Somewhere in a dark room within the Chiefs practice complex a film projector is rolling.  In the room, instead of a group of players or coaches, Todd Haley and Kyle Orton sit alone.  Rolling on the projector is not film from last Sunday’s defensive battle* between the Chiefs and Bears, but an old game tape from late December in 1990 between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers.  Those of us old enough to remember or smart enough to Google it know that this game clenched the Red and Gold a playoff berth that year.  I’d like to imagine that Haley is talking to Orton not about how Chiefs QB Steve DeBerg played, but instead that he is pointing to the broken pinky on his non-throwing hand that had a peg driven through it.  He’s replaying every hit that DeBerg took.  Haley’s message is as blunt as it is clear: This is what is means to be a Chiefs quarterback.  We spent more than 2 million dollars making you a Chiefs QB to salvage the end of our season so you better man up and get on the field Sunday.

*Although it was indeed a spirited effort by the KC defense last Sunday, this is one of my most loathed euphemisms in all of sports.  It’s used to describe a struggle between two offensively inept teams that, despite having all of football’s rules changed to enhance scoring, still are incapable of moving the ball into the end zone.

It’s no secret that I am a big DeBerg fan, those of you that have been reading the site long enough may remember that I centered my first post around ol’ Steve-o being my favorite Chiefs quarterback.  Yet this article isn’t about how tough DeBerg was.  It also isn’t about saving the Chiefs’ season or the fact that I incessantly get shit from people here in Denver about KC picking up Denver’s garbage for one play while they all pray at the Tebow alter.  This article is about mental and physical toughness at the quarterback position, and whether or not Orton wants to salvage his career.

More after the jump…

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"Better Late Than Never Edition"

If you read my post last week, I posed the question whether it was time to abandon hope of the Chiefs amounting to anything this season. Ultimately, despite the pitiful showing at their home opener against Buffalo, I concluded that it was still too early to tell. Well, it turns out with RB Jamaal Charles out for the season (along with two of our star rookies from last year), it is time to admit that the wheels have come off of this team. As always I have turned to humor in this time of depression, and there are some funny thoughts that have helped get me through this troubled time.

= D     Maybe Matt Cassel should add “Intercept Me Bro” to his line of K-Swiss ads.

= D     Hey we re-signed Mike Cox!  Now at least we get to giggle for the rest of the season when         announcers say, “Mike Cox going up the middle!” or “Mike Cox had great penetration all day long!”*

= D     I wonder if our replacement players will be guys that Pioli and Hunt find off the street holding signs claiming they “Will Work For Food” because that seems to best fit their team spending strategy.

*Thanks go to my brother for pointing that one out.

Fellow Kurt Vonnegut fans will appreciate this need for humor because when all hope seems to be lost in humanity, really what else is there left to do but laugh? Really it seems that we have regressed to the point that this is our only option. It is hard to believe that this post is coming just after Week Two of the regular season, but as Chiefs fans, we are used to it. The true team mantra has been and appears to remain Next Year as opposed to Chiefs Will.

Abandon All Hope Ye Who Click “Continue Reading This Post.”

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I woke up Monday to a HeyTell message from my brother asking if it was a dream or if the Chiefs really lost to the Buffalo Bills 41-7 at home. I must admit that although I knew it had happened, I still was shocked enough that I checked “The Website” (as I now call AA) just to verify. It’s a fortunate thing that I am slated to post on Tuesdays, because I’m not so sure I would have had the heart to put pen to paper (or fingers to keys) after the devastating loss suffered by all Chiefs players, staff, and fans Sunday at the hands of the supposedly terrible Buffalo Bills. After waiting eight solid months and going through the dreadful lockout to see KC football again, the performance by the Red and Gold Sunday left me feeling deflated. I responded with jokes as the messages rolled into my phone from friends who are fans of other teams to seem in good humor, but all semblance of taking the game with a grain of salt was feigned. I felt let down to say the least.

