What is mind-blowing is how few see what's really going on to derail the Chiefs future chances, and it has nothing to do with whether or not we have this guy or that guy. It also affects the chances of every team not the Cowboys or Patriots or other heavily favored team among any of those who have richly established the privilege of deciding who gets what success in professional sports leagues.
Here's a simple way to put it.
The NFL absolutely HATES that Patrick Mahomes did not end up on the New York team, whichever one.
The Jets, for one, are an interminably mismanaged train wreck, but wow, what if Mahomes were on that team -- and what lucre that would mean. As it is he's on that annoying podunk Midwestern team getting a pittance of the coverage they'd get if there were way more fans tuning in.
It is that simple.
For one, look at how insane the whole Mahomes family personal life coverage has been. Sure that stuff appears pretty crazy -- what with brother Jackson and wife Brittany doing this or that -- the real insanity is that whatever it is is spilled out and about on social media or wherever it is is supposed to be any of our business. So Jackson wants to be a TikTok star and is failing miserably. So what? Rumors fly about how distracting they are to Mahomes' success -- ahh, so that's what caused his poor play in the AFC Championship Game. Riiight...
Still, all of that crap makes the NFLers very happy. I think I'll just employ that epithet for all of them so it is clear of whom I am speaking. The NFL execs, the advertisers, the various other marketing interests, and especially the powerful gambling and identity politics interests. They're the "NFLers."
And they have absolutely no interest in having the Chiefs appear in playoff game after playoff game after playoff game, let alone any playoff games. Other fans, even my beloved fellow Chiefs fans, continue to blow this off. It'd be nice if there were a few who'd look around.
Once again, Clay Wendler and/or whoever at the Chiefs Kingdom Editorial Board actually did look and wrote about the tension on the sideline in critical playoff moments. It was veritable, palpable, and ostensibly counterproductive. Damn, just look at that second half of the Bengals playoff game. Really. Please. Yet Wendler felt forced to remove the piece. "Let it go. Fughedabouddit. Don't make a big deal of it. It's over. Move on."
Erggh.
To try to deflect, the Chiefs went ahead and rehired Eric Bieniemy. Huh. I just wonder. I must emphasize I don't have anything against Bieniemy, I just don't know enough about him and them and there are so many things other things adversely affecting our team -- more in a moment. Thing is I'd heard they'd brought back Matt Nagy as QB coach, who worked with Mahomes in his early days. The word is that this was a move specifically made to take the heat off the Mahomes-Bieniemy issues, give Nagy a bit more of a say...
I'd really like to think this will help. As a fan I will hope it does. I always do hope. I always do root and cheer and believe...
Above all I always hope Brett et al will kick ass in overcoming what is up against them.
As in, this. Here it is, a link to a piece that lays out precisely how patently evil that gambling connection is. I'm sure there are others, and I'd like to think there are some out there who courageously and articulately get deep into how the gambling thing absolutely destroys the competitive integrity of the sport. Absolutely. Yep, I'll cheer for my Chiefs, I really will.
But as much as I do my head too will be stuck reeeally deep in the soot-smeared sand, just as much as every other Chiefs fan's head.
I guess I just can't figure why reasonably observant people can't just get, among all the other things gambling associations mess with, is the simple fact that ten million New York team fans betting is faaar better to NFLers than a million Chiefs fans betting. And this fact alone makes it so somehow, someway, Chiefs brass is told in no uncertain terms no matter how profoundly implicit that message gets to them that they really better not beat the Bengals in a widely televised playoff game by the 56-3 score they would have beaten them had there not been those particular "protocols" in place.
Here's the other thing that drags the the bruised and bloodied body of integrity all up and down the yard. I've included a screenshot of an image Seth Keysor posted to make the football-oriented point about the critical play that should have been a touchdown but was a strip-sack-fumble -- fortunately recovered by us but forcing Butker into a something-like 78-yard field goal attempt, which he did make to tie the game. Keysor deftly went over the play, doing a fine job as he always does, I mean, you can see it.
Besides having a wide-open field to the right for wonderful scrambling activity -- something I'd mentioned myself in an earlier post -- Mahomes has got McKinnon breaking free in the flat on the left, he's got Kelce with a nice seam there in the middle, if he does scramble to his right he's got other options opening up... Otherwise... just a photo of abject aggravation, truly. And it isn't even Mahomes just enduring a bad play. All the great ones have bad plays, even at the worst times. We all forgive him for that.
Yet again it'd be nice for people to step up to the plate and call this shit out for what it is. I've shared this several times before and I can't emphasize this enough: The spiritual and moral dynamic does play a prominent role. It just does.
Sure the Bengals and the other NFL teams have that stuff splashed all over their fields and uniforms and so forth, but here it is pretty boldly displayed at Arrowhead.
The Chiefs are not without their culpability in it.
This "social justice" thing has nothing to do with justice. In fact is is truly injustice. Much of it has to do pronouncements -- in this case from the Chiefs and NFLers -- against people they do not know regarding how racist they are presumed to be. Let's call it what it is, please. There is nothing wrong with seeking just and moral behavior among those with whom we have to do, and that includes ensuring people are not suffering discrimination for inconsequential differences.
This is not that.
I'm just not going to get into all the details of an issue that is wrecking the social fabric of our country right now (here's a place to look at it a bit more). Yet the NFLers are all aboard the woke locomotive. They believe they are very well intentioned but all it is is powerful rich people virtue-signaling out of their rear ends, and plastering that stuff on places like this doesn't do a lick of good for the people who they think they're helping, it just doesn't.
Again, it is just manifest spiritual dissipation on the football field that negatively impacts game events. And for those who think I'm just moralizing and being judgmental and all that, please remember that when something happens that they don't like, they are all over that. Remember when Kareem Hunt was considered to have abused a young lady and lied about it? I'm not saying it didn't happen when I use the word "considered," the point is those who considered Hunt did a bad thing were all over him, and he was severely disciplined. Released, even faced charges, all the rest of it.
How is that judging any different? How is any way people dismiss or censure Chiefs-oriented people for the things they don't like any different? Seems to me a lot of people are ripping Jackson and Brittany new aye-holes, every day it seems. Again, I could detail the ways identity politics is truly the evil that it is, let's have that conversation.
In fact, it appears the NFL has actually done a lot of backtracking on its identity politics showcasing, a lot of that certainly because many fans really don't like being called racists. Some might be racists -- great, let's work at ending it. But to put the words that were painted onto the back of that Arrowhead stadium end zone means you are making grave assumptions about things you simply cannot make.
Well, I'm getting too deep into making the case. I urge you to look deeper into what is really going on here, and I'm hopeful the Chiefs and the entire NFL will go much farther at ending this travesty. I don't know if they will because there are still too many racialist voices out there pounding away at this, making too many powerful institutions feel the pain of not formally acceding to their unrighteous demands.
There is a lot of it, it can be overwhelming.
And there is so much more, so much we aren't seeing, and it does go far beyond a simple game on a field. As I shared in a previous post, I'm afraid the NFLers have turned the game into WWE wrestling. I actually do wonder how many pro wrestling fans believe what they're watching is not scripted, that it is real. Seriously, how many? Might there not be a few?
::Sighhh::
I can't say I don't feel the NFL is now completely scripted in some fashion.
So what's the point.
Just riffing a bit on things I feel, that's all.
Guess there's that.
Maybe some will actually take to heart the value of conversing about truthful things.
Maybe.
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