It was one play but it had a drastic impact on the future of the Kansas City Chiefs franchise.

Bernard Pollard’s hit on Tom Brady.

We all know the story. It was game one of the 2008 season when the young Chiefs, led by then head coach Herm Edwards, traveled to Foxboro to take on the Patriots. Early in the game, with the baby Chiefs showing some surprising fight, Kansas City safety Bernard Pollard lunged at Tom Brady as the All-Pro QB stepped into a throw. The hit ended Brady’s seasons and sent shock waves through the NFL that are still being felt today.

The dust has settled now and the much of the NFL landscape is quite different. Scott Pioli left New England and brough Matt Cassel, Mike Vrabel and eventually Romeo Crennel with him. He hired Todd Haley, then fired Todd Haley who fired Bernard Pollard, who landed in Houston before settling in Baltimore. Pioli also cut veteran guard Brian Waters who turned in another Pro Bowl season in 2011.

For the Patriots.

(more…)

The Kansas City Chiefs have almost no hope of defeating the New England Patriots tonight on Monday Night Football. KC has lost their starting QB, S, TE and HB to injuries. Three of those players were Pro Bowlers in 2010. The Chiefs are a shell of the team that won the AFC West a season ago.

Still, this is the NFL, and the Chiefs can’t give up. Strange things happen all the time in this league. To help soften the blow of what could be a very ugly game for KC fans, I’ve come up with five underhanded ways the Chiefs might be able to beat the Pats.

Hope springs eternal. This is how it could go down.

(more…)

Kansas City Chiefs defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel recently sat down with the Boston Herald to talk a little bit about his time in New England and just how the hell to stop Tom Brady.

“You try to combat it pre-snap as best you can, but you have to be in position to do your job when the ball is snapped, and Tom does a good job of mixing the snap count. He goes with the quick count, he goes with the hard count, he goes with the double count, so it’s going to be tough, particular if you have young guys. With a veteran secondary, you can disguise a little bit more. But we got young guys that are playing. So, I’m going to have to get my young guys in position to give themselves a chance to defend this passing game.”

Sounds like Crennel doesn’t plan on being too aggressive. The part where he says he is going to put his DBs in the best position to defend the passing game leads me to believe he plans on keeping them off the receivers so they have time to read and react to what Brady is doing. A bend-but-don’t-break style should help the Chiefs keep the receivers in front of them so they can avoid getting burned by Brady and giving up the big play.

What do you think, Addicts? How will Romeo defend the New England offense?

This is a series I started way back when and that I bust out every once in a while.  The premise is simple. I list five unlikely and fantastical ways that I would like to see the Kansas City Chiefs win a game in the upcoming season. This column used to have a lot more meaning because, quite frankly, the Chiefs winning a game by normal means used to be pretty fantastical itself. Now that they are winning, however, perhaps this will be even more fun.

Or maybe not.

Let’s get to it.

(more…)

Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel helped his team end three years of football futility by leading them to a 10-6 record, an AFC West Championship and their first playoff appearance since 2007.

Yet, questions about his ability to be a consistent winner and his future in Kansas City still remain.

We all know Cassel’s story. He stepped in for the injured Tom Brady during the first game of the 2008, leading the Patriots to a victory over, guess who, the Kansas City Chiefs. Brady turned out to be finished that season and Cassel went on to lead the Pats to an 11-5 season. Unfortunately, Cassel and the Pats missed the playoffs thanks to the NFL’s backwards rules. The 8-8 San Diego Chargers qualified instead.

(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…)

The NFLPA has decertified the union and now a group of players, including Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Kansas city Chiefs LB Mike Vrabel and a few others have filed an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL to prevent the owners from locking out the players when the CBA expires tonight at midnight. This will likely mean football will continue in 2011. Some folks were asking about this in a previous thread so allow me to let the folks at Pro Football Talk explain:

Decertification would be used either to block a lockout or to combat the unilateral imposition of work rules by the league. Put simply, if the NFLPA decertifies, the league would then be required to promulgate player acquisition and retention rules on an across-the-board basis. The union then would sue the league, arguing that the imposition of standard rules regarding player acquisition and retention among 32 different businesses constitutes a violation of antitrust laws.

