KingPriest2
10-28-2004, 07:35 AM
DAWES: From The Mailbag
Oct 28, 2004, 2:40:55 AM by Media Watch by Rufus Dawes
One win does not a season make, but it sure helps to lift the gloom from some disappointing weekends of late. Here are some comments from fans penned to this columnist.
From the mailbag: That exhilarating win over Atlanta made my whole weekend. It’s a much better week coming off a Chiefs win, not only for me, but for all my co-workers who love to rehash the game, sort of in the manner of “around the old water-cooler.”
RUFUS DAWES: Nothing will slake the thirst of most Chiefs fans than a long drink from the NFL playoff fountain. Not a win over Indy this week or a division title or victories in the annual two-game series against the hated Oakland Raiders.
Any Chiefs win in the regular season is a nice way to end the weekend, especially as the weather turns colder, but taking the pulse of the Arrowhead faithful would tell you we’re well past the time that a win at home will answer all the complaints. Sure, we’ll turn out in droves to see the games. Chiefs games are events, are social occasions as much as games. My goodness, we’re still doing the wave! We love our team, support it, renew our season tickets year after year despite what Kevin Kietzman tells us to do, and keep on hoping.
The author and political columnist David Brooks has written that this sort of behavior is not unusual for Americans. “Just out of reach, just beyond the next ridge, just with the next home or entrepreneurial scheme or diet plan; just with the next political hero, the next credit-card purchase; or the next true love; just with the right all-terrain vehicle, the right summer home, the right meditation technique, or the right motivational seminar; just with the right schools, the right community values, and the proper morality,” etc., etc., “there is a spot you can get to where all tensions will melt, all time pressures are relieved, and all contentment can be realized.”
Just with the right game plan, the right players, the right, well, you fill in the blank, and the Chiefs will be champions.
We’re not going to slip into true toe-curling, head-shaking euphoria until the team can at least take us one or two games into the playoffs and maybe even host a championship game here at Arrowhead. It’s out there and we’re searching for it. It’s the American way.
From the mailbag: I was just thinking as I squeezed my way out of a happy Arrowhead Stadium last week. What’s going to happen with the old place if this Bi-state thing doesn’t pass? Will it deteriorate or will the team have to fix it up, the county, who?
RUFUS DAWES: Those are questions best posed to the Jackson County Sports Authority, who represents the people of Jackson County, owners of the stadium. It’s my understanding that if the voters reject the measure next week then the Authority can keep the place up for a couple of years more and that’s all. What happens after that is anybody’s guess and that’s a scary proposition if the Authority has to default.
The Hunt family has been very clear that its intentions are to keep the team in Kansas City, but that was also Art Modell’s wish when he owned the Cleveland Browns. We see what happened there.
You can argue the points of why people should maintain the stadium over building a new one, or why the populace should finance stadiums at all. But this point is clear: whatever your position the revered “old place” will eventually fall into disrepair despite the team’s best efforts and, just as important, fall further behind the newer venues. This spells trouble anyway you slice it.
The Cotton Bowl, the former home of the Chiefs when they were the Texans, is a good case in point. It, too, was a revered old stadium. Now it houses but a few events a year: the annual bowl game which has slipped a notch since the days when there were only the Rose, Orange, Cotton, Sugar, Gator and one or two others. It currently hosts the Oklahoma-Texas game but how long do you suppose that will last if Jerry Jones gets a new stadium for the Cowboys and begins to lobby for the game? All these things have to be taken into consideration, I would suppose, no matter if you like the idea of public funding or not. What takes place next Tuesday will signal a change for the future, like it or not.
From the mailbag: I listened all night during the Red Sox-Cardinals (7th) game with some surprise to news of some scandal involving Tony Gonzalez. You know, the details-at-10 kind of stuff. When I finally heard the story, however, the (announcer) said that there were no charges and there wouldn’t be. Why do you suppose Channel 4 (WDAF-TV) ran a story that wasn’t even true?
RUFUS DAWES: The story about Tony Gonzalez displayed that mysterious phenomenon of momentum that so clearly governs media behavior today. Driven by a powerful, nearly primeval urge, the media today surge forward even in spite of evidence to the contrary. In WDAF-TV’s prompting throughout the baseball game and in their eventual airing of the story the reporter noted that the local prosecutor found nothing to substantiate some woman’s claims. It was something, in the police’s analysis, that didn’t happen. So, where’s the story?
The search for the most sinful, disgusting, or shocking facts about some public figure is what drives too many media today. WDAF did it because they could, not because it was true. Try to prove malice on the media’s part and you’ll find yourself in court for half your life. This sort of media behavior has deep roots in journalism here and abroad, but only now are we starting to see what it looks like when expressed through the magnifying lens of television. What was it one public figure who was wrongly accused said: “Where do I go to get my reputation back
Oct 28, 2004, 2:40:55 AM by Media Watch by Rufus Dawes
One win does not a season make, but it sure helps to lift the gloom from some disappointing weekends of late. Here are some comments from fans penned to this columnist.
