Chiefs Chronicles: Preseason Week 2 Wrap & Pre-Preseason Week 3
Quick Thoughts on the Detroit Game, What I Want From The Chiefs vs The Bears Tonight, The Dangers of Confidence, & More Random Stuff Than You Can Shake a Stick At!
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Quick Thoughts on the Detroit Game
I’m going to be 100% honest with you- I could not get into this game. Maybe it was because it doesn’t count or maybe my lack of interest was due to the lousy week I’ve been having, I’m not really sure. Whatever the cause, once the starters and important backups left the game, I had trouble staying awake. As a result, my notes on the game are fairly sparse.
Here’s what I did get:
Worthy looks good! Except he fumbled (TBF, he recovered it), appeared to false start on his first catch (it was close), and bobbled his touchdown catch (he let go of it awfully quickly after the catch- have to be careful with that!). Still, he looks insanely fast and he does catch the ball.
People seem to be sleeping on Rashee Rice this year because of the offseason stuff. He’s been looking great to me on the field and he’s said the right things off the field. He may be a fantasy football steal this year, especially since there doesn’t appear to be a suspension coming his way any time soon. Shhh! Don’t tell the guys in my league!
BEHIND THE BACK PASS!!! AFTER ALL THE TALK, THEY FINALLY DID IT!!! (The all-caps shows you how excited I was in the moment.)
Rees⚡Lightning needs to learn how to make an American-football cut (AKA a juke). Is that not a thing in rugby? Taking teeny-tiny little steps is not the best or quickest way to change direction on a football field. I’m 50 and not in the best health, but I could cut (or juke) better than what I saw during his one kick return. To be clear, I could do it once. Then the cart would have to come and get me.
On the plus side he did show great straight-line speed as one of the gunners on kickoffs and he was in on a tackle covering a kickoff (I don’t care if he got credit or not- he grabbed the returner’s ankle and helped bring him down). Plus, he has looked pretty good at handling kickoff duties. My hope is that his athleticism, along with his ability to do multiple things for the team, will earn him a spot on the roster. I still believe in you Rees⚡Lightning!
Carson Steele didn’t have the “Wow!” play on offense, but he looked really solid to me- no matter which unit he was with. He’s a roster lock or, perhaps, a roster Locke. Would you want to be the one to tell him he didn’t make the team?
I love listening to Trent Green in the booth talking Chiefs football. When he was commenting about Patrick Mahomes setting the standard for the team in practice and just how seriously he (PM15) and the team take completing the Threepeat (do I owe Phil Jackson money now?) it was getting me pumped for the season. Also, he cracks me up. He comes across as a nice, kind of goofy guy, who also happened to be a great NFL QB. And, when he makes a mistake, he’s able to correct it and laugh at himself. Hopefully, he’ll get to call some Chiefs games this year.
At least I got to see the whole game this time. Nice job, NFL Network.
What I Want From The Chiefs vs The Bears Tonight
It’s past 5 AM (and now it’s 6 AM) on Thursday the 22nd and I just remembered that I didn’t write this part yet. I’d like to go to bed soon, so let’s do this. Here’s what I want (and expect) to see from the Chiefs later tonight:
No injuries would be fantastic. Unless, that is, the “injury” allows the Chiefs to keep a certain player on “red-shirt IR” until next season. Perhaps, he (whomever “he” might be) would then have time to more thoroughly “learn the game.”
Figure out the RB (2 through 3 or 4), WR (5 through 6 or 7), and CB (2 through however many they’re keeping) depth charts.
Put Rees⚡Lightning out there a LOT and give him a chance to use his speed. I don’t care whether it’s offense or special teams, just give him plenty of work. Let him show out and make the team.
I’d love for the coaches to take some chances with their play-calling. It’s the preseason and guys know that this may be their last opportunity to impress the coaching staff. Mix it up a little!
Not to harp on the point, but I’ll be watching closely for 1 or 2 each of the WRs, RBs, & CBs to show why they must be on the roster. Make it hard on the coaches.
Win the game. In league history, I believe only the 2022 LA Rams were able to win the Super Bowl following a winless preseason. The Chiefs are already up against a lot this season, let’s not make it any harder for them.
The Dangers of Confidence
(Note: This section has Tweets in it. If the screenshot is of more than one Tweet, it should be read from bottom to top.)
Confidence is a nice quality for regular folks to have but, in NFL players, it’s a necessity. Football players that don’t have confidence in their abilities aren’t likely to become college players, much less professionals. Without that bordering-on irrational faith in what they can do on the field, they are much more likely to become teachers, cashiers, realtors, elevator repairmen, or anything else other than professional football players.
