Armchair Ramblings From A Delirious Chiefs Fan

Warning: I am sitting down to type this at 10pm Sunday night after having just returned home from a pilgrimage to Arrowhead. You all know how that went. It is entirely possible that I am no longer in my right mind (am I ever?) so please read this at your own risk.

Wow, that was………not exactly what I was hoping for. Look, I’m a positive fan. I always look for the bright side. My general philosophy is that focusing on the negative all the time will drive you crazy and give you either an ulcer, a heart attack, or both. I can acknowledge the negatives, I’m not living in denial. I just choose to focus on the positives. If nothing else it just leaves me in a better mood.

Here’s the problem.

I’ve got nothing.

I don’t think there is anything I can say or focus on from that game that will make you feel any better. Don’t believe me? Let’s try it.

Leonard Pope stepped up and did a nice job filling in for the injured Tony Moeaki.

Feel better now? Yeah, me neither. How about this?

If I haven’t scared you off yet then continue after the break for more delirious ramblings that may or may not make you feel better. Plus, find out what Hall of Famer I got to shake hands with.

So let me take a second to say something both honest and positive. Chiefs fans are great. Say what you want about the team today, but the fans and the Arrowhead experience are great. My wife and I got there about 9:30am and had a blast tailgating and just walking around taking in the best pregame atmosphere in the NFL. If you’ve never been to a game or never done the whole tailgating experience, you HAVE to do it sometime. It makes even a lemon of a game like this was, worth the trip.

I think the next two pictures are the perfect before and after shot of the KC faithful.

You can see it right there. The Chiefs sucked the life right out of that stadium. The Chiefs Kingdom was there ready to do their part. The team just forgot to show up.

Speaking of the Chiefs Kingdom, if you haven’t seen the first episode of the series of the same name that the Chiefs website put out, Go Watch It Now! It is really well done. If you’re looking for a “pick me up” after that game, just watch the 1 minute intro to that video. I’ve watched it 4-5 times now and it still gets me pumped up every time I watch it. The episode itself is about 9/11 and specifically a soldier (and Chiefs fan) that was injured in the pentagon that day and how Chiefs fans responded when they heard his story. Like I said, it’s really well done and could definitely help get your mind off the Bills game.

Okay, back to the game experience (I know I’m jumping around, but I did put the words ramblings and delirious in the title so what did you expect?). I also got to check out the Hall of Honor for the first time. If you’ve been a KC fan for long at all it is a must see. Even if you are a new fan you should check it out so you can start to learn the history of this great team. Here’s a couple snap shots:

On the way out of the Hall of Honor I noticed a few fans crowded around someone getting autographs. Who was it? Just NFL Hall of Famer Willie Lanier.

So at that point I figured that meeting the great Mr. Lanier would probably be the highlight of the game, but I didn’t know that nothing else would even come close.

Alright, so I tried really hard to come up with some positives from the game itself. All I came up with was the Pope comment from the intro and the fact that the staff has already seemed to realize what we fans knew already, that Thomas Jones shouldn’t get the ball near as much this season, Justin Houston needs to be on the field, and Tyson Jackson shouldn’t be on the field if he isn’t getting the job done.

That’s all I could come up with. I guess it’s a start.

My other parting shot would be that one game isn’t the whole season. Teams that everyone and their mother think are going to be really good this year (Pittsburgh and Atlanta) both got destroyed today as well. I’m not saying that we should consider ourselves in their league. They lost to teams that most would agree are a lot better than Buffalo. However, the point is that sometimes teams just lay an egg. The Chiefs’ real problem is that if you count the preseason and last year’s playoff game, they have laid an egg 7 games in a row.

Can they fix it?

I hope so. In my opinion, if the team is going to go back to playing like they did when Haley first got here then Haley needs to treat them like he did back then. Everyone criticized Haley for his temper that first season, but I think his absolute intolerance for stupid mistakes is part of the reason they got better. He needs to go back to putting down the hammer on ANY player that is dropping the ball (and right now that is almost everyone). Also, I don’t think anyone knows how the whole play calling situation is being handled right now, but if Haley isn’t happy with it, he should take control. After all, it’s his job on the line if the Chiefs are this bad all season. One has to think that with all that young talent the Chiefs should continue to improve and gel as the season goes on.

If not, there’s always this guy:

Alright, I think that’s enough rambling for one night.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!