The NFL will likely try to convince the courts that the union decertification was a sham but the prevailing feeling seems to be that the law will side with the players. That would mean that the judge in charge of the case could order the NFL to leave the doors open and to continue operations using the most recent rules, which would be the rules from the 2010 season. That would mean no salary cap and no salary floor (Clark Hunt will be excited).

We’ll be keeping an eye on all this tonight so stay tuned.

Tom Brady and Matt Cassel feel the beat.

Tom Brady just wants to dance.

A couple years back a video of Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel dancing at a baseball game surfaced on the internet and now it appears that Cassel may have learned his moves from New England Patriots QB Tom Brady.

A video of Brady dancing at some sort of parade or carnival or something has surfaced online and it is, well, hilarious. Now, to be fair, if I tried to dance I would look equally, if not more ridiculous than Brady does in this video. That is why I try to avoid dancing whenever possible. In fact, whenever I am at an event where dancing is taking place, I usually spend my time doing something I actually like. Drinking.

Anyway, the time seems ripe for a Tom Brady vs. Matt Cassel Nerd Dance-off. We’ll have a little poll at the end where you can choose which QB is the biggest loser on the dance floor. The prize will be that we’ll draft a fan petition to mandate that the winning QB should never dance again. The second place prize will be that we’ll draft a petition to mandate that the runner-up never dance again.

First up is Tom and his ridiculous hair.

Cassel boogies with a baseball bat after the jump.

(more…)

There is only one game that matters remaining in the 2010 NFL season, and the Kansas City Chiefs aren’t in it.  Instead, we will see the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers duke it out in Dallas at the Super Bowl.  Instead of pouting about how the Chiefs didn’t make it to the big game, we should take the opportunity to get a good look at why the Packers and Steelers made.  Those teams have demonstrated how to get to a Super Bowl.  We need to see what we can learn from them so that in the coming years, we can there as well.

Many different kinds of teams can get to the Super Bowl.  Just look at the difference between the teams that went last year compared to the teams that made it this year.  However, there are similarities between the Packers and the Steelers that I will highlight so that we can determine where the Chiefs fell short this year.
(more…)

Source: onkansascitymo.com

According to a report tweet from Mike Lynch of the Boston Globe, New England Patriots QB Tom Brady will miss this year’s Pro Bowl due to a stress fracture in his foot and that he will be replaced by Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel.

I am going to go ahead and say that again. In fact, I’m going to give it it’s own line and I am going to put it in bold and color it red.

Matt Cassel is going to the Pro Bowl.

Cassel finished the season throwing 262 completions in 450 attempts and 3116 yards. His completion percentage dropped at the end of the season to 58.2% and he threw for 27 touchdowns vs. 7 interceptions. Cassel only threw an interception once in every 64.4 attempts.

(more…)

The Kansas City Chiefs have exceeded expectations this season but do they have the league’s most valuable player?

Until recently, the NFL MVP discussion has been a two horse race between Patriots QB Tom Brady and Eagles QB Mike Vick. After the way Vick played last night against the Minnesota Vikings, it is looking more and more like Brady will receive the award.

But not so fast Mr. Brady. If there is a dark horse in the MVP race then it is your former backup, Chiefs QB Matt Cassel.

Brady has had a very fine season, there is no doubt about that but is he the most valuable? I guess it depends on how you think the MVP award should be viewed.

Does it mean the player should be the most valuable to his team or the most valuable player in the league period? My guess is that most people assume the former and if that is the case and it was coming down to Vick, Brady and Cassel, I’d have to go with Cassel.

I explain, after the jump.

