I live near a municipal airport, and once a year -- scheduled on this weekend every year -- is the air show. All sorts of planes fly about, including stunt planes and the like. One kind of plane, my favorite, is the World War II fighter plane. There are four of them that fly in formation, and they zoom close over our house as they prepare to pass the airfield nearby for all the spectators there. It is really fun to watch them.
I thought about this as I watched those fighter planes scorch the sky directly overhead a number of times, and each time I made note of what it said underneath the wing of a couple of them. It said, "Marines." I thought, yeah. That's the feeling. That feeling when your unit is under enemy fire and you're up against it, you're going down, you're facing a hopeless situation... and...
Here come the Marines.
And sure enough, that feeling overtakes you. That feeling that now you're just going to kick ass. That you're going to come out of it not just victorious, but with great pride, inspired by the tremendous accomplishment of your tribe, your nation, your family, your brothers and sisters joined together in the common cause of righteousness and justice and all that stirring stuff. Or, in terms of the metaphor, the great uplifting achievement of your
Team.
Yes, pro football does help with those needs, particularly in a society that is so advanced that rigorous crusading has lost much of its impact, a society where so many in it reject the melodramatic enthusiasm of sports "fanciers" or "fanatics" as such Neanderthal behavior.
This weekend is yet again a sad one for Kansas City Chiefs fans because yet again, we are not playing in any playoff games. This is usually the case, as we all know. In the team's history it has only played in seven games past the first week of January. It has won a scant three of them, one of them Super Bowl IV (the 11th), the other two the games they won after the 1993 season (the 8th & the 16th). Two years in 55 we've been able to enjoy success after January 7. Yes, lots of crying done, but we're so used to it there's just not much left to cry about.
I do, however, think deeply about things, and will never stop doing that. And one of the things I think deeply about is the expanse of the forces at work to keep the Chiefs from winning. I've said before there are a number of those things, and I admit, much of it the wretched luck and miserable ineptitude devastating the Chiefs through the years. (See my last post about Chiefs wide receivers to behold that ugliness.)
I can't help but mention something about last week's games that I think is a powerful contributing factor.
I watched none of the games last week except for a bit of the Cardinals-Panthers game because my wife and son happened to have it on the television. I've watched none of today's game, and I imagine there's a game tonight -- don't even know which teams are playing in that one. Not planning to watch it. Yes there is that very profound ::sigh:: factor, I confess. I so long for the Chiefs to be playing past January 7 -- to watch our Marines fly in for the victory of all good things all around.
But last Monday or Tuesday, or whatever day it was, I'd seen a news item about an incident in the Lions-Cowboys game. A pass interference call that wasn't. I'd continued to read a bit about it, that an official threw his flag then pocketed it again with a "no penalty on the play" result. Mind you I hadn't seen the play at all, knew nothing about it. I had seen that the Cowboys won the game.
Later I watched the video. My goodness. I can't for the world see how that play was not pass interference. Not only that, but the guy held the Lions receiver before the pass interference. Not only that but a Cowboys player came out on the field without his helmet, a clear unsportsmanlike violation. Not only that but there were other penalties by the Cowboys mentioned that were not called.
The pass interference play was clearly a turning point.
What is particularly interesting is that even though all these things were brought up, even though it was broadcast exceedingly that the non-pass-interference was very controversial, even though there were the standard rationalizations and mea culpas and some mish-mash of the two -- while all that was happening, it started to turn into just part of the show. It was almost as if the ivory tower dwellers of the NFL said to themselves, "Let's take this controversy and run with it, make it part of the great NFL mythology, keep people talking about it..."
The sinister part about all this is that, yes...
The Lions still lost the game.
The Lions are probably the one team cursed as much as the Chiefs are. Lions fans, welcome to our world. We have a game that sticks like a craw in our psyche, Denver at Kansas City, January 4, 1998. Same thing. It was a game we won, but didn't because...
It is because there is that influence that guides the direction of playoff results so that the teams that make the NFL the most money get farther. Whether direct or indirect, whether explicit or implicit, whether actively arranged or just pushed along, there is that influence.
Yes, I know what I just wrote there is very controversial. A lot of people shrug it off, sneer that we're just whiners, or gleefully lap up the light-hearted mythology -- or all of that. But the fact is there are just too many fans who know it. This was evident enough with the considerations of what happened in that Lions-Cowboys game.
Let's just face it. The NFL really wants Cowboys-Packers. In 1997 the NFL really wanted John Elway to win -- "John Elway finally gets his Super Bowl ring!" is a bazillion times more of a cash cow than trying futilely to generate any interest in Elvis Grbac.
Now. Let's just get to it, let's be honest. I could go to the mat to justify this. I could regale you with the proof from things like Scorecasting in which the seminal part of the book is about how home teams have the advantage and it is almost exclusively because officials do make calls that benefit the home team, or in some instances the team that is the one the league favors. I could get into all the facets of favored teams and the advantages they have, how teams in larger markets with popular players engendering media darling sentiments simply have an inordinate amount of success.