The crazy overconfidence that our favorite players have can, through repeated exposure, rub off on us. That is where the danger lies for us as fans. For example, I’m sure most of us know (or have heard) someone who’s said something along these lines: “The Chiefs have won two Super Bowls in a row and are going to destroy everyone in their path to pull off the Threepeat! They can’t be stopped! They might even go undefeated!”
While I’m impressed by someone who can say all that and believe it, just the act of typing those words made my stomach hurt. Most likely it’s the pre-Patrick football scars that I (and much of Chiefs Kingdom) still deal with that causes me to feel this way. I learned a long time ago, that having even an average level of confidence in any upcoming Chiefs season can bring untold misery to the holder of said confidence.
Let me explain. I recently tried to access my personal X (formerly Twitter) account for the first time in a few years. Unsurprisingly, I don’t remember my login info and none of my current email addresses seem to be connected to that account (which seems impossible to me). I’m at an impasse with their support team (not the most supportive support team I’ve ever dealt with) and am sadly locked out until I can think of some way to prove to them that I’m actually me.
Looking at my profile picture (three birds I saw perched on a telephone pole while driving on the aptly named Scenic Drive in Trinidad, CA) and reading the quote under my name (“Who’s got the looks? Who’s got the brains? Who’s got everything? I’ve got this pain in my heart. That’s all.” - from Underground by Ben Folds Five) brought on a wave of nostalgia, so I decided to wallow (I don’t wade) in it. I went as far back as I could in the timeline and reread some of my earliest available Tweets (the first few years seem to have been erased).
There was a lot of Chiefs-related activity to look at, but I zeroed in on Tweets (are they X’s now?) from 2012 and was amazed at the level of confidence (Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!) I had in this team that had disappointed me so many times over the 22 years I’d been a hardcore fan. Always the optimist when it came to the Chiefs, I thought (and I’m sure much of Chiefs Kingdom would have agreed) I’d been through nearly everything (and seen the rest) when it came to Kansas City Chiefs football-related heartbreak.
As is often the case, I was wrong. This time, though, it was in spectacular fashion.
That season would teach all of Chiefs Kingdom an incredibly harsh lesson about what it truly means to be a sports fan. As fans, we’d never experienced anything quite like that season before.
I hope we never experience anything like it again.
The year, as I mentioned earlier, was 2012 and a lot was happening in my life when it came to football. (Note: I’ll try to lighten this section up, where I can- the 2012 Chiefs Season is too much for anyone to take straight-up.)
We’ll go through the Tweets in (mostly) chronological order. I’ve decided to start with a couple things that are only kind of related to the Chiefs:
The first thing I noticed, was a surprising reference that pops up amidst all my Tweets about the Chiefs. Did I somehow know in advance what was going to happen in the Chiefs future? Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. You be the judge:
My key to winning at Monopoly is patience. I will extend the game as long as possible- eventually everyone else gets bored and I win by default. Now on to a more football-centric game:
Since that day a little over 12 years ago, I have lived up to that vow every season that I’ve played fantasy football. I will continue to do so at my fantasy draft this Saturday!
Next, Chiefs Training Camp starts and I’m already feeling confident:
At least I’m not the only one (wrongly) expecting big things from the Chiefs in 2012:
The season has started and my optimism is not being rewarded:
Resounding losses to Atlanta and Buffalo put the Chiefs at 0-2 and have me in a rotten mood. Three days pass and I’m trying really hard to stay optimistic:
By end-of-day on Oct. 12th, the Chiefs have dropped to 1-4. Fantasy football has been a mixed bag at best for me so far. On to next week:
Romeo Crennel benches Matt Cassel in favor of Brady Quinn. The offense is somehow much worse. The Chiefs lose to the Bucs 38-10 and they fall to 1-5. I’m riding a rollercoaster of emotions:
I’m stressed and grasping at straws. There’s no saving this season and I know it. Maybe, if I try to turn the negative into a positive, things will look better:
By Nov. 2nd the Chiefs are 1-7. The “Save Our Chiefs” movement in KC is going strong and I’m so desperate for a great, homegrown QB that I’ve somehow convinced myself that either Geno Smith or Matt Barkley could become the hero that KC needs. Two weeks later, the Chiefs are 1-9 and somehow my resolve firms up. I’m still a Chiefs fan and will always be a Chiefs fan. The same day that I Tweet #foulweatherfan, I win an autographed football from Coke Zero. Finally, a reward for enduring this lousy season:
So, Coke Zero sent me a Matt Cassel autographed football. There were two choices and, believe it or not, that was the more desirable option- I can’t remember the other choice. Maybe, Jon Baldwin? Not an autographed ball, just Jon Baldwin moving into my house…
By the time the ball was delivered, Cassel was back on the bench. He never started another game for the Chiefs and they cut him in March of 2013. After that, he played 7 seasons for 4 more teams, but never recaptured the brief success he had during his two best seasons: 2008 (NE) & 2010 (KC)
It’s November 29th, the Chiefs are 1-10, and a kind of cool (it’s a new football), kind of lame (it isn’t one of my favorite players or even a starter) autographed football has been the high-point of the season so far. How much worse could things get, really?
