The Quarterback Project and the Kansas City Chiefs

A few nights ago the NFL Network ran one of its "Top Ten" shows. I'd seen some of that one before, and I'd noted on the web what a few of the top ten teams were in this episode. That ten?

The Top Ten Snakebitten Teams.

Funny, a full five of the ten were old-AFL teams. And sure enough, as expected, there at No. 9 was your favorite team and mine. I truly think we should've been much higher, but there are two reasons, two very good reasons why I believe it was down at the bottom of the top ten pack of unluckiest teams in the NFL.

One, the Chiefs do have a Super Bowl. The only other team on the list with a Super Bowl win was the Jets, but like the Chiefs -- who haven't been close to getting back since their '69 win over the Vikings -- they also have had wretched luck since their '68 miracle against the Colts. The other eight on the list haven't a single Super Bowl win, though the No. 1 team, the Browns, still had four NFL championships before the Super Bowl era. The Browns, however, have always been that smarmily loveable loser, kind of like the Cubs but in the NFL.

The second reason is the one that relates directly to The Quarterback Project. That reason is very simple. Indeed it is so simple that it is what I believe is the single most profound reason the Chiefs haven't come close to a Super Bowl since the merger, since 1969, yes, since their last glorious excursion to that realm.

That reason is that they've never had a drafted and developed quarterback of any true, lasting value.

In my last post, I detailed the D&D history of every single current NFL team since the establishment of the AFL in 1960. Since that time, every single team has at least one good quarterback in their history, one guy who that team has D&D'ed with some veritable, measurable success. Every one. The teams that haven't done well in the postseason (Seahawks, Eagles, etc.) have usually done the worst, while teams that are very successful (Steelers, Giants, etc.) have done the best. All of them, however, have had at least one -- most have had two or three.

The Chiefs have had none.

Zero. Zilch. Nada. And they are the only one among the 32 NFL teams. The only one.

Let's go over all of their top draft picks, and see. I'm not going over any of their lower picks through the years, mostly because they haven't panned out (obviously). Yes, it is no surprise at all, there has not been a Chiefs' Tom Brady among the Chiefs teams of the past, nope. But guys picked within the top three rounds? They should've been productive. At least one of them should've, sometime over the past fifty-plus years, just like it has for all the other teams. So here is every single Chiefs quarterback pick from rounds three on up in its entire existence.

Mike Livingston, 1968, 2nd round, 48th overall pick. This is the one guy that it could be argued was a successful D&D guy for the Chiefs. He did proficiently lead the Chiefs during their Super Bowl season when Len Dawson went down for a bit, even winning all six games he started. He did take the reigns of the team for much of the early part of the seventies. But I argue against him having truly lasting success simply because he never really took on the mantle of that starting quarterback, and his team's record during that time was abysmal. Was it largely the rest of the team's fault? Sure, but when he was solely at the helm, Livingston still didn't do enough and get us where we needed to go (zero winning records, zero playoff appearances), which was a meager period of about four years total.

David Jaynes, 1974, 3/66. Who?

Steve Fuller, 1979, 1/23. Ouch. 23rd overall, very highly touted quarterback, but truly a first round bust. He was around during that magical 1981 season when Joe Delaney ran all over the place, but he didn't do much. He eventually went to Chicago where he led the Bears to the '84 NFC championship game, but that was it. And that wasn't with the Chiefs, so...

Todd Blackledge, 1983, 1/7. Major ouch. I have to confess this guy was my favorite player at the time, simply because he looked like a quarterback. He carried himself as a leader, he had all the tools, he was bright, articulate, hard-working -- I cannot blame the Chiefs for drafting him when they did even with all the other guys (Kelly, Marino...) who were picked up after him. I was convinced he was going to develop into that one guy, finally finally finally. Let's be honest, everyone else thought so too. But the fact was that he simply could not work through a defense. He couldn't recognize coverages, he couldn't look off defenders -- he just couldn't do it. Sadly, the one NFL Films clip of him everyone probably knows about is one that was shown during that "Top Ten Snakebitten Teams" episode when they were showcasing (or I guess "lowcasing" as it should be) the Chiefs -- you know the shot, Blackledge is standing there in the shotgun, and right at the moment he looks to his left the ball is snapped and it smacks him in the face. ::Whimper:: ...

Mike Elkins, 1989, 2/32. Okay, this guy was going to be the one. Except, when I watched him play in that European league, I'm thinking, this is our highly touted quarterback? Wow, Chiefs management must see something special because I just don't see it. Sadly, all of us not-Chiefs-management were right.

Matt Blundin, 1992, 2/40. Awright awright awright, this guy has the be the one. Whereas Elkins was kind of a short guy, Blundin was a big, strong guy. He really looked like a quarterback. There is no way this can't be the guy. After all the wretched D&D luck we've had, it just has to stop here. It's our turn for at least one good QB we'll have for a while getting us into at least a few playoff games throughout his career... Not. One of the most aggravating things is something I really really try hard not to allow to get to me. That is comparing where we draft our losers against where other teams draft their winners. But I just have to point this out: Blundin was the third QB taken, second round, in '92 -- guess who was taken as the third QB (second round) in the 1991 draft? Brett Favre.

Brodie Croyle, 2006, 3/85. Yet again, I was very excited to watch him play in a nationally televised exhibition game against Miami, I'm pretty sure it was before the 2007 season. And sure enough, yet one more time, I'm watching this going, "This is the guy who's going to get us to the promised land?" Croyle was probably the most underwhelming of them all. He started ten games for the Chiefs, mostly as an injury replacement, and compiled an 0-10 record. His tenth against the Chargers last year was about as miserable a performance any quarterback could have.

Annnd, that's it. Thar ya go. Thuh end.

No one can reasonably argue that the Chiefs have not had the absolute worst record of D&D'ing quarterbacks. And you see, I believe for us to be higher on the snakebitten team list, you'd actually have to have had good solid D&D QB's getting you ever-so close to highly anticipated pro football glory and suffering through watching the spirits of the native American dead buried under Arrowhead Stadium mess with your team. Well, the Chiefs do have that, but they aren't doing it with any D&D QB's of any worth.

Why are those D&D guys so danged important to begin with?

Besides the fact that those guys are usually the ones who turn out to be the best simply by virtue of their talent, the most important reason is that high quality NFL play can only come through having all the cogs of the machine fitting together, all the parts assembled precisely, all the gears humming nicely -- everything moving forward together. Super Bowl contending teams need good quarterbacks who get lots of time to gel with everyone, indeed even power-up the whole operation, and they need to start from day one. When you've got quarterbacks always being plucked off the scrap heap and shoved and stuck and slotted into the team, there're going to be problems.

And the Chiefs have always done that. Always.

With that in mind, let's look at the quarterbacks they have had. Several of these guys were terrific players, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking all about them, but I want you to pay close attention to where they were originally drafted. I'm not going to cover all of them, but the following guys practically comprise our entire history of Chiefs quarterbackitude.

Steve DeBerg, Dallas '77, 10th round, 275th overall. DeBerg's time with the Chiefs was really his best in the NFL. His 1990 season was a thing of splendid wonder, it really was. And he should've had better. But look where he was originally drafted.

Bill Kenney, Miami '78, 12/ 333. I really did like Kenney, and he did play pretty well for us. He was actually a terrific passer. But again, look at where he was drafted!

Steve Pelluer, Dallas '84, 5/113. A great runner with lots of potential, he was definitely not the answer.

Steve Bono, Minnesota '85, 6/142. Most now believe that he benefited from being on a terrific team. He played miserably in the '95 playoff game and essentially wasn't heard from again.

Rich Gannon, New England '87, 4/98. Another guy who did well for us as a reserve, and even went on to Oakland to win an MVP in '02. Still, not a high D&D guy.

Elvis Grbac, San Francisco '93, 8/219. He actually did well (even making the Pro Bowl in 2000), but he just wasn't going to get us far in the playoffs. He plainly didn't get the job done in that horrific '97 playoff game against Denver. But yet again, look at where he was drafted!

Trent Green, San Diego '93, 8/222. How funny is that. Green was taken a mere three picks after Grbac. He is probably the best overall long-term guy on this list. But still...

Kyle Orton, Chicago '05, 4/106. Just had to include him here, just to note where he was drafted. Not high in case you were wondering.

Matt Cassell, New England '05, 7/230. Erck. 7th round, 230th overall. You are kidding me. And we sign him for a gazillion dollars thinking he's going to be the ::gulp:: next Tom Brady...

Tyler Thigpen, Minnesota '07, 7/217. He really was our number one guy for a number of games in that wretched stretch from '07 to '09. Big tough guy who could run and kinda throw but simply was not going to do much for us.

How many of these guys roared through the NFL, swatting other teams like gnats on their way to scintillating Super Bowl performances for great Chiefs glory? How many of them did any of that for any other team? Rich Gannon came close with Oakland, and the jury's still out on whether Orton (and I guess Cassel and Thigpen) will ever do anything, but with all due respect,

None of these quarterbacks were going to get us to the promised land because -- you know it: what is the message of The Quarterback Project?

Answer: They weren't originally selected by the Chiefs and deftly fine-tuned by an exceptional coaching staff. Not only that, but look at where they were drafted. People people people, the Tom Bradys of the world are so so so rare that you simply cannot ever trust that your figment of Tom Brady is ever going to pan out, that's all there is to it. Our latest illusion is Ricky Stanzi, a guy picked in the 5th round, 135th overall.

Are you kidding me?

McFly, McFly, are you paying attention McFly Pioli? Have you just not learned from the above extraordinarily detailed and painfully obvious information? Don't you see that not a single one of those guys running our offense year after year after year had ever been drafted by any team higher than 98th? 98th?! Haven't the Chiefs learned from many many many many far-too-many years of trying to spin gold from oatmeal?

So let's cut right to the core, right now. What is the most pressing issue with us right now?

We have the No. 11 pick in the draft. It just seems that Andrew Luck is going No. 1 and Robert Griffin is going very shortly after that. Will there be a Ben Roethlisberger or Aaron Rodgers there for us? There at No. 11? If indeed we are facing a situation where Luck and Griffin are taken and the next best guy is no better than a No. 124 pick overall, then we are looking at more years of having to endure the Curse of Odin's Revenge. (And as you know, I just don't know. I pay no attention to who's available where in the draft because it drives me crazy, as you can see from this post and reading what I do know...)