I could do all of that, but I won't.
I will again say this, however.
I am not the only one.
How many do believe the fix is in, in some way, some how? I'd say there are a good number of Lions fans who do. I'd even venture to say some Bengals and Browns fans do, because they've been shafted a few times, also. My mom is a Cardinals fan, and the Cardinals too have a dismal history of playoff action. Now we know this year Arizona really wasn't going to go anywhere with a third string quarterback, let's be fair. But when I talked to her she still spoke stridently about the calls that went against the Cardinals.
I happened to come across a blog piece, I think it was the one of the SBNation Lions blogger, who was remarking about it all, and he said something pretty profound. How about just getting full-time officials and have more expanded use of technology? In my mind that means getting a couple more on the field officials, but it also means having officials at monitors focused on every aspect of the game, and when a call doesn't go the right way, any given official looking at a monitor with a play 157 million people are watching can just break in and make the right call we all see should be made.
Thing is, that's great, I like that. But is that going to keep the NFL from working it working it working it somehow to make sure that we get enough Cowboys-Packers, Patriots-Broncos, whatever-darling-team-versus-whatever-other-darling-team-there-is matchups? And what's worse is every time these other teams win it just means less of a chance for newer successful teams to break in because the "legendary games" keep being about those darling teams, lending itself to working it for more of those kinds of matchups. Do you know how many times I see on the television schedule a replay of the 1967 Ice Bowl? I'm sick of it! Yes, that was a great game, but it really wasn't the greatest -- I tend to think the '82 Chargers-Dolphins playoff game was the greatest. But hey, this is Dallas-Green Bay! Woo-hoo!
This is why as a Chiefs fan all of this is just so heartbreaking. Yeah, I know, why keep hoping, why keep rooting for them, why stay in the mix of it all, why keep writing writing writing about it all for the therapy? Why why why? Well, see the thing about the Marines fighter planes above.
But the thing that makes it so grim is that in light of all this, just being the Chiefs means it is much harder for them than it is for other teams. The Chiefs not only have to be very good to overcome what's against them, but they have to find a way to get players who the media will want to showcase. And even then, they'll never be able to compete against the Dallases and Green Bays and New Englands because of the media market disadvantage.
Many will say, "Nah, you can't say it isn't all on the up-and-up. It's just the way it goes, it has just happened to be some of those teams have been more successful that the lesser media markets. What are you going to do when a Chiefs or a Lions does start winning? What will you say then? And what about a tiny market like Green Bay? And what about big markets like Chicago or New York? The Bears and Jets stink. What about your argument then?"
For one thing, Green Bay is a complete media darling concoction. Green Bay is held up as the paragon of pro football virtue because of its tradition, its history, and its wholesome "the fans own the team" situation. The Jets are always showcased more than any other team because they are New York, it is just they have had the suckiest management -- as any Jets fan will attest. Even so, the Jets went to two straight AFC Championship games just a few years ago.
The NFL also must allow some competitive parity to exist. I admit the NFL is better at it than major league baseball or NBA basketball. The NFL's system does allow some non-media darlings to win sometimes, they have to or the whole thing would collapse. It's a critical part of the exploitation.
The major point to all of this is this. What I think is of no matter except to the extent that what I point out is true. You may dismiss it all, but you cannot deny that there are many others who feel the same way. It may not be a majority, but they are there. The Scorecasting conclusion is still pretty compelling, and that's just the soft, charitable interpretation of those advantages. Yet that is still a pretty major evidence.
The Chiefs having only three playoff wins in 45 years? The NFL is just fine with that. This past year baseball's World Series featured the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals. I was ecstatic because those are two of my favorite teams.
The majors sure wasn't, nor were its sponsors. The television ratings were abysmal, because even though both teams had tremendously compelling stories regarding their success, even though they were both extraordinarily talented in a number of different areas, even though each had engaging colorful players to showcase, even though they played fine competitive baseball for the full seven games of the series...
It was still the Giants (boring -- they're in it again?) and the Royals (they're from Kansas City -- who gives a shit about them?)
And don't get me wrong. You could plug in just about any teams there in the World Series and you'd get close to the same, severe teeth-grinding by the money-generating powers-that-be -- unless it is the Yankees and the Dodgers. It's true and you know it.
Same thing with the NFL. Right now it is salivating because there could be another Peyton Manning-Tom Brady matchup zowwie!!! There may be an Ice Bowl II in Green Bay yippie!!!
Are there any stories about the Chiefs worth crowing about? Mm-nnn-mm-nnnnnnn-- no.
I think there are, but, well, I'm just a Chiefs fan who likes my team. That's not enough.
Meanwhile, I do actually think there are some things about the Chiefs that don't have to do with conspiracies or supernatural forces -- things that do merely have to do with the team itself and its abilities and its future. Yes, ahem, I do still think whether or not you can put a competitive team on the field with the requisite talent and coaching is still a factor.
Thing is, I'll have to get to that part of it in another blog post.
More Chiefs therapy in the standard month for it, January, next time.
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