Jason Whitlock Puts The Hammer Down

[Titty Meat]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/w...-cassel-100812



You gotta be f---ing kidding me.

In a society that increasingly supports caged human cockfighting — aka MMA — has a proud history with boxing, cheers lustily whenever fights break out inside a hockey rink and builds Roman Empire-stylized coliseums for football games, a 320-pound, sweet-talking lineman has somehow convinced a segment of America that Chiefs fans are the sick and disgusting bad guys.

You gotta be f---ing kidding me.

You damn straight a small percentage of Chiefs fans cheered loudly when two overgrown Ravens knocked Matt Cassel smooth the hell out. Did we not cheer when Mike Tyson curb-stomped Michael Spinks? Google the knockout work that made Anderson Silva the MMA’s most beloved star and tell me if you hear respectful silence or wild, joyful hysteria?

We love violence and Eric Winston’s hypocritical ass is wealthy because he’s relatively adept at inflicting it. The only thing all that unusual about the smattering of cheers that greeted Cassel’s glazed-eyed trip to the turf is that his hometown fans gave life to the noise. And for that, you can blame Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli, his boss, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt, and the escalating cost of being a sports fan in the era of shopping mall-amusement park stadiums.


Sickening? A smattering of cheers for an injured $66 million quarterback with a rating of 66.2 and a league-leading 14 turnovers?

No. No. What’s sickening is how easily Winston, Kansas City’s right tackle, deflected the national media from the real story. One of the most passionate fan bases in sports — Kansas City Chiefs fans — has been abused so thoroughly the last eight to 10 years that it is turning unruly. What happened Sunday inside Arrowhead Stadium is a result of the Hunt family’s neglect of their fan base. This has been brewing since 1998, since Marty Schottenheimer courageously and justifiably realized he should move on after 10 years in Kansas City. From 1989 to 1998, Schottenheimer and his front-office partner Carl Peterson transformed Arrowhead Stadium from an empty parking lot into one of the coolest, most electric places on earth eight fall Sundays a year. Football Sundays in Kansas City became mini-holidays. The whole town wore red starting on Fridays. Tailgating at Arrowhead Stadium before games was Kansas City’s No. 1 social activity.

I’ve watched NFL games at every venue. Nothing compared to Arrowhead Stadium during the Schottenheimer era. Nothing. The Chiefs never advanced to the Super Bowl, but Kansas City was the NFL’s ground zero. The players, coaches and executives were treated like royalty.

The players, coaches, executives and ownership got spoiled. They didn’t have to win it all to be treated as if they had. The Chiefs haven’t won a playoff game since 1993. That’s right. The Chiefs haven’t won a playoff game in two decades. But the stadium was filled, the parking lot packed and Chiefs jerseys hung in seemingly every Kansas City closet so Lamar Hunt, Kansas City’s Dallas-based owner, allowed Carl Peterson to hang around 10 years after Schottenheimer left, a good five years after it was painfully obvious Peterson’s previous success was a result of Schottenheimer’s brilliance. Most Chiefs fans concluded Hunt would’ve never allowed Peterson to linger for a decade if Hunt lived in Kansas City and felt the pain of each disappointing season as personally as Kansas City residents. Kansas Citians attached their identity to their professional football team. Joe Montana, Marcus Allen and Derrick Thomas made the typical, insecure Kansas Citian feel big time.


LET'S GET NUTS!
NFL fans are a special breed, and they their bring their own brand of craziness on game day.
The stench of Peterson’s last 10 years and Lamar Hunt’s loyalty to Peterson are fueling Chiefs fans lack of patience with their successors, Scott Pioli and Clark Hunt. The situation is further exacerbated by KC’s newly renovated stadium and the elevated cost associated with it. Chiefs fans are paying $27 to park, $200 for a club-level seat, $10 for beer and are watching teams with no reasonable shot at postseason success.

For the most part in today’s NFL, no quarterback equals no shot.

Lamar Hunt and Carl Peterson could never pick a quarterback. In 20 years, they never drafted one in the first round. They preferred to sign someone else’s veteran. Given a choice in the 1990s between benching an aloof, inconsistent and expensive Elvis Grbac and going with locker-room/fan favorite Rich Gannon, Hunt and Peterson let Gannon escape to Oakland, where he won a league MVP award, made four Pro Bowls and one Super Bowl appearance. Grbac eventually bounced to Baltimore and quit football. No one, besides Trent Dilfer, remembers Elvis Grbac.

Scott Pioli’s first major personnel decision in Kansas City was giving Matt Cassel a franchise-quarterback contract despite his highly suspicious resume. Cassel never played at USC. He played one season at New England. Cassel is Pioli’s original sin, the mistake that has haunted his four years in Kansas City. Pioli, the Bill Belichick disciple, saw in Cassel the second coming of Tom Brady. Pioli arrogantly and foolishly thought he’d discovered Brady in a bottle twice. Ha.

This year Cassel has been the worst starting quarterback in football. He’s a turnover machine. He clearly lacks confidence. His arm strength is atrocious. His ball floats up before it moves ahead. He needs to be benched. Pioli won’t allow it.