Granted, I firmly understand that Scott Pioli can't change the rotten Chiefs D&D quarterback luck we've always had. But I will just go really crazy seeing that we're going to try to do anything meaningful (i.e. go to a Super Bowl) with Matt Cassel or Kyle Orton or Ricky Stanzi or some clown we're signing who was originally a sixth round pick and who will get us all excited just because he's our newest Chief and who may even play marvelously in some games giving us a nice little thrill...

Except that he's not going to get us close to a Super Bowl and all of this is happening when there isn't that highly drafted guy back in the stable getting developed all the while.

You get the idea.

But I'm going to close out this whole thing with one last observation. A positive note. Since it just doesn't look good D&D quarterback-wise, I'm going to project Chiefs success another way. How about this.

I looked back at the very last game of the AFL. It was not Super Bowl IV, it was indeed the AFL All-Star Game, played the following Saturday at the Astrodome in Houston. January 17, 1970. Very little information is widely available about it, but I did find out that the final score was 26-3, the West over the East. The only players who scored were Chargers and Chiefs. Dick Post and Lance Alworth scored touchdowns, and a couple field goals were kicked by Jan Stenarud. But the final touchdown of the game was scored by Mike Livingston. Yeah! An All-Pro! He replaced an injured Len Dawson, and sure enough, he scored the very last points ever in any AFL related event (Stenarud's assumed PAT notwithstanding).

Fast forward to the All-Pro game, 2012, played as always in Honolulu. With a few minutes left the AFC is already pounding the NFC, and it is extraordinarily high-scoring because no one's really going all out to tackle anyone. Understandable, no one wants to get their best players injured -- fine.

But the NFC quarterback, I just don't remember who he was, throws an interception to San Diego's Eric Weddle, who then fumbles the ball. It is picked up by Kansas City linebacker Derrick Johnson, who then zigzags through the NFC quasi-tacklers on his way to yes, you got it, the last touchdown the AFC would score in the game.

Can you see what this means? I think this is the sign that the Curse has been broken, I really do.

I think this is the time the Chiefs are going to be that one AFL team that's going to take off -- they're poised to finally take care of business for the honor of the AFL, and begin to do great things for some time.

I think Scott Pioli is going to find a way to get the quarterback situation done. I think Romeo Crennel is going to repeat the Bill Belichick thing: do not-so-well with the Browns then go to a former AFL team and make it a powerhouse. I think our offensive line with Branden Albert and Jon Asamoah is going to be beast. I think getting Jamaal Charles back healthy will really fire up our offense, and getting Eric Berry back is going to make our defensive backfield impenetrable. I think Justin Houston is going to be amazing and make Derrick Johnson even better. I think Allen Bailey is going to add another dimension to our pass rush making Tamba Hali even better. I think we are going to put to good use some of the $30 million we have under the cap (at least this is what my uncle told me we had a while ago) and sign some guys who can really play well for us in key areas.

And I'm not kidding with this assessment. I'm not trying to make light of the significant impact of The Quarterback Project, because it is sobering. But I really think Pioli is taking no prisoners in building this team, and that just has to play itself out.

I still can't watch what happens with the draft, what we're doing with our quarterback issue, or anything else until opening day because again, it just kills me.

But then again, I can have some reasonable hope that it'll get done whether I'm watching or not.

See you in September!
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[Here is the first post in The Quarterback Project.]
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The Quarterback Project

I simply cannot stop thinking about how much the Chiefs have been destroyed through their many years of AFL-NFL play by not having a quarterback that they have drafted and developed. Because of this not-quite-so-consuming-as-it-seems obsession, I have taken some spare down-time to look a bit into the meaning of having that guy (or not having him as the most relevant case may be), and I have indeed come across some very interesting things.

First of all, back in October of 2008 after a game the Chiefs played against the Panthers, my blog post unofficially commenced The Quarterback Project when I discovered the extent to which a team truly must have a Hall-of-Fame caliber quarterback or you are just not going to have a chance to win the Super Bowl. Could your not-HOF QB get you there once and by chance get your team to win it? Sure, but I discovered those instances are very rare and very far between.

Here is that post, and I'm not going to repeat all the significant information here. I will say that since that post, I've slightly shifted a few of my considerations for who should be where. For instance, I've moved Peyton Manning up to the "Hall-of-Fame great" category, and while he and Tom Brady are still active, I don't think anyone could doubt they'll both be in the Hall. I also noticed a few of them are in the Hall but I don't have them at "10," but that's because I just don't think they rise to the greatness of that level -- people like Joe Namath and Bob Greise. Again, as I mention in the post, this is certainly up for debate, but I don't think anyone can argue with the general placement.

Anyway, here's that list again, updated for 2012: (* indicates still active)

10: (Hall-of-Fame great) Troy Aikman (3 Super Bowl wins all together), Terry Bradshaw (4), Tom Brady* (3), John Elway (2), Brett Favre (1), Peyton Manning* (1), Joe Montana (4), Roger Staubach (2), John Unitas (1), and Steve Young (1). 22 total Super Bowl wins among them.

9: (Hall-of-Fame great but not the greatest) Len Dawson, Jim Plunkett, Phil Simms, Bart Starr. 6 total Super Bowl wins.

8: (Near great) Drew Brees*, Eli Manning*, Kurt Warner. 4 total wins.

7: (Very good) Ben Roethlisberger*, Aaron Rodgers*, Joe Namath, Ken Stabler. 5 total wins.

6: (Good) Bob Griese, Jim McMahon, Joe Theismann, Mark Rypien, Doug Williams. 6 total wins.

5: (Average) Brad Johnson. 1 total win.

4: (Fair) Trent Dilfer, Jeff Hostetler. 2 total wins.

3: (Poor) No one

2: (Dirt poor) No one

1: (Worthless) No one

For the purposes of this particular post, to analyze the immense value of a drafted and developed quarterback, you'll see that of the 29 quarterbacks on that list, a full 20 of them (36 wins all together among the 46 Super Bowls so far) were drafted and developed by the team for which they won the title. I am counting John Elway and Eli Manning in that category, for even though they were not drafted by that team, after the draft they were immediately shipped off to the team, so they established themselves there as if they were. Once again, see the post for more qualifying information, but the main thrust of this post is the same as it is with all the others:

The Kansas City Chiefs.

Why haven't they even been in a Super Bowl since the merger? Since 1970? Since the last time they won the thing? Yes I am indeed very very very very very proud of them for that. But since then?

It has been abysmal. Let's face it. We've only even made the AFC Championship game once. Eeyralphh.

And the main main mainest answer of all?

They just haven't had that quarterback.

Now let me make this clear. There have been a number of quarterbacks that I have been extraordinarily proud to have lead our team. Don't get me wrong. Joe Montana is my favorite player of all time. Steve DeBerg's year in 1990 was, to me, one for the ages. Trent Green was brilliant for us, he really was. I could name a few others in several instances that just made a Chiefs fan proud. And I'm not even mentioning Len Dawson, but that almost goes without saying.

But here's the bazillion dollar question.

Do we actually want to win the Super Bowl or not?

So what I did to get some grasp of all this was to go through all the teams, just to see which team has had the worst time with drafting quarterbacks. Knowing about the Chiefs awful record of drafting and developing (D&D) quarterbacks of their own, I was sure they would be the worst. I found that indeed there were some other teams that were really, really bad with it, but after it is all said and done, I think I could confidently conclude that yes, indeed...

The Chiefs are the worst.

So, let's dive into The Quarteback Project and look at each team -- yes, I want to be exhaustive this time. Yes, all of this comprises my opinion, but I try really hard to align that opinion with the facts. If you disagree, let me know, fine, but I think you'll find that I do give the highest honor to the truth about things. And yes, if you are a resolute Chiefs fan, you'll probably need that resolve to shield you from the ugliness that is about to follow.

What I'm doing here is looking at all the quarterbacks drafted from 1960 when the AFL came into existence and was considered sort of an unofficial starting point of the modern era. Sure, some will say it was 1958 with the Colts-Giants "Greatest Game Ever," but that's close enough. I'm then going to just look at those quarterbacks -- I really focused on those in the top three rounds -- as well as a few others of note selected from other rounds to see how many of them each team has actually received some pretty decent mileage from.

There are the very rare Tom Brady's, but they are extraordinarily rare. I should say that as I went over the list, I was kind of surprised by the number of highly drafted QB's all over the place who themselves were complete busts. That is not surprising, though, when you think that in any professional team athletic endeavor, some players will just emerge as better than others. The "bad" ones may not have necessarily been that bad at all, it is just that we pay more attention and award more accolades to the better ones. We should also keep in mind the myriad situations where a QB is really pretty good but working with a rotten team that simply drags his entire reputation down with it, and the instances where an actually much-less-talented guy is blessed to have a high quality team around him.

The fact remains, however, that if you aren't going to get a guy somewhere in the top three rounds, somewhere among the top 100 players coming from the college ranks each year, you aren't really serious about getting to the promised land. And even then it really should be from among the top ten or twenty players at that.

But again, what is the observable record for each team getting good play from their own drafted and developed quarterbacks? Let's just do this alphabetically:

Arizona: They've had really only two good quarterbacks that they D&D'ed: Jim Hart and Neil Lomax. Hart was signed as a free agent just as if he'd been drafted and was pretty good for them through the 70's. Lomax (2nd round, 33rd overall) was a stud who I believe went to quite a few Pro Bowls. Matt Leinhart (1/10) and Kelly Stouffer (1/6) were their most notable busts.

Atlanta: This team was a beast with D&D'ing QB's, but they never got the best Falcons success from them. Matt Ryan (1/3) is their latest highly drafted guy, but he's been a bit disappointing so far. Their first solid D&D QB was Steve Bartkowski (1/1), who was terrific. Chris Miller (1/13) and Michael Vick (1/1) were also good QB's, and interestingly they drafted Brett Favre (2/33) and Matt Schaub (3/90) just before sending them elsewhere where they shined.

Baltimore: The main guy they got, have, and who has always taken them far is Joe Flacco (1/18).

Buffalo: Jim Kelly (1/14) was their main guy, and they also did well with Joe Ferguson (3/57) early in the 70's, but he was known mostly for just handing the ball to O.J. Simpson.

