Tribal Warfare
09-26-2010, 01:25 AM
Cassel remains steady in face of criticism (http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/25/2250642/cassel-remains-steady-in-face.html)
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
The most criticized quarterback of an undefeated team picks up the phone. Matt Cassel needs a laugh. The voice on the other end is Wes Welker, the Patriots’ Pro Bowl receiver and one of Cassel’s best friends.
“What’d you throw for, 70 yards?” Welker says. “Way to go. I’m not playing you in fantasy next week.”
Cassel laughs, then calls his 5-foot-9 friend a horse jockey. If only all the criticism came this good-natured.
The Chiefs’ quarterback insulates himself as well as possible. No newspapers, no websites, no radio, no ESPN. But the outside world is hard to avoid, so Cassel knows what people think by the questions he hears in press conferences and by the neighbors who say things like, Hang in there, I know they’re killing you.
This is all so strange. Cassel is the starting quarterback of a 2-0 team in a city starved for good vibes, but the story lines have become more about what the Chiefs aren’t doing — like giving Jamaal Charles the ball or having any success throwing the ball.
Cassel gets it. He understands the business, that accepting the job and the $63 million contract means also accepting the criticism when he ranks 30th in passer rating and the general feeling around town is that the wins are coming in spite of the franchise’s chosen quarterback, not because of him.
Cassel is fine with that. Those shoulders are strong. He’s studied for this test most of his life, 28 years of doing what nobody expected in circumstances they figured would be too much. Most of the time, he’s done it smiling.
“He’s really a rare kind of person,” says Tom Brady, the future Hall of Famer and another close friend. “He’s not a guy who loses his confidence.”
• • •
You probably remember Matt Cassel’s proudest football moment. Two years ago this month, Brady went down with a knee injury against the Chiefs in the season opener, and in comes Cassel with a game undecided for the first time in nearly 10 years — since high school.
His first pass? A 51-yard gain down the sideline to Randy Moss. His first drive? Ended with a touchdown pass.
“Outwardly, you stay cool,” he says. “But really, I’m like, ‘I knew I could do it!’ ”
Cassel played well enough that season to rank 10th in passer rating and have the Patriots give him the franchise tag before trading him to Kansas City.
He is now a millionaire many times over, a wife and baby girl at home, and the story of how he got here is so much deeper than the lifetime backup quarterback finally getting a chance after the MVP’s knee snapped.
• • •
Did you know Cassel survived a massive earthquake?
He was 11, and the ground in suburban Los Angeles shook enough that all the water in his family’s pool dumped into the house and collapsed the roof. Matt hid under a table, and when the earth stopped moving, there were 72 dead and $25 billion in property damage.
That summer, he helped “the Earthquake Kids” to the championship game of the Little League World Series. He’s been through his parents’ divorce and temporary financial troubles, losing out on the quarterback job he thought he earned at USC, and then needing the day of his life at a pro workout just to have the opportunity to beat out four others to be Brady’s backup.
Matt Cassel, starting NFL quarterback, should not be happening. This weird story could’ve ended with that earthquake. Or with his college coach’s offer to play tight end. Or by giving it up when the Oakland A’s drafted him as a pitcher, or with a less impressive pro workout or, really, any number of trying moments in between.
Sure, Cassel has struggled this season and is being called out for it. But you know what’s harder than that? Planning your father’s funeral before one game, then burying him before the next during your first season as a starter. Cassel did that, and threw for 563 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception in two wins for the Patriots.
Having bad personal numbers for a 2-0 team nobody expected doesn’t feel so difficult.
“Everybody has to deal with something,” he says.
That’s true, and Cassel’s problems aren’t necessarily more difficult than yours, or your neighbor’s, or some of his teammates.
But the difference is he’ll be remembered forever — at least here in Kansas City — for how he deals with this.
• • •
Will Shields got on the radio the other day and became another voice of doubt. There’ve been plenty of doubts already, including right here, but it’s different when a 12-time Pro Bowl lineman is doing the doubting.
