Chiefs Kent Babb dismantles Fat Scott - Page 18

FloridaMan88 · 09-16-2012, 05:36 PM

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/16...-big-with.html

Chiefs will never win big with Pioli in charge

By KENT BABB

The Kansas City Star

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Scott Pioli pushed his way through a doorway, into the Ralph Wilson Stadium tunnel and then, alone, disappeared into the Chiefs’ locker room.

As the team he built was enduring the final minutes of death-by-Ryan Fitzpatrick, an embarrassing 35-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Chiefs’ general manager walked toward a few minutes of solitude. Days like this are lonely when you’re the king, and maybe he embraced what is obvious to so many others who saw Sunday’s loss: that another team he constructed looks lost and unprepared. No injuries and no excuses, no former head coach to blame, and no safety net below the Chiefs’ most powerful football man.

The Chiefs’ problems are with their coaches and players, but the bigger issue is about the man who brought in those coaches and players. Yes, this game and this season are on Pioli, and there’s no denying that anymore. And there’s no more denying another truth, whether you’re ready to read it or not: The Chiefs will never win big while Pioli is this team’s boss. His priorities are too misguided, his insecurities and denial too immense to allow Kansas City’s favorite team to win the Super Bowl that he was brought here to claim.

Pioli is now in his fourth year of trying to justify the hype that earned him accolades in New England, respect within the NFL, and a multi-million-dollar job as a GM. Expectations were unreachable, maybe, but Pioli has done himself no favors by obsessing over trivial details, spending too much time trying to feed his addition to his own reputation, and engineering a team using the “discount football” philosophy that has made the Hunt family richer but has gotten the Chiefs only marginally closer to a Super Bowl.

Days like Sunday should be behind the Chiefs. This roster is so much better than the one Pioli inherited in January 2009. He’s responsible for that, too. But how much better could it be if Pioli weren’t so consumed by off-the-field nonsense? He arrived nearly five years ago and promised to curb a culture of losing. Instead, Pioli now oversees an organization shadowed in a culture of misplaced priorities and anxiety — and, yes, more losing.

Now in his fourth season as GM, Pioli has spent too much time trying to justify his decisions, rather than trying to improve them.

He whines to outsiders that the Chiefs’ salary-cap shortcomings are misunderstood? Well, spend more money, as team chairman Clark Hunt has said Pioli is authorized to do. Pioli excuses himself for his biggest mistakes, such as saying he just didn’t do his homework before hiring former coach Todd Haley? Well, why not? And he says privately that drafting a quarterback in the early rounds isn’t the point; it’s about drafting the right one. Well, Scott, then draft the right one. These things are big parts of Pioli’s job, but instead of acknowledging that, he chooses to tell himself — and, through back channels, you — that things are just fine.

In Scott We Trust? Not anymore.

Pioli cares more than you can imagine about what others think; about how his gilded reputation still shines nearly five years after it landed him this job.

He calls opinion-makers in Kansas City to plead with them to share his side of the story in exchange for a nibble of access, and he spends his own time compiling ultimately meaningless statistics in an attempt to spin unpopular draft choices and questionable spending habits into a more favorable light. He hints to anyone who’ll listen — in exchange for agreeing that you didn’t hear it from him — that the Chiefs’ playoff run in 2010 and a brief winning streak last season weren’t a result of Haley’s coaching. Those, he is convinced, were results of the magic of former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis two seasons ago and, last year, the motivating skills of Romeo Crennel. He obsesses over public relations, attempting to manipulate the message large and small. Pioli is as responsible as anyone for the misconception that Haley ruined the Chiefs and that, by firing him last December, Pioli helped to save it. How does that narrative look after the Chiefs’ second consecutive blowout loss?

Pioli craves credit and validation on good days, and he wants to hide and blame others after days like Sunday.

He worries so much about trivial matters that it’s impossible to think that such an emphasis hasn’t been an obstacle to the Chiefs’ success. He was concerned enough about what cornerback Brandon Flowers might’ve thought if Pioli had signed Brandon Carr to a richer contract that this factored into his decision to let Carr leave Kansas City and sign with the Dallas Cowboys.