Carolina: Their big prize is Cam Newton (1/1), who just finished a fantastic rookie season. That team already has their super D&D guy.

Chicago: Rex Grossman (1/22) got them to the Super Bowl in '06 -- in fact do you know that Grossman is the last QB for a Super Bowl team who is not on that list above? Way back in '06?! That is, the losing QB's in the last five Super Bowls have been Brady, Roethlisberger, Manning P, Warner, and Brady -- all on the list of already super Super Bowl-winning QB's. Doesn't this say something to the value of those QB's?! The Bears also had Jim McMahon (1/5), Jim Harbaugh (1/26) (for a while), and Bobby Douglass (2/41) who was known mostly for his great running ability.

Cincinnati: Andy Dalton (2/35) is their rookie who had a terrific year, but earlier they got wonderful work from Boomer Esiason (2/38) and Ken Anderson (3/67). Greg Cook (1/5) deserves mention because he was an amazing QB who had his bright career ended by an awful injury. Busts may include Carson Palmer (1/1) who hadn't really done what was expected (he's now on the Raiders) and does include Akili Smith (1/3) and David Klingler (1/6).

Cleveland: Oh my oh my, who can forget Tim Couch (1/1) and Brady Quinn (1/22). Those two guys alone should make this the top worst QB D&D team, but sadly for them they can't claim that notoriety, because in 1985 they did get a splendid quarterback in Bernie Kosar, who practically abused the system to allow the Browns to get him through the supplemental draft. This team also got some decent play from Mike Phipps (1/3).

Dallas: Troy Aikman (1/1). Danny White (3/53). Roger Staubach (taken very low in the 1964 draft because his Naval commitment needed to be honored). Even Craig Morton did well for them.

Denver: One of the most revealing things The Quarterback Project has showed me was that when a team can get a super studly quarterback in the draft, they can actually use their high picks for the next several years to get guys that will help the team in other areas not quarterback. This was the case with the Broncos, who didn't draft John Elway (1/1), but it was as if they did because they plucked him right away from Indianapolis. He was so good for them that Denver didn't pick a high QB in the top rounds until '92, and even then, why? It was also very-not-so-great Tommy Maddox (1/25). Anyway, teams like the Broncos were so successful in large part because they truly could have that extra draft advantage for years. And I can't refuse to mention Tim Tebow (1/25), who for all the questions about his ability has still infused the NFL with a tremendous jolt of popularity.

Detroit: A poor QB drafting team to be sure (and their playoff record -- or non-record as the case may be -- demonstrates this). They still have Matthew Stafford (1/1) now, and he's been great when he's not been injured. They also got some decent play from Charlie Batch (2/60) and Greg Landry (1/11). Mention must be made of the whole Joey Harrington (1/3) mess that many believe belied his talent.

Green Bay: Aaron Rodgers (1/24), nuff said. Bart Starr was also a D&D'ed guy, and the Packers actually got good mileage from a number of lower drafted guys, like Don Majkowski. The way the Packers got Brett Favre made him almost a pure D&D guy, but he was actually in for a few plays with Atlanta for a season before being instrumental in making the Packers great during the 90's.

Houston: David Carr (1/1) was their big pick-up, but he played for a woeful expansion team. They haven't really been around long enough to see how much a good D&D'ed guy would mean for them. This year low drafted T.J. Yates was their third string guy who came in when Matt Schaub and their second-string QB got injured, and he still led them into the playoffs.

Indianapolis: Peyton Manning (1/1), nuff said. In fact, (to say more) the Colts have not drafted a QB anywhere near high since he was picked in '98. No wonder they've done so well. I should add, though, that they did also get good play from Bert Jones (1/2) in the early 70's.

Jacksonville: This team is one of those that just didn't draft QB's high. I noticed New Orleans and Washington were other teams that just didn't do that. They did get a major bust with Byron Leftwich (1/7). Since they've only been around for, what, 17 years, the D&D assessment range is very small. The first part of their history was taken up by expansion team pick-up Mark Brunell, who did great for them, and the second part by David Garrard who was a 4th round draft selection.

Kansas City: I'm going to save Kansas City for later. (Hey, why spoil all this fun looking at all these really good D&D'ed guys from allll the other teams?...)

Miami: Dan Marino (1/27), nuff said. Okay, I'm going to say more... and that more is Bob Greise (1/4). Nuff said now.

Minnesota: Fran Tarkenton is the obvious one, but you should also remember Tommy Kramer (1/27), who was a really good QB for them in the 70's, I think early 80's. Wade Wilson also did well for them, plucked in the eighth round. Daunte Culpepper (1/11) also had some early success for the Vikings, making a few Pro Bowls himself. By the way, are you noticing how many guys who stay with their original team for a bit and are at least a little bit good are mostly all first rounders? It kind of means something to have that one guy drop right into your hands in the the first round of the draft every once in a while, doesn't it?... (That whimper, just at the end of that statement, there, was from a Chiefs fan, by the way, just in case you didn't quite catch that...)

New England: Okay, do I have to say "Tom Brady, nuff said"? No, because I have to add Drew Bledsoe (1/1) (who still got them to the Super Bowl in '96), Tony Eason (1/15) (who got them there in '85), and Jim Plunkett who was a No. 1 overall pick who did okay in his rookie year but jettisoned only to eventually land in Oakland where he won two Super Bowls for the Raiders.

New Orleans: Archie Manning (1/2) was a phenomenal quarterback on a wretched Saints team.

New York Giants: They too have benefited from doing very well with drafting quarterbacks. Since 1960 they've only drafted three in the first three rounds. That's all they've needed, really. Phil Simms (1/7) from '79 got them a long, long way. They picked Philip Rivers (1/4) in '04, but instantly traded him for Eli Manning (1/1) who's won them two Super Bowls. Hey, even Jeff Hostetler (3/59), a back-up his entire time with the Giants, got them their '90 Super Bowl win.

New York Jets: Sure many people think Mark Sanchez (1/5) should be better, but ya know? He's still gotten the Jets to two consecutive AFC championship games, in '09 and '10. Chad Pennington (1/18) was good, and I think Ken O'Brien (1/24) was even better. I also think Richard Todd (1/6) was a fine talent -- I really liked watching how he fired the ball. And who was that other guy?... Um, Joe, somebody... Namath or something like that?...

Oakland: This is one team that could very well challenge the Chiefs in the bad QB drafting game, I have to admit. JaMarcus Russell (1/1), Todd Marinovich (1/24), Marc Wilson (1/15). Can't say I'm not unpleased. But hey, they still have it all over the Chiefs with their one, solid, D&D'ed guy, Ken Stabler (2/52).

Philadelphia: Donovan McNabb (1/2) was very good for them. So was Randall Cunningham (2/37). Yes, not the best overall Eagles quarterback showing through the years, but then, yet again, how many Super Bowls have the Eagles won?...

Pittsburgh: These guys haven't had just one great D&D QB, they've had two: Terry Bradshaw (1/1) and Ben Roethlisberger (1/11). Not fair. They also got some nice play from Kordell Stewart (2/60) and Neil O'Donnell (3/70), though I know how much Steeler fans loathe these guys for just not being Bradshaw or Roethlisberger. That's Steeler fans for you.

San Diego: Again, involved in the Rivers-Manning switcharoo, and while the Chargers haven't done anything Super Bowl-ish in Rivers' tenure, he has still been a spectacular quarterback for them. Throw in Drew Brees (2/32), Dan Fouts (3/64), and John Hadl and you have a very successful D&D team, the notorious Ryan Leaf (1/2) debacle notwithstanding.

San Francisco: As much as everyone lauds the Niners for getting such good play from such low-drafted Joe Montana (3/82), he was still picked in the third round, so it wasn't as if he should have been some kind of surprise. Alex Smith (1/1) is their guy now, and he's had a hard time of it with a very disjointed team. He did great this year under Jim Harbaugh and won a clutch playoff game against the Saints, so he may have it in him to do well for some time.

Seattle: This has been a poor D&D team, too, with a classic bust in Dan McGwire (1/16), except that they still have one good solid QB they can hang their D&D hat on: Dave Krieg. Undrafted, he still signed and worked his way to being one of the top QB's in the league.

St. Louis: Sam Bradford (1/1) is their guy now, and he's a good one. (With these very young guys, like Stafford of Detroit and Dalton of Cincinnati, it will still take a while to see if they pan out, yes, but their early play has been pretty good.) Jim Everett (1/3) was drafted by Houston, but he went right to the Rams so it was as if he was drafted by them. Roman Gabriel was a very good signal caller for them in the late 60's, early 70's. And who can forget Kurt Warner, undrafted, but in one magical year, 1999, he just exploded for them. He went on to help the Rams be dominant in the early 00's and continued his great play later with Arizona.

Tampa Bay: Josh Freeman (1/17) is their great hope now, but they also had Vinny Testaverde (1/1) (didn't do so well with a poor Bucs team) and Doug Williams (1/17) (who did do well leading the Bucs to the NFC championship game in '79). Tampa Bay also drafted Steve Young, but didn't do very well developing him and shipped him to San Francisco where he flourished.

Tennessee: Vince Young (1/3) was a recent bust, but they had Steve McNair (1/3) who led them to the 1999 Super Bowl. When they were the Oilers before they had the services of Warren Moon for a long period of time, they drafted Dan Pastorini (1/3) and he did well enough to get them playoff action in the late 70's.

Washington: Again, the Redskins never drafted QB's high. They got a Super Bowl from D&D'ed Mark Rypien who was a sixth round selection, but guys like Joe Theismann (drafted originally by Miami) and Billy Kilmer (San Francisco) were pick-ups from elsewhere. Jay Schroeder (3/83) was servicable for a while, and as far back as 1961 they got Norm Snead who did some good things for them before going off to Philadelphia.

Now to the Chiefs.

Only thing is, this introduction has been quite expansive (and I'd still like to delve much deeper into each team!) I'm going to have to return to The Quarterback Project with a different post for next time, just to address the Chiefs in this whole picture. I'll shoot for next week so this post and its meaning can settle firmly in the minds of those who still need some convincing about the stratospherically significant impact a fine D&D'ed quarterback has on a team.

I don't think for a second that Scott Pioli doesn't know all this.

But then, really, what is all this for?

It's all just therapy, really.

And for Chiefs fans without a single truly meaningful D&D'ed QB in its entire history, unlike, well, every single other team on this list, it is very important that we therapize. I guess.

