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.
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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