I’m a realist. I never relish picking against the Chiefs, but sometimes I do. I picked against them today. I did so long before Matt Cassel had his appendectomy. Truth be told, I never looked at this as a winnable game. The Chargers have made the playoffs five of the last six years because they have an abundance of playmakers on both sides of the ball. They have so many, in fact, that they’re able to overcome the persistent efforts of their coaches to coach them down to the level of their opposition.

It’s easier to coach down a team with fewer playmakers. For instance, if an offensive coordinator were to revive the old Jimmy Raye/Mike Solari run-run-pass-punt offense, a quarterback of the caliber of Philip Rivers would complete enough of those 3rd down passes to stave off the seemingly inevitable punt, and in the process he’d probably position his team to occasionally score. Rivers has at his disposal a grip of first rate receivers to simplify this task, but he also has an offensive coordinator that doesn’t put him in that position. Read the rest of this entry »

File 13 is military slang for the trash can. It’s indigenous to the United States–the Brits use the more literal and less imaginative Circular File. Call it whatever you like. Regardless of your preferred nomenclature, you can damn well be sure that’s where I’ll file my tape of Sunday’s game. It was a garbage win.

It’s a shame too. Late in the first quarter, Leonard Pope ran a perfectly designed, perfectly executed shallow crossing route in the endzone for a touchdown. That was Pope’s first meaningful play of the year. I was hopeful it was indicative of an impending beatdown in the same vein of last year’s season finale. Instead, Pope’s first meaningful play of the year was Kansas City’s last meaningful play of the game. Read the rest of this entry »