Anyway, the full lowdown on the history of Kansas City Chiefs quarterbackitude and their D&D activity -- err, their bountiful lack of it -- next time...

(And a quick note: If you see any discrepancy about information I've put together here, I'd love to hear about it! I want it to be as accurate as it can be, so corrections are most welcome. Also invited are the best takes regarding the opinions -- robust debate is also welcome!)
_

[Here is the post that details the Chiefs QB D&D history. Warning: parental discretion is advised...]
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Long Live the AFL! ( ::Sigh:: ) - Final 2011 Season Note

As we prepare to endure another Chiefsless Super Bowl, I thought I'd wind down the season with one last post. Today is indeed one of those days when I'll be drawn into watching at least a bit of the game. Some years I can delightfully get away with not seeing any of it, like last year when there was no party we had to attend and I could joyfully escape the day without knowing anything about what happened.

But today there is a Super Bowl party held by good people in a nice home with fine comestibles, and my sports celibacy does not allow me to be pathologically anti-social. So I will go, and indeed I will have a good time with friends. In honor of Lamar Hunt I will have at least a tepid rooting commitment for the Patriots, the old-AFL team that is appearing. This doesn't mean the old-AFL teams have really done anything Super-Bowl-wise. Six of the ten haven't won at all since the merger in 1970 (Chiefs, Jets, Chargers, Bills, Titans, Bengals) and the last non-Broncos-or-Patriots win was by the Raiders in January of 1984. But then I detail all the current old-AFL team woes in past posts.

So this still keeps me hoping that the next dominate NFL team from the old-AFL will be the Chiefs. It's their turn all right. But former Patriots mover-and-shaker Scott Pioli has got to take care of business.

The thing is, I know nothing about what we've done since the last game of the season, except for a few things I've picked up on my radar. For instance I have no idea if we've decided to keep Romeo Crennel or be earnestly in the hunt for the next Bill Belichick. I don't know what we're doing with our current quarterback situation. I did hear that after he was fired, Todd Haley complained that the things he shared with others through communication technology were being monitored by higher-ups, which can be good if it means we're taking care of business by ensuring we have the best personnel we can to win football games, or bad if it is considered to be invasively creepy.

In other words, is the organization going to carry itself as all business and will the people in it be enthusiastically committed to excellence all around? Or is it too psychotically paranoid and only frightening all those within the organization leading to many more years of poor performance on the field?

Will Scott Pioli be a beloved leader or a whacko dictocrat? Whichever one he is will be the main thing that determines whether or not we'll be the next Patriots, bringing back a long lost stature to that old-AFL.

As for what can happen with championship-team-assembling type things, we just have to hope that that quarterback falls to us in the draft. Already Pioli has insisted he won't trade up to try to get one. That's actually a great move because the price is always stratospheric to move up a handful of spots. Even though we really need that guy, we just have to hope like crazy a QB good enough to be picked at No. 11 is there for us.

There is only one other exception to the that-QB-has-got-to-be-snatched-up-very-high-in-the-draft requirement. If that guy just is not there, we could get by if a dominant pass rusher is available or the next Ray Lewis. It cannot be another Tyson Jackson! If we don't have that guy right there at No. 11, it'll just be another instance of failing to overcome the Curse of Odin's Revenge.

If there is one thing to be learned from the New York Giants making it to the Super Bowl, it is that an otherwise crappy team is there because

a. It has a fantastic coach in Tom Coughlin,
b. It has a phenomenally resourceful quarterback in Eli Manning,
c. It has an overpowering pass rush.

You have those three things and you're in the Super Bowl. It isn't for nothing that the Giants are there again after beating the undefeated Patriots four years ago.

Will the Chiefs get a coach that gets the most from the players he has and knows how to manage a football game?
Will the Chiefs be blessed to have that field general who can run the offense and just make things happen to win games?
Will the Chiefs slot in that last piece of the puzzle and add that pass rusher to compliment Tamba Hali to truly dominate on defense?

As it is I also noted that Willie Roaf got inducted into the Hall of Fame. How awesome is that. Very much no surprise. It has been my contention that Roaf was the most important player on those early '00's Chiefs teams. Trent Green and Priest Holmes, awesome players, truly, taking nothing away from them -- but they weren't half of who they were without Roaf there. When he retired, I knew it was going to be very hard. And it was. The late '00's were abysmal for the Chiefs.

As for the early '10's here, I have high hopes for Branden Albert and Jon Asamoah. Hopefully Jamaal Charles and Tony Moeaki will be back strong. It is easy to see the potential of Jonathan Baldwin.

But what about our Eli Manning?

Will he be there?

And can the Chiefs start to actually make the AFL what we all thought it should be after they won it all in '69?

Can the Chiefs finish what they started?
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Chiefs 2011 Postseason Report

One thing should be made perfectly clear from this endeavor.

All it is, is therapy.

If all this is to you is a whine session, then move on to other web pursuits. If you think this is all just one pity party bash, then please, you are welcome to leave now.

I don't believe this is, but it is sharing truth in a setting where maybe a few typically heartbroken Chiefs fans can gather and commiserate, relate, just find solace in the comfort that others feel the same way. I'd like to think there'd be a handful of stout, resolute, and quite viscerally engaged Chiefs fans who'd hang around.

As it is, I commence yet another postseason blog post that does not end with any playoff wonderfulness in any way. The last time we got any of that was 1993, if you even remember. In fact, the first therapy point comes simply from this simple observation, a quite sorrowful one.

Today my son had some of the Giants-Falcons game on, and I happened to catch it during a time when New York was just starting to roll over Atlanta. Mention was made of Tony Gonzalez having never tasted playoff victoriness ever in his stellar career. Just the magnitude of that fact: Not a single time has he reached the next tier of postseason fun. Indeed this would be the second one-and-out he'd experience with the Falcons, after I believe three with Kansas City. I truly felt very sad for the guy.

A little later in the day I saw that the NFL Network was showing the NFL's all-time top hundred players, this episode: numbers 41-50. Coincidentally, the instant I turned it on there was Tony Gonzalez at No. 45. Now you'd think he should be higher, but come on. This is No. 45, people, out of 57 bazillion total NFL players throughout all of NFL history. He was just ahead of Roger Staubach for cryin' out loud.

And yet, here he is, the all-time all-great tight end in all-pro-football-great-anything, yet again today suffering through watching the playoff opponent run off the field with smiles and never ever getting to have that feeling.

All of us Chiefs fans just feel for the guy.

We understand.

Later in the day I found that the Broncos pulled off a close win in their playoff game with Pittsburgh. An 8-8 team winning the division then coming through with tough, clutch play to win against a very good Steelers team.

::Sigh::...

How many times did the Chiefs have a 13-3 record and hosted that first playoff game -- Let's compare: 13-3, 8-8. 8-8, 13-3. Hmm. Kind of a difference. -- and just drop everything they did well during the regular season and lose. I mean just drop it like buck snort from a sick cow. Actually in some of those games I don't even think any of it even got on to the field.

So yeah, to the facts:

Since the merger in 1970, the year after the Chiefs last won the Super Bowl, the Chiefs have won the division six times (a pathetic total to begin with -- that's out of 42 years) and then went on to win a playoff game after that once. That was in 1993, the last time they even won a playoff game at all. So, the Chiefs division-title-and-at-least-one-playoff-game-win to playoff-one-and-out ratio is an abysmal one to five. (The five: Mia '71, Ind '95, Den '97, Ind '03, Bal '10.) I haven't done it for every team in the NFL, but I have for the current AFC West teams, just to compare (sorry, but this will be especially gruesome - you may want to look away for a couple moments).

San Diego: 6 to 4. In their first playoff game after a division title they lost to Houston in '79, the Jets in '04 (Marty Schottenheimer's doing, what else), New England in '06, and the Jets again in '09. But again, they got to enjoy six other times when they won at least one playoff game after winning the AFC West.

Denver: 8 to 3. Their three were to Pittsburgh in '78 and '84 (nice revenge for them today) and Jacksonville in '96 (which they were able to avenge big-time the following year by whacking the Jaguars 42-17 on the way to their Super Bowl win that year).

Oakland: 11 to 2. That's nice. The Raiders have lost only twice out of the gate after winning the division. One was the infamous Immaculate Reception game of '72, the other, a loss to New England in '85. But that's it. Eleven times they've won and then won again. The next time you hear a Raiders fan complain about JaMarcus Russell, or not making the playoffs since '02, or how many ref calls have gone against them (puh-leaze), or even how many times the Chiefs have beaten them recently in the regular season, you have every right to tell them where they can shove their pathetic whimpers. The Chiefs have a long way to go to even come close to matching the Raiders' past success.

Kansas City: (Again to compare, and to embrace the pain of course) 1 to 5. For the most part, win the AFC West and win a playoff game. Unless you're the Chiefs. I remember wearing my Chiefs jacket with pride in '95 just before we faced Indianapolis, just thinking in my tiny little brain, actually thinking with great joy that after all of this great 1990's Chiefs greatness we'd have to do well in the playoffs sometime along here, this is as good a time as any for my team to actually do what everyone else has gotten to do.

I simply did not grasp the terrifying impact of Odin's Revenge.

Just to finish the whole playoffs horror, I counted all the playoff games played, just playoff games played since that last time our Chiefs hoisted that World Champion trophy. Again, since the merger, only three teams have a playoff-games to team-years ratio worse than the Chiefs: Arizona, New Orleans and Detroit. And those two latter teams there are right now so good with such good quarterbacks that they'll soon put the Chiefs in the dust in this category.

In 42 years, the Chiefs have 15 playoff games. Just to compare (avert your eyes if necessary) Pittsburgh 53 games. Dallas 53.  Miami 42. San Francisco 42. Just the AFC West: Oakland 37. Denver 34 (and still counting as of this post). I could go on, and on, and on. 13 NFL teams have at least 30, twice as many as the Chiefs.

Considering the math a different way, since 1970 the Chiefs have on average one playoff game just about every three years. The Steelers have a playoff game every year, with two every five years, averaged out.

And here's a great one: With Houston winning yesterday, the metropolitan area of Kansas City (Chiefs and Royals) now has an effective playoff pro football/pro baseball drought of 44 team-years, officially twice as long as any other city with an NFL team and a major league baseball club. The next longest drought is now Cincinnati, at 22 years.