“I don’t really see Matt Cassel playing with swagger yet,” he said on WHB 810 AM. “He seems a little hesitant with the pass and trusting where his wide receivers are going to be.”
The criticism is piling up by now and has the attention of the Chiefs, from the top on down. They believe in their guy, and want people to know it. Coach Todd Haley, in particular, is usually effusive in his public support of Cassel even if the criticism can come heavy away from the public.
Haley gets on other guys during news conferences, but rarely the quarterback. The two have a strong mutual respect that’s developed into a close bond. They’re not friends, exactly, but it isn’t the classic boss-employee relationship, either.
Each week, they meet for hours, the door shut behind them, and it’s part Coach and Quarterback, but it’s more Todd and Matt. They’ll go golfing after the season’s over.
• • •
This is the way Haley knows. It’s worked in the past. Kurt Warner came by this summer to see his old coach and laugh about old times, and speaking of Warner, Haley will tell you he sees a lot of Warner’s same qualities in Cassel. Tony Romo and Vinny Testaverde, too.
Haley has coached good quarterbacks before. He likes to say they come in different shapes and sizes and personalities, and that’s fine, but the good ones need to have an obsessive work ethic and constant need to improve. He says Cassel has that, same as those other guys, and different than the bad ones he’s seen.
Haley is asked about Cassel a lot these days. People want to know if he’s really this happy with a quarterback that’s completed just 52 percent of his passes and hasn’t yet led a sustained touchdown drive. Haley understands. He won’t say any of the criticism is unfair.
But he is also adamant that Cassel has been “a very big part” of both the Chiefs’ wins. The team didn’t need anything more, Haley says, because they won. Haley is consistent in his message that Cassel is improving.
“From a competitive standpoint, I don’t know that I want to get into that,” he says when asked specifically what Cassel has improved. “This process we’re in as a team, Matt’s in the same process. What I’ve been excited about, and continue to be excited about, is the progress. I’m not measuring it any other way than visually seeing a quarterback improve.”
• • •
Tom Brady doesn’t do many one-on-one interviews, especially not for out-of-town newspapers, but he returned this phone call because of his respect for Cassel.
Brady says he is sure Cassel will succeed because of his attitude. Long before this season’s struggles, long before the big contract, and even before Cassel got to play for the Patriots, he was the insignificant backup who treated every moment with significance.
“I’m telling you,” Brady says, “he always had energy for practice, for games, for meetings. Just a great guy to be around. He’d always add something, no matter what.”
This is the attitude that ultimately will make or break Cassel’s time in Kansas City, and by extension, could make or break this whole Chiefs movement. The talent around Cassel is much better than last year, even if the receivers could get more separation and the blocking is inconsistent.
Haley and general manager Scott Pioli are jumping all-in with Cassel, and there have been flashes. Welker knows Cassel as well as anyone, and says the talent is there “to be one of the top five quarterbacks in the league, absolutely.”
Cassel completed eight of 12 passes for 116 yards in the second half last week against Cleveland. Last year, he led two fantastic scoring drives late in an overtime win over the Steelers.
Today will be Cassel’s 33rd start in the NFL, and the league’s history is full of quarterbacks who blossomed later than this. Scouts like to see at least 30 starts from a prospect before the draft, so in some ways we’re all still learning what he is. Hell, he’s figuring it out, too.
But there are few businesses as bottom-line brutal as the NFL. You can say Cassel is inexperienced, but he’s also older than 15 quarterbacks who will start this weekend.
Cassel answers when asked specifics of what he’s improved. He mentions his footwork and reads and ability to stay calm and confident under pressure. Those are good qualities, ones he’ll need now, because there are so many of us skeptical of how this will end.
Cassel has dealt with doubts before, always with a smile, always taking the last laugh. This time it’s for keeps. He admits it pisses him off. But he knows no other way.
