FloridaMan88
10-18-2006, 09:38 AM
This one is too funny to ignore...
Some of the highlights from Rufus' latest masterpiece on kcchiefs.com:
Look for Edwards and GM Carl Peterson to pull for even more help for the defense next year while turning a smaller share of their attention to the offensive line which, for years now, has been the true engine for the team’s offensive success.
Continuing to neglect the offensive line, not to mention the offense as a whole during the offseason... BRILLIANT strategy Carl, er Bob, errr Rufus
What they’re not doing right now in Kansas City is talking about Super Bowls, but neither should they be shocked, as in, “I didn’t see it coming.” How does anyone at this point know what’s coming week to week?
I guess according to Rufus we should have seen this 45-7 ass-kicking coming. And I guess we shouldn't get too worked-up over arguably the worst regular season beatdown the Chiefs have experienced in probably 20 years, since after all we should have "seen it coming".
Everything looks to be status quo at One Arrowhead Dr
The complete column:
http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2006/10/18/dawes_get_a_grip/
DAWES: Get A Grip
Oct 18, 2006, 9:23:46 AM by Rufus Dawes
The preferred excuse for most journalistic prose – that it is “the first draft of history” – finds its supposed apotheosis in the daily work of writers and columnists who oscillate between euphoria and doom when portraying this year’s Kansas City Chiefs. “Loyalty was a casualty of the Washington Redskins’” loss to the winless Tennessee Titans last Sunday,” wrote a writer for the Washington Post (October 16, 2006); temperament appears to be MIA in Kansas City.
One writer went so far as to compare Sunday’s meltdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers to an apocalyptic event of 1998 in the midst of Marty Schottenheimer’s worst and final season with the Chiefs.
Crown Larry Johnson the new king of NFL running backs capable of registering a 2,000 yard season without even taking a full season of snaps as the starter; just as quickly dismiss him a quarter of the way into the season for not equaling what he did the season before.
Go overboard about a backup quarterback one week, tear him apart the next.
Express that the team has been “full of surprises”; be surprised when it falls on its face. (Associated Press, October 15, 2006)
Applaud Herm Edwards’ game plans two weeks in a row; criticize them the week after.
Call offensive coordinator Mike Solari’s play-calling “masterly” one day (Kansas City Star, October 9, 2006) and the next, well, you get the drift. All are false hypothesis of the true condition as media engage in a breathless chase after the picturesque, leaving behind practicability and common sense. They leap from one side to the other without the slightest incongruity.
Go back through recent annals and you’ll find more than your share of black Chiefs moments including horrible outings in the rain in Oakland (0-24) in 2002, inside the dome at Minnesota (20-45).in 2003 and on a fall afternoon in New England (10-40) in 1998. The difference this time is that this is a team in transition with 23 new faces – a fact head coach Herm Edwards continues to remind us. The ‘98 team, for example, was a veteran unit in its final days and one, upon further inspection, that should have been purged of aging veterans the following year.
Every team is a reflection of the head coach who leads it for better or for worse and this one is no exception. “I just think it’s a mindset,” Edwards said Tuesday of what he’s trying to do in Kansas City, “and you know it takes time to do that. It doesn’t come overnight or come in five weeks.”
However long it takes, it won’t produce two sides of the ball of equal strength. Look for Edwards and GM Carl Peterson to pull for even more help for the defense next year while turning a smaller share of their attention to the offensive line which, for years now, has been the true engine for the team’s offensive success.
Edwards is seeking to replicate what his teachers Marty Schottenheimer and Tony Dungy have done. Schottenheimer did it in Kansas City and San Diego, and Dungy in Tampa Bay and now in Indianapolis where his defense has improved since he took over. It has been done with younger players, not aging veterans, and certainly not free agents. “The Redskins knew they enjoyed a substantial talent, experience and payroll advantage over the Titans, and it went for naught,” observed a writer for the Washington Post (October 16, 2006) last Sunday, highlighting the ‘Skins yearly obsession with unrestricted free agents. By contrast, both San Diego and Pittsburgh are teams built on the draft.
