Whitlock says Motherfuckyou Pioli!

[T-post Tom]

The moral of this story? Never get between Jason and a bathroom.


Repression not good for Chiefs’ players
By JASON WHITLOCK
The Kansas City Star

Saturday afternoon, late in the Chiefs’ second minicamp practice of the day, offensive coordinator Charlie Weis screamed at one of his rookies.

I honestly have no recollection of what Weis barked. It was typical coach-speak, nothing revealing or remotely embarrassing. The kid botched an assignment, and Weis warned him to avoid another mistake.

The exchange was so mundane and inconsequential that when a member of the Chiefs’ media-relations staff instructed me and several other reporters that Weis’ comments were off the record and not to be publicized I had trouble remembering that Weis had said anything I could overhear.

But this is the era we live in now. Paranoia rules Kansas City’s professional football franchise. You’ve read my previous complaints about the air of CIA-like secrecy that general manager Scott Pioli brought with him from New England.

The air is growing thicker. And if we take a look at the Dez Bryant-Jeff Ireland controversy engulfing the Dolphins organization, we might find it offers a bit of context as to what is transpiring here.

Ireland is the general manager of the Dolphins. He is Bill Parcells’ top lieutenant. Parcells, of course, is Pioli’s father-in-law and Todd Haley’s coaching mentor. Ireland was in the news last week because it was revealed that in a predraft interview he insulted Dez Bryant by asking the rookie receiver if his mother was a prostitute.

Bryant confided to longtime NFL reporter Michael Silver that Ireland popped the indefensible question.

This is why some NFL executives and coaches despise the media. We, the media, are flawed and make mistakes that we’re sometimes reluctant to admit, but we have proven over the course of American history to be a reliable shoulder to cry on when a human being has been abused by someone or an institution with too much power.

Football executives have too much power. In the name of winning games and maintaining power, some of these men have created work environments devoid of human decency and respect.

Should we be surprised that NFL players seem to have more trouble staying within the laws of society than baseball, basketball and hockey players?

Of all the professional sports leagues, individual NFL teams have the most repressive policies regarding media access to their players.

The rules at Arrowhead remind me of visiting a federal penitentiary. Reporters are locked in a small room and have to bang on a door and ask permission to be given access to the bathroom. Saturday, rather than open up the locker room to the media, the rookies were brought to a podium one by one and allowed to interact with reporters for six to seven minutes while supervised by the media-relations staff. You could tell the players had been prepped to say as little as possible.

The rookies are no different from the veterans. They’re scared of being fined or released for saying anything that might be construed as inappropriate by Pioli. Warden Pioli’s no-snitch policy is as strictly enforced as a gang leader’s.

What is he hiding?

A lack of genuine leadership skills. Fear, intimidation and secrecy are his top leadership tools. Those tactics should support cutting-edge vision and strategy. I don’t see the vision or strategy. And I’m not backing off my earlier columns crediting the Chiefs with a productive offseason. I like the additions of Weis, Romeo Crennell, Ryan Lilja, Thomas Jones and Eric Berry.

But the obvious insecurity bubbling from the general manager’s chair could continue to undermine whatever progress the organization makes.

Let’s take a second look at the draft. I tip my hat to Pioli for acquiring high-character prospects. Upon additional review, however, it’s appropriate to wonder did the Chiefs sacrifice talent and roster needs to get kids willing to blindly submit to Pioli and Haley’s bully-leadership tactics.

Maybe the Chiefs’ draft picks wouldn’t care if Pioli asked whether their mothers were prostitutes. Or maybe they’d have the good sense not to expose Pioli for the transgression.

I don’t care how much money these young players make, they’re still mostly immature kids. A healthy percentage of them are not emotionally equipped to deal with the mental abuse heaped on them by 40- and 50-year-old egomaniacs drunk on power.

The level of secrecy being demanded at Arrowhead Stadium makes me suspect that Pioli is the NFL’s Fidel Castro.



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/01...#ixzz0mkiS1y9z