“Life’s too short to be miserable and upset,” he says. “Everybody goes through tough times, but why be miserable? I’m working on it, man.”
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
The most criticized quarterback of an undefeated team picks up the phone. Matt Cassel needs a laugh. The voice on the other end is Wes Welker, the Patriots’ Pro Bowl receiver and one of Cassel’s best friends.
“What’d you throw for, 70 yards?” Welker says. “Way to go. I’m not playing you in fantasy next week.”
Cassel laughs, then calls his 5-foot-9 friend a horse jockey. If only all the criticism came this good-natured.
The Chiefs’ quarterback insulates himself as well as possible. No newspapers, no websites, no radio, no ESPN. But the outside world is hard to avoid, so Cassel knows what people think by the questions he hears in press conferences and by the neighbors who say things like, Hang in there, I know they’re killing you.
This is all so strange. Cassel is the starting quarterback of a 2-0 team in a city starved for good vibes, but the story lines have become more about what the Chiefs aren’t doing — like giving Jamaal Charles the ball or having any success throwing the ball.
Cassel gets it. He understands the business, that accepting the job and the $63 million contract means also accepting the criticism when he ranks 30th in passer rating and the general feeling around town is that the wins are coming in spite of the franchise’s chosen quarterback, not because of him.
Cassel is fine with that. Those shoulders are strong. He’s studied for this test most of his life, 28 years of doing what nobody expected in circumstances they figured would be too much. Most of the time, he’s done it smiling.
“He’s really a rare kind of person,” says Tom Brady, the future Hall of Famer and another close friend. “He’s not a guy who loses his confidence.”
• • •
You probably remember Matt Cassel’s proudest football moment. Two years ago this month, Brady went down with a knee injury against the Chiefs in the season opener, and in comes Cassel with a game undecided for the first time in nearly 10 years — since high school.
His first pass? A 51-yard gain down the sideline to Randy Moss. His first drive? Ended with a touchdown pass.
“Outwardly, you stay cool,” he says. “But really, I’m like, ‘I knew I could do it!’ ”
Cassel played well enough that season to rank 10th in passer rating and have the Patriots give him the franchise tag before trading him to Kansas City.
He is now a millionaire many times over, a wife and baby girl at home, and the story of how he got here is so much deeper than the lifetime backup quarterback finally getting a chance after the MVP’s knee snapped.
• • •
Did you know Cassel survived a massive earthquake?
He was 11, and the ground in suburban Los Angeles shook enough that all the water in his family’s pool dumped into the house and collapsed the roof. Matt hid under a table, and when the earth stopped moving, there were 72 dead and $25 billion in property damage.
That summer, he helped “the Earthquake Kids” to the championship game of the Little League World Series. He’s been through his parents’ divorce and temporary financial troubles, losing out on the quarterback job he thought he earned at USC, and then needing the day of his life at a pro workout just to have the opportunity to beat out four others to be Brady’s backup.
Matt Cassel, starting NFL quarterback, should not be happening. This weird story could’ve ended with that earthquake. Or with his college coach’s offer to play tight end. Or by giving it up when the Oakland A’s drafted him as a pitcher, or with a less impressive pro workout or, really, any number of trying moments in between.
Sure, Cassel has struggled this season and is being called out for it. But you know what’s harder than that? Planning your father’s funeral before one game, then burying him before the next during your first season as a starter. Cassel did that, and threw for 563 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception in two wins for the Patriots.
Having bad personal numbers for a 2-0 team nobody expected doesn’t feel so difficult.
“Everybody has to deal with something,” he says.
That’s true, and Cassel’s problems aren’t necessarily more difficult than yours, or your neighbor’s, or some of his teammates.
But the difference is he’ll be remembered forever — at least here in Kansas City — for how he deals with this.
• • •
Will Shields got on the radio the other day and became another voice of doubt. There’ve been plenty of doubts already, including right here, but it’s different when a 12-time Pro Bowl lineman is doing the doubting.
