Chiefs Open Preseason On Friday The 13th
I love Friday the 13th. I am a big horror movie fan and have been since I was a kid. Whenever a Friday the 13th rolls around, I pop in one of my favor scary movies. In fact, I was born on Friday, May 13 in 1983. In the midnight hour none the less.
Spooky.
This Friday the 13th, however, I am hoping the only horror show I see, is put on by the Atlanta Falcons.
For the Kansas City Chiefs, the last 3 years have been one long horror movie, with potential wins being picked off one by one, season by season, like camp counselor who made the fatal mistake of smoking a joint or having premarital sex.
Most classic horror movies end the same way. The hero survives while their friends a taken out. They are left alone, with no protection, to face the killer alone. Usually, if the movie is well written, there is a reason for this. In the original Nightmare on Elm Street for example, Nancy can’t face Freddy until she is completely backed in to a corner. Her best friend, her best friends boyfriend and her boyfriend are all killed. Her father, a cop, doesn’t believe her when she tells him someone is trying to murder her in her dreams and thus patronizes her and tells her to get some sleep. Her mother on the other hand, does believe her, and drinks herself into a drunken stupor and passes out, locking Nancy inside the house. The bars have windows on them. She is trapped and she can’t stay awake any longer.
It is time to fight.
Tonight, the Kansas City Chiefs are backed in to a corner. They’ve been beaten, humiliated and mocked. No one expects them to make it.
Folks will tell you that the preseason doesn’t matter but for the Chiefs, it couldn’t be more important. Playing well in these games matters. Winning these games matters because the Chiefs have to believe that all of their foes can be defeated.
When Scott Pioli and Todd Haley took over the Chiefs they talked about changing the culture. Off the field, they seem to have succeeded. The Chiefs players have been working hard, staying after practice and staying out of trouble. They don’t complain in the media about playing time and they don’t show boat. Well…Bowe does a little. But the point is, they are doing what it asked of them which is to do more than is asked of them.
Where the culture change failed last year was on the field. It is time for all of that to change.
It isn’t just a preseason game. It’s the fourth quarter. It’s Tony Gonzalez returning to play the team he left for not being good enough. It’s Friday the 13th.
Time to fight or die.