I didn’t watch any more football that day, and spent the rest of my time cutting open long-healed scars by watching 9/11 coverage until it was time to go to bed. Hard to believe it’s been 10 years, and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

So what happened? Todd Haley’s press conferences after the loss give me both hope and doubt.  It was strangely comforting to hear Todd Haley take full responsibility after the game and mean it. He knew his team was not prepared, and he owned it. His apparent humility gave me hope that he knew his plan had failed, and it was time to revisit his thinking. That despite his careful use of players after the lockout key guys were still injured. With the loss of Moeaki and Berry, now the Chiefs are not only out two of their most influential rookies from last season, but are behind every other team in the NFL as far as preparation. We all knew his preseason tactics were a gamble (admittedly, a very poor one) and now it’s time to focus on next week. But wait, hold the phone, did I hear him say that he and his coaching staff all thought they were 100% ready going into Sunday’s game? This insight is decidedly not good. Todd may be using this as a tactic to avoid saying his offseason/preseason plan failed, but if this is true it means that Todd Haley and his coaching staff are clueless and incompetent beyond anything that anyone has previously conceived (even Double D). This, my friends, is perhaps the most discouraging thought to come out of the entire calamity.

More thoughts on the press conference, and some insight into the game after you click the thing.

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A lot can happen in a week.  While I was fishing Lake Michigan, camping out, and escaping the inferno of Oklahoma the Chiefs were busy continuing to not care about pre-season games, getting into fights, and then snubbing the media.

Let me make it abundantly clear that I could not care less if we win a preseason game.  The outcome of those games doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t matter to the team, it doesn’t matter to the coach, and other than the people that pay to go to the games who probably don’t care about a win either, the fans largely don’t care.  Hell watching the Giants/Bears game last night even the Monday Night Football crew couldn’t completely hide their total disinterest towards the end of the game.  Todd, lose every freaking game in the preseason so long as those boys are ready to play come September.

As far as the Chiefs approach to their training regimen and these games, it’s a gamble.  No surpise here.  We all have become aware of the gambling nature of Todd Haley.  Sure he can tell you that there is statistical data to show that his gambles are sound, but so can a guy in Vegas with notepads full of supposed patterns he’s found in the slot machines by spending his kid’s college fund.  A gamble is a gamble, that’s why they call it “a gamble.”  Last year the Chiefs took a similarly cockeyed approach to their bye week by having players act as coaches during practices.  I conjectured this format was put into place to prepare our boys in the Red and Gold for player ran practices during the lockout, but the world may never know.  The result of this player-coach approach?  Of course the Chiefs lost to the Colts.  So, will the extra time Haley and Friends took to work on conditioning end up being the smart move over focusing on actual football work?  Only if the Chiefs can keep it close enough at the start of games to make the fourth quarter matter.

Like I said, it’s a gamble.

We dig into Thomas Jones going “Larry Johnson” on Jonathan Baldwin after the jump…

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Holy crap we are about to have football again.  This Friday we will actually get to see the Red and Gold take the field for the first time in 7 months, and I am very excited.  Sure it’s only the preseason, and at best the first string players will only be on the field for the first series of downs, but after the craziness of this past off season it might as well be the freaking Super Bowl.

So all of this excitement has got me to thinking about the upcoming season, and I thought it would be fun for all of us to get some pre-preseason predictions on record to see just how close our expectations are to reality.  At the end of the season I will go through and tally up who had the most correct answers and they will be dubbed the winner of this little contest.  I will donate my entire months Arrowhead Addict salary to the winner (bad time to tell you all this is basically a volunteer gig…).

We will start after the jump.  Merlin, you can play so long as you leave the cover on your seeing stone.

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All seriousness aside, just what are we getting in Kelly Gregg? Will the addition of Queequeg and Powe, the rookie 6th rounder, be greater than, less than, or zero sum with the subtraction of veterans Sweet Ron and Perv? As to the second question, it’s a hard call at this point but we’ll nevertheless check what the stats have to say.

Crock Blocking

(we really gotta get Crock a feature logo)

I find it next to impossible that McCluster, under these circumstances, will ever justify where we drafted him.