(more…)

Source: yardbarker.com

This entry came in last night just before the deadline. It is a short, humorous article that gave us a chuckle and that we thought would add some color to go along with our other two winners. For the author’s own safety, I will not reveal his true identity until after you have read the piece. For now, call him “The Phantom Writer”.

At great risk to my own health I have written this article to expose a lie so prevalent that it will rock the very core of the A-A world.

By some strange unexplainable phenomenon readers at A-A have become confused and misguided about the direction of this team. Whether it be by big fancy words or some kind of tribal witch craft, Matt Cassel has been able to deceive every single one of A-A’s readers. His feigned bravado and apparent talent level are carefully concealed behind a mist of treachery and deception. He has woven a web of lie’s and corruption of which the poor innocent fans of the Kansas City Chiefs have never seen. Matt Cassel has only one desire in life, to cause chaos and unrest where ever he goes. He does not care of the cost, nor the emotion turmoil he causes. He is born from pure darkness and his reach knows no bounds.

(more…)

The Scouting Combine can be tricky. I mean, does this guy look like a Hall of Fame QB?

Hang in there, Addicts.

The NFL Scouting Combine gets underway tomorrow. The combine is  tricky. It can provide useful information to teams but it can also serve as a trap. Being the most athletic guy at the combine does not always mean you will be a good player in the NFL. Sometimes a guy who may not be the fastest or be able to jump the highest, ends up being a Pro Bowler because there are some things that the stop watch just doesn’t tell you about a players heart.

The Chiefs need to be careful not to fall in love with a player just based on his athletic ability.

As for Free Agency, that will start March 5th at midnight (EST). March 5th is a Friday so we hope you will stay up late with us to follow the action. I know I will have a 6 pack case of beer ready to go. Nothing of note may happen that night for the Chiefs but it will still be fun to follow the action across the NFL.

We’ve often joked here at Arrowhead Addict that Bernard Pollard did in three years of playing safety what King Carl Peterson couldn’t do in twenty years as a GM — find our Chiefs a young franchise quarterback of the future. All jokes aside, it’s pretty much the truth. That’s the reason I’ve constructed a timeline of all the major quarterback moves by both Peterson and Pollard. It really is a gut-busting experience to compare the two timelines. Enjoy…

Peterson Vs. Pollard:

Carl Peterson Franchise Quarterback Search Timeline:

1989: Hired by Chiefs as the Chiefs new general manager.

1989 – Drafted Mike Elkins out of Wake Forest in the second round with the 32nd overall pick. Elkins played in one regular season game for the Chiefs. Verdict: Bust

This shark no longer had teeth when Peterson signed him.

1989 – Signed dinosaur QB Ron Jaworksi, who was nearly 40 years old. Jaworksi lasted one year with the Chiefs. Verdict: Bust

1992 – Drafted Matt Blundin out of Virginia in the second round with the 4oth overall pick. Blundin played in two games for the Chiefs, a 100% increase from Elkins. Verdict: Bust Blunder

1992 – Signed Dave Krieg away from then AFC West rival the Seattle Seahawks. Krieg started one year for the Chiefs. Verdict: Rent-A-QB

(more…)

It looks like Tom Brady’s football vacation will end after missing one season, as ESPN is reporting that Brady expects to play on opening day.

Poor Matt Cassel. The guy finally gets to be Ferris Bueller for a season, and now he’s back to being Cameron Frye again. He even looks like Cameron Frye! Hell, he was Cameron Frye back at USC when Matt Lienart was playing Ferris. Cameronfryetis is a terrible condition to fall victim to — he won’t be smiling for long. Remember that melancholy bastard from the movie? We’ve gotta help this kid.

I have a solution. Now that Brady looks like a sure bet to suit up and go opening day, I don’t expect the Patriots to spend nearly $15 million on Cassel when that’s how much coin they are already paying Brady. $30 M is a lot to spend on two quarterbacks when your first one is the best in the business, not to mention healthy once again with a good track record of staying that way. Besides, the Patriots are somewhat frugal with their spending. So, the Patriots let him walk, and the Chiefs ink the kid to a deal. That’s the solution.