Yes, a team that’s in transition can be “tough, resilient, confident, focused and well-prepared” one day, as one columnist called the Chiefs, and appear “punch drunk” (Kansas City Star, September 18, 2006) a couple of weeks later, as another claimed. (Kansas City Star, October 16, 2006)
“They did stay calm” in Arizona, as one writer observed, (Kansas City Star, October 9, 2006) but “they looked confused,” as another exclaimed a week later facing the defending Super Bowl champs. (Kansas City Star, October 16, 2006)
That’s the way it is with new regimes, new teams, and even some veteran units, and if some media “didn’t see it coming,” as one writer noted, they haven’t been playing close attention to the National Football League this year.
Did you expect that the supposed offensive guru Mike Shanahan would be winning games 13-3 and 9-6?
Would you have believed that “Martyball” is cranking out an offense that leads the league in scoring?
Did you know that there have already been six shutouts this season (there were only seven all last year), nine games with losing deficits of 25 or more points, and that the supposedly hapless New Orleans Saints are 5-1 and the Miami Dolphins, who some pundits put in the Super Bowl, are 1-5?
Is it surprising that Philadelphia is 4-2, but could just have easily been 6-0 losing both games on the final play of the game, or that St. Louis is just a 54-yard-field-goal away from being 5-1?
Even the good teams are losing and in the next few years you could well see a 9-7 team win the Super Bowl. In the meantime, media and fans are standing at the precipice ready to jump up, jump off, or jump down the coach’s throat.
What they’re not doing right now in Kansas City is talking about Super Bowls, but neither should they be shocked, as in, “I didn’t see it coming.” How does anyone at this point know what’s coming week to week? Improvement will be incremental and there will be steps back and forth. But media reports purporting to be hard-headed will more likely be wide-eyed and credulous continuing to leap between euphoria one week and despair the next.
Some of the highlights from Rufus' latest masterpiece on kcchiefs.com:
Look for Edwards and GM Carl Peterson to pull for even more help for the defense next year while turning a smaller share of their attention to the offensive line which, for years now, has been the true engine for the team’s offensive success.
Continuing to neglect the offensive line, not to mention the offense as a whole during the offseason... BRILLIANT strategy Carl, er Bob, errr Rufus
What they’re not doing right now in Kansas City is talking about Super Bowls, but neither should they be shocked, as in, “I didn’t see it coming.” How does anyone at this point know what’s coming week to week?
I guess according to Rufus we should have seen this 45-7 ass-kicking coming. And I guess we shouldn't get too worked-up over arguably the worst regular season beatdown the Chiefs have experienced in probably 20 years, since after all we should have "seen it coming".
Everything looks to be status quo at One Arrowhead Dr
The complete column:
http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2006/10/18/dawes_get_a_grip/
DAWES: Get A Grip
Oct 18, 2006, 9:23:46 AM by Rufus Dawes
The preferred excuse for most journalistic prose – that it is “the first draft of history” – finds its supposed apotheosis in the daily work of writers and columnists who oscillate between euphoria and doom when portraying this year’s Kansas City Chiefs. “Loyalty was a casualty of the Washington Redskins’” loss to the winless Tennessee Titans last Sunday,” wrote a writer for the Washington Post (October 16, 2006); temperament appears to be MIA in Kansas City.
One writer went so far as to compare Sunday’s meltdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers to an apocalyptic event of 1998 in the midst of Marty Schottenheimer’s worst and final season with the Chiefs.
Crown Larry Johnson the new king of NFL running backs capable of registering a 2,000 yard season without even taking a full season of snaps as the starter; just as quickly dismiss him a quarter of the way into the season for not equaling what he did the season before.
Go overboard about a backup quarterback one week, tear him apart the next.
