Chiefs 2019 Preview - Part II

Have you and your Chiefs fan cohorts ever talked about which playoff loss was the most painful? Was it either of the worst Dolphins games, '71 or '90? Was it any of those wretched Colts games, '95, '03, '13? How about that horrific Broncos game from '97? Steelers '16? Titans '17? These are the worst, really -- so many of them. 

Do you remember that splendid regular season-nightmare of a postseason Chiefs '90s decade? We were in the playoffs on seven different occasions in those ten years, and won a grand total of three playoff games. We had a better regular season record that decade than the Dallas Cowboys -- the team that originally formed specifically to put a Texas-sized hurt on Lamar Hunt simply for wanting to have a pro football team -- and the Cowboys won three Super Bowls over that time.

No one should ever have to endure a decade like that. It is unlikely any team could, it is really hard to have such good regular season records yet have so many one-and-outs.

Well, the Chiefs are about to have another decade just like that one, again. In case you haven't noticed, so far in this decade we've made the playoffs six times and won a grand total of two playoff games, at this point a worse ratio playoff-appearances-to-playoff wins than in the '90s.

This doesn't just happen.

So again, assuming we're merely a hard-luck tough-breaks snake-bitten NFL franchise: which playoff loss do you consider the most wrenchingly heartbreaking? I've thought about it sometimes, and gone back and forth between this one and that one, and realized something, really.

No, the worst one is always the last one we had.

Always. Every time.

You see, after a bad playoff loss you agonize (mostly unnecessarily) about it over the course the off-season (aren't we used to that), then there is another fine Chiefs regular season (most times) to make you forget about it and you say to yourself, "We've got this this time!" We get to enjoy a spectacular season very much like this past 2018 affair -- definitely one of the best ever, certainly -- then...

The heartbreak.

So yeah, that AFC Championship debacle is now the worst playoff loss we've ever endured. And you know? When you look at the horrific officiating calls impacting our game yet again, I do believe the case can be made objectively it was one of the worst.

I've mentioned that neutral zone penalty on Dee Ford more times than anyone, but I thought about another rotten consequence of that event. I discovered it watching just a couple plays of this new Alliance of American Football thing. I tuned in for a bit doing some down-time channel surfing and sure enough, as the teams lined up for a play one of the defensive linemen was lined up in the neutral zone. The play went off, and as usual, no flag.

So yeah, now guess what? Guess what's going to happen this upcoming NFL season every single time, among the dozens of times I see anyone lined up in the neutral zone, the play continues unabated?

Every single freakin' time I'm going to be going,

"There's another player lined up in the neutral zone -- yep -- there he is, way over the line, annnd, no flag. That's nice." 

Once again I don't care that it's not called. Let the game go on. It just isn't that big a deal. Don't stop the game all the time for that. If anything have the line judges give the players some help. Tell them to scoot back a bit -- I'm sure they do that all the time anyway.

Just don't call it on us costing us a legitimate chance to win the biggest game of the season, one of the biggest in the history of the franchise, when officials themselves like to boast that they are all about not being the ones deciding games. Please.

The NFL's disdain for the Kansas City Chiefs extended into the signing of Kareem Hunt by the Cleveland Browns last week. It was indeed bound to happen, we all know, but it doesn't make it any better. Again, the NFL should have taken care of business back in February of 2018 when there were all those issues they needed to address, and then ensure Hunt do all the apologizing and make all the amends and start all the counseling and all that. Because of the NFL's brazen ineptitude and borderline duplicity the Chiefs were pressured and forced to release a franchise-caliber running back.

Once again, I've shared this before, but it bears repeating: if what Hunt did was so egregious, he should be out of football, permanently. Why isn't he, NFL? You dropped the ball on that one, or better, you dropped the Chiefs. If what Hunt did wasn't so bad, why isn't he still on the Chiefs? Why is he now helping win games for another team? You screwed us there too, NFL.

Taking nothing away from Damien Williams, I think he did great. Taking nothing away from Clark Hunt, I think sending a message that the Kansas City Chiefs organization is a top-notch above-board enterprise instilled a deeper sense of pride in the Kingdom. Taking nothing away from Brett Veach, I think our fine GM, maybe even picking up someone like Le'Veon Bell, will take care of business wonderfully.

