Tribal Warfare
10-02-2011, 02:38 AM
Chiefs look to past for inspiration to end losing streak (http://www.kansascity.com/2011/10/01/3179214/chiefs-look-to-past-for-inspiration.html)
By KENT BABB
The Kansas City Star
They sit at their lockers and talk about times when they have been proven wrong. The Chiefs are 0-3, and they know that the odds of this season being a success grow longer with each loss.
Still, they’re hopeful. Defensive end Wallace Gilberry, who has emerged as one of the Chiefs’ best pass rushers, lowers his wrists, showing tattooed letters on his biceps. “AGAINST” is embedded vertically on the right arm, and “ALL ODDS” is tattooed on the left.
Offensive tackle Barry Richardson talks about a game when he was at Clemson, when Wake Forest held a 17-3 lead in the fourth quarter. Then something changed, and before he knew it, Richardson was celebrating a 27-17 victory.
“All you need is a spark,” Richardson says.
After three losses, the Chiefs will play another winless team today, the Minnesota Vikings, and one franchise will reach a milestone no one wants to hit: an 0-4 start, almost certainly a death sentence for any team’s playoff hopes.
Players don’t like talking about this possibility, and when it is brought up, they change the subject. Three teams in NFL history have started 0-3 and still reached the playoffs. One of those, the 1992 San Diego Chargers, fell to 0-4 before an 11-1 finish pushed them into the playoffs. That team is the only one since 1990 to reach the postseason after losing its first four games.
The men on that team say that hope is real, and determination is enough to turn a sour start. They say the Chiefs are doing what they should be doing: believing. They say that if they saved a dying season, any team can.
“It’s been done,” says Billy Ray Smith, a linebacker on that Chargers team.
• • •
The fourth loss came and went, a 27-0 beating at Houston, and players had enough. Some of the Chargers’ leaders called a players-only meeting and made a decision.
The Chargers were 4-12 in 1991, their fourth consecutive losing season. Coach Bobby Ross had won a national championship at Georgia Tech, and he was hired in 1992 to turn San Diego’s fate. Only fate slapped Ross’ team early in that first season, when its starting quarterback, John Friesz, suffered a season-ending knee injury during the first preseason game. Stan Humphries was Washington’s fourth quarterback, so Ross made a call. Humphries was headed to San Diego.
Still, the losses kept coming. The Chiefs smacked the Chargers 24-10 in the regular-season opener, and they were outscored 88-29 in their first three games. It felt to players as if nothing had changed.
“The Chargers were losers,” says Harry Swayne, the team’s left tackle. “Not just in record but just as a whole attitude surrounding the team. …
“They were the doormat of the AFC West.”
The weeks passed, and Ross says now that he remained positive. Instead of rubbing players’ noses in regrettable plays, he instead pieced together 20 or so of the most encouraging film clips from the previous game and showed them repeatedly. He told players to avoid reading or listening to criticism, even when it felt unavoidable. During a Chargers fan rally a few days before a game, the host introduced Ross as director of the Laurel and Hardy Show, referring to the bumbling comedy team.
“I mean, it was bad,” Ross says now. “I just didn’t say a thing to him.”
In the days before the Chargers’ fifth game, at home against Seattle, Ross maintained his routine. Players left their meeting feeling as though their attitudes had been lifted, believing that the futures of proud and capable men can be decided by no one else.
“We’re not going back,” kick returner Eric Bieniemy remembers someone saying, “to what we did last year.”
• • •
It didn’t take long. Early on a cool October day, Humphries found wide receiver Anthony Miller for a 67-yard touchdown pass, and after John Carney’s field goal, the Chargers held a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.
The mood felt lighter. A victory was within reach.
“We knew we had something special,” Bieniemy says.
As the seconds clicked away in the fourth quarter, Swayne says there was a feeling of relief. Smith says he remembers experiencing pride. Ross remembers thinking that this was the way it was supposed to have gone all along.
“It wasn’t anything profound,” he says now. “We just tried to stay real positive.”
When it was finished, a 17-6 victory, the Chargers ran into the locker room. There was a celebration, and Ross was handed a game ball. A photographer snapped a picture of Ross lifting that ball, and nearly two decades later, an 8-by-10 copy of that photograph hangs on a wall of Ross’ home office in Virginia. It’s surrounded by mementoes from his national championship at Georgia Tech, the Chargers’ run to the Super Bowl in 1994, and reminders of a career that spanned five decades.
That win against the Seahawks, he says, was as significant as anything he ever did.
“It meant something,” he says.
The Chargers won their next three, and after a 16-14 loss to the Chiefs, San Diego didn’t lose again until the second round of the AFC playoffs. After an 0-4 start, Ross’ team finished 11-5, winning the AFC West and defeating the Chiefs 17-0 in their playoff opener.
The Chargers didn’t have another losing season for five years, and in 1994, they won the AFC championship. Swayne says that win against Seattle helped turn the direction of the franchise. That, he says, is why Ross considers the victory significant.
“He had already done the hardest job: Getting us to believe,” Swayne says, “that we weren’t losers anymore.”
