TEICHER :The Chiefs and Lions: A shame game

[Tribal Warfare]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/chi...ry/415496.html


The Chiefs and Lions: A shame game
ADAM TEICHER | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

So this is what a seven-game losing streak look like.

Fans wearing paper bags over their heads, hoisting signs ridiculing the home team, trading insults with players, urging the firing of the general manager and head coach.

That sort of ugliness, as seen at Arrowhead Stadium in last week’s home finale against Tennessee, might be new to Kansas City. But it’s nothing unique in Detroit, where the 4-10 Chiefs will try to snap their losing streak in today’s game against the Lions at Ford Field.

The 6-8 Lions have lost six straight. They haven’t won more than six games in a season since 2000 and have a losing streak of at least five games in every one of those years.

For one of these teams, the losing streak will end today, but not the misery. That will live on.

“Until you go through this, you can’t understand what it’s like,” said kick returner Eddie Drummond, who had the misfortune to spend the first five seasons of his career with the Lions before joining the Chiefs this year. “It’s tough mentally if you’re a player. Some of our guys, when the fans were on them in last week’s game, it’s hard for them to block that out, and maybe that’s because they haven’t gone through this before.

“It’s an experience nobody likes to feel. It’s something you never want to get used to.”

But maybe that’s just what’s happening to the Chiefs and Lions. Both teams seem to be waiting for something bad to occur.

Two weeks ago, the Lions wasted a 13-point fourth-quarter lead in a 28-27 loss to Dallas. The Chiefs have had a lead or were tied at halftime in six of their seven straight defeats.

“I kind of study the human condition,” Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez said. “When you’re in a losing environment, it becomes acceptable almost. That’s just human nature. Guys become, ‘Oh, well, we lost another one.’ That’s how it gets.”

That’s not much different from how Detroit coach Rod Marinelli sees it.

“There’s nothing mysterious about this,” he said, referring to Detroit’s six-game streak. “You don’t have to put anybody on a couch and have therapy. It’s a missed tackle here. It’s a misfit there. It’s a turnover here. We’ve been close in a couple of games, but it still wasn’t good enough.”

That Gonzalez is grasping for answers is natural. Losing seven straight is a new experience for him, though early in his career he played for the Chiefs when they dropped six in a row.

It’s a new experience for many of the Chiefs, most of whom once viewed these types of streaks as they might see a car wreck. They feel for those involved — then are thankful it wasn’t them.

“You always think it’s never going to happen to you,” fullback Boomer Grigsby said. “What’s done is done. You’ve got to get over it.”

Safety Jon McGraw also played for the Lions before joining the Chiefs this year.

“It’s miserable,” he said. “At some point, you can’t differentiate between a five-game losing streak or six games or seven games. It’s all miserable. You wake up in the morning and you’re sick to your stomach. You come to work and you’re sick to your stomach.”

Even those who are playing well can’t escape the feeling.

“I made the Pro Bowl, but I really didn’t enjoy it,” Drummond said. “All the losing takes away a lot from personal achievements. They really didn’t mean anything because all you want to do is win. That’s always your first goal, anyway.

“With the Lions, it was bad for all of us, but it was worse for (quarterback) Joey Harrington. I don’t know how he was able to come out every week. He took everything on his shoulders. Any problem — it didn’t matter if it was defense or what — the fans got on him. Then they started getting after (general manager) Matt Millen. They started trying to get him fired.”

That sounds similar to Kansas City, where the fans last week took out their anger for the disappointing season mostly on a floundering offensive line as well as president/general manager Carl Peterson and head coach Herm Edwards.

Drummond, who fumbled a punt return and fell down on a kickoff return, also heard from the fans. He just pretended he didn’t.

“Everybody heard it,” he said. “There are fans right behind our bench. It started a lot earlier last week. A lot of young guys or other guys who haven’t been through this can’t take that. There was still a lot of game left to be played.

“The best way to get through something like that is to ignore it.”

Some of the Chiefs, particularly some of the offensive linemen, found that impossible to do. Some fired back at the offending fans.

“Self-expression is the founding principle of our country and everything that we stand for,” Grigsby said. “But I don’t really see how that helps much. If you want a guy to play better, it probably won’t help to tell him that he’s garbage. If things start to go bad, you start telling someone he (stinks) and you hate him and you never want to see him again and you don’t want him around? I don’t think that’s a good way to respond to any of this.”

So perhaps it’s a relief that the final two games of the season are away from Arrowhead. It might be simpler for the Chiefs to concentrate on the task at hand when the locals are hounding the Lions and, next week, the Jets, who are 3-11 heading into today’s game at Tennessee.

“It might help,” McGraw said. “Maybe it will help pull us together. I know everyone here would like to win a game or two before this season is over.”

Ah, there’s true relief, right? The end of the season?

Not so fast. The stench of this season figures to last into the offseason. Players might scatter to distant places, but rest assured, they will be carrying some heavy baggage.

“Just because it’s over doesn’t mean you finally have some peace,” Drummond said. “You really want to get a win. You don’t want it to end like this. That’s going to leave a bitter taste in everybody’s mouth all of the offseason.

“Believe it or not, you really want to play another game or two so you might be able to win one.”

[DaFace]

The thing that's different about the Lions and the Chiefs' losing streaks is that the Lions have actually looked reasonably competitive in most of their games, while the Chiefs haven't looked like they even had a chance.

[Tribal Warfare]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

Just wanna make sure, is D Macintosh starting at LT today?

He's expected to play