But hope is not lost, not entirely.  And in the face of Wendler’s simple math, I think the Chiefs would do well to try to make the numbers fit, and give McCluster a serious chance to be an impact player.

Here are five ways I could see the Chiefs utilizing McCluster in productive ways. I’ve gone out of my way to assure that each way is not a gimmick, and can make repeat appareances week in and week out, rather than relying on surprise plays.

Jeremy, myself, Lyle, Taylor, and Nikolozi through the looking glass…

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So all in all it appears that unfortunately I was right about free agency up to this point.  No big splashes (unless you count picking up the Cardinals #2 receiver) and a few decent players picked up at bargain prices.  According to Scott Pioli he has no set cap for spending from the Hunt family, and basically has free reign to pay for and pick up whoever he wants for the team.  Evidently Pioli never saw the movie “Blank Check.”

So either Pioli is lying (or how I’m sure he would justify it telling a “half-truth”) or he really doesn’t see any big free agents that are worth the asking price.  At least here the Chiefs are consistent, applying the same mode of thinking that brought the Chiefs Mike Vrabel: Bring in veterans that can play a couple of years to help mentor draft picks until they are ready to take over.  I don’t mind that line of thought other than the fact that it makes for a dull free agent market.

Another interesting piece of information from this press conference was that Haley and Pioli had a so called “comprehensive plan” for dealing with free agency.  I think we can all agree that nothing that they have done so far appears to be all that comprehensive. During the FA threads it was mentioned that weighing all of the gains and losses that the Chiefs were a worse team this year than last year.  Granted that may be true, but the more I think about it the more I think that is not the question we should ask.  I think the real question that should be at the forefront of our Addict brain is:  Are the Chiefs better than the other AFC West teams?

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The longest work stoppage in NFL history is officially over.  The owners and players can pat themselves on the back (they already did) for biting the bullet and signing a deal that will continue to make all of them very rich.  Must’ve been tough.  What I would really like to see is a “Yes We Did” type press conference with Clark Hunt, DeMaurice Smith, and Roger Goodell all trying to look über cool up on stage with fog machines and lasers.  This would be a great day for DeMaurice Smith, finally making it on stage after being beat out by Doctor Teeth as front man for Electric Mayhem.  They could have an entire hour long narcissistic show about their decision to ratify the new CBA as well (I love they used this term like it was the freaking Constitution on the United States).  It would include what thoughts were going through their mind, where their inspiration to sign the document came from, how they did all of this for the fans, what type of pen they used, what type of shoes they were wearing, how it’s all for sale on eBay…

If I am correct though, you all did not come here to read about the lockout though, right?  Screw the past four months.  Addicts, it is time to talk real football!

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Addicts, as far as anyone can tell we are standing on the precipice of what promises to be a whirlwind of free agency and minicamps as players and coaches scramble to get ready for the upcoming season after the lockout ends.  As far as all reports are concerned a deal is very very very close to being completed, or to follow their rhetoric, “The lockout is almost over, unless it’s not, but if it isn’t than it will be soon, unless of course it ends later than sooner, but, well, ah you get the point.”

Realistically I do not think anyone has any idea what’s going on.  In the meantime that leaves the players, coaches, and fans stuck in the awful wake of uncertainty, left with nothing to do but speculate and hope.  Daily I hear of reports from “some guy who once saw a news article about the lockout” or “someone who was cleaning the toilets in the stadium after a Jonas Brothers concert” that decidedly say the lockout is almost over, to hang on, to bla-bla-bla.  I hate to sound cynical, but this seems more like a device to keep people listening and reading than real reporting.  I will believe what I hear when it is from the mouth of a credible source, until then I will disregard it like I do all of the fake websites showing what the iPhone 5 will look like.

More below the fold…

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Okay, so I am guessing that  there is already a resounding dissent brooding in your gut from reading just the title of this post.  As an historic AFL franchise the Chiefs have changed their uniforms minimally since they were the Dallas Texans, and that is something that many of us Chiefs fans and especially the Addicts take pride in.

