The campaign starts here and it starts now. Special teams coach Mike Priefer is an incompetent nincompoop. He needs to be fired ASAP. He won’t be , but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t call for his head.
Let’s look at this chumps greatest hits with the Chiefs:
- Drafting Justin Medlock with a fifth-rounder. The move’s UCLA ties have King Carl written all over it, but I’m sure he played a part.
- Bringing in and not only keeping Eddie Drummond on the roster last season for its entirety, but insisting on playing him as our returner.
- Bringing in and not only keeping Dave Rayner on the roster for most of last season, but insisting on playing him as our kicker.
- Kicking to Devin Hester last year, costing us the Bears game. He obviously hasn’t learned his lesson, as evidenced by kicking to Ted Ginn Jr., who’s basically Devin Hester Jr.
- Bringing in B.J. Sams and seriously contemplating heading into the season with him as our return man.
- And now, inexplicably cutting Jay Feely–a proven commodity at kicker who was released by the Dolphins simply because he wasn’t a Tuna guy–roughly 24 hours after he touched down in Kansas City.
Point blank–Feely got a raw deal. His agent breaks down the situation. From The Kansas City Star:
“We’re shocked, baffled, disappointed,” said his agent, Glenn Schwartzman. “It was not our understanding that they were just going to give the job to Jay. We in no way thought that. We knew he would have to win the job.
“While no one promised him the job, we were under the impression he would be given a better opportunity to win it. If they’re going to base it off two days of kicking, they probably shouldn’t have signed him. It makes no sense to make a decision about Jay without letting him kick in the preseason game.
“Had we known he wasn’t even going to get that chance, we never would have signed with the Chiefs.”
Feely arrived in Kansas City on Monday and kicked almost immediately. He received little chance to warm up with snapper J.P. Darche and holder Dustin Colquitt.
They had been working with Novak and Barth for months.
“So Jay didn’t have a great day (Monday), understandably,” Schwartzman said. Feely was 10 of 15 Monday.
“It was just an OK day, and I guess that’s what they based their decision on. They felt the other guys kicked better in the two days. We appreciate the Chiefs bringing him in and letting him kick. He will kick somewhere in the league this year and kick well.”
It’s just unfathomable that he wasn’t given the opportunity to get over his jet lag, get used to his holder and snapper, and, most importantly, actually kick in Thursday’s games. Anyone who thinks there was a level playing field in this kicker competition is nuts. This just makes no sense to me. Why not cut Nick Novak, a journeyman kicker who has impressed nobody thus far, and let rookie Connor Barth and proven vet Feely duke it out?
I honestly hope he makes the Chiefs pay for our stupidity by kicking well for someone else. Not only is this clueless, it is classless. Carl Peterson, Herm Edwards and especially Mike Priefer, you blew it again. People wonder why I don’t believe in these clowns and their rebuilding project. I wouldn’t hire Priefer to coach Pop Warner. Regardless of their “explanation” for this, Priefer’s atrocious special teams units have been a joke. Because of that, he needs to be shown, er, shoved out the door.
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*Long Post Warning!*
I never said it was fair, I said it delivered on its intended purpose, which was to see if first and foremost our OWN guys, who’ve been in camp, would step up and answer the ‘call to arms’. They did. It could have gone both ways. Connor could have looked at Feely and been like “Oh shit, I guess I’ll be seeing the Turk soon.” But he didn’t. Novak could have said “Well, guess I’ma go pack my bags and try to stick with another team.” Nope, he wants this job, and kicked better than Feely. Our guys stepped up.
Think of it as a business. You have a 50-something guy coming in to do whatever it is you do in that business. However; you also have a kid who just graduated from college, and is new to your business. That kid can be timid and shy, and look at that old guy and follow his lead, and be a 2nd tier guy, or he can say screw it, and go for broke, to try and move up in the business. That kid this week was Connor Barth. That kid moved up in the business. He’s not at the top of the chain just yet, he has to fight off Novak. But anytime you can secure someone good like that, at a young age, it’s a good thing… Even if we have to go through a bit of rookie bumps along the way, and even drop a couple games, Barth is the theoretical answer for the long-term, whereas Feely was relatively short-term.
