Well, I called in sick for work so I can just sleep tomorrow. It's all good.
But I still can't sleep now, so I'm just going to take this time right now to share some thoughts about the Chiefs and pro football and the Super Bowl that Lamar Hunt coined and we have been nowhere close for eons.
I watched the Super Bowl because my NFC team is the 49ers, because while I was born near Kansas City, all of my family is from there, and I love the city -- I was brought up most of my life in or near the Bay Area. The Super Bowl itself was a thrilling game with the Niners mounting a furious comeback, even though they didn't quite catch the Ravens. Disappointed, but it was still a good game.
Besides, the highlight of the Super Bowl was the announcement of the Chiefs first overall pick of the entire NFL draft! Did you catch it?! We've got Leon Sandcastle! Awright! Woo-hoo! Well, anyway, the promo was for the NFL Network to get us to watch the NFL combine activities, but I'm telling you, I look forward to seeing what's what about Leon Sandcastle!
It's all delightful fun. The funny thing is, everyone in the room watching the game with me mentioned how much the name was simply too much like another Chiefs player who has been the subject of great revulsion of late. Wonder who it is...
So yeah, that leads to the major question of all questions. You know what it is.
What will happen with that quarterback situation?
Will we get Alex Smith? Every Chiefs fan is waiting with bated breath to see. Still, it will be yet another long time before we get our own drafted and developed quarterback out there winning ball games. Remember, our last win by a D&D guy was September 12, 1987. Just looking at that is harrowing. Today they said Ravens' QB Joe Flacco has won something like 60 games for the Ravens since they drafted him.
That's over a period of five seasons.
We haven't had a single solitary win from a Chiefs D&D guy for 26 years.
And I also thought of this. When was the last time we actually had a really good solid QB performance from a Chiefs D&D guy in a game? That game Sept 12 '87 was a classic Blackledge puke, we only won on the legs of Paul Palmer and Christian Okoye. It certainly wasn't the last-game win in '86 against the Steelers to get us into the playoffs -- all that was special teams, remember?
I mean, come on. When was it? I'm talkin' at least 30 for 40 passing, at least 320 yards, at least 3 TD's and at least 0 INT's. I am indeed asking right now very plainly: when was the last time a Chiefs D&D quarterback had a game like that? In fact -- oh this starts to get very gruesome --
Has there ever even been one?
See, you've really only got Mike Livingston, Steve Fuller, and Todd Blackledge to choose from here. Really, have any of those guys had that sterling performance that makes an entire team and city proud to have been led by a marvelous, talented signal-caller? And even if they did, how many times did it happen?
I shudder right now, I really do, I shudder to think.
Today Joe Flacco played like a champion, and sorry, but as the administrator of this depressing endeavor "The Quarterback Project" I can only still shake my head. It hurts, I tell you -- it hurts. I don't know what his actual numbers were for today's Super Bowl, I don't really care to look -- but I'd bet they were something along the lines of 30 for 40, 320 yards...
See, here's the thing. My latest foray into looking-at-all-this quarterback stuff is to see which QB's have been drafted and where, and I did it all the way back to the '70 merger. I found that very rarely do Round 3 or lower guys ever pan out. This year it looks like Russell Wilson is a keeper for Seattle, and yes, the Chiefs could have had him but, well...
I've also found that guys taken in Round 2 aren't really a whole lot better. Here are the Round 2 QB's drafted from 2006 to 2010, and now is the time these guys should be shining brightly as studly NFL quarterbacks: Kellen Clemens, Tarvaris Jackson, Kevin Kolb, John Beck, Drew Stanton, Trent Edwards, Pat White, Jimmy Clausen. Sorry, but none of these guys are lighting it up, and likely will not.
On the other hand in 2011 two guys were taken in Round 2 who are genuine QB studs: the Bengals' Andy Dalton and the 49ers' Colin Kaepernick. You may know this latter guy, he might be more familiar as the QB who merely led the Niners to the Super Bowl. They were both taken very high in that round, however, so it was almost as if they were first rounders.
Thing is, again, the Chiefs could've had any of them -- Flacco, Kaepernick, Dalton.