PAIN TRAIN
Injuries are a part of football, but these players have been hit particularly hard.
Before Sunday’s game, a group of working-class Chiefs fans pooled their money to fly a banner over Arrowhead Stadium demanding that Hunt fire Pioli and bench Cassel. These people love their football team. Clark Hunt lives in Dallas. The fans are spending their money to get the attention of their absentee owner. They’re afraid that Pioli-Hunt is going to be a replica of Peterson-Hunt. Their fears are justified. Pioli is a poor man’s Peterson. Pioli is an embarrassingly insecure version of Peterson, a man with a bloated ego. Pioli masks his insecurity with a false bravado, a dictator’s management approach and a constant desire to manipulate the media into believing he was the brains behind the Patriots dynasty.

Chiefs fans aren’t having it. They want a real quarterback. They want the Cassel charade to end. Pioli’s stubbornness forced a handful of Chiefs fans to spontaneously thank the Ravens for momentarily ending their Matt Cassel nightmare. I think America will survive.

It’s easy for the national media to sit on their couches, inside their television studios or on their free, comfy press-box seats and preach polite decency to the working-class folks paying to watch their hijacked football team.

I won’t do it. I was inside Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday as a Chiefs fan. I’m not the type to boo or cheer. But I want Pioli fired. Eric Winston, too.

[siberian khatru]

Yup, that's a winner, Jason.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by DaFace

In a general sense, I agree - we shouldn't start cheering for injuries in football games - that's not the point. But I do agree with jwhit that we shouldn't be DISGUSTED when people do cheer in those situations - there are plenty of examples in entertainment where injuries are just fine, and violence is clearly a part of football.

Hmmm ... that's really close to the way I interpreted his point.

I don't think the issue is violence, per se. This is about a double-standard in which ESPN and their ilk don't shy away from violence in sport. Just the opposite, they celebrate it. (Do they still air the "Jacked Up" segment?)

In this case, the level of hypocrisy seems to be Mr. jwhit's argument (as I see it, anyhow). On one hand, sports media showcases NASCAR crashes, bone-jarring football plays, and knock-outs. On the other hand, they whine with shock and indignation when they learn that some fans cheered when Cassel had to leave the game. Ironically, their only defense is absolute ignorance and negligence in that most of them didn't research the story in order to discover it wasn't 70,000 fans ... it was closer to 7.

The salt in the wound is the other point he makes; namely that Cassel shouldn't be a starting quarterback in this league anyway and the only reason he has a job has to do with Pioli's ego and Clark Hunt's unwillingness to get involved.

As the ancient aliens say, "Facts is facts." And the main fact in this case is that, for 40 years, Chiefs fans have been loyal, patient, generous, and faithful in their support of this organization. In return, they've gotten one of the worst franchises in sport and, more recently, a litany of insults.

FAX

[GloryDayz]

I'm satisfied with where my plan is heading at the moment...

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

This is an absolutely AMAZING article. Anybody notice that he didn't once really mention that he was right about Pioli? That he didn't use this as an "I told you so" moment?

I've never been kind to Whitlock - he comes here infrequently and usually does so for attention (or to get everybody stirred up) and is gone before anybody can respond.

But this time he's put it on the line and put his money ($600!) where his mouth is.

I honestly feel like he's one of us now more than ever before.

this. You summed up my feelings exactly
Posted via Mobile Device

[mcaj22]

whitlock was right 4 years ago back in 09 about this circus and practically predicted all of it.

I was still drinking the kool aid as a delusional idiot fan that bought into the Pioli Propaganda and was against Whitlock about everything. Whitlock was and is right. I can proudly eat that crow and thank him for still saying consistent and helping the Chiefs fanbase out today. Hats off to King Whit

[DeezNutz]

[ChiefGator]

Kudos to JWhit. Although I think Winston had a point that they AREN'T gladiators, I do appreciate a fresh look at the real issues surrounding the 'handful' of fans who may have cheered.

Great article. I've been critical of JWhit, although far less than some on here. I just don't like the unnecessary injection of racist overtones where they don't seem to belong. But, great article and he earned five 'hold-my-tongues' on future articles he writes.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

This is an absolutely AMAZING article. Anybody notice that he didn't once really mention that he was right about Pioli? That he didn't use this as an "I told you so" moment?

I've never been kind to Whitlock - he comes here infrequently and usually does so for attention (or to get everybody stirred up) and is gone before anybody can respond.

But this time he's put it on the line and put his money ($600!) where his mouth is.

I honestly feel like he's one of us now more than ever before.

[Bwana]

Outstanding, great read Jason and Thank You.

[Hammock Parties]

Oh crap, Pioli got to Fox Sports.

[Raiderhater]

I have taken issue with many a Whitlock articles. He has made his bones by being a controversial writer; the literary version of a shock jock. He has also done some damned good writing that I had to give him credit for being spot on. When Big Sexy decides to step up to the plate and write a for real serious piece, this is exactly what you get, one knocked way out of the park.

Though I didn't care much for his insecure fan line....

[notorious]

Clay.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Munson

Great article by Whitlock. Keep the heat on Chunt and Pioli.

Re your sig - is that real or just photoshop??

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by Cassel's Reckoning

Oh crap, Pioli got to Fox Sports.

Still at the link in the OP, drama queen.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Hammock Parties]

Not for me.