Mellinger:Amnesia alone won’t help Chiefs
 

Amnesia alone won’t help Chiefs
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
Eric Berry is a thoughtful man, conscientious about both football and life, but at the moment he might as well be closing his eyes and covering his ears and yelling NA-NA-NA-I’M-NOT-LISTENING-NA-NA-NA!!!

Go ahead, try the Chiefs’ star safety. A reporter did this the other day at training camp. Asked a question which included the words “last year” and, well, those are the last words of the question.

“We ain’t talking about last year,” Berry interrupts.

The reporter tries to clarify.

“Yeah, I’m not talking about last year,” Berry interrupts again. “We’re excited about this year, where we’re going and the direction we’re headed, so I don’t want to compare the two.”

A second reporter jumps in for the save. Tells Berry the question is about his surgically repaired knee a year ago, and whether it feels stronger now — not about what turned out to be his embarrassingly bad team a year ago.

“Oh,” Berry says. “It’s a total difference.”

There are as many ways of moving on as there are things we want to move on from. And as far as things worth moving on from, the 2012 Chiefs are toward the top of the list, even above skinny jeans, the word “swag” and Justin Bieber.

For Kansas City, last year’s Chiefs are like that gas station sushi you tried a few years back. You regretted it immediately and wanted desperately to forget about it, except that it made you intensely sick.

So we can all understand what the Chiefs are doing here — can all see the motivation in what is obviously an organization directive to pretend that last year never happened. Who wants to talk about their worst moment? How often does your friend from college bring up the night he slept in the yard?

“For me, as well as everyone else, last year is last year,” Dexter McCluster says. “It’s in the past. Don’t want to think about it.”

This is, very clearly, a talking point for the 2013 Chiefs. As far as they’re concerned, there was a break in the time continuum, basically. The 2-14 record, the league’s worst offense, the angry letters to Clark Hunt, the banners flying over Arrowhead Stadium on game days, Jovan Belcher’s unthinkable murder-suicide. None of it ever happened, if you believe the company talking points.

Berry and McCluster won’t ever forget the misery, no matter what they say, but for a lot of their teammates last year actually didn’t happen.

The Chiefs have a new head coach, a new quarterback, a new general manager, new coordinators, new cornerbacks, new linemen, new receivers, new perspective. Fifty-five of the 90 players in camp weren’t part of the 2012 disaster. That’s one of the highest turnover rates in the league.

This is a good thing, for purposes of both football and otherwise. The team clearly stunk, and the stink was bad enough to require evacuation for many and fumigation for the rest.

The Chiefs have good players. Too good to go 2-14, anyway. They all understand this, and have apparently decided that not talking about last year is part of the best plan to make sure last year doesn’t happen again.

That’s fine. Their choice. These are just words.

But aside from quarterback Alex Smith, an overwhelming majority of the Chiefs’ most important players have vivid, personal memories of last year’s misery — the one that anyone who would answer calls the worst year of their professional lives.

The difference between the 2012 Chiefs and this year’s version isn’t limited to the names on the back of the jerseys.

Besides the new players and coaches there is also a new pace. Quicker. Constant. No sitting. We are still in the embryonic stage of training camp, and the Chiefs have already installed completely new playbooks and schemes on both offense and defense.

In that way, what coach Andy Reid and general manager John Dorsey are attempting isn’t just a rehab — it’s more like a complete tear-down and buildup, all in the time it takes for the Men In Black guys to use those awesome memory erasers.

There is no way to know whether this will work until the games start, of course. Today marks the first day of pads, and there aren’t many things football men put less stock into than what players look like in shorts.

What we can do, for now, is judge how the Chiefs made it from the end of last year’s shame to the beginning of this year’s hope. Chairman Clark Hunt made it clear that the failure of 2012 was unacceptable, and moved quickly.

Fired Romeo Crennel, hired Reid. Fired Scott Pioli, hired Dorsey. Together, they fired Matt Cassel and traded for Smith. There is too much talent on defense for last year’s 13 takeaways to be acceptable, so Reid brought in former Jets assistant Bob Sutton to attack. If the company line in training camp is for guys to pretend last year didn’t happen, it comes after an offseason with the men in charge changing everything but the uniforms.

The recent history of teams coming off 2-14 seasons is short on major success stories. Last year’s Colts are the only ones in the last decade to make the playoffs or have a winning record. All together, the 10 teams averaged 5.7 wins.

The Chiefs have enough talent, and have made enough changes to believe this will be a much better season. Competitive, at least. Their first preseason game is in less than two weeks. Their first real game is four weeks after that. So the Chiefs can keep on pretending last year didn’t happen.

