Chiefs Chronicles: NFL Week 10 and Chiefs Bye Week
My first NBA game AKA Why this post is late, odds and ends for Chiefs vs. Dolphins from Frankfurt, my 2023 NFL Draft crush is blowing up, some Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce content, and So Many Links!
Wow. Only three weeks in and I’m already apologizing for a late post. Hopefully, it’s not too late to keep you as a reader (too obvious a reference, I know). I really have some good reasons for not being on time. Honestly. Why would I lie to you? I swear I’m telling the truth (I’m trying to dazzle you with a flurry of links so you’ll forget I was tardy). As you can see from this picture, I went to a Warriors in-season tournament game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Chase Center with my youngest brother Joe (who is not in this picture). Going to that game is part of the reason this post is late. I won’t bore you with the other part- a doctor’s appointment with a specialist at UCSF (they have fantastic medical facilities). Maybe I’ll get into the why of that appointment another time. Or not.
Anyways, here are some thoughts from my first NBA game (I know- exciting!). I bought a t-shirt and hat in the Warriors Shop and was given a free reversible San Francisco Warriors jacket- it should be arriving in about six weeks. Cool! Once we got to our seats we found free Warriors In-Season Tournament t-shirts draped over them. Super cool! I really love free stuff (especially food, but anything is great), so this was going well.
As for the game itself, it ended up not being as amazing an experience as I had expected. We found out that Steph Curry was inactive, about two minutes before the game started. That was a bummer. I told my brother, “Well, at least Klay and Draymond are playing. It’ll still be good.” I spoke too soon. Before either team had scored a point, Klay and Draymond got ejected for fighting. So we had that going for us. Which was nice. The game was still fun though. Warriors rookie Brandin Podziemski (from a distance he has a Mahomes-ish look to him) blew up in the first extended playing time of his NBA career, and the Warriors led most of the game. Until the end. When they lost. Not an ideal outcome. Still, it was an overall fun evening (in spite of the $100 I had to drop, to Uber us there and then back to the hotel) and I’ll definitely go again. Here’s the proof we were there, in case you’re still wondering if I’m a liar:
Now back to the reason you’re reading this (I assume someone is reading this)- the Chiefs. Since it’s the bye week still (sort of) here are some of the random thoughts I had during the Frankfurt game versus the Dolphins:
Loved the camera focusing on the wrong person at the start of the national anthem (I was wondering if it was going to be an Ashlee Simpson situation, but he didn’t have that deer in the headlights look)
Mahomes throwing to everyone! Great first drive. Are the receivers getting better? Can’t tell, but I know who I think Patrick should be throwing to more.
Red Light, Green Light on penalties… Is that the one where you go forward and backward? More like the football Hokey Pokey, maybe? (this was by far the most kid-friendly section of this post)
Hardman needs to stop going backwards- Dante Hall (whom I’ve met!) he is not. If he keeps making mistakes they should bring back the guy who was handling return duties earlier in the year. I liked him. What was his name again? Montrell Washington! (I had to look it up)
Dang it! Love Tommy Townsend/hate punts
I forgot to count how many Chiefs/Mahomes/Kelce or combination thereof commercials (you’re welcome) there were. A lot.
Isiah Pacheco needs to be used more in every game. C’mon Andy! Don’t do him the way you did Jamaal Charles. Man, I miss him! BTW, I like the current Rutgers RB too.
Savory granola bar? Weird. Maybe I should try/review them.
The YouTube TV NFL Sunday Ticket interface is kind of hard to use on my old tv. Or is it just clunky on every tv?
Is Matt Nagy part of the problem on offense? He wasn’t great as the Bears coach.
In the run-up to the draft this year, my brother Joe and I did a ton of mock drafts. We wanted to get an idea of the types of players that might be available when the Chiefs and the Seahawks picked. I decided that KC needed a backup RB, so I watched highlights of prospective later round picks to see if any of them stood out. One did. Keaton Mitchell. I must’ve watched the above highlight reel 20 times (and sent it to 20 friends who probably didn’t actually watch it). He reminded me (still does) of a slightly smaller (Combine measurements: 5’8” 179 lbs. (he’s now up to 191 lbs.) 4.37 40-yard dash) version of Jamaal Charles (Combine Measurements: 5’11” 200 lbs. 4.38 40-yard dash). He just kept beating the defense (whichever defense the Pirates were playing against) to the edge and then taking it in for a TD. Or weaving through the middle and then accelerating for a TD. A smooth runner, with shifty moves, and speed to spare.
I’d found my 2023 NFL Draft crush and wanted desperately for KC to target him in the draft. Round after round I waited for the Chiefs to draft him- or for some other team to steal him away from me. From us. From the Chiefs (I know I’m not a member of the team). Round after round they didn’t take him. In fact, no one took him in any round. Mister Irrelevant (I used last year’s so he would have some relevance) came and went, and the draft was over. Insanity. (Side Note: Should I become a scout? How did no one else see what I saw?) Now it was time for the mad rush to sign undrafted rookies. The Chiefs were coming off of a Super Bowl victory and had a clear need for backup RBs. Surely they would make an offer to him and he would choose the Reigning Champs. Right?
Nope.
He signed with the Baltimore Ravens- the same team his father played for and won a Super Bowl with. I guess that gave them the inside track to sign him. Although, now that I think about it, that would have never come up if KC had just drafted him in the first place. Maybe, I told myself, I just think he’ll be good. I’ve been wrong before: I’m looking at you (amongst many others) Ryan Sims, Jon Baldwin, and Skyy Moore. (Prove me wrong Skyy. Prove me wrong.)
The first 6 weeks of the season he was on injured reserve with a shoulder injury and didn’t play. In Week 7 he had one reception for 9 yards. He’s injury prone and won’t be any good, I thought. In Week 8 he was inactive. Well, a person can’t be right all the time. That’s why they put erasers on pencils, or some such. From the way Keaton has blown up the last few weeks, it looks like I was correct after all. Since I had been proven right, I renamed my fantasy team after him (and the Michael Keaton Batman- still the best!) and started him in the FLEX spot this week. My time for bad decisions was over…
He got me 8.10 points. I guess I wasn’t done being wrong after all.
And now for the obligatory Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift (or Traylor Swelce as they were called, by me, for my Week 2 Fantasy Football team) content. First for fans of the Kelce Brothers:
And for anyone who has read this far because I promised Travis AND Taylor, and you actually want to see them together, here you are:
Big game Monday Night. Go Chiefs! See y’all next week.
(BTW, I am scheduling this to go out at 8 AM PST on Saturday. That’s in about 3 hours. Apparently, these posts can’t be completed until 5 AM- no matter what day I write them on. Good to know.)
A TWolves win in Golden State. Hope you had a great time, Gary!