“I don’t really see Matt Cassel playing with swagger yet,” he said on WHB 810 AM. “He seems a little hesitant with the pass and trusting where his wide receivers are going to be.”
The criticism is piling up by now and has the attention of the Chiefs, from the top on down. They believe in their guy, and want people to know it. Coach Todd Haley, in particular, is usually effusive in his public support of Cassel even if the criticism can come heavy away from the public.
Haley gets on other guys during news conferences, but rarely the quarterback. The two have a strong mutual respect that’s developed into a close bond. They’re not friends, exactly, but it isn’t the classic boss-employee relationship, either.
Each week, they meet for hours, the door shut behind them, and it’s part Coach and Quarterback, but it’s more Todd and Matt. They’ll go golfing after the season’s over.
• • •
This is the way Haley knows. It’s worked in the past. Kurt Warner came by this summer to see his old coach and laugh about old times, and speaking of Warner, Haley will tell you he sees a lot of Warner’s same qualities in Cassel. Tony Romo and Vinny Testaverde, too.
Haley has coached good quarterbacks before. He likes to say they come in different shapes and sizes and personalities, and that’s fine, but the good ones need to have an obsessive work ethic and constant need to improve. He says Cassel has that, same as those other guys, and different than the bad ones he’s seen.
Haley is asked about Cassel a lot these days. People want to know if he’s really this happy with a quarterback that’s completed just 52 percent of his passes and hasn’t yet led a sustained touchdown drive. Haley understands. He won’t say any of the criticism is unfair.
But he is also adamant that Cassel has been “a very big part” of both the Chiefs’ wins. The team didn’t need anything more, Haley says, because they won. Haley is consistent in his message that Cassel is improving.
“From a competitive standpoint, I don’t know that I want to get into that,” he says when asked specifically what Cassel has improved. “This process we’re in as a team, Matt’s in the same process. What I’ve been excited about, and continue to be excited about, is the progress. I’m not measuring it any other way than visually seeing a quarterback improve.”
• • •
Tom Brady doesn’t do many one-on-one interviews, especially not for out-of-town newspapers, but he returned this phone call because of his respect for Cassel.
Brady says he is sure Cassel will succeed because of his attitude. Long before this season’s struggles, long before the big contract, and even before Cassel got to play for the Patriots, he was the insignificant backup who treated every moment with significance.
“I’m telling you,” Brady says, “he always had energy for practice, for games, for meetings. Just a great guy to be around. He’d always add something, no matter what.”
This is the attitude that ultimately will make or break Cassel’s time in Kansas City, and by extension, could make or break this whole Chiefs movement. The talent around Cassel is much better than last year, even if the receivers could get more separation and the blocking is inconsistent.
Haley and general manager Scott Pioli are jumping all-in with Cassel, and there have been flashes. Welker knows Cassel as well as anyone, and says the talent is there “to be one of the top five quarterbacks in the league, absolutely.”
Cassel completed eight of 12 passes for 116 yards in the second half last week against Cleveland. Last year, he led two fantastic scoring drives late in an overtime win over the Steelers.
Today will be Cassel’s 33rd start in the NFL, and the league’s history is full of quarterbacks who blossomed later than this. Scouts like to see at least 30 starts from a prospect before the draft, so in some ways we’re all still learning what he is. Hell, he’s figuring it out, too.
But there are few businesses as bottom-line brutal as the NFL. You can say Cassel is inexperienced, but he’s also older than 15 quarterbacks who will start this weekend.
Cassel answers when asked specifics of what he’s improved. He mentions his footwork and reads and ability to stay calm and confident under pressure. Those are good qualities, ones he’ll need now, because there are so many of us skeptical of how this will end.
Cassel has dealt with doubts before, always with a smile, always taking the last laugh. This time it’s for keeps. He admits it pisses him off. But he knows no other way.
“Life’s too short to be miserable and upset,” he says. “Everybody goes through tough times, but why be miserable? I’m working on it, man.”