Kent Babb dismantles Fat Scott

[FloridaMan88]

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.

[FAX]

Wow. Studly.

Babb is leaving? So, is this his stink bomb on exit?

Mr. Baby Lee is right. It's time for the KC Media guys to show some guts ... and for the KC Media girls to show some tittahs ... because Dr. Evil is proving to be some kind of incompetent shyster.

Is there a Patriots way of tar and feathering somebody?

FAX

[O.city]

Originally Posted by BossChief

Or that nobody else would choke on Cassels cock but Crennel.

I would be willing to bet money that Cassel played a role in Manning LOLing @ us, too.

I think this might be more likely te case

[Black Bob]

I can tell you from experience that you have to be very careful when trying to out a psychopath. It will quickly turn on you just like it did on Haley with the bugging thing.

If only Looney would give his real perspective... I would pay to read that...

[FAX]

Originally Posted by tk13

Pioli may very well be right. Our success two years ago might have been because of Weis and Crennel. They were certainly the only two guys in the entire organization during Pioli's tenure that had a consistent history of success at the positions they held that season.

So why did Pioli let Weis walk while Haley stayed behind, then?

That article is chock full of illogical, counter-intuitive, incongruence. Not only that, but there are parts that don't make much sense.

FAX

[Black Bob]

Originally Posted by BossChief

Or that nobody else would choke on Cassels cock but Crennel.

I would be willing to bet money that Cassel played a role in Manning LOLing @ us, too.

Nah, it was more to do with Manning being the anti-Patriot. He wanted nothing to do with Pioli and the Patriot way imo. There is alot of history there. you guys have Cassel on the mind way too much.

[BigRedChief]

Holy crap, the KC press actually writing something negative about the team? Go figure, first time for everything. ohhhhh Babb is leaving the market.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by tk13

Pioli may very well be right. Our success two years ago might have been because of Weis and Crennel. They were certainly the only two guys in the entire organization during Pioli's tenure that had a consistent history of success at the positions they held that season.

So why did Pioli let Weis walk while Haley stayed behind, then?

Our success two years ago was all smoke and mirrors. They were mediocre at best, and lucky beneficiaries of a weak schedule and an even weaker division. It amazes me that people still take it seriously.

[FringeNC]

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.

It's so obvious anything Peter King or Michael Lombardi says about the Chiefs comes straight from Pioli's mouth.

[BossChief]

Originally Posted by BlackBob

Nah, it was more to do with Manning being the anti-Patriot. He wanted nothing to do with Pioli and the Patriot way imo. There is alot of history there. you guys have Cassel on the mind way too much.

I dont care to hear you respond to my posts.

Please, stop doing so and promptly find a cliff to jump head first off and aim for a sharp, jagged rock.

Make it quick, medical science is too good these days and they might just save your life and we all know you would post 200 times a day, then.

bye

[saphojunkie]

I love this. I love it. I was at a bar with Chiefs fans today, and I actively cheered for both the Stevie Johnson touchdown and the return TD by McKelvin.

I hope Cassel stays healthy all freaking year. There needs to be zero illusions. No close games. Just the beatdowns that Pioli's shit team deserves. There is no room for interpretation anymore. The guy is just ****ing wrong about how to build a winner.

[Straight, No Chaser]

Unfortunately, he only found the nads to write this as the door hits him in the arse

[BossChief]

Anybody have a clue how much it would cost to run a full page ad on the star?

[Ace Gunner]

and the spin stops.

[Start Croyle]

The best players on the team are all leftovers from Herm and Carl!

[Setsuna]

Originally Posted by BossChief

Anybody have a clue how much it would cost to run a full page ad on the star?

An ad? Probably about $200 since it's full page.