Do you remember the punter before Dustin Colquitt? He currently holds a 42.2 net yard punting average in the NFL. That’s not Guy numbers, but it’s definetly respectable. Feely isn’t a superstar either, but is respectable. However, the Chiefs ended up getting someone younger instead. I don’t think anyone would argue that Colquitt is a great punter, even top 10 in the league today, if not better. That seemed to have worked out. Let’s give this one a chance to pan out as well, eh?
I remember Dustin’s rookie year when he wasn’t doing so well, and everyone then was throwing a fit about why we got him, blah blah blah. They’re silenced now. This’ll blow over when Barth nails a game-winner for us, or Feely botches an easy kick that ends up costing a game.
I don’t think many of can be ‘heartbroken’ about this season. It’s like dating a girl for a long time, and you guys do nothing but fight, and you realize hey, it’s not going to work out, so you part ways. Are you going to be sad? Yeah, for sure. But at the same time, you saw it coming. You had some great hopes, and even towards the end, you still thought maybe you could make it work, but you just kinda knew that things were over and done with. We all WANT it to work with that girl- just like we all want the Chiefs to do well. But I think deep down every single person who reads this site, knows that this year, that girl isn’t going to stay with us; and possibly get married (make the playoffs, and possibly go to the Super Bowl). Not this year, fellas. Plenty more fish in the sea, plenty more years left on Carl’s contract. It happens.
The good news is, the Chiefs (or our ‘guy’ in this analogy,) have gotten a new haircut, bought some spiffy new clothes, and trying to buy some new cologne. We’re trying to get the girl, but it ain’t gonna happen overnight.
And holy hell that was a long post. Time for me to go to bed, to ponder analogies of Chiefs, women, and dating, and consequently dream about dating one, (or maybe all?) Chiefs Cheerleaders. Good times.
I thoroughly enjoyed that xxxlp. From where I’m sitting, however, it’s like George McFly trying to get Lorraine when Marty gets back to 1955. George is going to need a lot of help and a lot of things to happen before he actually gets the girl. The odds are against him, but yet there are some reasons to be optimistic. Just not overly optimistic. Guarded optimism, might be the term, and I’m not sure I’m even quite that. I’m more like Doc Brown saying “damn” ten times in a row
And if Feely tanks and Barth soars, then the Chiefs were right and I was wrong. I just doubt that will be the case.
Adam said:
“Why I am negative sometimes, writer, is to counter the rampant, out-of-control, delusional homerism that is commonplace with lots of Chiefs fans today.”
I find that interesting because I’m the exact opposite. I am perceived as overly optimistic becuase I seek to counter the “rampant, out-of-control, delusional” hating that is so commonplace with lots of Chiefs fans today.
It seems you base a lot of your personal opinion on “feeling” rather than logic, which is fine if that’s what you want to do, but it does not necessarily mean that you are viewing things accurately.
You say you “feel” Herm plays favorites. So why did they bring Feely in in the first place if he wasn’t going to have a fair shot because Herm had his favorites? Both Novak and Barth are over 85% on their kicks throughout camp and preseason, which is pretty good. So if they wanted one of those guys, there was no reason for them to bring Feely in at all. The logical truth is, Herm brought in a good vet to try out against these other guys and the vet performed poorly. It wouldn’t really have been a competition if he gave the job to the guy that missed the most.
I could say the same thing about your “feelings” about Webb. You “feel” that Herm favors him, even though Webb was drafted in the 6th round and has up till this year at least been 4th on the depth chart. How much favoritism can there be?
Ah, but this leads to your other “feeling” that Sippio is a great player and your “feeling” that he isn’t being given a fair shot because you “feel” that Herm doesn’t like him. Weel if Herm doesn’t like him, why hasn’t he been cut yet? Why was he invited to camp at all? Why was he invited to camp last year? The logical conclusion is that Herm likes the guy and that he’s a good guy to have around your young receivers, but the guy has limited abilities that are going to prevent him from being a productive NFL receiver.
Thinking emotionally can be a good thing. It give you fire and passion. But you need to keep a good degree of logic sprinkled in there too, otherwise you just sound like a hater, which I don’t think you really are.
I “feel” like you have some valid points. I also “feel” that you are a bit of a Chiefs apologist. Do you perhaps have a bumper sticker that says, “In Herm We Trust” on the back of your ride. I’m just kidding. It’s not all reactionary either, as I like to speak my mind really before I consider anyone else’s opinion so I’m not influenced by the MSM, the Chiefs themselves and other fans.