It is no secret that people are resistant to change.  Most of the status quo who continually speak about what they would love to have or what they would like to do with their lives continue down the same paths simply because they fear change.  Changing the uniforms of our beloved Chiefs threatens to break certain continuities that help connect us as adults back to our childhood, and it threatens to create a fissure in the Chiefs timeline.

If this is such a controversial call why should we do it?  Find out after the jump.

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Addicts, for those of us that have been to games at Arrowhead Stadium I think it is fair to say that the experience is something that is far above and beyond most if not all other venues in any sport in the US.  There is definitely something special about the tailgating, the Sea of Red, the crowd noise, the Hall of Honor, and the list keeps on going.  Yea, the fans of Kansas City’s NFL team are blessed indeed with a pretty bitchin’ venue to see our gladiators do battle with other cities.

This post isn’t about all of those awesome things though.  As I have gone to more and more sporting events I have noticed that although the Arrowhead Experience puts all others to shame there are some very cool things done in other sports that the Chiefs and NFL in general could learn from.

A sport by sport breakdown after the jump.

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It’s good to be back from vacation, well sort of.  When you leave for a while you always come back to a pile of work and chores that were neglected while you were away, but such is life.  While I was visiting friends and family in Kansas City this past week I had the opportunity to do several things.  I went to my first MLS game to see Sporting KC beat the San Jose Earthquakes 1-0, caught some sun at the lake, and while driving I spent a lot of time listening to 810 Sports Radio which is awesome if you’re a fan of KC sports.  Indeed I forgot just much more in depth coverage you get from the media when you’re actually in town.  While driving around one day, they were interviewing the Chiefs players that attended the three day minicamp put together primarily by QB Matt Cassel, and while listening to these players talk about how much work Matt put into getting this thing rolling something struck me.

Could it be?  Did I just unwittingly stumble upon a plot forged by football masterminds dating back to week four of last season, or has this lockout finally pushed good ol’ Nick over the edge of insanity?  Am I seeing just how much forethought and vision Todd Haley’s coaching staff possesses, or am I connecting dots to form a picture that only I can see?

Find out after the jump.

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To Help With Relief Text REDCROSS to 90999

Chiefs fans and fellow Addicts, there is an old saying that no news is good news.  The meaning behind this is that if you don’t hear anything, at least nothing bad is happening.  This saying, however, is complete bullshit when it comes to the NFL this offseason.  No news is definitely bad news.  So, with the uber-coverage going on with the lockout and appeals, and the totally unwarranted reports of Al Davis surviving from daily injections of Red Bull and virgin blood,* I am going to look forward and review the multiple story lines forming for the Chiefs’ upcoming season.

*After much research and many phone calls, I have found that without a doubt Al Davis has never been nor will be sponsored by Red Bull.  A spokesperson on the telephone assured me that all reports of Al Davis injecting their product while mixed with the blood of virgins, “May in fact be true, but the effects of injecting Red Bull mixed with the blood of other people is not advised, may be detrimental to your health, and any reported results of extending the life of Al Davis have not been evaluated by the FDA at this time.”

Despite the lack of offseason acquisitions and trades, the more I look into next year, the more I see that there are a multitude of appealing plotlines and unanswered questions old and new that I will be watching for.  So let’s choose to ignore the deafening silence of this offseason and take a look at what’s in store if/when the Red and Gold take the field in the 2011-2012 season.

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"Proof Through the Night That Our Flag Was Still There"

After the winds that broke a city and the storm that claimed the lives of so many, utter devastation was left in the wake of a tornado nearly a mile wide.  Yet, like the mythical Phoenix, something had risen from beneath the splintered wood and scattered belongings.  Walking around the shattered homes and cars spray-painted with X’s you can see this Phoenix.  You can see it in the eyes of rescue workers, the makeshift rest-stops giving away free food, the trucks of relief workers driving around offering repast, and the cases of water, work gloves, and trash bags left on every neighborhood corner for anyone willing to pitch in.  This Phoenix, the indomitable human spirit, exists in the people of Joplin through their anguish and time of great sorrow.  This human spirit bonds strangers together to help sift through the rubble to try and find anything to link them back to a time just over a week ago before everything changed.