• • •
Todd Haley tells his players stories not unlike that one. His favorite, though, is the one about the 1989 Pittsburgh Steelers. Haley was attending college in Jacksonville, Fla., and he’d watch his hometown Steelers at a sports bar near the Intracoastal Waterway. Pittsburgh started 0-2, outscored 92-10 by Cleveland and Cincinnati.
“Crunched as bad as you can get crunched,” he says now. “… They could’ve, at any time, packed it in.”
The point he makes to his players is that the Steelers didn’t give up that season; Pittsburgh finished 9-7 and reached the second round of the playoffs. Haley showed his team a highlight tape of that 1989 team, reinforcing its message with another: that a turnaround is possible from ditches that seem inescapable.
After three losses this season, Haley has begun trying many of the same tactics used 19 years ago by Ross. His staff has maintained its message, avoiding signs of panic, and encouraged players to avoid listening to outside criticism. Ross might have been associated with the Laurel and Hardy duo, but the Chiefs have been the punch line to jokes two weeks in a row by Jay Leno.
So the Chiefs distributed shirts to players this week, and on the back, the message is in dark, block letters: “‘We’ Don’t Hear The Hate.”
“I believe in these guys. I really do,” Haley says. “I keep feeling like it’s going to be OK — as long as we do the little things right.”
Sure, there’s a feeling of disappointment at the team’s headquarters. But there’s a feeling of hope, too.
Gilberry says he’s proof that unexpected good can come out of short-term disappointment. He was a rookie free agent in 2008, then he was cut by the Giants before the Chiefs signed him. Now, he’s one of this year’s surprises, an encouraging example for a franchise that’s trying to do what that 1992 Chargers did: shed years of disappointment and leave the losing seasons behind.
“Once you stop believing and stop having faith,” Gilberry says, “you’re doomed. As long as you’ve got that structure and know that good things are in the making, these strange clouds are clear up sooner or later. You just keep pushing and believing and having faith.”
He nods his head.
“It’s going to happen,” he says.
Three turnarounds
The Chiefs are trying to become the fourth team since 1990 to start 0-3 or worse and make the playoffs.
<table class="story-table" border="0"><tbody><tr class="story-table-even-row"><td>Year</td><td>Team</td><td align="center">Start</td><td align="center">Finish</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-odd-row"><td>1992</td><td>Chargers</td><td align="center">0-4</td><td align="center">11-5</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-even-row"><td>1995</td><td>Lions</td><td align="center">0-3</td><td align="center">10-6</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-odd-row"><td>1998</td><td>Bills</td><td align="center">0-3</td><td align="center">10-6</td></tr></tbody></table>
By KENT BABB
The Kansas City Star
They sit at their lockers and talk about times when they have been proven wrong. The Chiefs are 0-3, and they know that the odds of this season being a success grow longer with each loss.
Still, they’re hopeful. Defensive end Wallace Gilberry, who has emerged as one of the Chiefs’ best pass rushers, lowers his wrists, showing tattooed letters on his biceps. “AGAINST” is embedded vertically on the right arm, and “ALL ODDS” is tattooed on the left.
Offensive tackle Barry Richardson talks about a game when he was at Clemson, when Wake Forest held a 17-3 lead in the fourth quarter. Then something changed, and before he knew it, Richardson was celebrating a 27-17 victory.
“All you need is a spark,” Richardson says.
After three losses, the Chiefs will play another winless team today, the Minnesota Vikings, and one franchise will reach a milestone no one wants to hit: an 0-4 start, almost certainly a death sentence for any team’s playoff hopes.
Players don’t like talking about this possibility, and when it is brought up, they change the subject. Three teams in NFL history have started 0-3 and still reached the playoffs. One of those, the 1992 San Diego Chargers, fell to 0-4 before an 11-1 finish pushed them into the playoffs. That team is the only one since 1990 to reach the postseason after losing its first four games.
The men on that team say that hope is real, and determination is enough to turn a sour start. They say the Chiefs are doing what they should be doing: believing. They say that if they saved a dying season, any team can.
“It’s been done,” says Billy Ray Smith, a linebacker on that Chargers team.
• • •
The fourth loss came and went, a 27-0 beating at Houston, and players had enough. Some of the Chargers’ leaders called a players-only meeting and made a decision.
The Chargers were 4-12 in 1991, their fourth consecutive losing season. Coach Bobby Ross had won a national championship at Georgia Tech, and he was hired in 1992 to turn San Diego’s fate. Only fate slapped Ross’ team early in that first season, when its starting quarterback, John Friesz, suffered a season-ending knee injury during the first preseason game. Stan Humphries was Washington’s fourth quarterback, so Ross made a call. Humphries was headed to San Diego.
Still, the losses kept coming. The Chiefs smacked the Chargers 24-10 in the regular-season opener, and they were outscored 88-29 in their first three games. It felt to players as if nothing had changed.
“The Chargers were losers,” says Harry Swayne, the team’s left tackle. “Not just in record but just as a whole attitude surrounding the team. …
“They were the doormat of the AFC West.”