Win, and nobody cares about how many dollars the Chiefs are under the salary cap, or which coach was responsible for past success, or why a free agent was allowed to walk. Lose, and all anyone wants to talk about is going to war with your first head coach, a new and considerably less shiny reputation built on micromanagement and insecurity, and stubbornly sticking with quarterback Matt Cassel just because you drafted him in New England, traded for him in Kansas City, and signed him to an extension.

Pioli has, for years now, learned from far too many mistakes. Haley. Sticking with Cassel. Thinking he can control every ounce of information. A growing number of unimpressive draft classes. The way front-office employees are treated and how bizarrely secretive everyone is expected to be. Pioli wasn’t brought to Kansas City to learn from trial and error; he was hired because he was advertised as being smart enough to avoid learning things the hard way.

Crennel is now the Chiefs’ head coach, and few people inside or outside the organization after last season would’ve suggested that elevating Crennel would be a mistake. But after an 0-2 start in which the Chiefs’ defense — Crennel’s baby — has allowed 68 points and has no idea why, that hire now looks like another blunder.

Fair or not, Pioli’s job is to anticipate days like this, put aside emotion and past allegiance in New England and with the New York Giants, and hire a coach who can take on one of the NFL’s most talented rosters and avoid this kind of start. This is the tradeoff of cashing those big paychecks, of sitting in that sprawling office, and taking on the role of one of sports’ most powerful men.

Pioli is a very bright man. He has made the Hunts a mountain of money and built the Chiefs into a team that should begin each season as a trendy playoff choice, and those things are enough to keep him employed for the foreseeable future. He has a cushion of otherwise undeserved job security because of this and because the Chiefs believe you’ll keep filling Arrowhead Stadium, keep tuning in to disasters like the one broadcast in Kansas City on Sunday, and keep believing that better days are ahead.

Maybe they are, but assembling a team at a discount and prioritizing things that don’t really matter only builds a team with a limited ceiling. As long as Pioli is in that office, your expectations should have a low ceiling, too.

Brock · 09-16-2012, 10:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

You have a better idea?

A better idea would be for people to stop showing up.

tk13 · 09-16-2012, 10:57 PM

There's only one way you'll win, hit them in the wallet, and people stop showing up to games.

**Rausch** · 09-16-2012, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mnchiefsguy

And the fact is, the worse this team does in the RAC era, the better Haley looks.

I'm not getting this part...

**DaneMcCloud** · 09-16-2012, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brock

A better idea would be for people to stop showing up.

Wouldn't matter. The tickets are mostly purchased and the TV money outweighs the box office by about 95%.

It blows.

Hammock Parties · 09-16-2012, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Wouldn't matter. The tickets are mostly purchased and the TV money outweighs the box office by about 95%.

It blows.

Season ticket sales really declined this year. Scott is not doing his job, and Clark looks like an idiot.

Clark will clean house.

Get ready, because it's gonna be joyous.

mnchiefsguy · 09-16-2012, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rausch

I'm not getting this part...

Haley was identified as the problem. The team was supposed to be competitive this year and compete for the division title. But the team appears to be no better than last year's debacle. If RAC gets worse results than Haley, then people will be begin to assign blame for the teams faults to someone other than Haley. Haley will appear to have been made the scapegoat of the situation, which will help his overall image.

**The Franchise** · 09-16-2012, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

If you build it, they will come.

**DaneMcCloud** · 09-16-2012, 11:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

Get ready, because it's gonna be joyous.

It'll only be "joyous" if he gets it right this time.

FAX · 09-16-2012, 11:43 PM

Well, we have a problem. The amount of lost revenue caused by boycotting the games seems to be negligible while the KC Star advertisement appears to be unaffordable by everyone except Pioli himself.