Here’s the other thing. I have a theory that 75% of the time or more, people only comment on blogs when they disagree with you. So, since I have admittedly been hard on the Chiefs this preseason–and deservedly so, I might add–many of the commenters respond back with the opposite, pushing me further to the extreme to combat their sometimes ridiculous optimism (10-6–really?).
I’ve toyed with the notion of going Bizarro Adam for one day and praising Brodie and Webb and Herm and saying we’ll go 11-5, and seeing if that brings the pessimists out of the woodwork. I might have to bring out Bizarro Adam this weekend. Sounds like a fun experiment to me.
I think it might be illustrative to go back and see what fans and “experts” were predicting for the 1999 Colts prior to the start of their regular season. I’m not okay with the Chiefs being competitive 2 or 3 years from now; I expect them to win this year, next year, and every year. The key to a successful season always involves the next game on your schedule.
Just because I happen to believe the Chiefs can be much better than most everybody else thinks doesn’t mean that I don’t think there will bumps and setbacks along the way. My hope is that those kinds of days will be few in number.
Look, it boils down to this for me. Either these guys are worthy of being called NFL players, or they aren’t. If they’re the former, then they can win. It may be cliche, but it’s nevertheless true that nothing great was ever achieved by somebody who said “it can’t be done.” The first step in becoming a successful team is for the coaches and players to hold the unswerving belier they can win the next game. As long they believe that, then so will I.
I agree with you on that Adam, I usually don’t make a comment unless it is a different point of view than was expressed (so I bet your right, come out praising the chiefs and you will see others who take a different view) or if I have insufficient knowledge on that particular topic, thus some of my comments on your blog that probably seem off the topic. So I try to get opinions form you and your readers on things I’d like to know about, not that I agree or disagree or that I am trying to control the topic.
Thanks, John. I don’t have a problem with it. That’s just the nature of the game. It always makes for interesting point-counterpoint debate as well.
If there’s one thing we’re good at here at AA, it’s definetly debating.
I might argue with that xxxlp.
:O. I object!
I second that motion!
“I have a theory that 75% of the time or more, people only comment on blogs when they disagree with you.”
Absolutely true. (this is the other 25%)
If someone says something you totally agree with, about the only thing you can say is “Great Post” which while its nice for the person who made the original post because it strokes his ego, its really boring to read.
I admit I’m kind of a Chiefs apologist. But its mostly because any change is out of my hands and all I see being negative doing is pissing on yourself in the wind because it does no good but get you hung up on taking the negative on everything. You’ve seen those guys that are always negative and then the team has an awesome game and everyone SHOULD be happy, but this guy just can’t do it, he still has to think of some way to dump on the team or take a dig at Peterson or some crap. That is the end result of being negative.
Whats the worst thing about being an overly optimistic homer? If they win, you’re right. If they lose, who cares, you think they’ll be better next time. But you don’t agonize over things that you can’t personally change.
Some things I take an opposing argument on just because I think someone said something out of line or unreasonable. I don’t think Webb is ever going to be better than a #4 WR in the NFL, but I think it is blatantly unfair to accuse him of being “the boss’s son” even if the boss’s son isn’t getting preferential treatment and is having to work his way up the ranks.
I say the opposite. If you are honest and realistic, even pessimistic, about you team’s chances: A.) You are either wrong and your team wins; or B.) You are right. You can’t lose and you don’t set yourself and others up for heartbreak.
Just the way I see it. Maybe the Chiefs have finally manage to make me a jaded fan.
I also honestly just don’t think we’ll be very good.
“I also honestly just don’t think we’ll be very good.”
Oh, we won’t be. There are too many things betting against us this year. But that doesn’t mean that what is going on now is not the foundation for years in the future.
Are all these rookies that are starting today going to be starters when we have a Super Bowl caliber team in a few years? I sincerely doubt it. Right now we’re throwing rookies in to start just because we got no one else. We have almost no depth on this team whatsoever. Thats just going to take time to build and as time goes by, guys that are starting today will get replaced by guys that are better.
You’ve got to keep the long run in view, which is something Chiefs fans haven’t had to do for 15 years when Peterson was dangling out the “We’re one good player away from the Super Bowl” line in front of us.
There’s nothing impressive about the foundation of a house, but after time goes by and the rest of the mansion is built on that foundation, you finally see it was all worth it.