Every other two-team metro area has a drought of less than 22 years. More than half are less than ten. The Chiefs and Royals, 44 years.

Okay, breathe, that's it, breathe. Remember, this is therapy. Just us Chiefs fans having a nice, meaningful, comforting group session. Just working real hard (deep breath) to acquire the necessary coping skills (exhale) to confront with the brutal reality (that's it, breathe again, very nice...) of the vast dust and cobweb network that forms throughout the Harry S Truman Sports Complex every single January and October. (Ahh, better...)

Let's get right to what makes it all worthwhile.

This year. What to do from this point forward.

What needs to be done is simple.

First, for the umpteen bazillion bazillion quazillionth time, draft and develop a quarterback who'll be very very very very very very very very very very good for a long long long long long long long long long long time. This is number one, light years above anything else. I'd like to say this is the only thing, but I'm afraid that this isn't going to mean much unless the second thing is done.

Second, we simply, plainly, purely, absolutely, necessarily must hire the man. It is imperative that we do not hire another Todd Haley. Nothing against Todd Haley, the point is we need a Bill Walsh. A Bill Parcells. A Bill Belichick. We need Bill Somebody who'll coach this team into winners. I say "No Todd Haley" because Clark and Scott cannot again make the critical mistake of thinking someone like Todd Haley is somehow going to be a solid NFL coach when he simply isn't.

This hire has got to be the one. In fact it would be ideal if it was a pick that would be around for a while. Getting Dick Vermeil to run the team in 2001 was genius because the guy was a genius, but we all knew he would last only a few short years. Oh that we'd have a Dick Vermeil guy for a dozen years, or more if we're that blessed. I can't say I'm not scared to death, however, that we'll settle on some retread NFL guy or some college dude who just doesn't have it in him.

As for that quarterback, it would be even more ideal for a close-to-Andrew-Luck guy to be available at No. 11 or 12 or around there when we draft. I just know nothing about college-to-NFL quarterbacks, but what about that Oklahoma State guy? He looked pretty good when I happened to catch him. Will the Baylor guy, I think he won the Heisman, will he be there? I say "I think" a lot here because I just pay no attention to college football, or any NFL football if I can help it.

I only care about the Chiefs on the field and watching them win.

And I trust that Scott Pioli knows what he's doing there, and I simply can't see how he can't see how much we need that highly drafted and deftly developed quarterback.

As it is, it seems it'd be a good call to sign Kyle Orton for a couple of years as we nurture our brand new quarterback. I think Orton has potential to do some good things while we get the guy ready for prime time. I really don't know what the Chiefs are going to do with Ricky Stanzi, I mean, do they think he'll develop into the next Tom Brady? How much of a crapshoot is that?

What about Matt Cassel? Sorry, unload him. Please, I do actually like the guy. But let's be honest, he's a second-string guy who hardly played at all in college and had one decent year with a terrific Patriots team around him when Tom Brady went out for the season. In 2010 he had a fine year with a schedule of very weak teams, and then showed his true colors in the last regular season game and the typical one-and-out playoff game when he played wretchedly. This season before his injury it was just too aggravating to watch him, too many times flinging the ball everywhere but into receivers' hands.

The proof is in the puddles: Look at our offense this year. (Sorry, more ugly stats for gurgling and spittling.) Throw out the Indianapolis game when we scored four touchdowns, and the total for all 15 other games was 14. Less than a touchdown a game. We only scored two touchdowns or more four times (including Indy). From Halloween on, which comprised the final nine games, we didn't reach the 20-point mark a single time. An offense like the Packers' regularly had three touchdowns on the board before the national anthem ended.

It simply cannot be emphasized enough.

Now's the time to get that quarterback.

Clark, Scott, please please please (okay I won't write a hundred "pleases" here) see the importance of having that guy and get him.

To finish this off, I do want to give a rousing shout-out to our defense, who really held its own all year. Yes, there were those wretched games against the old AFC East teams, but if you throw out those games (once again, NE, Mia, Buf, NYJ, and Ind) and the Detroit debacle, in the remaining ten games we gave up an average of only 12.3 points a game. Now yeah, there were those other six games, but hey, Curse of Odin's Revenge.

Otherwise there is one thing I want. It is the one thing every Chiefs fan wants.

It is for our team to do what it takes to win playoff games.

I don't even want any luck. We've never had it but I don't think most of those NFL teams who've won have had to rely on a bunch of it themselves, really now. We are so due, to be sure, but what good is just luck? Besides, it just takes so much more to end the Curse.

I don't even want a spectacularly good team. We had that in the 60's and 90's, and in those years when we were truly a dominant NFL football team, we got one Super Bowl title and pretty much diddly otherwise. How many really good teams get into the playoffs and just don't have it when it counts -- don't we know about that.

Will winning in the postseason involve luck? Oh that we'd get at least a bit of it for once. Will it involve fielding a good team? Certainly. But there is one thing that's more important. No, all I really want is one simple thing.

I just want us to win football games when it counts.

And this simply requires taking the defense we already have (but still getting that Ray Lewis guy in there!) adding a smart inspiring coach and a sharp talented quarterback, and

Getting the job done.

That's all.

Clark.

Scott.

All us Chiefs fans are asking for one thing. Shouldn't take much, we even believe in you, we do.

Get the job done.

Oh that we could then move from therapy into just flat-out watching us get that trophy back, and take pride in our team -- that they just got the job done.

The joy...
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Chiefs at Broncos - Week 17 - Record: 7-9

Every New Year's Eve I think about it. If you're a true Chiefs fan you know what I'm talking about. It was five years ago yesterday.

We're at 8-7 barely hanging on to playoff hopes. Two weeks earlier we'd endured a horrific loss to the Chargers, and only a gimme win over a weak Raiders team a week later had us still on life support.

On the morning of last Sunday of the season we handled Jacksonville while New England was easily taking Tennessee out of the running. The Steelers were having a hard time with Cincinnati, though, but we got that splendid Santonio Holmes catch and sprint for a touchdown in overtime to dismiss the Bengals. Then, glory be, the Niners wore down the Broncos in another overtime win and shazam --

We're in the playoffs.

Five years ago yesterday, one of the magical Chiefs moments of all time.

But here's the thing.

That is one of our most magical moments?

I mean, hey, I'm really taking nothing away from it. It was wonderful.

But in reality, this is really hurtin' -- that this is what we're most proud of over the past however-many years of Chiefsosity.

There's that, but, ahem, no big-time clutch division snatching win, no spectacular postseason performance to defeat a team everyone thought was invincible, no scintillating run through the playoffs captivating the attention of an entire nation, no absorbing Super Bowl hype about the Chiefs and their chances in the biggest game whatever those chances might be.

No, sadly, no. And yes, I do spend a lot of time on this blog sharing the woeful story of our beloved team. Sure, it could be seen as a pity party, but to be honest I do write all of this for the therapy, yeah, to relate to those who feel the same way -- I make no apologies there, in fact, I do enthusiastically invite you to the party...

But I also do it just to say what's what about the Chiefs, and mostly for the past many years it has been less that stellar to say the least.

You don't think I want to say all kinds of delightfully awesome things about the Chiefs? Really? For one you've seen me write glowingly about great-things Chiefs, I do it all the time -- I've even been very guilty of looking too longingly through the rose-colored glasses and been wrong quite a bit about how good we are!

For instance look at today's game! Our defensive backfield was just amazing, again! I've always raved about our terrific Brandons and our safeties like Kendrick Lewis, and this without the rose-colored glasses! These guys were beast again, and what's more amazing they've been doing it without Eric Berry in there! I can even give a shout-out to Sabby Piscitelli, the guy who I once saw somewhere rated the worst D-back in the league.

Hey, he was still part of the core that showed there is simply no way Tim Tebow can do the comeback thing without solid pro-form passing skill. Down 7-3 with a minute left, he just could not do a thing with our D-backfield in there. Really, he hadn't seen that all year.

Welcome to the real NFL, Tim Tebow.

So while our defense did another fine job, our offense... Errrghhh...

Our offense.

Final end-of-season stat: The Chiefs' offense scored 18 touchdowns this season. 18. Eighteen total. Do you know how contemptibly pathetic that is? That's barely a single touchdown a game. I mean it is really hard to mince words here. The numbers speak for themselves, and if you watched this team play all year you'd know.

It was all right there to watch.

Just for comparison, Green Bay's quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers and his scrub back-up who played just for today, finished the season throwing three times as many touchdown passes alone as the Chiefs entire offense scored.

I'm not going to get into all the why's and wherefore's until next week when I write my special final post of the season with the standard riveting analysis of the season.

But one thing I want to point out from this game is something that is critical for us to address in order to be on track for future success.

With the one minute left the Broncos started at their own 25 to begin that last patented miracle drive they've become so famous for. The Chiefs defense knew -- as everyone in the universe knew -- that all they had to do was smother the receivers (which again, they do very well) and contain with a very simple four man pass rush, and the game would be theirs. Sure enough three straight passes did not get them the first down, until Wallace Gilberry slammed into Tim Tebow's knees. Bam, just like that, personal foul, 15-yard penalty, first down Denver.

Now, if you are on any team and you want to win the game for you and your teammates and your mom and dad there cheering in the crowd, and you are told in the least uncertain terms possible, "Make sure you don't go into that drawn circle on the ground over there and spin around three times clockwise with your hands on your head while singing 'Hello, Dolly' in falsetto," don't you think it'd be reeeeeeal easy to just plain NOT DO THAT???

Now, pretend you're an NFL player on an NFL team making bazillions of NFL dollars, and you are told, "All you have to do is not run into the quarterback's knees. I mean, really, listen very carefully: just stand there, push on the O-lineman a few times, glare at the quarterback and wave your arms around frantically at times, BUT DON'T RUN INTO HIS KNEES," you'd think those instructions would be reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally easy to follow!

But no.

We have to shoot ourselves in the foot yet again.

And that's the whole point about this.

The whole episode illuminates the need for a head coach who can get this team, ahh, here's the word, get ready for it because it is a wonderul, wonderful word --

Disciplined.

Oh, I like that word. It is a marvelous, marvelous word, don't you think?

That the Chiefs would have it.

And I'm not just talking about regular plain old pro football discipline.

