Whitlock - Don't laugh, your team may be next (stands up for us again)

[Hammock Parties]

Don't laugh, your team may be next

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/w...be-next-101512

Don’t ridicule Kansas City Chiefs fans. One day soon, you could be in their position, a punch line for uninformed, unsympathetic national media, reduced to begging ownership to act responsibly and fairly, the target of scorn from the very athletes you support, forced to finance your own public-relations campaign.

This is where professional sports are headed. The disconnect between local fans and the franchises they love is being powered and accelerated by multi-billion-dollar TV contracts and the billions of ancillary dollars generated by video games and whatnot.

The guy in the cheap seats never mattered. We’re getting to the point, especially in the NFL, where no one in the stadium matters. It’s virtually impossible for an NFL franchise to fail and/or lose money. Before anyone has purchased a season ticket, NFL teams are swimming in enough cash to feed most third-world countries.

That’s why Chiefs right tackle Eric Winston got away with slandering a loyal fan base. That’s why the national media delighted in Winston’s ridiculous exaggeration. And that’s why we opened Sunday morning with a news story that Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli had received a two-year contract extension despite a Matt Millen Lite, four-year run in Kansas City.

You remember Matt Millen, right? Many of you laughed at Detroit Lions fans and their Millen Man March to remove their in-over-their-head team president. Millen, despite his ineptitude, was a Supreme Court justice in Detroit. He led the Lions for eight years primarily because there’s nothing an NFL executive can do to financially damage a franchise.

Cincinnati owner Mike Brown has been trying to destroy the Bengals for two decades. He can’t do it.

At some point, Bengals fans will reach the level of frustration that motivated Lions fans to take to the streets and Chiefs fans to voice displeasure at Arrowhead Stadium.

Fans don’t have a voice in the mainstream media. That should be clear in the aftermath of the Eric Winston-Matt Cassel-Chiefs fans controversy. The mainstream media are in bed with ownership and athletes, the people media believe they need. Athletes and media believe fans are stupid and unworthy of genuine respect. We think it’s a waste of time to look at things from the perspective of the average sports fan.

Let’s apply the bogus logic Winston applied to fans to athletes. Winston claimed that if only a few hundred Chiefs fans cheered when Cassel got hurt that it was still too many and it was still sickening and disgusting. Basically, he’s saying if one percent of the fan base does something inappropriate, it’s worthy of passionate public rebuke and the vilification of an entire fan base.

So if one percent of professional football players run afoul of the law, should we vilify all NFL players? Or would that be an unfair generalization? What’s more dangerous, a few cheers when a hometown player gets his clock cleaned or an NFL player driving while drunk? One act leads to potential hurt feelings, the other leads to possible death.

The media and the ex-jocks pretending to be media on TV were having such a fun time beating up on fans that no one applied any critical thinking to Winston’s opportunistic stupidity.

Not only do fans not have a voice, they’re despised and abused.

Winston’s whiny, inaccurate rant about the alleged behavior of a handful of Chiefs fans became a national talking point. Well, the story is what has made this fan base this angry. It’s the lack of accountability for ownership and management throughout the NFL (and professional sports). As more and more television money pours into professional sports leagues the less power true sports fans have. We’re not changing the channel. Sports is the only TV product that is DVR-proof.

An NFL franchise is the perfect investment. It makes the owner and his front-office cronies the most powerful and important people in any city. They’re untouchable.

No player in NFL history had an eight-year run of incompetence that could rival Millen’s. Why would a $3-million-a-year executive face less performance pressure than a $500,000 special-teams player? How could the Chiefs even consider giving Scott Pioli a contract extension?

I’m aware the original report about Pioli’s extension was refuted later in the day Sunday. But I don’t believe Jason La Canfora of CBS reported sketchy information. I believe Tampa Bay’s 38-10 thumping of Kansas City made the Chiefs walk back the leaked information.

Clark Hunt isn’t stupid. Kansas City’s fan base is frustrated and motivated. A group of fans started a Twitter feed @saveourchiefs dedicated to getting Scott Pioli fired. In two weeks, the feed has amassed 73,000 followers. Last week the group flew a banner over Arrowhead Stadium demanding that Pioli be fired and Cassel be benched. They’re planning more activity for KC’s next home game on Oct. 28. (I donated $600 to their cause. I’m a Chiefs fan.)

Extending Pioli at this time would further motivate an already-active fan base. The fan base has taken to social media to educate local and national media about what has been going on with Chiefs football the last two decades and the lengthy list of errors Pioli has made in four years. They’re tired of reading the propaganda pumped out by Pioli’s partners in the mainstream media.

Don't laugh at their desperation. Don't harshly judge their missteps. You could be next.

[Iowanian]

Keep your eyes on the prize. We've known Dense was a mindless sewer for over a decade.

Right now, we're focusing on how to quickly return Pioli to where he's more comfortable...Pahkin his kah in the kah pahk neara lawbstah stowah.

Let's tie the car seat from Dense's 1985 Toyota over his head when he leaves so Pioli and his band of morons can never find their way back.

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Rausch

There will never, ever, be a post from me that doesn't include some element of humor.

I see what you did there.



Or do I?




On a side note, is "Positive rhep" really a good thing?

[Brock]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Your ENTIRE argument is built on the fact that Whitlock referred to the KC fans as "working class".

