Isn’t it nice to interject a bit of culture to start an article out? This Sippio-Chiefs thing has been running through my head today. I had decided to let sleeping dogs lie. Sure, I had some snarky headlines in mind. Things like “Pats sign Sippio to start alongside Randy Moss” and “Martz signs Sippio, promises to make him a star”. However, this topic has been very passionately debated here on AA and elsewhere. Then I read the bus driver’s latest post. After losing what’s left of my lunch, I decided to try to write the other side of the story.
I for one, am not a “Sippio hater”. I did enjoy the underdog Sippio story that Hard Knocks brought us. I rooted for him to make the team and wanted to see him on the field. As the year dragged on, things started to go downhill on the blogs. Those of us, who I would refer to as rationalists, started to wonder if there was a good reason why he was not seeing the field. Others, convinced that Sippio was going to be a good player, started to look for alternate explanations as to why he wasn’t getting on the field. Herm doesn’t know offense, Solari stinks, Herm is favoring Webb all were floated as reasons.
Now we get to 2008 and a major roster and coaching overhaul. A practically brand new offensive staff was brought in. Still, Sippio was not getting prime playing time. Things were starting to gell with me. Considering every team passed on Sippio when we cut him in 2007 and now another staff not giving him prime playing time, it became clear that he was not long for the NFL. However, the Sippio believers would not see it. Dropped passes thrown to his mid-thigh became bad passes at his ankles, in their minds. I suspected that this story was not going to have a happy ending. Unfortunately for Sippio, it hasn’t.
However, to see this story recast as a Rocky and Rudy story is really unfair. I am not going to pretend to know Adam’s mind. However, the torch that he carried was more anti-Herm than root for this Rocky story. To try to recast the narrative in those terms doesn’t seem fair to me. To suggest that those of us not on the bandwagon hate Sippio is very unfair. I think almost every Chief fan would prefer that Sippio would have become a star. We want that for every Chief. Rooting for underdogs is not something that only applied to blue collar towns. It applies to every passionate fanbase regardless of sport or location. We all want to see the ‘out of nowhere’ story, for our team, of course. Often, however, it just doesn’t work. It seems like it hasn’t for Sippio, but there is always another underdog to root for. McMahan anyone?
Merlin
Never miss a chance to get your fix! Follow Arrowhead Addict on Twitter and be sure to like our Facebook page.