The weeks passed, and Ross says now that he remained positive. Instead of rubbing players’ noses in regrettable plays, he instead pieced together 20 or so of the most encouraging film clips from the previous game and showed them repeatedly. He told players to avoid reading or listening to criticism, even when it felt unavoidable. During a Chargers fan rally a few days before a game, the host introduced Ross as director of the Laurel and Hardy Show, referring to the bumbling comedy team.
“I mean, it was bad,” Ross says now. “I just didn’t say a thing to him.”
In the days before the Chargers’ fifth game, at home against Seattle, Ross maintained his routine. Players left their meeting feeling as though their attitudes had been lifted, believing that the futures of proud and capable men can be decided by no one else.
“We’re not going back,” kick returner Eric Bieniemy remembers someone saying, “to what we did last year.”
• • •
It didn’t take long. Early on a cool October day, Humphries found wide receiver Anthony Miller for a 67-yard touchdown pass, and after John Carney’s field goal, the Chargers held a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.
The mood felt lighter. A victory was within reach.
“We knew we had something special,” Bieniemy says.
As the seconds clicked away in the fourth quarter, Swayne says there was a feeling of relief. Smith says he remembers experiencing pride. Ross remembers thinking that this was the way it was supposed to have gone all along.
“It wasn’t anything profound,” he says now. “We just tried to stay real positive.”
When it was finished, a 17-6 victory, the Chargers ran into the locker room. There was a celebration, and Ross was handed a game ball. A photographer snapped a picture of Ross lifting that ball, and nearly two decades later, an 8-by-10 copy of that photograph hangs on a wall of Ross’ home office in Virginia. It’s surrounded by mementoes from his national championship at Georgia Tech, the Chargers’ run to the Super Bowl in 1994, and reminders of a career that spanned five decades.
That win against the Seahawks, he says, was as significant as anything he ever did.
“It meant something,” he says.
The Chargers won their next three, and after a 16-14 loss to the Chiefs, San Diego didn’t lose again until the second round of the AFC playoffs. After an 0-4 start, Ross’ team finished 11-5, winning the AFC West and defeating the Chiefs 17-0 in their playoff opener.
The Chargers didn’t have another losing season for five years, and in 1994, they won the AFC championship. Swayne says that win against Seattle helped turn the direction of the franchise. That, he says, is why Ross considers the victory significant.
“He had already done the hardest job: Getting us to believe,” Swayne says, “that we weren’t losers anymore.”
• • •
Todd Haley tells his players stories not unlike that one. His favorite, though, is the one about the 1989 Pittsburgh Steelers. Haley was attending college in Jacksonville, Fla., and he’d watch his hometown Steelers at a sports bar near the Intracoastal Waterway. Pittsburgh started 0-2, outscored 92-10 by Cleveland and Cincinnati.
“Crunched as bad as you can get crunched,” he says now. “… They could’ve, at any time, packed it in.”
The point he makes to his players is that the Steelers didn’t give up that season; Pittsburgh finished 9-7 and reached the second round of the playoffs. Haley showed his team a highlight tape of that 1989 team, reinforcing its message with another: that a turnaround is possible from ditches that seem inescapable.
After three losses this season, Haley has begun trying many of the same tactics used 19 years ago by Ross. His staff has maintained its message, avoiding signs of panic, and encouraged players to avoid listening to outside criticism. Ross might have been associated with the Laurel and Hardy duo, but the Chiefs have been the punch line to jokes two weeks in a row by Jay Leno.
So the Chiefs distributed shirts to players this week, and on the back, the message is in dark, block letters: “‘We’ Don’t Hear The Hate.”
“I believe in these guys. I really do,” Haley says. “I keep feeling like it’s going to be OK — as long as we do the little things right.”
Sure, there’s a feeling of disappointment at the team’s headquarters. But there’s a feeling of hope, too.
Gilberry says he’s proof that unexpected good can come out of short-term disappointment. He was a rookie free agent in 2008, then he was cut by the Giants before the Chiefs signed him. Now, he’s one of this year’s surprises, an encouraging example for a franchise that’s trying to do what that 1992 Chargers did: shed years of disappointment and leave the losing seasons behind.
“Once you stop believing and stop having faith,” Gilberry says, “you’re doomed. As long as you’ve got that structure and know that good things are in the making, these strange clouds are clear up sooner or later. You just keep pushing and believing and having faith.”
He nods his head.
“It’s going to happen,” he says.
Three turnarounds
The Chiefs are trying to become the fourth team since 1990 to start 0-3 or worse and make the playoffs.
<table class="story-table" border="0"><tbody><tr class="story-table-even-row"><td>Year</td><td>Team</td><td align="center">Start</td><td align="center">Finish</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-odd-row"><td>1992</td><td>Chargers</td><td align="center">0-4</td><td align="center">11-5</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-even-row"><td>1995</td><td>Lions</td><td align="center">0-3</td><td align="center">10-6</td></tr> <tr class="story-table-odd-row"><td>1998</td><td>Bills</td><td align="center">0-3</td><td align="center">10-6</td></tr></tbody></table>