My hat goes off to the Kansas City Chiefs for donating money to the relief efforts, and using Arrowhead as a base for collecting supplies and donations for those affected.  Affected isn’t the right word though.  These people were not “affected” by a “destructive storm.” I have been milling over in my head the past three days now what terminology can accurately depict what I saw when a group of us went up Wednesday and I still cannot describe what I experienced.

So I will start at the beginning.

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To Help With Relief Text REDCROSS to 90999

Chiefs fans, living in the Midwest during the spring is tumultuous to say the least.  This week alone at least two deadly tornadoes have ripped through the area, and I can tell you that everyone is on edge every time a dark cloud crests the horizon.  There is something unnerving about a severe storm that can only be known to those that have experienced the utter terror and destruction it can bring.  There is a term still used by insurance companies and the like today that describe it as an “act of God.”  Although I am not going to bring religious discussion into this forum, I believe that this is a fitting term.  With storms of this magnitude one truly understands how small they are, and are left with no other alternative than hope to guide them through the storm to survive.  There is a palpable sense of a higher power wreaking havoc and destruction when something like this happens.

Meteorologists can sit there and tell you exactly what forms a tornado.  They can give you warning signs and set off sirens to help you get ready.  They have written volumes of books, and teach thousands of hours of college level classes available to determine the signs of an upcoming storm.  The one thing they cannot tell you is when a tornado will strike.  There will always be signs that the weather is moving in that direction and there will always be people anticipating it to hit, but no one can tell you for sure a tornado will hit until it happens.

See any correlation?

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My name is Nick Rodgers, and I am an Addict.

To be specific, I am an Arrowhead Addict.  I have spent my entire life injecting my mind with Kansas City Chiefs information, and getting high on Red and Gold fumes to enhance my life.  Despite the long off seasons there is always that enticing trickle of Chiefs information available to get by until the next score, like the last resin hit out of your favorite bong.  No matter how desperate the times or how barren the Chiefs World seemed, there was always something: contract negotiations, trade offers, rumors, workouts, rookie signings, free agency etc.  Right now there is nothing.  We continue to talk to each other to keep our minds sane like acid fiends trying to decide exactly what color music is, but really this is merely a distraction from the fact that we as fans are in fact locked out from the NFL as well.  We are locked out, and I for one have entered the stages of withdrawal.

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Chiefs fans, my Blitz is a day late, but hopefully not a dollar short this week.  A huge dap to Double D for helping a guy out.  I was out of town and unable to get a decent hotel room let alone access to the internet for the past couple of days.* DD, as I’m sue you know, it’s nice to escape the Patrick “The Electric Fillet Knife”  Allen’s policy of cutting off a finger knuckle for every post you miss here at the site if you don’t get someone to cover for you (Tip for our new writers: He starts with the thumbs.  I can hardly hold a beer anymore).  Anyways, I’m back, it’s late, I work early, and during my stay in the scenic Dallas metro area I have a topic of discussion I would like to post to the Chiefs fans and Addicts out there. Oh, and I lied about the Dallas metro area being scenic just in case you were planning on using that as a recommendation for a vacation spot…

*On a work trip, my room was uninhabitable because someone not only overflowed the toilet, but let it run all night supposedly without noticing, so I was ever so graciously accommodated in another hotel away from all my comrades which threw off the activities for the evening which you will hear about in a minute.  As my boss told me, “Happy effin’ birthday!”

