Now, before I go any further, the overwhelming concern for Eric Berry is light-years above anything football or Chiefs. We are praying for him and for his healing, for his family and for the medical personnel, and for Eric's strength of which we know he has a great abundance. Eric, just Eric, is the one in our thoughts and prayers.
But the fact is, I only know Berry though my appreciation of the Chiefs. I don't know him personally, I don't have to know him personally to care about him as a Chiefs player, and as such I look at things in terms of the Chiefs. Again, I'd like Eric Berry to be extraordinarily healthy and successful at whatever he does even if he had nothing to do with the Chiefs, but because he's on the Chiefs his success and Chiefs success are in many ways one in the same.
This is where I just think about our Chiefs.
Yes, as you know if you've been reading this blog, I tend to be very intense and think of things in terms of great magnificent events and eventualities. I fastidiously try to figure out everything and try to get at what's going on with everything, and because I'm a passionate Chiefs fan, I'm always thinking about what this Chiefs thing is and what that Chiefs thing is and what this other Chiefs thing is, really, truly, actually. If you think this type of analysis is overblown or melodramatic or even rabidly obtuse, I can understand, I can.
With that in mind, you can probably figure where this is going.
What in the world is going on with the Chiefs and their tragic history?
I know I know, lots of pro football players have nasty injuries and terrible misfortunes. Every team has their own history of bad shit happening to players and all that, Yes, I know, at least the Chiefs have a Super Bowl trophy in their glass cabinet -- the Lions Browns Bills Chargers Eagles Falcons Vikings Jaguars Panthers Bengals Cardinals Titans Texans still don't have one. I know I know I know...
But damn.
The crappy things that happen to too many of the Chiefs players just seem to be so... I don't know, so... crappy.
What is the litany now? Stone Johnson Mack Lee Hill Joe Delaney Derrick Thomas Jovan Belcher... I'm probably forgetting some. Yes I know Eric Berry is alive and battling this and I know he'll beat it, I know. It's just that when I hear these things I go, what is the deal with the Chiefs?
Are we just not supposed to do well?
There is an old Twilight Zone episode that just makes me think about this. Three astronauts are in a hospital room, one of whom is lying in a bed recovering from something that happened on their spacecraft's re-entry. One of them is starting to freak out, convinced that all of what they're experiencing at the moment should not be happening, that somehow, someway, they all should've died. As the episode proceeds, each of the three astronauts "disappears" with no one believing they even existed at all.
It is a very weird, very odd, and yes, very creepy story.
Sorry, but I think of this whenever I think of the Chiefs.
We did win that Super Bowl on January 11, 1970, and deservedly so.
But damn, are we damned to never be successful ever again? Did it have something to do with Otis Taylor probably stepping out-of-bounds as he caught that pass from Len Dawson throwing from the end zone that got them a key 1st down in the 1969 AFL championship game against the Raiders? Thing is even if the officials rule the pass incomplete, that doesn't mean the Raiders should instantly assume they'd have done anything with that 4th down after that. Yeah, I hear Raiders fans say that would've shifted the game in the Raiders favor and all that. Hey, Raiders fan, remember, the Chiefs still won 17-7.
My point is, was there some crazy hex put on us because of something that happened that shouldn't have happened in some supernatural sense? Or something that did happen that shouldn't have? I've called it the Curse of Odin. Vikings, Raiders, something else, I dunno... But I do know this: Look at our postseason efforts since then. Abysmal. Look at much of our regular season efforts, except for the 90's and what could be a Chiefs renaissance right now -- also pretty abominable. Look at our drafted and developed quarterback situation, I've gone bananas detailing that and all the commensurate horror associated with it. I'm about to do the same with our wide receivers history. It appears very, very ugly.
Our draft classes as a whole? Most of them... ::Whimper:: Now to be fair, some of our recent draft classes have been pretty damn good actually. On the other hand, I've made special mention of the awful 2009 draft class. Well, you know who the only player we have that made the 2010 class anything worth a darn? Yeah...
Eric Berry.
Otherwise that one was pretty crappy too.*
You just can't be Super Bowl contending quality footballers when that is happening, you just can't.
I think the Chiefs will play inspired football Sunday, a lot because of Eric Berry. I also think they have enough talent and coaching to beat the Broncos, I really do.
But it just takes so much to beat that nfnking curse, I'm telling you.
By the way, as I said, we saw Interstellar, and it was fun, engaging, though there was the terrible issue of the time continuum paradox, which the movie couldn't resolve -- most movies can't. Kind of annoying.
It made me think of one thing related to that, and that was how the future humans could use their knowledge of multiple dimensions to allow present humans to rescue mankind from environmentally oriented destruction. One thing they did was put a wormhole in space so they could travel to other worlds to find good ones to populate.
Now, here's my question. If they could mess with dimensions of space and time, why didn't they just put the wormhole right outside the front door, here, on planet earth? Why put it way out next to Saturn? Derrr...
Well, yeah, the obvious answer is, there wouldn't be a movie, would there? Yeah, yeah, smart-aleck.
But the main reason is this.
If God made it so we just had everything, instantly, and we didn't have to lift a finger to do stuff --
How boring would life be?
It's why we compete in things like football games, and why we join up with other fans to root for our boys out there battling and battling.
It may also be why Eric Berry has this thing. I'm not saying cancer is anything good at all. I do struggle with the idea that hardships have to be in our lives so we can overcome them, I do, don't get me wrong.
But then...
Eric is going to battle now like he's never battled before, and whatever Chiefs are involved or anything, that's the part that makes him stronger and wiser and better, no matter what happens. And hey, we can pray like crazy for him too. That's a good thing.
And maybe that's the good thing God wants the most insane Chiefs fans to get in all this. Yeah we want wins. Wins wins wins wins wins. Maybe even a playoff win. Ahh, a playoff win...
But maybe being best is about a lot of other things -- way more important things than we can ever know. Maybe we're supposed to know that.
Maybe that's what we're supposed to do well with.
__
*To be fair, that class had Dexter McCluster, Javier Arenas, Jon Asamoah, and Tony Moeaki, all good players at one time for the Chiefs. Thing is now they're all gone, so that 2010 class for the Chiefs at this time is pretty meaningless, except of course for Eric.
__
No comments:
Post a Comment