ChiefsPlanet - Chiefs Sam Mellinger Nails It!

Sam Mellinger | Chiefs’ disconnect with angry fan base grows deeper
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star

The elevator door opens, and here comes Clark Hunt. He is dressed in a dark suit, like always, solemn look on his face as he walks through a basement hallway at Arrowhead Stadium. Over his head, a television plays the final seconds of another remarkably inept showing by the team he inherited from his father and that is now embarrassing the family name.

“The Chiefs lose again,” the voice on the television says.

Hunt doesn’t look up. Doesn’t speak. Just keeps walking, into the locker room of the undisputed worst team in football. The door shuts behind him. A security guard in the hallway turns the TV off, and it’s just as well because the Chiefs’ pathetic 28-6 loss to the mediocre Bengals is finally over. By now, we’ve all seen enough from a 1-9 clown show.

The only things left are shame, ugly accusations about mistreatment from fans, and questions.

If not now, then when? If the Chiefs can land like an anvil at the bottom of the NFL in year four of a process that was supposed to be competing for the division championship, then what, exactly, could it possibly take for major changes?

If not after this, then what?

“I’m not feeling very good at this point,” coach Romeo Crennel says.

Some perspective: Bill Self’s winning percentage at Kansas is .835. Nick Saban’s at Alabama is .831, Tom Brady’s in New England is .774, and Michael Jordan’s in playoff series is .806.

Opponents at Arrowhead Stadium since last November are at .889.

Arrowhead used to be one of the toughest places in the NFL to play. Television executives loved having games here, the barbecue smoke in the parking lot and screaming fans inside making for some of the league’s best theater.

Now, fans are literally dressing for a funeral – an organized statement to wear black in mourning of the franchise they fell in love with.

Chiefs officials – Hunt, most notably – have done a rotten job of showing it, but they’ve been privately concerned about a growing fan resentment for some time now. Hunt continues to meet with angry fans, partly to gather information to help diagnose the problem.

Until now, team brass held a stubborn belief that the loudest dissent came from a vocal minority, but in a season full of milestone losses, here comes one more: Arrowhead evenly split between fans dressed in black, fans dressed in other colors and empty seats.

If this doesn’t push Hunt to make major changes in the coming weeks, then it’s fair to wonder what could.

A handful of fans are accusing the team of confiscating critical signs or kicking them out of the stadium. A team spokesman made a point to “vehemently” deny security guards had orders to remove critical fans, saying the only issues were mass distribution of flyers impeding pregame traffic.

Either way, it’s one more piece of evidence of an undeniable and enormous disconnect between team and town. A family paid for an obituary in Sunday’s Star for a man who died “of complications from MS and heartbreaking disappointment caused by the Kansas City Chiefs.”

Two fans write in to say they saw “Pioli doesn’t” taped underneath “Kansas City knows” on a t-shirt for sale in a store. Fans are wearing black, or paper bags, or both. One section passed time during the game with a paper airplane contest.

And those are the ones who still bother to show up for games.

Here is an incomplete list of things to happen more often this fall than the Chiefs winning:

The team captain being benched, the quarterback suffering a concussion, a banner flying over the stadium calling for the GM to be fired, the head coach saying he doesn’t understand what happened with the team, and players celebrating a touchdown that didn’t count.

So far, you are as likely to catch the Chiefs on a day their coach fires himself as defensive coordinator as you are a day they win a game of football. One of their two biggest free-agent acquisitions called fans “sickening and disgusting.” The other one got cut a few weeks back.

Their offense has managed 12 touchdowns, 20 field goals and 31 turnovers. They’ve now lost six of 10 games by 16 points or more, the most in the league, and they’ve trailed by at least 17 every game but two. Dwayne Bowe has 49 catches, and Dustin Colquitt has 49 punts.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think fixing a tragic comedy of a football team takes more than posting a sign that says “ELIMINATE BAD FOOTBALL.”

The Chiefs should be used to talking about blowout losses by now, but they’re not getting any better at it.

Crennel, for instance, has tried to send messages this year by switching quarterbacks and cutting cornerbacks and giving up his defensive coordinator duties to concentrate more on offense (the Chiefs have responded by scoring 19 points in 25 possessions), and pledged that anyone who turns the ball over will be benched.

He has vacillated between “ELIMINATE BAD FOOTBALL” and “PLAY GOOD FOOTBALL” signs, but is still wondering what else he can do to stop his team’s pathetic football.

“We’ll evaluate and determine if there’s anything else we can do,” Crennel says.

Thing is, too many in the Chiefs’ locker room seem to be in denial. Flowers mentioned that some people think the Chiefs are among the NFL’s top five in talent. Shaun Smith called for fan loyalty, and pointed out that only two teams can play in the Super Bowl. Jamaal Charles said a coaching change would only set the Chiefs back, as if they’re not already there.

The Chiefs are playing worse than bad football. This is football so bad it’s turning one of the league’s most loyal and passionate fan bases into its most angry and outwardly disrespectful.

Maybe it’s only natural that some of the men in the locker room are in denial about that. But after another blowout loss where empty seats and fans dressed in mourning outnumbered everyone else, the owner must now face reality.

To reach Sam Mellinger, call 816-234-4365, send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com or follow twitter.com/mellinger. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/11/18...#storylink=cpy

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