• I hope both the Bills and the Lions go undefeated this year. The better they look, the less heat we have to take for our pathetic showings against them in the season openers. If the Bills can beat down the Patriots, I don’t feel bad that the Chiefs were just another notch on their victim list. Plus, just as we were the Cinderella story of last year, we can all warm our hearts by watching their (inevitably quixotic) quests to reach and push deep into the playoffs.
• It’s been a while since I’ve had to struggle to piece together a rational, yet apologist case for why the Chiefs were a relevant team. As they rose to the top of the division last year, they fought their own battles on the field. Now that they’ve come back to Earth and are once again one of those infuriatingly fluky, hot-and-cold, poorly coached teams in the league, it’s our turn again to get their backs. It’s always nice to feel needed. And thus, keep your heads up high, Addicts! Surely our rhetorical skills at smack talking, our scientific prowess at stat-mining and our intestinal fortitude to endure nauseating displays of pigskin dysfunction are enough for us to keep the brave, yet ineffective Chiefs aloft into a few competitive games, some verbal brawls with Raiders fans and eventually another top-5 draft selection.
• Also, (cliché moral victory argument alert!) I think this game against the Chargers had the best possible outcome for the Chiefs long-term. Here’s why after the jump: (more…)

What a crazy couple of weeks.

If you’re like me, you’re still struggling to put together everything that happened. Granted, the Chiefs were fairly quiet, but I can’t disagree with a single move they made. Still, obviously, the question of how they are going to do this year depends on much more than how they themselves improved. This year’s schedule will be much harder and all of our upcoming opponents have been busy.

Thus, to see how our upcoming adversaries stack up, I bring you my second Opponent Power Ranking of the year.

Disclaimer: I did my best to put in the latest and most complete FA info on each team, but I only counted FA’s that have been definitively signed or resigned. By the time you read this, there could be a whole swath of new developments.

See what we got coming after the jump: (more…)

Tomorrow, the future of the Kansas City Chiefs (and of every other NFL franchise) will be placed in the hands of the Honorable Susan Nelson, a U.S. District Court Judge in St. Paul, Minnesota, who will preside over an injunction hearing that could end the lockout. We know that the players (as represented by Mike Vrabel and nine other plaintiffs who were not arrested this week) will argue that the owners are violating America’s antitrust laws. We know that the owners will respond that the players are violating labor laws and have no compelling case. And we know that the owners are evil.

But just how much do we know about Judge Nelson? After all, her ruling, which could come within a week, could determine whether the Chiefs and everyone else go back to work (while appeals and court battles continue) or whether we move closer to losing some or all of next season. “I don’t think we can predict,” sports law expert and dean of Indiana University Law School Gary R. Roberts told the Washington Post. “With an unknown judge and novel issues, there’s no way of knowing.”

(more…)