From the mailbag: That exhilarating win over Atlanta made my whole weekend. It’s a much better week coming off a Chiefs win, not only for me, but for all my co-workers who love to rehash the game, sort of in the manner of “around the old water-cooler.”
RUFUS DAWES: Nothing will slake the thirst of most Chiefs fans than a long drink from the NFL playoff fountain. Not a win over Indy this week or a division title or victories in the annual two-game series against the hated Oakland Raiders.
Any Chiefs win in the regular season is a nice way to end the weekend, especially as the weather turns colder, but taking the pulse of the Arrowhead faithful would tell you we’re well past the time that a win at home will answer all the complaints. Sure, we’ll turn out in droves to see the games. Chiefs games are events, are social occasions as much as games. My goodness, we’re still doing the wave! We love our team, support it, renew our season tickets year after year despite what Kevin Kietzman tells us to do, and keep on hoping.
The author and political columnist David Brooks has written that this sort of behavior is not unusual for Americans. “Just out of reach, just beyond the next ridge, just with the next home or entrepreneurial scheme or diet plan; just with the next political hero, the next credit-card purchase; or the next true love; just with the right all-terrain vehicle, the right summer home, the right meditation technique, or the right motivational seminar; just with the right schools, the right community values, and the proper morality,” etc., etc., “there is a spot you can get to where all tensions will melt, all time pressures are relieved, and all contentment can be realized.”
Just with the right game plan, the right players, the right, well, you fill in the blank, and the Chiefs will be champions.
We’re not going to slip into true toe-curling, head-shaking euphoria until the team can at least take us one or two games into the playoffs and maybe even host a championship game here at Arrowhead. It’s out there and we’re searching for it. It’s the American way.
From the mailbag: I was just thinking as I squeezed my way out of a happy Arrowhead Stadium last week. What’s going to happen with the old place if this Bi-state thing doesn’t pass? Will it deteriorate or will the team have to fix it up, the county, who?
RUFUS DAWES: Those are questions best posed to the Jackson County Sports Authority, who represents the people of Jackson County, owners of the stadium. It’s my understanding that if the voters reject the measure next week then the Authority can keep the place up for a couple of years more and that’s all. What happens after that is anybody’s guess and that’s a scary proposition if the Authority has to default.
The Hunt family has been very clear that its intentions are to keep the team in Kansas City, but that was also Art Modell’s wish when he owned the Cleveland Browns. We see what happened there.
You can argue the points of why people should maintain the stadium over building a new one, or why the populace should finance stadiums at all. But this point is clear: whatever your position the revered “old place” will eventually fall into disrepair despite the team’s best efforts and, just as important, fall further behind the newer venues. This spells trouble anyway you slice it.
The Cotton Bowl, the former home of the Chiefs when they were the Texans, is a good case in point. It, too, was a revered old stadium. Now it houses but a few events a year: the annual bowl game which has slipped a notch since the days when there were only the Rose, Orange, Cotton, Sugar, Gator and one or two others. It currently hosts the Oklahoma-Texas game but how long do you suppose that will last if Jerry Jones gets a new stadium for the Cowboys and begins to lobby for the game? All these things have to be taken into consideration, I would suppose, no matter if you like the idea of public funding or not. What takes place next Tuesday will signal a change for the future, like it or not.
From the mailbag: I listened all night during the Red Sox-Cardinals (7th) game with some surprise to news of some scandal involving Tony Gonzalez. You know, the details-at-10 kind of stuff. When I finally heard the story, however, the (announcer) said that there were no charges and there wouldn’t be. Why do you suppose Channel 4 (WDAF-TV) ran a story that wasn’t even true?
RUFUS DAWES: The story about Tony Gonzalez displayed that mysterious phenomenon of momentum that so clearly governs media behavior today. Driven by a powerful, nearly primeval urge, the media today surge forward even in spite of evidence to the contrary. In WDAF-TV’s prompting throughout the baseball game and in their eventual airing of the story the reporter noted that the local prosecutor found nothing to substantiate some woman’s claims. It was something, in the police’s analysis, that didn’t happen. So, where’s the story?
The search for the most sinful, disgusting, or shocking facts about some public figure is what drives too many media today. WDAF did it because they could, not because it was true. Try to prove malice on the media’s part and you’ll find yourself in court for half your life. This sort of media behavior has deep roots in journalism here and abroad, but only now are we starting to see what it looks like when expressed through the magnifying lens of television. What was it one public figure who was wrongly accused said: “Where do I go to get my reputation back