Amidst the meetings, networking, learnings, faces to names, flux capacitorization, and everything else that is expected with a corporate trip we also had a group activity at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington to watch them whoop the shit out of the Oakland A’s (7-2).  Luckily do to the raw sewage inhabiting the hotel room I was supposed to stay at, I was late and got there at the start of the 3rd inning.  Why can’t people just leave simply an upper decker anymore?  Yet despite all of this frustration, here is the point of the story where I have to not only brag, but point out the coincidence of my good fortune from the past week.  I had just got back to Tulsa Monday evening from Kansas City where I watched the Royals beat the A’s 4-3 on a bottom of the 9^th sac-fly.  So I got to see an Oakland team lose twice in a week in two different states.  Yeah I know it’s cheesy to call this out, but I didn’t plan it and really what are the odds?  This week was a perfect combination of my two favorite activities: going to professional sporting events, and hating teams from Oakland.  Even though the A’s were formerly a KC team I still hate them.  To me though the A’s are like your toothbrush:  Once you drop it in the toilet it’s ruined.  Goddamn I hate Oakland.

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Chiefs fans, the 2011 NFL Draft is in the books, and right now even with all of the lockout drama in the NFL playing out like a mash up of “Law and Order” and “”Teen Mom” it’s hard to not be excited about the group of new young players acquired this past week.  I have never been someone that follows or talks about the draft each year at great length, but I think we learned a great deal about the Pioli/Haley regime with this draft.  Much of what we learned led us to the wise man conclusion reached by Socrates so many thousands of years ago: We truly know nothing.

I will be up front and honest here.  I am not claiming to be all knowing and all seeing.  I, like many of you, figured that this year we will see a lot more of the same.  I figured we would go for “high character” guys with lots of college leadership that seemed to be “safe picks.”  I figured we would draft a bunch of team captains that filled specific needs, but not take a lot of risks.*  I was in the draft chat, doing my best not to sound like an idiot since I know very little about the players involved and how the inner-workings of the draft play out besides what I have learned from the draft posts on this site, when BAM!  Not only do the Chiefs reach some on their first pick, but they go for a huge wide receiver with lots of potential and a bad rap for character flaws.  As everyone tried to digest what had just happened with the Ravens not picking and the Chiefs basically running up on stage with their card I began to realize just how little I understood the plan for the Kansas City Chiefs, and then I became very excited to see just where this team was going.

*By risks I do not mean players with unseen talent, but rather players that would not fall in line easily, and that despite having great physical talent would ultimately be a risk because they couldn’t wrap their noodle around what the team and organization were trying to do.

Where this team is going, and Chiefs 2011 Beast Mode after the jump.

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As I’ve analyzed, compartmentalized, and digested the last football season for the Kansas City Chiefs in a year where they exceeded all expectations with the exception of the crazy homers, I look forward to the new schedule and realize that as much as the Chiefs appeared to grow this year they will in all probability appear to digress proportionally next season (if there is a season).  Long story short, I would advise you Kansas City fans to put a bit of a leash on your expectations for the upcoming season.

A few reasons why after the jump…

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Chiefs fans, as you may recall, I work in the retail industry.  Right now we are in the midst of our physical inventory process where we prepare for one night where we count everything in the store.  This process is very labor intensive and is the reason you were deprived of my Blitz last week.  In a major corporation with dozens of different ways inventory can enter or leave the system, sometimes something as simple as counting an item to ensure that you have the correct amount can become a daunting task.

The same can be said of a football team.  What I have realized in the several years I have spent regulating inventory is that everyone seems to take for granted that when they check the computer that everything is going to match up.  What is perhaps a more astute observation is that no one cares about inventory until it is wrong.  No one cares until they need something and it is not there when all of the tools at their disposal show that it should be.  These deficiencies seem to erase the vast plethora of other times where everything has been right on, and the focus compacts into a singularity where the memories taken for granted are destroyed like matter in the center of a black hole.

I get to how this relates to the Kansas City Chiefs after the jump.

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The life of a Kansas City sports fan is pretty rough.  Although the Kansas City Royals won a championship in 1985, they have regressed with the David Glass ownership to a virtual farm club for large markets and will never have a chance of contending for a division win let alone a championship.  Their renovated stadium is fantastic, especially since you can get tickets starting at less than ten dollars since no one cares to go see them play.