In 2011 instead of Kaepernick (who even though he was on the losing end played terrifically today, just by-the-way in case you didn't notice) we took Jon Baldwin at 26 overall (Kaeparnick was taken 36th overall). Now, if Baldwin can be coached to not try to make insanely goofy circus catches on every play (and we have the quarterback to make it easier on him) and he becomes as studly as a, say, Anquan Boldin, I'll eat my words. But come on...
Who'd you rather have on the Chiefs right now?
Then there is Joe Flacco, who was taken 18th overall in 2008. We took Glenn Dorsey with the 5th overall pick and Branden Albert with the 15th that year. Hey, I do kind of like these guys, my Chiefs' very, very deep red rose-colored glasses tell me that I do.
But wow. With our ruthless inability to get that D&D guy, we really should've picked up Flacco. And really! Come on! It wasn't like we had anyone really there who we had committed to! This was 2008!!! The guy we had in there was Tyler Thigpen and we actually thought Brodie Croyle was anything!
Yes, I know this sounds like sour grapes whining, spilt milk crying, yeah yeah. Yes I know this is all based on hindsight, everyone's an expert using that. But my goodness gracious glory-be -- the word I like (as it were) in all of this is ruthless.
Yes, the Chiefs have just been utterly, utterly ruthless in failing to get that drafted and developed quarterback.
Thing is I'm just not going to get into all I want to share with Quarterback Project stuff. There's more, but it'll have to wait. Lot's of things to get to, in due time.
For now I have to close with just some final thoughts about the Lamar Hunt biography I finished reading. It was quite engaging and I let the author Michael MacCambridge know in an email. He graciously replied which was really cool.
Yes, as you know I went into this read just asking what in the world could it have been about Lamar that has had the Chiefs so miserable with their pro football success over the many years. And yes I did see a number of confirmations, many of which were amplified by MacCambridge's exposition. I have to believe his obsessive involvement with all the pro tennis and pro soccer stuff kept him from really being in more of the details of Chiefs success. I have to believe that his terrible involvement in his brothers' silver manipulation scheme was also a prominent factor.
There was a very brief anecdote MacCambridge shared which really stood out to me that demonstrated the results of Lamar's -- for want of a much better word -- negligence. He'd written that when Carl Peterson took over in 1989, he had to completely revamp the entire Chiefs culture. MacCambridge spoke of a Bible study several employees were holding, and people from the new administration had to just stand them up and tell them what's what.
Now Bible studies are great -- I'm a Christian man myself -- and I think Bible studies can be had with fellow employees when the time is appropriate. I'm sad that it was about a Bible study that the woeful condition of the Chiefs culture had to be exposed. The idea: Have a Bible study when you have a Bible study...
But when working on the job for the Chiefs be doing that.
I'm sorry, Lamar being preoccupied with so much of that other stuff just killed our team. I really believe that.
To his credit however, it was very encouraging to read about his very fond affection for the team, for Kansas City (I don't think for a second his being loosely based in Dallas had anything to do with any Chiefs badness), for Arrowhead Stadium, for the fans, and for everything that could be labeled Chiefs. Yes, very sadly, I think he just did a poor job of administrating as an owner.
But I have to say that his devotion to the Chiefs and to pro football did do a lot of wonderful, positive things. No matter what, I will always have the most tremendous amount of respect for Lamar as a person, as a professional, and yes as our founder and owner.
This does lead to the final thing in the post. (Wow, can't believe I'm holding up this long. It's already 3:15 in the morning. But I'm still not sleepy. Ergh...)
That final word is that Lamar was indeed such a fine, decent, and just flat-out awesome individual. That he was driven to succeed and seek excellence in everything he touched, there is nothing but respect anyone can have for him and his legacy. Here's the really, really great thing about that, for us right now...
His son.
Clark does seem to me to have a lot of those traits, and he's still young and ambitious. As I wrote earlier the more football he can master, the better the Chiefs will be. That he was so courageously forceful about taking care of business after the Scott Pioli implosion just shows that the very best of Lamar will translate into Chiefs success...
And even more.
Until April when we can officially name Leon Sandcastle as our No. 1 Superstud!...
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