But a colleague of mine who's pretty keen to NFL things told me he felt if the Chiefs had Kareem Hunt, we don't lose that AFC Championship game. He may be right. I just think if the NFL didn't have it in for this awesome Kingdom-strong entity The Kansas City Chiefs, that we'd not only be celebrating a Super Bowl Championship right now, but we may very well have at least a couple more trophies in glass cases showcased at Arrowhead.

And I just think, forgive me, uggh, what will happen in 2019 when a rejuvenated 9-7 Browns team comes to face the 15-1 Kansas City Chiefs in a divisional playoff game, and the Browns just go off with Kareem Hunt and... ::shudder:: ...That'll be seven playoff appearances -- again, just as in the 1990s -- yet this time a scant two playoff wins total for the decade of the 2010s.

Why do I write about all this stuff, above and beyond my perhaps, granted, too-obsessive passion for the Chiefs? Why do I continue to put this stuff into my blog when, my word, damn, WE GOT PATRICK MAHOMES DANG-IT! It is because, honestly, I'd love to see a bit more fight from the Kingdom. I'd like to see a bit more than just "Oh well." "Yeah that was ugly but so." "They bested us again wait until next year." "Stop your whining." "We lost so get over it." "Don't complain so much we had a good year." "Don't be such a conspiracy nut."

I'm sorry, but I happened to see New Orleans fans really fight for their team when they got robbed in the NFC Championship game. Banners and signs were up everywhere. There were people urging a boycott. Some were suing the NFL. Many even insisted the commissioner kick in Rule 17, Article 2, Section 1 to simply change the score to reflect what should have been or to replay the game after the point when the foul should have been called.

Sorry, I love the Kingdom, but, ahem, where were all the Chiefs stakeholders doing the same for their team?

Again, I'm not in any way advocating for any special privileges. Don't try to make up for calls (as they did against the Rams in the Super Bowl -- everyone knows that the officials did that!) Just get the calls right, and for that matter help make that happen by putting two officials in the booth with television monitors and original call ability.

How many people in the Kingdom, indeed people who have any interest in the integrity of pro football, are calling for this plain, simple, obvious solution?

::Sigh::

It's time to close this preview -- and yes, this is still a sort of a preview because yet again the one key thing that would keep this now juggernaut of a team from winning next year is, yet again, another crazy-ass stupid NFL-propelled thing that destroys the Chiefs. Will that happen next year?

Well, Patrick Mahomes is indeed one thing that may very well keep that from happening. Awesome. So to add the positive to this post, I was looking up the latest from Jon Bois over at SB Nation, see what he was up to, and I found this.

"Patrick Mahomes was not meant for our stupid little television sets."

It is worth looking at. Check it out -- take your time, savor it -- it is a tremendous amount of fun. Just the idea that a standard-width television is not big enough to capture the size of Mahomes' contribution to pro football excellence. Bois comes up with the most amazing sports things, and yes, he's a Chiefs fan.

So as we get ready for the next delightful agony-eliminating regular season, we can now still revel in the amazing exploits of our future Super Bowl championship field general.
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Chiefs 2019 Preview - Part I

How awesome is this. How fun it is to legitimately begin previewing the 2019 season merely one day after the 2018 season ends, what with all the authentically exciting hopes and dreams all in the Chiefs Kingdom have for the future. There will certainly be a few more "Season Preview Posts" to come through the year, they're already flying through the cyberwaves from many Kingdom web locations. Why wait until August!

A couple of splendid Chiefs items for now.

First, what a ding-dong operation this NFL is. Everyone everywhere knew the showcase event should have been the Chiefs-Saints in the Super Bowl. Both teams are much more exciting than the Patriots-Rams, and yesterday's dud of a game proved it. The punt-a-thon earned some of the lowest ratings ever, yet this featured two of the largest media-darling markets in the nation. To the Patriots credit, Bill Belichick is a genius defensive game-planner, give him his due. Add to this the Rams offense being so unimaginatively stale -- no wonder the game was pathetic.