The Chiefs.  Oh my beloved Chiefs.  One of the originals.  They have not been to a Super Bowl (Paddy can I even say “Super Bowl” without owing the NFL 50k?) since January 11, 1970.  Since then, every single team in their division including the Seattle Seahawks, who were not only kicked out of the division but the conference, have gone to the big game.  The Broncos and Raiders of course have claimed World Champion titles in that span more than once each.  To add to that 41 year drought the Chiefs this year set the record for post season ineptness by losing seven straight playoff games.

So before these comments start rolling in, I want to set this straight.  I understand that the Jets have a longer drought than the Chiefs.  I understand that there are many teams that have not won a Super Bowl, and others that have never been at all.  I don’t care.  These other teams are denials that we bring up to escape the fact that aside from getting a game away from the Super Bowl with Joe Montana, the Chiefs have done nothing of significance since the year “The Odd Couple” debuted on television.  Winning teams and fans do not think like this.  This is part of a culture of losing that we as fans have become part of.

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We are all Chiefs fans here.  We love them.  Recently, however, I have been very disgusted with football.  As hard as this is to say, I have to really make myself go onto AA some days because thinking about all of this just really makes me angry.  Recently, I have been thinking a lot about this situation and how to come to a resolution.  I am reminded, not of anything related to football, but of a graphic novel I read called “The Watchmen.”  I am not talking about the movie, which although by itself was pretty cool with great CGI and such, but really didn’t live up to the book.  What movies ever really do live up to the book though?

If you’ve never read “The Watchmen” and are planning to, you may not want to go past the jump.

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Fellow Addicts and Chiefs fans, I know that we are all tired of hearing about the labor negotiations, but with the impending lockout to start tomorrow (unless I have missed something and it’s now resolved while I write this post in which case I will look awful silly, which I’m cool with) I felt that I had to talk about it in some form.  Many of us have mentioned writing letters to Clark Hunt as fans and sending them to 1 Arrowhead Drive, and I have to say I was tempted myself.  I think I will abstain from this round.  The reason why?

Go ahead and try to get a hold Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt’s office tomorrow if/when the lockout starts.  If I had to guess he will not be there.  He could be at negotiations, he could be trying to get something resolved, but I’d rather be pessimistic and insulting.  So, I think you would get an auto-reply that would go something like this:

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Worried about the impending NFL lockout between the owners and NFLPA?  Scared that in the event of a strike and no football season you may not know what to do?  Don’t worry!  Your friends here at Arrowhead Addict have got you covered.  Since AA first received word of the possibility of no Chiefs season they hired a crack team of specialists to break down the bare essentials that every Chiefs fan will need in case of emergency, and that plan has fortunately now been shared with someone not to be trusted.

Me.

We know with all of the buzz going around that you may be freaking out a little wondering what your Sunday’s will be like without the Chiefs live chat, so phase one of the plan is that there will be a live Madden simulation broadcast of every game on the Chiefs schedule for next year.  These simulations will take place during normally scheduled times to help prolong the willing suspension of disbelief amongst you Addicts out there, and to ensure that they feel more real the games will not be 100% computer driven.  Adam will call the Audibles.  These broadcasts (from a URL to be determined) will be accompanied by live chats online hosted with a little Magic by Merlin*, complete with follow up Big Matt’s Chiefs Chat articles on Mondays blasting personnel decisions made by virtual Todd Haley during game simulations.  To help add to the realism, there will also be simulated DVOA breakdowns by Double D on Wednesdays supporting the anti-virtual Todd Haley movement.

*Person participating in Madden simulation live chat may not actually be Merlin

But wait, there’s more…

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I’m not going to bother rehashing the Jets connection like some 9-11 conspiracy theorist, but it does make a person wonder what was so special about that Jets* staff in the late 90’s that has fostered such a love for players/personnel from that team.  Whatever it was, the magic has not left in the eyes of Pioli and Haley, so they continue to bring aboard and promote talent from that roster.