I'm talking about teams-that-regularly-compete-in-the-playoffs discipline. Teams that go at least 11-5 every year, who don't have the extraordinarily stupid, profoundly annoying, and contending-team-eviscerating penalties happening over and over and over -- I mean we had a bunch of those yet again in the game today!

And that means we get that coach who can do that.

Romeo Crennel, great. Great for the defense. Awesome: we held Denver to three points on the day, at their place. Awesome awesome awesome. Romeo Crennel you are the man for that. You - da - man.

But our offense did squat. Dexter McCluster's TD run? A thing of beauty. Don't get me wrong -- a thing of beauty.

But that was it. It - it - it.

We just need the guy that'll unlock this team's potential. Look at what Jim Harbaugh did with the already very talented and amazingly underachieving 49ers.

We need the guy like that who's going to get this team to not only be the class of the AFC West (which admittedly should not be hard to do these days) but to be one of the class teams in the NFL.

But again, next week is the season analysis post.

For now, just pride again in a team that finished the season with a good win, and while it wasn't like 2006, it's still always good, and perhaps even a positive note to get the team a bit excited for next year.

(And hey, even with the win, the Raiders were still booted from the playoffs when they lost their game! Oh yeah!)
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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 6-9

Remember Christmas Day 2004? The Chiefs and the Raiders, at Arrowhead, a wild back-and-forth affair that ended with one of the best Christmas gifts a Chiefs fan could ever have. Down 30-28 with a minute left, Dante Hall takes the kick-off and splendidly scampers deep into Raiders territory so we can kick the game-winning field goal. Final score: Chiefs 31, Raiders 30.

It was a nice Christmas gift to have at the close of a miserable season that year when we went off to lose too many games in really stupid ways. Well, yeah -- sorry. You're right. What other kinds of ways do the Chiefs lose games?

We got no such Christmas gift this year -- and it's at the end of a season that was typically stupid.

Okay, okay, it's Christmas, I shouldn't be so Scroogely.

It was nice that Dexter McCluster finally got untracked and zipped for the yards and yards and yards he should be zipping regularly after getting a screen pass -- this one in the last minute of regulation to set up the tying score that gave us a chance to win. Okay, okay, so there was something nice.

But there wasn't much else.

For one thing we just don't have that "X Factor." Yes, for as overrated as some say Dante Hall was, he was still a gamer, a go-to-guy, a leader -- and I'm sorry, he was an exciting player who did get the job done on the field when it needed getting done.

In contrast, one play typified the way the Chiefs play football today -- at least the way the offense plays football. We were driving at about midfield, and QB Kyle Orton had to scamble out of the pocket and run. He got the first down, except... you know what happened.

The ref put the ball at an awful spot.

4th and half-an-inch. Literally, it was half-an-inch.

So they give the ball to Jackie Battle, who on virtually every one of his runs he chugs for about two more yards after getting hit. He really does, the guy is a genius at that.

But here his mind is telling him, "All I need is half-an-inch."

He gets a quarter-of-an-inch.

Grrreat. The Raiders zip on down, kick a field goal to make it 13-6, a score that really allowed them to win it in overtime.

The point is, why isn't this team thinking about just getting tons of yardage -- as many tons of yardage as they could get on any play they run? Every other play Battle has the ball he's getting three, four yards -- why not now? And if the other team has 57 guys lined up right at the point where the runner is going to try to get the first down, then why can't we do other things, such as, ohhh, pass to the guy who should be wide open and get the first down that way?

It's because we just don't have that "X Factor" mentality. We just don't.

Maybe this is a good thing, however.

After the wonderfully splendiferous win over Green Bay last week, I started getting scared the Chiefs would go ahead and make Romeo Crennel our permanent head coach. Yikes. Sorry, but we need a true solid leader-type to take the troops into battle. I love Romeo Crennel, his defense is the best thing about this team, but he's not head-coach material.

Clark, Scott, please please please please please please please please please please please go insane to find the next Bill Parcells or Bill Belichick or Bill Walsh -- why are all the great coaches named Bill? Well there ya go, start looking at guys named Bill, but not Todd or Herman or John or Frank or Gunther or any of the guys who are just not going to get us to the promised land.

Fact is with Romeo at the helm this game was a disaster. Yet again we got close to the end zone and failed time after time after time. We had a complete breakdown on the special teams line when we got two field goals blocked. And the penalties just piled up again.

The Raiders themselves were getting penalized themselves out of their rear ends -- but we were matching them penalty for penalty, how wretched was that. (The Raiders, BTW, are on pace to break the record for most penalties by a team, set by - ::sigh:: - the 1998 Kansas City Chiefs, who had over 150 for the season. That's about ten a game. I simply did not know that -- still, eerrr-rahlphff [gratuitous upchuck noise]. 1998 was the year I stopped paying attention to sports cold turkey -- now I know some of why...)

So yeah, the best thing for Chiefs fans to do in this last game is endure -- I know it will be very difficult -- to endure the Chiefs looking miserable in a final season loss to the Broncos. This will ensure a number of things:

1. A better slot in the draft so we have a better shot at getting that future Hall-of-Fame quarterback we so desperately need.

2. Chiefs management seeing that Romeo Crennel is not the guy and Bill Exceptionallyterrificprofootballcoach is.

3. The Raiders will be booted from the playoffs. I mean, come on, how bad is this. If the Chiefs beat the Broncos and the Raiders win, the Raiders go into the playoffs. I mean we can put up with a lot -- hey, we're Chiefs fans -- but this goes beyond the pale...

Now yes, I will never root against the Chiefs, ever, in any game. But the fact is this.

A Chiefs win helps the Raiders.

The humanity!
_

Packers at Chiefs - Week 15 - Record: 6-8

I really don't think there has ever been a Chiefs game I have witnessed in which I was going so far up and so far down with my range of emotions than I was with this game.

And I will tell you right here -- and you have every right to refuse to believe me in the most abject way possible --

I really did feel we were going to win this game.

For some reason, through the entire week, I just had this feeling deep in my gut that we were not only going to make this close, but we were going to flat out win it. I just felt that the team would rally around the new coach. That late in the season at home we could take down a top team like the Packers. That Kyle Orton was going to show that he could still perform at the top level of QB play in the NFL.

We got the kickoff to start the game, and I was flying high just watching our team do something it has just never done, not for a long time.

They were executing a long, grinding, sustained, solid, sure-ground-gaining drive.

And one of the things I thought about was how much this just wouldn't've happened with Todd Haley in there. It just wouldn't've. I don't think there is a single Chiefs fan who did not share this exact sentiment. Romeo Crennel put together the ideal game plan to take on the Packers. It really came down to one simple thing, and it worked beautifully.

Keep Aaron Rodgers off the field.

Through the game we had clock-chewing drives, giving Rodgers many fewer opportunities to do his magic.

Another thing that blew me away was something the announcers said right outta the gate. The Packers were something like 31st, I think it was, in total defense.

Guh???

An undefeated team with the 31st ranked defense in the entire league??? They added that the Packers have always taken advantage of turnovers. Makes perfect sense. Cough up the ball and Rodgers gets more chances. In fact Orton was with Denver when the Packers blasted them earlier in the season, and he threw three picks in that game.

Well, for one, we had no turnovers on the day -- again, very controlled, time-managed offensive football.

And another, Orton was magnificent today. Something close to 20 for 30, about 300 yards, hitting his receivers at clutch moments, letting them get good separation -- how splendid was that to watch for once. And he threw to ten different receivers, how's that for decision-making at quarterback. With his leadership the offense as a whole pounded out over 400 yards.

400 yards? The Chiefs? When was the last time you saw those two things written so closely to each other?

But then there were those emotional drops. My insides were a roller-coaster through this one. The guy who roughed the punter when we stopped the Packers in their first series. Give Rodgers a second chance?! Are you insane?! Let the guy kick it to Alberta, Canada for all we care! And how about all the times we simply could not finish the drive. How many 18-yard field goals did Succop have today? Four? And that one time we had 2nd and 1 from the Packer three and couldn't even get a first down on three successive plays! Aaaaaagh! (There goes my heart, doing that huge loop-da-loop...)

Well, there's work to be done there.

But our defense. How great were they today. I do think a lot of it was the offense being on the field long enough to keep them rested so they could fire out when they needed to be in there. They had a handful of sacks on Rodgers and kept him flustered enough all the other times.

A lot of that was due to our fantastic defensive back work. Wow. Again they showed they are one of the best. And that's without Eric Berry in there. Yes, I'd love to see more push on the D-line, and more aggression from the linebackers. Good thing Derrick Johnson is having a career year to keep things decent in that area.

No question this is a wonderful win for us. Can't help but be reminded of the Steelers win a couple years ago. But we can't say too much about what this means in the grand scheme of Chiefsdom. It really doesn't mean a whole lot except that we showed the NFL world that the Chiefs can play football.

For now, that's pretty dang fine.
_

Chiefs at Jets - Week 14 - Record: 5-8

There was a commercial aired during the first quarter of this game that featured a dais upon which stood a really good pro prospect smiling in front of several camera flash bulbs going off. He was being handed a check by some exec who said to him, "You'd better cash that now before you get hurt ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha..." Sitting just to their right was an actor playing his coach, and he looked exactly like Todd Haley, I swear. At that moment he had the most harrowing look of dread come over his face as he started thinking of all the bad things that could indeed happen to his prized new player.

I don't know what the commercial was selling or anything of that, something about some financial firm accepting photographs of a check, I don't know. But one of the coach's graphically portrayed portends was this guy walking into the street looking at his cell phone at the exact time a huge bus approachs to plow into him.

What was amazing was that this guy looked so much like Todd Haley, it just made me think. That bus is not imaginary, but real. And it has a name. All Chiefs fans know it.

The Curse of Odin's Revenge.

A major feature of the Curse is our inability to do anything meaningful against AFC East teams. The Curse's most gruesome feature is something I've written about at length in this blog, our 0-9 playoff record against old AFC East teams since our last Super Bowl win and the 1970 merger (0-3 to both Miami and Indianapolis, 0-2 to Buffalo, 0-1 to New York). In fact, the highlight of this game for the Chiefs was the one-minute highlight reel the CBS broadcast team showed of the Chiefs win over the Jets in the '69 divisional playoff game. Yes, that was the last time we have beaten an AFC East team in the playoffs -- 42 years ago.