The NFL just doesn't get it. The whole tenor of the championship games was to get the Patriots and Rams in the big game, but the NFL is so tone deaf that they even went out of their way, mostly though the influential officiating, to get that Pats-Rams matchup. I know I've beaten this issue to death, but I can't help it.

All they had to do was make the calls the way they should have been made. For both the Saints and the Chiefs. This is why again, I'm hoping like crazy they get those two officials in the booth with monitors to just help get those calls correct, period. Maybe they will do that now, here's to hoping.

As it was, the pitiful ratings for a Super Bowl wasn't just because of the game itself. The NFL doesn't seem to realize that often those large markets are made up of millions of fair-weather fans who have so many other things to do than sit around in front of what was destined to be a bore. Sure it's great to have your team in the Super Bowl every other year for 18 years, but Patriots fans and those tired of seeing them there just don't stay tuned in. Now I don't think for two seconds that reality should have had an impact on influencing the Chiefs to be there, remember, they would have been there anyway if the officiating was just plain genuinely on-the-level.

The Rams for their part have a million fans who simply are not sold on this team since it left Los Angeles twice, once for Anaheim, and then from the area altogether to St. Louis. They only very recently returned, and I'm sure many think they got into the Super Bowl (1) because they lucked out on a non-call that if called would have had them all watching the Saints in the Super Bowl instead, and (2) the NFL angled to get them in to re-sell the team for Angelenos so their spectacularly expensive stadium will pay off, as well as to rake in the future earnings for the NFL from all of that. I think some fans are kinda put off by the reality that the Rams don't care as much about them as they do about the financial largesse the rich-and-powerful will receive from it all.

I'm not saying at all that the fans of either team were apologizing for their participation, by any means, it is just they knew. They still knew. I live in the Los Angeles area myself and I could tell, they knew.

Yes I don't mind confessing I do look at the Chiefs with the thickest ruby-red rose-colored glasses, but I honestly think objectively: the Chiefs are different. The Kingdom is different. You could say people may just start getting on board with it, sensing our team starting to become the media darling so many others have been, seriously considering that we'll finally get our breaks. Perish the thought. I would enjoy the Chiefs having a following as big as a Packers or a Steelers, but I want our wins to come because we've earned them -- do us no favors NFL and your slanted officiating.

Just make the calls right wherever they are made. That's all, just not too much to ask. If anything, sure, we definitely deserve to have that privilege in light of the past history of ridiculously inane postseason incidences far too often related to the exasperating officiating. Don't even refuse to further mess with Chiefs things just because we're the latest ratings inflators.

Just leave us alone. Yes you've got a team here now that'll earn the NFL tons of respect and attention and moola. But leave us be, let us make this happen, we're good to go.

We got this.

I mostly just wanted to share here these two items. This one is about the sheer numbers of those expressing their sentiments through social media what we all knew so well -- Pats-Rams paled in comparison to what we would have enjoyed if it was Mahomes vs. Brees. What a disappointment -- thanks a lot NFL.

Then there was this one, a delightful narrative of the game that should have been. How awesome is this. Savor it slowly -- you can easily see in your mind precisely all the splendor as it would have been. Yes, the author does have the Chiefs losing, but at least they participate in something incredibly amazing that everyone would've immensely cherished.

I can't neglect to include a note about Johnny Robinson getting into the Hall of Fame. Outstanding. Yes, Tony Gonzalez got in too, and that is just as marvelous, but we all knew that was going to happen. Robinson's induction means the Chiefs defense from the '69 championship team now has six Hall-of-Famers enshrined. Six. This rivals the great Packers defense of the '60s, the great Steelers defense of the '70s, and I don't think any others come close.

I have to add that major pro football chronicler and avid Chiefs fan Michael MacCambridge finally gave in and completed his work on those '69 Chiefs. I am so looking forward to its availability in October, right in the middle of the season marking the 50th anniversary of that momentous pro football season.

Real quick, too, was this. From the riveting present, to the glorious past, closing with the inspiring just-recent. Patrick Mahomes getting the MVP award Saturday night. Watching him give his speech, thanking God, acknowledging his teammates, Brett Veach, the organization, the Kingdom, and doing it with that boyish enthusiasm, wow --

That's much of the fun we get to enjoy through this year of wonderful anticipation for 2019.

Let's roll!
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