You've tried as hard as you can to make "working class" into a socio-economic SLUR and tried to convince everyone that Whitlock was trying to denigrate the fans.

What's funny is this broad trying to make working class a perjorative when she leeches off of some poor, stupid man who is exactly that. All the while working herself at some job that could be done by a part-timer out of high school.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by notorious

I see what you did there.



Or do I?




On a side note, is "Positive rhep" really a good thing?

As long as it's not coming from your physician, yes...

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Rausch

As long as it's not coming from your physician, yes...

[Smed1065]

Originally Posted by jwhit

Spam this article on Twitter and Facebook. Thanks

Done, Thanks.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by memyselfI

No one is insulting you except for the negative images you are accepting to be perpetrated about you... Like having no voice, victim, hapless, loser, etc.

Your loudest and strongest voice is on your ass...in your back pocket. NOTHING will speak so loud. All the complaining in the world won't speak as loud or produce more results than that green piece of paper.

See you aren't powerless and you aren't a victim. Choose to support the team FINANCIALLY or not. Then real changes will occur.

And nothing Whitlock says will have as much impact at that...though I'm sure he'll take credit.

Well, think of the Chiefs like something that's actually important in your life, imagine there are no alternatives, then maybe it'll make more sense? People don't want to simply read a book on Sunday afternoon... they want to tailgate and they want a rockin' Arrowhead with a competitive team. And once again, the whole point of the media attention is to drive real change.

[memyselfI]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Well, think of the Chiefs like something that's actually important in your life, imagine there are no alternatives, then maybe it'll make more sense? People don't want to simply read a book on Sunday afternoon... they want to tailgate and they want a rockin' Arrowhead with a competitive team. And once again, the whole point of the media attention is to drive real change.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if they sold out the parking lot but not the stadium. Why not just tailgate and then leave. That would send a message.

[siberian khatru]

Originally Posted by memyselfI

Wouldn't it be hilarious if they sold out the parking lot but not the stadium. Why not just tailgate and then leave. That would send a message.

Somebody has already suggested that. Everybody stays in the parking lot the entire game while the stadium is empty.

[memyselfI]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Your ENTIRE argument is built on the fact that Whitlock referred to the KC fans as "working class".

You've tried as hard as you can to make "working class" into a socio-economic SLUR and tried to convince everyone that Whitlock was trying to denigrate the fans.

You're WRONG. There aren't too many losers on this board that would assign "working class" a negative connotation. You are one of the few.

It's not suprising, given where you have traditionally stood on political topics, that you would consider his use of the term "working class" to be a negative stereotype.



You are absolutely, unequivocally wrong.

It's called BRAND EQUITY. The Kansas Chiefs property itself - the logo, the name, the FANS - have a value.

When those things are devalued, the Chiefs BRAND is devalued.

If that weren't the case, they NEVER would have apologized for what happened on Twitter with teedubya.

What we're doing right now IS forcing change. Whether that turns out to be the change WE WANT remains to be seen...

No, my argument is that Whitlock is not going to win you any favors and he is certainly not going to win you any sympathy. If anything, if he is championing your cause it's going to make fans look even less likeable.

I think Chiefs fans have a pretty good reputation in the NFL. THAT is why the Winston comments took hold. Because they SEEM so out of character. Once we start accepting that we are pathetic, hapless, helpless fans then it's TO BE EXPECTED. Having national writers write about us in that light and our embracing it makes us appear to be more inclined to have 70k fans booing our injured player.

Originally Posted by memyselfI

Wouldn't it be hilarious if they sold out the parking lot but not the stadium. Why not just tailgate and then leave. That would send a message.

The problem is that single game ticket sales are such a small percentage of game attendance that it really doesn't impact their pocketbook significantly. They'll draft a 1st round QB and sell season tickets on his back next year to bolster attendance. They don't care if you don't attend after you've already paid cash for the tickets. They got their money. It's a cycle. Do just enough in the offseason to pique the interest of season ticket holders again.

[memyselfI]

Originally Posted by siberian khatru

Somebody has already suggested that. Everybody stays in the parking lot the entire game while the stadium is empty.

I think that element is what fans are truly emotionally attached to anyway. They think that if they stop going the tailgates would end and that part of being a fan would die. I am not sure who said just because we fill the parking lot we have to fill the stadium.

I think it would be a huge indictment to show a stadium full of cars in the pregame only to have everyone leave or not show up in their seats for the game.

Could Chiefs fans be disciplined and united enough to organize and orchestrate a 'sit out'????

[memyselfI]

Originally Posted by Phobia

The problem is that single game ticket sales are such a small percentage of game attendance that it really doesn't impact their pocketbook significantly. They'll draft a 1st round QB and sell season tickets on his back next year to bolster attendance. They don't care if you don't attend after you've already paid cash for the tickets. They got their money. It's a cycle. Do just enough in the offseason to pique the interest of season ticket holders again.

Right, and not renewing will work for the pocket book next year.

Breaking a cycle requires actions different than those that created the cycle. They could be the only team in the league that sells out the parking lot but have any empty stadium.

[Richard_Cuckold]

Whitlock is the effin man

[ct]

Perhaps we need a game day blockade of every stadium entrance. Kinda the camerohead version of a 60's hippie sit in.