The Curse has reared its ugly head this year. Here were the scores of all our games against AFC East opponents:

Week 1 - Buffalo: 41-7 loss.
Week 9 - Miami: 31-3 loss.
Week 11 - New England: 34-3 loss.
Week 14 - New York: 37-10 loss.

Let's see, that's AFC East team 143 points, Chiefs 23. AFC East team 18 touchdowns, Chiefs 2.

See, the NFL is supposed to have this thing called parity. Really. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love for the Chiefs to blast every opponent they have, but if I can't have that I'd at least like them to be in every game. And the fact is the whole operation is designed to make it that way.

There is just no way we can have the luck we have against the AFC East and it not be because of The Curse. I'm just waiting for the day when that thing will finally be lifted somehow, by some miracle. Maybe it will be when we do make that splendidly wonderful decision in the draft to take a QB very high and he's actually very good. Wistful ::sigh:: there if you didn't catch it...

But here's something else that I just have to make mention of.

Remember that old NFL Films clip of Marv Levy yelling "You overofficious jerk!" on the sidelines? I'm pretty sure it was when he was with the Chiefs. All we were doing today was yell that at the television screen.

There was that one drive that got the Jets their last touchdown, and practically the entire drive was penalty yardage against the Chiefs. About half were mildly earned, but the other calls, just wretched overofficiating. The most atrocious was the pass interference call against Kendrick Lewis on their wide receiver who replays showed actually was the one who pushed Lewis to get into position.

If you read the relatively new book Scorecasting, make sure you read the section on why home teams generally always have the advantage in all pro team sports. There are all kinds of presumed reasons: home teams have the fans, the comforts of home, not having to travel, all that stuff. But none of it really pans out, and the authors looked at it all with a precision examination and guess what they found.

It is the reffing.

And it isn't necessarily the refs being evil or anything, it is just their decision-making is indeed colored by the atmosphere, the pressure, and in some cases just responding to the cues from whatever powers-that-be about who should be winning.

Now, I'm the first to refuse to blame a game on the refs. Not because we shouldn't make excuses for bad ref calls or even that it all evens out (because it never does for the Chiefs, really, it doesn't), but just because they're human, and that's cool, that's fine. They even use instant replay. (Even though that never really helps the Chiefs either, as all Chiefs fan know, but I'll save that for another post.)

What we do need to cover for whatever reffing there might be is the drafted and developed top quarterback. The Willie Roafs and Will Shields back on the O-line. The Buck Buchanans and Curly Culps back on the D-line.

And yeah, we still need a coach who can call the right plays at the right times in the right games and just have his team damn well take care of business. I mean, I will tell you, I was actually cheering Todd Haley for getting that unsportsmanlike conduct call against him for jawing at the refs because they so deserved it. They really did. You go Todd, let 'em have it. And I do mean that, this isn't one of those facetious making-fun kind of things. He boldly did what was necessary to stand up for his team when the refs were being, in the famous words of Marv Levy, "jerks."

But really. This is Todd Haley's legacy? This?

We should just flat-out have a football club from the front office on down that does the job.

And is no longer crushed by The Curse.
_

Chiefs at Bears - Week 13 - Record: 5-7

The kind of luck the Chiefs have was shining in all its brilliant awfulness when brand spankin' new quarterback Kyle Orton bounded into the game, only to have a defender destroy his right index finger while he was throwing a pass on his very first play as a Chief.

You.

Have.

Got.

To.

Be.

Kidding.

Me.

I almost shook my head right off my body. This is great, just great. Todd Haley pulls Tyler Palko, who however not-that-great he is talent-wise is still playing his heart out, and then has to put him right back in and tell him to lead the charge again against one of the NFC's best after unceremoniously being sent right to the bench.

Turns out Palko was a big part of getting us the one play we needed to win the game. For all the awful awfulness of the typical Chiefs luck, we got a stadium-full of luck on the last play of the first half. We're watching this thing in our man cave screaming at Todd Haley (as we often do, naturally), this time to just try for the field goal and get those three points on the board. It'd have been a 56-yard attempt for Succop, but at least our chances would have been better than a desperation Hail Mary pass.

In what has to be about the most total reversal of fortune you can get after something like the Kyle Orton incident, Palko jukes and dukes to allow our guys to get down the field, and fires that thing perfectly, right into the middle of the expected crowd in the endzone. Widely celebrated Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher bats it down, right into the waiting hands of Dexter McCluster.

Touchdown Chiefs.

How about that.

The Chiefs win it on a Hail Mary.

Granted it wasn't at the end of the game, but it turned out to be the only touchdown of the game, and the difference for the Chiefs victory, final score, 10-3.

Talk about luck going our way for this one.

The crack-up was that the announcers were talking about this being the first touchdown for the Chiefs since 1793. As if this play really relieved our offensive barrenness. Sure it won us the game, but come on, should it really count in ending this drought of 57,002 straight drives without a touchdown? I just don't think it should.

Please. We're still pathetic on offense. Come on, when was the last time we've scored two touchdowns in a single game? The Oakland game? Are you serious? No, wait, it was the San Diego game, but still. We only got two in that game, and so what. That was still ages ago.

Again mention must be made of our defense. Yes, the Bears lost their really good back Matt Forte to injury early, but then we lost Eric Berry eons ago, so we're even. Whatever the case, our defensive guys were beast yet again. The stat of the day was our seven sacks on their quarterback. How on earth did we do that?

Could be their poor offensive line play. Could be the effects of that conditioning that's been helping us all year. Could be the inexperience of their second-string QB. Could be our inspired play. Could be superb play-calling by Romeo Crennel. Whatever the case, we kept them to a single field goal for the entire game. Now its a total of six opponent points allowed for the past six quarters of NFL play.

And that is with an offense that had no more than four plays in a series far too often. That is, our defense was always on the field. Without much rest they still played with heart and with skill.

Wow. Could Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson be bringing more to the table than we think? Oh, I can't get my hopes up too much. Except Jackson had his first sack of the year today! Yay! Except that was his first?

We still have a long way to go.
_

Steelers at Chiefs - Week 12 - Record: 4-7

I'm pretty sure it was a first for the Kansas City Chiefs: two back-to-back prime-time television appearances. Check it out, I think it was indeed the only time in our history we've been on Monday night, then Sunday night the next week.

Oh that we'd be good enough to deserve that, and just as importantly to have it happen again like it does all the time for the Patriotses and Steelerses and Giantses and Cowboyses. That ::Sigh:: you heard from me should resound across the galaxy. I can't imagine the next time we'll get even a single prime-time slot.

What to say about this game? Our defense was truly beast in this one, and I am even happy to give at least the smallest of shout-outs to Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson. Oh, they're still not what they should be, but they joined a truly inspired group to stick it to Pittsburgh, who got but a single field goal in the second half.

But our offense? It isn't just lame but sickening. When was the last time we've scored a touchdown? 1932? I think it was in September of that year if I'm not mistaken, just before FDR was elected president. Someone check that for me, but I'm pretty sure it's been that long.

And here's the thing. We aren't even close to scoring a touchdown. I think we've been in the red zone this year about as many times as the poles shift and thousands flock to Antarctica to sunbath. Seriously, whenever we're even in the red zone from any kind of extended drive, I'm ecstatic about our amazing achievement and marvelling at how incredibly impossible it is. How awful is that. That this is what I have to cheer for.

Our defense played the game of their lives last night. Our line stood them up, and they harrassed Roethlisberger mercilessly. Our linebackers were crazed animals out there, Derrick Johnson and Justin Houston in particular were stellar. And our D-backs, Flowers et al, just smothering blankets, that's all, they just suffocated their receivers. What a joy to hear the NBC announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth gush about how great we were playing.

Except that, just like the wretchedly putrid Chiefs luck, the last words from those guys were something along the lines of, "What an awful putrid wretched ugly pathetic pitiful weak horrible [about 57 other negative superlatives here] play that was." That's what fans across the country were left with about the Chiefs. A phenomenal defensive performance poisoned by the impression of Chiefs abject ineptitude.

And it was well deserved. Very well deserved.

For you see, the Chiefs simply cannot win unless everyone plays splendidly. It is unfair, but without a Hall-of-Fame quarterback in there and a coach who gets us over that last hurdle to be a contending NFL franchise, we simply cannot afford to have anyone not play up to speed every down.

Sure enough, this week that guy was Dwayne Bowe.

Virtually every single week all Chiefs fans are singing the praises of this very gifted football player. But last night he did us in.

With a chance to win the game on a last minute drive, he signaled to QB Tyler Palko that he was going to extend his pattern deeper. Palko saw it, threw in that direction, yet Bowe cut his route too shallow. And after the ball was thrown still within his reach, he gave the most piddly effort with a jump that barely got his feet off the ground, he kept his arms down, and he allowed the ball to sail right into the hands of a Steeler defender.

For Bowe fans who protest, Bowe earlier had dropped a pass that was an easy touchdown when he allowed the D-back to dictate the coverage. It was an easily catchable ball that would've allowed him to crawl into the endzone for a touchdown.

This is why without that future Hall-of-Famer at quarterback we can't win anything. Just not going to happen. Sure Palko is a back-up, but it's not going to happen with Cassel in there either. We picked up Kyle Orton after Denver decided to make the Tim Tebow experiment permanent, but is he the answer? Really, look deep in your soul, is he really going to make a difference?

The reason it is so important in this instance is that you need that guy to read those coverages and have such a focused connection with his receivers that he'll have solid completions to them all the way through each touchdown drive. Lots of them, every game. I did like some of what Palko did last night, he was playing gutsy ball, and actually showed some spunk. But he never really got that connection, and even with the Bowe last-play-awfulness, he still threw into quintuple coverage.

So as it stands, we're in the middle of a stretch when we play all four of the "final four" NFL playoff teams from last year (Pit, Chi, NYJ, GB). That's by virtue of being a division winner last year. Yhee.

For what it's worth, maybe, just maybe in April we'll draft high enough and we'll be lucky enough (hahahahahaha) that the next best quarterback will be a guy only a few notches down from Andrew Luck in talent, or even better, the equivalent of Tom Brady talent who our new coach can develop.

Oh that we'd just have that luck. Then maybe we'll get back on prime-time before the next ice age.
_

Chiefs at Patriots - Week 11 - Record: 4-6

Well, I thought the score would be 45-3, literally, I did think that. Turned out to be only 34-3. Good thing.

