Smoke Signals: Ross Tucker is a Chief’s Best Friend
For those of you who aren’t checking into ESPN.com, ESPN’s Football Today Podcast, or SiriusXM Radio, do that. But, the rest of you know what I’m talking about. He has a brilliant plan for ending the lockout, and every bit of it helps KC, here’s how, piece by piece:
1.) “The players need to ‘give back’ a decent amount of money”:
Basically what Ross suggests, as a former player, is that the 50-50 split be made something like a 53-47 split in the owners’ favor BUT, the caveat is that they have to reinvest that few hundred million into ways of expanding the game (because that was the owners’ lame excuse for needing more money in the first place). The way that is usually done is through ad campaigns, exhibition games abroad and efforts to teach kids worldwide the wonderful game of football.
More after the jump..
This helps the Chiefs for a number of reasons. First off, because, guess what, the KC area isn’t the most populated, richest or media saturated in the country. In fact, we’re probably just above Jacksonville when it comes to that. Our saving grace – tons of people who love football, tailgatin’ and Raiders hatin’. Thus, the more attention, money and international involvement this sport gets, the more it benefits the “smaller” clubs like the Chiefs.
2.) “The salary floor needs to be raised”
So Ross also proposes raising the salary cap, which would seem to disadvantage smaller market teams – especially those run by the ultra-frugal-Hunt types. But he also says the salary floor needs to be raised so that there is about $10 mil in tge difference between the cap and the floor. This would force Mr. Hunt McScrooge to actually pay out each year. Don’t get me wrong, I love our team, but we’ve been able to make magic happen largely with diamond-in-the-rough types. Imagine how dominating we could be if we could add a Sidney Rice-type free agent every year. The extra cash added to the salary floor would be enough to tack on $7-8 million to the minimum salary per year. That can add all kinds of goodness.
3.) “Make three-year deals for rookies part of the rookie wage scale”
Now, I know what you’re thinking – “Keep free agency’s dirty hands off my Brandon Flowers, Jamaal Charles, etc.,” but remember, no matter what, even Hunt will pay to keep KC studs like them on the team. What Tucker proposes is a way of being able to easily and cheaply jettison draft busts, which KC has had a fair amount of in the last 10 years. Does anyone really want to pay TJax a salary in the neighborhood of $10 mil for the next couple years? Imagine what we could buy with that (in addition to long-term contracts for stars like Flowers and Charles).
4.) “Add a 17th game and an extra bye week”
First off, as you all know, we were piss-poor in the division last year. Meanwhile, da Raiders were somehow miraculously good, and went undefeated. In fact, not only were they undefeated in the division, but they got there with tough, physical football. What is the best way to neutralize physical opponents? Give yourself more Bye weeks to rest up for them. Also, the Chiefs depend on a number of finesse-heavy playmakers to do our thang week-in and week-out. I am personally very worried about keeping Jamaal in good health and in good shape. One more bye week means fresher legs in the playoffs. And that’s a beautiful thing.
Also, this extra 17th game would be played in a neutral location. Rather than having only two teams per year play in London, now everyone would play somewhere random, like Los Angeles to drum up support for their hypothetical team, or on college fields to draw attention to them. Imagine KC vs. St. Louis in Faurot Field, or KC vs. Denver in either Lawrence or Aggieville. Holy $*@&.
I think it’s clear that Tucker needs to be the new commish. It’s for the best of all of us, except everyone else in the division.
Nikolozi, Out.