Soon enough, we’ll know whether this is just PR spin. Because what’s important isn’t if they can fool themselves into believing last year happened.

It’s whether doing so helps many who were key players in that awfulness avoid a sequel.

Water is Wet. Women have secrets.

Competitive, at least.

Mildly competent.

Exciting stuff fellas.

That kinda sucked.

I refuse to read anything that has "NA-NA-NA-I’M-NOT-LISTENING-NA-NA-NA!!!" in the first sentence.

I ready for us to start sucking so everyone can stop saying this season will be different.

I'm getting to the point that I'd much rather read bloggers than the KC Star guys. Bloggers write for shit, but at least they generally focus on substance.

3rd and 4th in the West... Raiders and Cheaps.... Can't decide which will be which yet..

Broncos
Chiefs
Chargers
Raiders

Please be sure to not share it with us when you decide.

You are ****ing dreaming...

You considering predicting the Raiders coming in at 3rd is dreaming. LMAO

jeesh -- you folks are missing out -- fans of other teams are getting totally detailed interviews from every other team in the league.

sorry. I think it's because you are pathetic.

No big deal but I bet the Raiders do beat out the Chiefs this year for 3rd with a record of 6-10

Mellinger is usually pretty reliable.

I think he lost people with a bad opening paragraph. The rest of it wasn't bad.

The Raiders are the most incomplete team in the league. Good luck with that.

I'm guessing Jamaal Charles is the only one who doesn't want to forget about last year.

Per the media ... Raiders will be better this year than last year so will the Chiefs... 4-12 instead of 2-14

Yeah, I feel sorry for him too. His incredible comeback from his ACL tear was overlooked because of AP's all-time MVP comeback.

Explain to me how the Raiders have any chance of not coming 4th. I'd legitimately like to hear this. The Chiefs may not be amazing, but they have many more pieces (on both O and D) than the Raiders have, aswell as a better coaching staff.

Depends on what you're into I guess. The entire article basically says "The Chiefs don't want to think about a shitty season, but that's not good enough to win games."

How enlightening.

The Raiders are a better team ... The Chiefs are not.. I think the Chiefs win 4 this year, Raiders win atleast 6

I mean comparing shit to shit is pretty stupid but who is your QB?

Simply saying it does not make it true. What pieces do the Raiders have to build on?

Thats the ? mark ... I think it will be Flynn

I think the Chiefs have lacked a QB for many years and that is why they have had no more success than they have had... I don't think Smith is the answer, I think he is Matt Cassell 2.0

So there's your answer. We win 6-7, you guys win 3-5. But really, who gives a ****?

I think the Chiefs will DOUBLE their win total from last year

I don't think he is the answer either, but I do believe he is better than Cassel. The two main problems last year were QB and coaching staff. Both have been addressed. Now I'm not saying Smith is the answer, but he's more of an answer than the Raiders have. And well, the coaching situation speaks for itself.

Yeah, we know.

I think if the core players on this team now ever see success as in a playoff win they are going to be so ecstatic...We have sucked for so long...Damn I'm ready for some more good. I can't believe it's been 20 years since I was rolling around screaming with my son on the living room floor as we beat Houston in our last playoff win! :(

Maybe the next time it can be Raiders vs Chiefs for a shot to go to the SB

Oh man that would be crazy.

I liked this insofar that both he and Teicher are going back to conservative realism, instead of puffing up every single decent sign they see or are told to see.

You gotta admit, the homerism quotient from the Star has seen a dramatic decrease lately.

i bet Mellinger sucks his own cock.

Mellinger has lost his edge, and is now pure ****ing garbage. Horrible read.

I just went through the Raiders and Chiefs rosters and there's not one position I'd rather have a Raiders player except for the center.

The Raiders are the worst team in the NFL. Bar none. Hands down.

mhmm

Every Chiefs fan in existence tried to forget the 2012 season DURING the 2012 season through as much alcohol consumption as possible.

Going forward with the talent we do have though, the best course of action is to probably just pretend last year's abortion never occurred.

What a train wreck.

It's the Chiefs fans who need memory loss.

LMAO

The Raiders are easily the least talented team in the NFL.

By far...

R8ers, save the good smack-talk for the season.


Of course, I see you have several bites already........

I agree with what you're saying though. I don't think the star reporters have any special football insight to offer. They just have access, so the quotes are what their stories are about.

Have you seen our QB?!


The sky is the limit, so I think he will triple the wins.

