With that in mind, I'm going to simply put down 30 things -- observations, notes, remarks, exuberant outbursts (of course!). One mention for each of the 30 points we scored yesterday. I'm just going to jot them down, generally, in the order on my scratch paper there.
I must say that as I write this, the air show at the nearby airport is happening, and those World War II military planes are roaring by overhead. Last year I wrote a post at exactly this time of the year about how they remind me of the reason we are so immersed in all this. So, without further ado...
30-0.
1-0. Yes, we scored 30, but all we needed was one point. All the complete "three phase" elements of the Chiefs contributed to this one. With a 30-0 win, it really felt like the Chiefs Kingdom -- players, coaches, fans, bandwagon-jumpers, observers, anyone who has their sights on all things Chiefs -- got to rapturously experience all of the horror and pain from the many years past vomited up on that football field yesterday. I know that sounds very perverse, but the history of the Chiefs is a gruesome one, and yesterday a profoundly meaningful purging occurred in all its colorfully red and gold glory.
2-0. I must take this moment to offer up as humble a mea culpa as I can, and apologize to two individuals in particular: Andy Reid and Alex Smith. For the entirety of the 5-game losing streak I stood by them, until the Minnesota game. Then I jumped ship. It was shameful. Yes, I confess, I called for Reid and Smith's heads. I know some others did too, but that's no excuse. I was right there with them.
Now I must say that my best friend and I have for years held that a principle called earnest ragging does have some major impact. It is truly a strange phenomenon, but if you authentically criticize a player, somehow someway he tends to play well after that. You can't do it knowing you're trying to make him better by virtue of the "ragging", it must be sincere, it must be earnest.
Well, I have to say, my ragging of Reid and Smith was extremely earnest. For that one time, I gave in to it, for what I thought were good reasons. I'd claimed Smith didn't have the Got-It, comparing him to Tom Brady and not-very-favorably I might add (how about that, we play against Brady next week). I called for the Chiefs to find a spiffy new innovative genius coach to step in and make things splendid in Kansas City -- little do I understand that those kinds of coaches don't just grow on trees.
Needless to say, Reid and Smith have been godsends for us, and for what they did this year, just so far, they should easily be in the Chiefs Hall-of-Fame. There could be more of what they can do! Thank goodness I don't run the team, Clark Hunt does, and thank goodness he's firmly expressed his commitment to them for a long time. Awesome.
3-0. Curse dispelled! Demons exorcised! Odin had his bell rung today and it was clear, a team that is solid from top to bottom, a team on a ferocious mission to demonstrate great football out there by great football players is no match for any curse.
4-0. Got-It fully demonstrated! There is no question this team showed it has that extra intangible that is critical for teams to succeed in the postseason.
5-0. Back in September I put up a season preview post titled "No Worries". In the midst of that 5-game losing streak I thought, ergh, there should've been a lot more to worry about. But as I look back at that post, I realize that all the things we had confidence in related to this team were true. We can't forget that we lost the Broncos and Bears games because of crazy things you just have to get over. This team was finding its way, and after Minnesota, we did.
The only thing is that two of the "Should be worried about but not" items were "Injuries" and "Wide Receiver". Right now we're all still holding our breaths about what the Jeremy Maclin injury situation is, but it does not look good. Thing is, if he's lost to the team with an ACL related issue, we can still bank on two things. One the Chiefs have the smarts and depth to adjust, and two, we have the Got-It to keep making it happen. I mean, look at Maclin himself after the injury. He was carted off the field in tears.
Oh yes we need Maclin out there, playing. But dang.
We need him just to be on the team period.
6-0. I knew, I knew -- and really, I can't see how anyone who even knows a bit about pro football didn't know -- that the Texans were not going to win with the quarterback situation they had. Brian Hoyer is just not the guy who was going to get them to the promised land. Even the curse we've had against us in playoff action could not keep the kind of defense we have from shutting down this guy.
My son conveys this to us all. Oh no, we all think. What happened. So we go ahead and get to the game. We're all nervous, all thinking Knile fumbled the kickoff. Sure enough we're watching. He catches it six yards deep into the end zone. He runs up field to his left and -- oh no -- stumbles a bit. In that millisecond my brain is registering when the ball is coming out. But in the very next millisecond, he's gone.
Wow.
I know I'm going to want to write more and more and more. There's 23 more points to go! So much more fun! I so want to get to it, but I've stuff I've got to get to. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to make this an ongoing endeavor. This is officially PART ONE, let's just do that.
23 more wonderful beautiful spectacular Chiefs scoring points to go!
(Click here to continue on to Part Two!)
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