It's strangely strange in a strange way, but on top of that, there are loads of people on Twitter and elsewhere who are self-identified Chiefs fans and who seem to believe that "fandom" is all about backing your team through thick or thin. These people apparently attend games and purchase Chiefs kitsch when we suck in an effort to help the team feel better about themselves. It's incredibly self-sacrificing since the players, coaches, and our faultless GM are paid fortunes whether we suck or not.

The answer lies in chicken bones. We must sacrifice a chicken and grind its bones into a powder to mix with snake venom and bat blood in order to make a little statuette that resembles Pioli in a sitting position and sporting large, voluminous tittahs. Once this is accomplished, we can torture that little Pioli using fire and various sharpened instruments until he goes mad and runs naked through the field of play on national television. Since both he and Clark are extremely image-conscious, this should result in some sort of involuntary imprisonment in a local mental facility for a period sufficient to locate and secure his replacement.

FAX

**Dylan** · 09-16-2012, 11:47 PM

First, if you want to oust the head coach or general manager of your team - you can lobby the media, owner for their firing. On the plus side, you initiated this before.

The media are engaged in and monitor many different issues, such as perspective of the team's fanbase.

Just my 2 cents.

ChiefsCountry · 09-16-2012, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bowser

Between Carl and Scott, we've had 20+ years of GM's who are unwilling to hire outside their respective "trees". Whomever comes in here after Pioli, whenever that is, needs to find the right players and coaches for what he wants to do, no matter where or from whom they hail from. That's all I ask out of my GM. Get the RIGHT PEOPLE.

You mean like Carl did when he hired Marty, who he had no previous connection to.

Hammock Parties · 09-16-2012, 11:53 PM

April 25, 2013.

Could the most exciting day since Carl was hired.

If we draft a QB.

CAN'T WAIT

**Rausch** · 09-16-2012, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FAX

Well, we have a problem. The amount of lost revenue caused by boycotting the games seems to be negligible while the KC Star advertisement appears to be unaffordable by everyone except Pioli himself.

The KC Star advertisement might happen.

I'd prefer it not being that there are more important things to throw that money away on.

We have CP members serving overseas. We have CP members with medical issues.

I'm in no way OK with drawing $$$ away from legit causes to take out an add for a football team.

Rasputin · 09-17-2012, 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

Season ticket sales really declined this year. Scott is not doing his job, and Clark looks like an idiot.

Clark will clean house.

Get ready, because it's gonna be joyous.

I'm holding on the notion that Clark told Pioli to fire Haley that Haley wasn't getting the team to improve. Now I don't think Pioli job is safe in this regards if there isn't major major improvement throughout this season.

I think by end of season & the losing record speaks for itself Clark will fire Pioli.

**BossChief** · 09-17-2012, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FAX

This will, no doubt, bring out the haters en masse ... but, I still like Haley.

I have a lot of reasons, but I generally liked his attitude toward the game. I'm not so sure about the paranoia and the need to make his personal calls from a burn phone, but I think he will have a long and successful career in the NFL.

Frankly, it is my view that Haley was probably the best decision Pioli has made to date. Things would likely have turned out much better for everyone if Pioli had been more supportive and helpful ... as opposed to deceitful ... and under-cutting his own freaking coach.

FAX

I will ALWAYS believe that Haley would have won a championship in KC if he had a good quarterback.

Everyone looks at the 2012 version of this team and says "these guys are sofT and need a kick in the ass"

Well, say what you will about Haley, but he was the one kicking these guys in the ass and got guys like DJ to play wayyy over their heads.

Its a shame that Pioli chose Cassel instead of Haley because the man is gonna have a bright future in this league, as you said.

Long after Cassel and Romeo are out of the league.