Express that the team has been “full of surprises”; be surprised when it falls on its face. (Associated Press, October 15, 2006)
Applaud Herm Edwards’ game plans two weeks in a row; criticize them the week after.
Call offensive coordinator Mike Solari’s play-calling “masterly” one day (Kansas City Star, October 9, 2006) and the next, well, you get the drift. All are false hypothesis of the true condition as media engage in a breathless chase after the picturesque, leaving behind practicability and common sense. They leap from one side to the other without the slightest incongruity.
Go back through recent annals and you’ll find more than your share of black Chiefs moments including horrible outings in the rain in Oakland (0-24) in 2002, inside the dome at Minnesota (20-45).in 2003 and on a fall afternoon in New England (10-40) in 1998. The difference this time is that this is a team in transition with 23 new faces – a fact head coach Herm Edwards continues to remind us. The ‘98 team, for example, was a veteran unit in its final days and one, upon further inspection, that should have been purged of aging veterans the following year.
Every team is a reflection of the head coach who leads it for better or for worse and this one is no exception. “I just think it’s a mindset,” Edwards said Tuesday of what he’s trying to do in Kansas City, “and you know it takes time to do that. It doesn’t come overnight or come in five weeks.”
However long it takes, it won’t produce two sides of the ball of equal strength. Look for Edwards and GM Carl Peterson to pull for even more help for the defense next year while turning a smaller share of their attention to the offensive line which, for years now, has been the true engine for the team’s offensive success.
Edwards is seeking to replicate what his teachers Marty Schottenheimer and Tony Dungy have done. Schottenheimer did it in Kansas City and San Diego, and Dungy in Tampa Bay and now in Indianapolis where his defense has improved since he took over. It has been done with younger players, not aging veterans, and certainly not free agents. “The Redskins knew they enjoyed a substantial talent, experience and payroll advantage over the Titans, and it went for naught,” observed a writer for the Washington Post (October 16, 2006) last Sunday, highlighting the ‘Skins yearly obsession with unrestricted free agents. By contrast, both San Diego and Pittsburgh are teams built on the draft.
Yes, a team that’s in transition can be “tough, resilient, confident, focused and well-prepared” one day, as one columnist called the Chiefs, and appear “punch drunk” (Kansas City Star, September 18, 2006) a couple of weeks later, as another claimed. (Kansas City Star, October 16, 2006)
“They did stay calm” in Arizona, as one writer observed, (Kansas City Star, October 9, 2006) but “they looked confused,” as another exclaimed a week later facing the defending Super Bowl champs. (Kansas City Star, October 16, 2006)
That’s the way it is with new regimes, new teams, and even some veteran units, and if some media “didn’t see it coming,” as one writer noted, they haven’t been playing close attention to the National Football League this year.
Did you expect that the supposed offensive guru Mike Shanahan would be winning games 13-3 and 9-6?
Would you have believed that “Martyball” is cranking out an offense that leads the league in scoring?
Did you know that there have already been six shutouts this season (there were only seven all last year), nine games with losing deficits of 25 or more points, and that the supposedly hapless New Orleans Saints are 5-1 and the Miami Dolphins, who some pundits put in the Super Bowl, are 1-5?
Is it surprising that Philadelphia is 4-2, but could just have easily been 6-0 losing both games on the final play of the game, or that St. Louis is just a 54-yard-field-goal away from being 5-1?
Even the good teams are losing and in the next few years you could well see a 9-7 team win the Super Bowl. In the meantime, media and fans are standing at the precipice ready to jump up, jump off, or jump down the coach’s throat.
What they’re not doing right now in Kansas City is talking about Super Bowls, but neither should they be shocked, as in, “I didn’t see it coming.” How does anyone at this point know what’s coming week to week? Improvement will be incremental and there will be steps back and forth. But media reports purporting to be hard-headed will more likely be wide-eyed and credulous continuing to leap between euphoria one week and despair the next.