NFL Films presents…

(music: doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, duh, duh, duuuhhhh)

“America’s Game: The 2010 Kansas City Chiefs”

Starring…

DT Glenn Dorsey

TE Tony Gonzalez

Head Coach Herm Edwards

Narrated by…

Paul Rudd (life-long Chiefs fan who narrated Hard Knocks)

…

Rudd: “Back during a woeful 2007 season, the only way most people ever thought future Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez would go to a Super Bowl was if he bought himself a ticket. Not Tony. He always believed in the Kansas City Chiefs. Even during that 4-12 season.”

Gonzalez: “You know, a lot of other guys would have demanded a trade. Brett Favre, Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas…a lot of franchise guys changed colors, and wanted to. Not me. I’m Red and Gold for life. I knew that we were going to be there in 2-3 years, and I also knew I still had a lot of football in me. I believed in our young guys and I believed in myself. Still, we had to go to work.”

Rudd: “Go to work the Chiefs did. One of those young guys who went to work with Gonzalez was defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey.”

Dorsey: “When I got to Kansas City, we were a 4-12 football team. I wasn’t OK with that. In college I was the best and we were champions. I thought if I could do that again in the pros, I could help the Chiefs be champions, too. It wasn’t always pretty, but that’s how it worked out. 11-5, four blood-and-guts playoff wins on the way to the Lombardi Trophy. We did it.”

Things got pretty heated over the past couple days around here. That’s why I wanted to do this post. Two nights ago, I couldn’t sleep. I turned on the tube to the NFL Network and saw America’s Game: The 2007 New York Giants. At that point, it really hit home that we all want the same thing. We want our guys to hoist up the trophy, have the parade and end up on that show. If the 2007 Giants can do it, so can the 2010 Chiefs. The show might not mean anything to many of you, but it has special meaning to me.

When I lived in Los Angeles, my day job was doing DVD quality assurance for the studios. As one of our lab’s biggest sports fans, I got to test almost the entire series of America’s Game before anybody anywhere got to see it, including America’s Game: The 1969 Kansas City Chiefs. Man, was it great to be one of the first people to see that. Martin Sheen narrating the show featuring Jim Lynch, Len Dawson and Willie Lanier. Just awesome.

At the same time, it made me sad to think that it was the same year as Woodstock, that it was basically a decade before I was born. Then I watched all the Super Bowls that the Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos , Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers–all teams I hate, and hate with a passion–have made since then. It really made me long to see our boys make it to the Promised Land, for the first time in my lifetime, then truly relish the moment NFL Films style. It’s something I need, like Mangino and his custom-ordered belts.

I think we all want to see that happen. Some of us support our team by being the 13th man on these here Interwebs, remaining eternally optimistic. Others (like yours truly recently) like to practice tough love when it comes to our Chiefs. And then there are others who offer a mixed bag of compliments and criticism. All of us approach our Chiefs different, and those approaches are magnified when you write for a publication or website, especially one with such passionate readers.

I’m currently reading a book called Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Honest Abe surrounded himself with people who had distinctly different points of views, and did so on purpose. He didn’t want a cabinet of “yes men”–he wanted sharp people who spoke their minds and disagreed with him. Hell, one of them even called him “Ape.” The concept was that all of America would be represented by this Team or Rivals.

That’s what I am trying to do with the staff here at Arrowhead Addict. I want all of Chiefs Nation to be represented. I also am a stubborn, bull-headed, opinionated bastard, one who marches to the beat of his own drum. I know that my views don’t always reflect the majority of Chiefs Nation. That’s not a bad thing, as long as all of Chiefs Nation is represented. I think we’re now accomplishing that here at A.A.

Remember, no matter what our opinion is of our team’s plan or progress, we are all interested in the same result–a Super Bowl. Whether we believe in Brodie Croyle or not, we all believe that by the end of the year we are going to be much closer to finding our franchise QB, one way or another. We all believe that we have a good young nucleus in the Brandons, Derrick Johnson, Dwayne Bowe and Glenn Dorsey. We all know that with guys like those, and vets who still have a lot in the tank like Larry Johnson and Tony G., that it is easier to find what we don’t have than the rare pieces of the puzzle we already hold. We all know that if Herm Edwards doesn’t take us there, that Clark Hunt will bring back a Bill Cowher or Marty Schottenheimer–or both!–to finish the job. We all know that, for the most part, we are finally moving in the right direction and will eventually get to our goal.

So, let’s not harp on whether we are cheerleady or critical, passive or pessimistic, “reach for the stars” or “set the bar low.” We all have our own ways of supporting our team, whether it is demanding excellence or providing steadfast support. We all have our eyes on the same prize…seeing re-runs (or the DVD) of America’s Game: The 2010 Kansas City Chiefs at 4 AM when we can’t sleep.