09-16-2012, 05:36 PM
FloridaMan88 Mahomes: We Are All Witnesses Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Miami, FL Casino cash: $-687094	Kent Babb dismantles Fat Scott http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/16...-big-with.html Chiefs will never win big with Pioli in charge By KENT BABB The Kansas City Star ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Scott Pioli pushed his way through a doorway, into the Ralph Wilson Stadium tunnel and then, alone, disappeared into the Chiefs’ locker room. As the team he built was enduring the final minutes of death-by-Ryan Fitzpatrick, an embarrassing 35-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Chiefs’ general manager walked toward a few minutes of solitude. Days like this are lonely when you’re the king, and maybe he embraced what is obvious to so many others who saw Sunday’s loss: that another team he constructed looks lost and unprepared. No injuries and no excuses, no former head coach to blame, and no safety net below the Chiefs’ most powerful football man. The Chiefs’ problems are with their coaches and players, but the bigger issue is about the man who brought in those coaches and players. Yes, this game and this season are on Pioli, and there’s no denying that anymore. And there’s no more denying another truth, whether you’re ready to read it or not: The Chiefs will never win big while Pioli is this team’s boss. His priorities are too misguided, his insecurities and denial too immense to allow Kansas City’s favorite team to win the Super Bowl that he was brought here to claim. Pioli is now in his fourth year of trying to justify the hype that earned him accolades in New England, respect within the NFL, and a multi-million-dollar job as a GM. Expectations were unreachable, maybe, but Pioli has done himself no favors by obsessing over trivial details, spending too much time trying to feed his addition to his own reputation, and engineering a team using the “discount football” philosophy that has made the Hunt family richer but has gotten the Chiefs only marginally closer to a Super Bowl. Days like Sunday should be behind the Chiefs. This roster is so much better than the one Pioli inherited in January 2009. He’s responsible for that, too. But how much better could it be if Pioli weren’t so consumed by off-the-field nonsense? He arrived nearly five years ago and promised to curb a culture of losing. Instead, Pioli now oversees an organization shadowed in a culture of misplaced priorities and anxiety — and, yes, more losing. Now in his fourth season as GM, Pioli has spent too much time trying to justify his decisions, rather than trying to improve them. He whines to outsiders that the Chiefs’ salary-cap shortcomings are misunderstood? Well, spend more money, as team chairman Clark Hunt has said Pioli is authorized to do. Pioli excuses himself for his biggest mistakes, such as saying he just didn’t do his homework before hiring former coach Todd Haley? Well, why not? And he says privately that drafting a quarterback in the early rounds isn’t the point; it’s about drafting the right one. Well, Scott, then draft the right one. These things are big parts of Pioli’s job, but instead of acknowledging that, he chooses to tell himself — and, through back channels, you — that things are just fine. In Scott We Trust? Not anymore. Pioli cares more than you can imagine about what others think; about how his gilded reputation still shines nearly five years after it landed him this job. He calls opinion-makers in Kansas City to plead with them to share his side of the story in exchange for a nibble of access, and he spends his own time compiling ultimately meaningless statistics in an attempt to spin unpopular draft choices and questionable spending habits into a more favorable light. He hints to anyone who’ll listen — in exchange for agreeing that you didn’t hear it from him — that the Chiefs’ playoff run in 2010 and a brief winning streak last season weren’t a result of Haley’s coaching. Those, he is convinced, were results of the magic of former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis two seasons ago and, last year, the motivating skills of Romeo Crennel. He obsesses over public relations, attempting to manipulate the message large and small. Pioli is as responsible as anyone for the misconception that Haley ruined the Chiefs and that, by firing him last December, Pioli helped to save it. How does that narrative look after the Chiefs’ second consecutive blowout loss? Pioli craves credit and validation on good days, and he wants to hide and blame others after days like Sunday. He worries so much about trivial matters that it’s impossible to think that such an emphasis hasn’t been an obstacle to the Chiefs’ success. He was concerned enough about what cornerback Brandon Flowers might’ve thought if Pioli had signed Brandon Carr to a richer contract that this factored into his decision to let Carr leave Kansas City and sign with the Dallas Cowboys. Win, and nobody cares about how many dollars the Chiefs are under the salary cap, or which coach was responsible for past success, or why a free agent was allowed to walk. Lose, and all anyone wants to talk about is going to war with your first head coach, a new and considerably less shiny reputation built on micromanagement and insecurity, and stubbornly sticking with quarterback Matt Cassel just because you drafted him in New England, traded for him in Kansas City, and signed him to an extension. Pioli has, for years now, learned from far too many mistakes. Haley. Sticking with Cassel. Thinking he can control every ounce of information. A growing number of unimpressive draft classes. The way front-office employees are treated and how bizarrely secretive everyone is expected to be. Pioli wasn’t brought to Kansas City to learn from trial and error; he was hired because he was advertised as being smart enough to avoid learning things the hard way. Crennel is now the Chiefs’ head coach, and few people inside or outside the organization after last season would’ve suggested that elevating Crennel would be a mistake. But after an 0-2 start in which the Chiefs’ defense — Crennel’s baby — has allowed 68 points and has no idea why, that hire now looks like another blunder. Fair or not, Pioli’s job is to anticipate days like this, put aside emotion and past allegiance in New England and with the New York Giants, and hire a coach who can take on one of the NFL’s most talented rosters and avoid this kind of start. This is the tradeoff of cashing those big paychecks, of sitting in that sprawling office, and taking on the role of one of sports’ most powerful men. Pioli is a very bright man. He has made the Hunts a mountain of money and built the Chiefs into a team that should begin each season as a trendy playoff choice, and those things are enough to keep him employed for the foreseeable future. He has a cushion of otherwise undeserved job security because of this and because the Chiefs believe you’ll keep filling Arrowhead Stadium, keep tuning in to disasters like the one broadcast in Kansas City on Sunday, and keep believing that better days are ahead. Maybe they are, but assembling a team at a discount and prioritizing things that don’t really matter only builds a team with a limited ceiling. As long as Pioli is in that office, your expectations should have a low ceiling, too.
Posts: 50,124