Thing is, this was still an extraordinarily painful loss. The Miami loss? That was mostly a surprise, especially for people who after four straight wins thought the Chiefs were all that. The Denver loss? That was just disappointment in a team that allowed the option to beat them.

But this just hurt.

I think some of that was the fact that we actually played New England well in the first quarter. There was actually that tiny bit of hope that we could actually go in there and do something splendid and show our merit for being on Monday Night Football. But after a nice juicy gain by a resurgent Thomas Jones, we got a holding penalty on 7'9" 420-pound tight end Leonard Pope when he was blocking a 3'11" 125-pound New England grunt that looked way more like a hold than it actually was. At the cost of making this much more melodramatic by saying that was the turning point in what was destined to be a blowout anyhow, it went downhill from there.

I think what hurt most was just that this New England team is still so good, and this Kansas City team is still so bad. And I just can't deny that a lot of that is all the delightful St. Patty's luck that drops into the lap of a New England team, and all the wretched Curse of Odin's Revenge misfortune that never fails to afflict the Chiefs.

At the beginning of the game the announcers touted New England's boffo new tight end, some guy named Gronkowski I think -- I don't know because I don't pay any attention to any other team at any other time as much as I can help it. Please note that this was the first time I'd been introduced to this guy, never heard of him before.

But all I could think about was, how come they have him and we don't? How come they still have all kinds of great players leading the Patriots on to playoff appearance after playoff appearance after playoff appearance, and

We just don't?

This hurts because I always think about that game on November 27, 2005. Almost six years ago to the day. We played wonderfully and beat the Patriots, the reigning Super Bowl champs, 26-16. I actually thought -- yes, take a few moments to split some gutstrings laughing, I'll let you -- that this was the turning point. That the transition was ecstatically happening. I mean, that always happens, doesn't it? The poorer teams get the higher picks and the winning teams always have to fall back in the pack, right? That through years of painful awfulness we now earned the right to be in the upper echelon of contenders? Right? Right?

Well, after that game we won again to go 8-4, but then lost two crushing games to Dallas and New York, ended up 10-6, and failed to even make the playoffs. New England, meanwhile, went 4-1, got into the playoffs, and while they didn't get into the Super Bowl they still won a playoff game that year. Two years later they went undefeated while the Chiefs floundered at 4-12. In fact, here's the brutal reality since then, up to date. It is so frighteningly ugly you may want to avert your eyes.

New England's record since that Nov 27 2005 game, including playoffs: 81-26, a winning pct. of .757. They've won 3 of every 4 games they've played. And while they haven't won a Super Bowl in that time, they've still made the playoffs five times, and won five postseason games over that stretch.

Kansas City's record over that same period, including playoffs: 36-63, a winning pct. of .364. That's nearly a clip of losing 2 of every 3 games. Sorry, but that is repulsive. They've made the playoffs twice, and each time they were blown out in their first game.

Getting back to the Patriot's tight end Gronkowski -- this whole thing says a ton. This guy was a beast last night, scoring two touchdowns. I wonder, where did the Patriots draft him? I can't imagine for two seconds they got him high, because the Pats record has been so good, and as such they've had to have drafted low. If that's the case, then could they have drafted him after the 3rd pick in the '09 draft? After the Chiefs used the 3rd pick overall to select the now-completely-invisible Tyson Jackson? This just kills me, it just kills me. It may not have been Gronkowski that year, I just haven't any idea. But what other super-stud players out there ready to make the Chiefs look silly were drafted after Jackson?

Many will say, "Oh you just can't complain with hindsight, it just isn't fair." I respond to that with, Why can't I? Who says I can't? "Oh sure you know now, but there's no way you could know then."

But that's a lot of the point. We should be knowing then. And even so, I've been given to the consideration that the Chiefs have had the worst luck in just not being in the right place in the draft to get what we need. A team like the Patriots, they're in the right place all the time. It is luck, but it is also front office wisdom.

Do the Chiefs have that? I do think we should give Scott Pioli a chance, a guy who worked for a long time in that fine New England front office. But this is precisely why I pay no attention to anything outside of Chiefs games, because these thoughts just drive me insane. To wit: When he was with New England, was Pioli actually in the mix of successful player decision-making, or was it all really just Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, some other Patriot top guy? Or was Pioli just holding their towels and daydreaming about Dancing With the Stars while they were going over team-building strategy?

While I do work really hard to limit my hatred of other teams to the acceptably healthy disdain for the Raiders, I do let my jealousies of teams who continue to be successful at our expense eat me up. As it is, another of those teams is up next week, the Pittsburgh Steelers, supposedly to be played on Sunday night -- yet another primetime showcase for the Chiefs. I say supposedly because NBC could flex us right off that slot, I suppose that would be the merciful thing to do. But that decision would be a clear statement that yet again, the Chiefs are so bad they don't deserve to be in prime time. That hurts. And even if they keep them on the evening airwaves, it's only because they want to showcase the Steelers. ::Sigh::

But yeah, I don't blame them. Who could. It still hurts though.

Yes, our injuries have really clobbered us. But then, that's again just the awful, awful luck of the Chiefs.

BTW, I was at a college basketball game of a friend's son a week ago, and outside the arena in the hall there was a poster that elucidated the factual reality of ACL injuries. Turns out that among the general population they occur at a 60 in 100,000 clip . I did the math and found that this is the same as 3 in 5,000. The NFL has about 1,400 to 1,500 players out there playing on teams in a given year. So that's about one ACL every three years for the entire NFL. Even if you reasonably say that NFL players are more likely to suffer ACL's that the general population, even that doesn't detract from the fact that the Chiefs got hammered by the misfortune of having three of their top players taken out for the year because of it.

So then, if there are, oh, ten players on each team who are really pretty good, Pro-Bowl type players, then, lessee... And we know that it's about 3 in 5,000 chance that it'll happen to anyone anywhere anyhey... Annnnd that means that the average for getting an ACL for any of those ten players on any given team is, like, one every sixty years or so...  Annnd the Chiefs themselves have about ten reasonably decent players, among them Jamaal Charles, Eric Berry, and Tony Moeaki... So that means for the Chiefs, having your team ripped apart by ACL injuries to your top guys is 3 in 10 while for everyone else the average is 3 in 5,000...

Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch.

Last night one of the announcers said something very profound, and that is just that even with the injuries, these guys are still NFL players, highly paid and expected to perform. Problem: you just can't do that against a team that has all the luck and skill to keep a team going strong, while your team is floundering in misfortune and inability to cope with it.

That's the New England problem, and why even though we knew what was coming, it still hurt like hell.
_

Broncos at Chiefs - Week 10 - Record: 4-5

The agonizingly woeful ignominy of being anything related to the Chiefs -- player, fan, doesn't matter -- was highlighted in brilliant blazing colors across the sky by this wretchedly profound irony:

First, rookie Chiefs wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin made probably the most amazing catch of the century, when on a long pass he reached both arms around the defender, grabbed the ball behind the defender's back, and held on for the catch as he fell to the ground clutching the ball all the way. Big, big, big time play in a game that was still close and was in desperate need of a good Chiefs score to make it interesting.

Instead the play was called back, for even though the Broncos guy committed pass interference, Steve Breaston was called for illegal formation -- he wasn't off the line enough. Never mind that this call is never made in the NFL -- never ever never ever ever ever. And I know, in all the NFL games I've seen I'll watch right there on the screen receivers who should be a bit more off the line, right there on the line and they are never flagged for it. And here we are. Only the Chiefs.

Anyway, the penalties offset, and the play had to be done over again.

Only only only only only the Chiefs.

And that's not even the irony. Here's the thing that makes this so ironic.

The Broncos offense completed two passes.

Two passes.

Two passes the entire game. And one of them was pass that traveled about a yard and the receiver took it about 12 yards more.

It was the second pass that killed us, a 60-something yard TD bomb in the 4th quarter that made the score 17-7 Denver. Party over.

Two passes, party over.

Only the Chiefs.

What the Broncos did was run all over us, even after their two top backs were injured early and did not return.

Now, did you get that? Denver did not have their top two running backs, and they still ran all over us -- even using the option. Did you get that? Their offense ran the option about half the time, and were reasonably successful with it. Did you get THAT? An NFL team was able to run the option against an NFL defense. That only happens in a fantasy world.

Unless, of course, the Kansas City Chiefs defense is a fantasy defense, which I am beginning to believe that it is. As in, this team just does not have a real defense.

I've said this a hundred times before, and I really hope that ten years from now when we may actually be a playoff contender I just won't have to say it again, but here goes:

The reason we haven't had any sustained playoff action in the past several years, and we won't for the next several, is two reasons. Let's just share them again so we all know it, and perhaps Clark Hunt and Scott Pioli will know it and they'll do everything they can to avoid it. And amazingly, it has very little to do with Todd Haley!

Okay, okay, here're the two. No surprise because it's so obvious:

1. We have simply refused, in the worstest of all worst ways, to draft and develop a quarterback who'll be solid enough for years to give us the chance to truly compete in this league. Matt Cassel was awful again today, and yes, I'm joining the chorus of Chiefs fans who are starting to call for Tyler Palko to start and Ricky Stanzi to get snaps to see if he'll indeed be the next Tom Brady. Let's get going Chiefs management. Don't futz around anymore with this trying to pick off the shelf some QB from other team's reject pile. Yes yes yes we had fun with a fine people like Trent Green, but please -- this is just not the way to build a championship team. It isn't isn't isn't so stop it already.

2. The defensive linemen who we've selected in the highest rounds of draft after draft after draft have simply refused, in the worstest of all worst ways, to play like they should. Should we again go over the list of all the Junior Siavii's and Eric Downing's and Eddie Freeman's there are? Remember Ryan Sims, picked sixth overall (2002). Add to that Glenn Dorsey, fifth overall (2008), and Tyson Jackson, third overall (2009) (Third. Third. I'm going to cry right now...) That's the reason Denver's third-string backs ran all over us today, and we haven't the faintest of chances to do anything for the next few years -- there's no one there up front to tackle anybody!

Even more depressing is that, really, to give Denver credit, their O-line was outstanding, and is one of the youngest in the NFL. Great. So a division rival will now have one of the best O-lines in the league for years upon years to come. And our defense is, well....

Only any good in a fantasy world.

::Whimper::
_