KC Chiefs Football Returns Today…Sort Of
The Kansas City Chiefs will play their first game of 2013 today in the NFL Pro Bowl.
The Pro Bowl is a “football game” that comprises NFL all-stars. It is played yearly, at least for now, in Hawaii.
The Chiefs have a ridiculous six players in this year’s game which is kind of ludicrous considering the team only won two games. That is either an inditement of just how poor a job former Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel did last season or an example of just how meaningless the Pro Bowl selection process is.
It’s probably a little bit of both.
But if there is one thing more meaningless than the Pro Bowl selection process, it is the Pro Bowl game itself. The contest has denigrated in recent years to a really boring flag football game. Defense is outlawed and the players are so concerned with not getting hurt that they really don’t even want to tackle each other. I’ve seen more physical effort put into a game of Monopoly than I have the last couple of Pro Bowls.
But the Chiefs have a ton of players involved so we have to tune in. Since four of the six Chiefs are on the defensive side of the ball, don’t expect a ton of action. I doubt we will see any Tamba Hali, Justin Houston sack celebrations tonight.
Punter Dustin Colquitt might get some work but Chiefs fans have seen so many punts recently that Pro Bowl punts will see like old hat.
The only player that has a chance of exciting us is RB Jamaal Charles. The most electric player in the NFL, Charles will get his share of carries tonight.
Unfortunately, I’d rather he got none.
I love watching Charles run the football but even during the regular season I hold my breath every time he is about to get tackled. In fact, once it became clear that Chiefs were the worst team in the NFL in 2012, I was kind of hoping the team would put Charles in a frozen state until such a time that a competent GM, head coach and QB were brought on board. I only hoped that I would live to see the day that Charles was unthawed.
Anyway, there would be nothing worse than seeing Charles blow out his knee in a stupid, meaningless, low-effort all-star affair. Unless of course Justin Houston blew his knee out as well.
The good news for fans of the Pro Bowl is that Broncos QB Peyton Manning has made a plea to his fellow all-starts to exhibit more effort this year because big, bad Commissioner Goodell has threatened to shut the whole thing down if the players turned in another joke of a performance.
This could be yet another ploy by Manning to stick it to Kansas City. In previous versions of the Pro Bowl, there was little to know chance of anyone getting hurt. Now that Manning has asked for more effort, I am sure that will lead to one of KC’s best players getting hurt. It would be a fitting move for Manning who chose to go to one of KC’s most hated rivals when he became a free agent, while not even granting the interested Chiefs a return phone call.
Yes, we’re still bitter.
In the end, all we can do is tune in, cheer on our boys and pray to high heaven nothing bad happens to them.
It may be boring but hell, after the train wreck that was the 2012 season, watching some Chiefs play football without anyone named “Matt Cassel” or “Brian Daboll” being involved, will be a welcomed relief.
Will you be watching the Pro Bowl?