I wouldn't mind having Bowe ... But when healthy I would rather have Mcfadden over Charles but Charles is no slouch by any means...

I would rather have the Raiders QB's (even if unproven) than being force fed Alex Smith without a chance of a QB competition.

Raiders are gonna fool alot of people this year with the youngsters, then they have 70 million in cap room to work with next year..

Everything surrounds the QB this year for the Raiders , If Flynn with his limited game experience but vast backup experience can lead this team... up to 8 wins are possible.. If Flynn fails and the rookie has to lead this team it will be 4 or 5 wins this year.

The Raiders defense will be better and the offense will be too, especially in the running game... Jacoby Ford is healthy again at WR along with Denarius Moore and Streater... But I just don't know how they are going to perform with Flynn right now...

The 2012 Media said the Chiefs were SB bound last year and won 2 games...
The 2013 Media says the Raiders are the worst team in the NFL this year...

We shall see... I bet not

The Faid are ****ing trash this year. It is what it is.

Two-game sweep forthcoming.

The Stars Football reporters have sucked for quite awhile. IMHO the best writer they had bailed after a short stint. It was several years ago and I can't even remember his name. I think his first name was Ivan. Anyway he had the best football knowledge out of all of them. I wonder what happened to him?

McFadden over Charles? Smdh
Posted via Mobile Device

In his defense, when healthy, McFadden is a beast.

The problem is that he's rarely healthy.

Give me JC every time.

I agree he's a beast when healthy, still think Charles is better.
Posted via Mobile Device

McFadden does not get tackled by mascots:thumb:

I think Charles is a great back but I prefer someone with finesse and power to plow over someone...

I prefer someone who can get on the field.

This.

Raiders will be third. Chargers will be dead last and win the Clowney sweepstakes. Clowney spends his career tormenting the Faid.

Charles didn't either...

And he had shown he can run people over too.


And he has come right back in after hurting his shoulder, an injury that would finish dmc for the year
Posted via Mobile Device

DMC has been out alot but if I recall Charles was out for a whole year too... Anybody actually have the stats on games played Charles vs DMC?

Charles runs like a girl... He is fast as hell but he won't lower his shoulder pads and knock someone on their ass

Raiders may not win a game this year but congrats of them for getting the first pick of the year when there might be some talent.

You are full of shit on this one buddy. he has been much more physical since getting the shoulder fixed.

He was running fools over last year
Posted via Mobile Device

Charles tore his acl and he has missed 15 games in his career.

McFadden has never played more than thirteen games in a season. Hurt. Every. Year.
Posted via Mobile Device

All but one game missed for Charles was over the acl
Posted via Mobile Device

Charles played 65 and McFadden 57

Both missed much of the 2011 campaign with Charles playing 2 games and McFadden 7, Other than that season Charles only missed one other game in 2009. McFadden only played 13 games twice once in 08 and again in 2010. The other 2 seasons he played in 12 games

Charles Stats 784 Att for 4536 yds Averaging 5.8 YPC with 17 TD's

McFadden Stats 769 Att for 3334 Yds Averaging 4.3 YPC with 18 TD's

/thread.

Mcfadden is a girl. That's why he tears a pussy muscle every other game.

That is a legit stat but throw out last year and that abortion zone blocking shit we ran... Not an excuse and stats are stats but.....

Dude has only hit a grand once in his career...
Posted via Mobile Device

Thank God last year never happened must have been a dream a very bad dream.

If he waits for the season he won't have any good smack.

More like night terrors.

lol at McFadden being better than Charles

I cant decide what my favorite McFadden play last year was

The one where he sat injured on the bench
Or the one where he sat injured in the trainer's room

Ha that isn't going matter any more in the Roger League. No more putting the head down and delivering a blow. Charles is better equip than most running backs for his style of running. @5.8 ypc he can run like a girl all he wants.

If money can buy silence, I'd say Clark got close.

JC's ypc is the most in NFL history up to this point at 5.8. He's the second best back in the league behind AP. Only a Raider fan would prefer McVagina over JC. Go home, you're drunk.

It's also laughable that you'd rather have Matt ****ing Flynn over Alex Smith. The Chiefs QB situation is 10 fold better than the Raiders.

If we are being force fed Alex Smith, aren't you being force fed Matt Flynn?

No one in their right mind would also rather a broken DMC over Jamaal Charles.

If Matt Flynn is shit he won't be our QB but if Alex Smith is shit he will start for the Cheaps

Anytime you make an argument that you would take McFadden over Charles, you in a sense have no argument. That is just silly talk/trolling.