On December 1st, 2012 I found out. We all did.
Things were about to get much, much worse.
Before you continue reading, I feel compelled to issue warnings (one here and one below) about the next portion of this column:
TRIGGER WARNING
The following section contains material of a disturbing nature. Please skip ahead to the next section right now (just scroll down- I’ll make it clear where to stop) if you would like to completely avoid reading about it. If you just want to look at my Tweets and read this column, I will not write in detail about what occurred.
What I will do (in the second trigger warning) is outline the topics that are covered in detail in the linked article below.
TRIGGER WARNING
The article linked below deals with concussions, CTE, bullying, domestic violence, gun violence, murder, and suicide.
(If you’re unfamiliar with the whole sad story and want to know what happened, click here for details.)
There were many on-field and leadership problems that make 2012 easily the worst football season in the history of the Kansas City Chiefs, but until the morning of December 1st it was just about the game of football. Big business, sure, but still just a game played for the enjoyment of the masses.
The criminal act that Jovan Belcher committed against Kasandra Perkins that day (and all that followed, which included the workplace allegations mentioned in the article above and medical results that can be found here) was a huge and terrible thing. It made Zoey, the couple’s infant daughter, an orphan and damaged both families immeasurably. Belcher’s mother, Cheryl Shepard, Coach Romeo Crennel, GM Scott Pioli, and others saw things that morning that probably haunt them to this day.
When compared to matters of life and death, what that event did to the Chiefs organization can seem rather unimportant, but this is a column about the Chiefs, so I will press on.
The tragedy that unfolded on December 1st, 2012 cast an enormous black cloud over the entire Chiefs organization, the community, and the fans for the remainder of the season. I imagine it was a very big factor in Clark Hunt’s decision to completely remake the franchise.
TO ALL WHO SKIPPED AHEAD:
YOU ARE SAFE TO READ BELOW THIS POINT ⬇️
Romeo Crennel was fired by the Chiefs on New Year’s Eve. While Crennel wasn’t a great head coach, he seemed to handle an extremely difficult year with class and I respect him for that. I retweeted these at the time:
Romeo Crennel retired from coaching in 2022 after a 50 year coaching career, which included 39 years in the NFL. I hope he’s enjoying his retirement.
Scott Pioli, staunch proponent of The Patriot Way” and the most disliked GM in Chiefs history by a country mile, was fired 4 days after Romeo Crennel. He is not missed.
Thus ended the worst season in Kansas City Chiefs history.
Wow. Had to go a bit dark at the end there and it was not an easy topic to write about. I’d honestly forgotten exactly how bad that 2012 season was. The most likely reason for my amnesia?
On January 7th, just three days after they fired Scott Pioli, the Kansas City Chiefs hired Andy Reid to be their new head coach. Because of the way his tenure with the Eagles had ended, I was unsure if he was the right choice for KC.
That sentiment lasted a day.
I think they made the right choice.
So all of the preceding that I wrote about confidence being dangerous? Upon reflection, I’ve decided I was mostly wrong about that. My confidence in that particular lost season was misplaced, but that shouldn’t color my views forever.
Especially in light of all the success the team has enjoyed since they hired Andy Reid in 2013. Contemporary Chiefs teams have given Chiefs Kingdom every reason to confidently expect great things from them each and every season. Things have been good to great with Chiefs football for a long time now, and I think I’ll just enjoy the ride from here on out.
I am exhausted. It’s almost 5 AM and I’ve been writing for so many (maybe a million?) hours. Advance apologies for any mistakes- there is no time to properly proofread. Just a couple more odds and ends to button up, and then I’ll send this edition of Chiefs Chronicles on its merry way.
I’m sorry that I didn’t get to the topic of my trip to the home of the Little Patricks or my favorite Chiefs gear/memorabilia, like I promised last week. I’m aiming to get those out after the last preseason game.
Thanks for reading and, as always…
I loved reading the trip down memory lane! God, I remember the dark days in 2012. So thankful to have the next 10+ years of Mahomes to look forward to! Thank you for the wonderful perspective, and Go Chiefs!!!