09-16-2012, 10:57 PM	#257
tk13 ... Join Date: Nov 2001 Casino cash: $-1837500	There's only one way you'll win, hit them in the wallet, and people stop showing up to games.
Posts: 56,683

09-16-2012, 11:43 PM	#264
FAX testing ... 1, 2, 3 Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Tennessee Casino cash: $6753759	Well, we have a problem. The amount of lost revenue caused by boycotting the games seems to be negligible while the KC Star advertisement appears to be unaffordable by everyone except Pioli himself. It's strangely strange in a strange way, but on top of that, there are loads of people on Twitter and elsewhere who are self-identified Chiefs fans and who seem to believe that "fandom" is all about backing your team through thick or thin. These people apparently attend games and purchase Chiefs kitsch when we suck in an effort to help the team feel better about themselves. It's incredibly self-sacrificing since the players, coaches, and our faultless GM are paid fortunes whether we suck or not. The answer lies in chicken bones. We must sacrifice a chicken and grind its bones into a powder to mix with snake venom and bat blood in order to make a little statuette that resembles Pioli in a sitting position and sporting large, voluminous tittahs. Once this is accomplished, we can torture that little Pioli using fire and various sharpened instruments until he goes mad and runs naked through the field of play on national television. Since both he and Clark are extremely image-conscious, this should result in some sort of involuntary imprisonment in a local mental facility for a period sufficient to locate and secure his replacement. FAX
Posts: 44,492

09-16-2012, 11:47 PM	#265
Dylan The Lede Join Date: Aug 2007 Casino cash: $10016591	First, if you want to oust the head coach or general manager of your team - you can lobby the media, owner for their firing. On the plus side, you initiated this before. The media are engaged in and monitor many different issues, such as perspective of the team's fanbase. Just my 2 cents. __________________
Posts: 33,643

09-16-2012, 11:53 PM	#267
Hammock Parties I'll be back. Join Date: Nov 2002 Casino cash: $860478	April 25, 2013. Could the most exciting day since Carl was hired. If we draft a QB. CAN'T WAIT __________________ Chiefs game films
Posts: 297,236