I do think both Mark Sanchez and Matt Leinart, two of his fellow ex-Trojans, might have a bit more upside. But, I also think Cassel is the safest, surest bet of the three — especially if we don’t have to cough up a first-rounder. That’s what it really comes down to for me. Which of the three quarterbacks will cost the least. Sanchez will cost the No. 3 overall pick, or close to it. Leinart will cost a future first-round pick and at least a fourth this year. If we could sign Cassel outright, then that’s what we have to do.  He played more football, at the highest level, than the other two did last year, so he’s ready to go.

Again, it really just comes down to not having to give up a first-round pick for our quarterback of the future — just a lot of dough instead. We have plenty of that. I do like Cassel quite a bit, and you know Scott Pioli does.

He had an exceptional year, folks, regardless of who he played with. Just like Tyler Thigpen, he had never really played before. He didn’t have a fancy gimmick offense designed to hide his deficiencies either. And Randy Moss and Wes Welker might be better than Dwayne Bowe and Tony Gonzalez as a duo, but not by much. The main difference was protection up front, and the Arrowspread protected Thiggy Smalls pretty well.

So, Addicts, will Brady be ready? Do the Pats let Cassel walk? If so, do we ink him?

A knee injury has hit Tom Brady like a 350-pound lineman, but he said in his first real interview since September that his rehab is going “really well.”

Speaking to Fan 590 in Toronto on Wednesday, the New England Patriots quarterback was upbeat.

“Anyone who’s come back from injuries that require surgery, it’s just a process,” he said. “There’s some good days, some bad days, and you just got to keep plugging through them. That’s life.”

If this is so, it could put Matt Cassel back into play as far as free agency is concerned. Working out a trade with the Patriots could also be an option for Scott Pioli and our Chiefs, should they be interested in Cassel. I had a feeling we were getting a bit of a smokescreen when it came to Brady and him allegedly not being ready for the 2009 season. We’ll definitely keep an eye on this one for you.

This is unbelievable, fellow Chiefs fans. It’s starting to look like Bernard “Bonecrusher” Pollard isn’t going to be booed on the road too often. Here’s the link to Believe Merch, the Steelers shirt site that’s selling the shirt and celebrating Pollard’s season-ending hit on Tom Brady. They best be given B.P. some royalties. I don’t think name/trademark infringement would make him very happy. He hurt Brady on accident–just think what he could do on purpose. Just kidding, fellas.

(By the way, I think I’m going to holler at those guys and see if they’ll do some Chiefs shirts. I think a ton of us would order them. Those are some badass tees.)

(hat tip: Phin Phanatic)

I have been a lifelong (35+ years) Pats fan and I sincerely feel that Pollard’s hit wasn’t dirty. I wish Tommy a speedy recovery (I am in the torn acl/mcl club). With Brady’s well-known dedication to working out, I am optimistic that he will be ok for next year. Go Pats!!

There you have it–even Patriots fans don’t think Bernard Pollard‘s hit on Tom Brady was dirty.

I love Kissing Suzy Kolber–that’s all I’m going to say about this “Stetson ad.” You never like to see anybody get hurt–and this is coming from somebody who’s had both knees operated on because of football–but there’s no harm done in having a laugh over something that happened in a football game, especially unintentionally. Couldn’t resist–Herm Edwards just looks hilarious. Let’s all lighten up after this latest Chiefs‘ loss and have a KSK-style chuckle.

Enjoy these clips, especially these second two ass clowns…

Tom Brady hasn’t played in the preseason, but the New England Patriots’ franchise quarterback said Monday he expects to play in the team’s season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs.

“If I don’t play [Thursday, when the Patriots play the Giants in their preseason finale] then I’ll be ready for Kansas City,” Brady said on an appearance on WEEI Radio’s Dennis & Callahan Show.

How does everybody else feel about this development? What’s the over/under on Tom Brady-to-Randy Moss TDs? Let it out, folks…