*There is one connection between the Jets and Chiefs that is perhaps not as obvious as it is embarrassing. These are the two teams with the longest Super Bowl drought in the NFL (excluding teams that have never gone).  The Jets, fortunately, have a one year lead on the Chiefs in this race but seem to be much closer to ending their drought than the Chiefs do.  This would leave us Kansas City fans with the longest Super Bowl drought and most consecutive playoff losses in NFL history.  Feeling better about being a Chiefs fan yet?

There are a lot of theories as to why this hire was made.  We will explore those after the jump, but personally if I had to pick the one reason Muir was chosen over any other, I would have to say that it was because of his connection to Haley/Pioli from that magical Jets team, or at least that’s where it started.

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So I’m sitting here thinking about the Chiefs as I’m stuck here in my house.  Snow-nami 2011 officially struck T-town yesterday leaving us 18-21 inches where I live (depending on which internet site you read).  This has given me plenty of time to think, about the season the Chiefs had last year, about the upcoming Super Bowl, about which of my family members I’d eat first if the snow continued to fall, but mostly about the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

I am not going to pretend that I know all of the forces at play, how they interact, or exactly how much money is involved.  I’m sure I could have spent those hours I wasted on Madden destroying the Ravens over and over again more wisely doing research, but if the previous statement lets you into my psyche at all, right now I’m not in a research mood.  I’m pissed off.

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This past season was a grab bag of offense and defense either saving or losing games.  The defense made a goal line stand to secure a win against the Philip Rivers led Chargers, but blew a fourth quarter lead against the Texans.  The offense came out blazing in games against San Francisco, Seattle, and Tennessee, but fell flat in the second San Diego game, the Raiders games, and the playoff loss to Baltimore.  There have been moments of defensive brilliance, offensive drives that unfolded like poetry, and utter disappointment from both sides.  Truly signs of a developing team struggling to forge an identity for themselves in a league laden with strong personalities.

Team identity goes beyond just how a certain person or group performs on the field.  A team with an identity to outsiders and players coming into their system has an almost mythical quality.  At times a team with a strong identity can seem superhuman, all knowing, and even magical.  The will and attitude this personality creates within an organization elevates otherwise pedestrian athletes and coaches to a level that truly is greater than its components.  The Steelers and Ravens identities are woven into a tradition of strong defense.  The Colts and Saints conversely are sewn into a fabric of pure offensive power.  These teams know who and what they are, and for better or worse stick to their guns year in and year out.

So that brings us back to the question, “Just who are the Chiefs going to be?”  This is an interesting question because right now the Chiefs destiny stands on the edge of a blade (I know, nice LOTR reference right?), and they are a couple of key acquisitions away on both sides of the ball from attaining a strong team personality.  Will they acquire a high profile receiver and become a true offensive powerhouse, or will they get another pass rusher and crucify opposing quarterbacks?  I’m sure a lot of you are asking, “Why not do both?”

My answer to that after the jump…

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source: http://www.opensportsbookusa.com

The Kansas City Chiefs tied records with the Indianapolis Colts this year at 10-6, both hosted home playoff games as division winners in the AFC.  The Chiefs being the fourth seed played the fifth seeded Baltimore Ravens, and the Colts being the third seed played the sixth seeded New York Loudmouths Jets.  Sounds good right?

Wait a second.  The Jets and Ravens had better records then both of the teams they played, and yet still had to go on the road to face them because they won weaker divisions.  How is that fair?  To be 100% fair the playoff home games should go to the teams with the best records, not necessarily division winners, correct?  Well that’s what you will hear if you listen to any sports radio show this side of the universe.

Realistically, there are several options available to the NFL if they consider doing this, and none of them have come about just this year.  They have become a hot button since the SeaChickens Seahawks hosted a home playoff game after winning their division with a losing record.  Moreover, this has become an even larger issue since they knocked the defending Super Bowl Champion Saints out of the first round of the playoffs.  The Media doesn’t take kindly to their favorite teams not doing as well as they told everyone they would.*

*See 2010 Vikings and Cowboys.

The different NFL seeding breakdowns, and how this applies to the Chiefs after the jump.

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