Whitlock: Chiefs should thank anyone who sat through this game

[OnTheWarpath15]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/1629259.html

By JASON WHITLOCK
The Kansas City Star

The “process” has entered the pandering phase.

That’s the only explanation for Chiefs coach Todd Haley opening his postgame news conference with a disingenuous thank you to the 30,000-plus Chiefs fans who filled 80,000-seat Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.

“Before I get started,” Haley said in the aftermath of Kansas City’s 10th loss, a 16-10 snoozer to the Buffalo Bills, “publicly I want to thank the fans. I thought the fans were tremendous for us today.”

Yes, this is the “process” to avoiding a blackout next Sunday.

In the minutes after Kansas City’s $63 million QB launched his fourth interception of the day, misfired on two more open deep balls and was caught by CBS television cameras telling someone — maybe booing Chiefs fans or Haley barking in his headset — to shut the (expletive) up, Haley campaigned for ticket sales.

“I just publicly want to thank the fans for making a lot of noise for us today,” Haley said.

The boos were quite loud. And the silence was deafening at times. I can’t really blame the fans.

Kansas City’s off-the-street receivers — Chris Chambers, Bobby Wade and Lance Long — were as bad as quarterback Matt Cassel, who early in the game overthrew a wide-open Mark Bradley twice.

Chambers dropped a critical pass along the goal line late in the fourth quarter, got flagged for a holding penalty on the same drive and got his hands on a ball that was tipped and intercepted in the fourth quarter.

Compared with Chambers, Wade had an awesome game. His most noteworthy screwup came on the last play of the third quarter when he inexplicably failed to field a punt that eventually traveled 73 yards before being stopped at the KC 7.

As for Long, well, the Bills brutalized “Wes Welker Lite,” smacking him around on several kickoff returns and turning his two receptions into negative-yardage plays.

Oh, and the Chiefs’ defense gave up 200 rushing yards and Haley continued to play a losing game of rock-paper-scissors with fourth-and-short decisions. Do I need to mention that in a close game against the league’s worst rushing defense the Chiefs threw the ball 43 times and ran it 26?

Is it fair to criticize Haley for wanting to feed Cassel? The Sixty Million Dollar Man’s QB rating jumped 21 points from last week to an astronomical 35.4, and Jamaal Charles picked up only 143 yards in 20 carries.

We talking ’bout progress, man. Not da playoffs. We talking ’bout progress.

Progress isn’t happening. Pandering is.

When this nightmare of a game ended, someone told Haley the most important thing to do was thank the limited number of fans who enthusiastically booed when KC’s offense stunk and cheered when Charles was given the opportunity to make plays.

“I thought the fans were tremendous for us today,” Haley said. “I thought they were loud, a disruption for the Bills much of the game.”

Yes, sir, the refs flagged the Bills for three penalties on Sunday —- two holdings and one pass interference. Buffalo clearly lost its composure inside thundering Arrowhead Stadium. You might think a noise-rattled team on the road would jump offsides or blow timeouts, but you don’t understand the “process.”

Or you don’t understand Kansas City’s ticket-selling “process.” It’s founded on gassing up gullible fans with poorly timed, poorly delivered platitudes. Haley sounded like Eddie Haskell.

The most troubling aspect of it all is that it’s an indication that Haley is receiving awful advice. He’s a rookie head coach. He needs solid, mature mentoring and guidance. He’s not getting it. He’s getting just the opposite.

Whoever told him to shill for ticket sales in the moments after that performance should be removed from Haley’s inner circle.

Some of you might think I’m pouncing on something small and insignificant. You’re wrong. The cliche is true: The truth is buried in the details.

Haley is likely receiving a lot of bad advice, not just on the proper tone to set in his postgame remarks. And if he’s receiving good advice, he’s ignoring it or can’t execute it.

This would explain all of the odd fourth-down decisions throughout the year. It would explain the fake punt deep his own territory last week. It would explain his Bobby Knight coaching style early in the season. It would explain a lot.

Haley looks amateur because his front-office support system (Clark Hunt and Scott Pioli) is amateur and he blew up the one assistant coach (Chan Gailey) with the necessary experience and credibility to help him.

So at 3-10 and one home game left on the schedule and a 156-game nonblackout streak on the line, Hunt, Pioli and Haley have been reduced to begging.

Please buy tickets, pay $22 to park and fill up Arrowhead Stadium next Sunday. Even if you boo, wear bags over your head and your children get ill watching the Chiefs play, Todd Haley will thank you for your $upport.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

Which opinion isn't welcome?

The one where money doesn't matter, then magically does matter?

Or the one where TJ Houshmanzedah would have been a stupid signing because of his age, yet signing Bobby Engram, who's 4 years older was perfectly fine?

I never said that $ doesn't matter.

I said that the contracts that we gave to the vets this off-season, are basically a non-issue. They don't matter. In two years they won't be here.
I didn't say, or didn't mean to say that that the Engram signing was a good idea. I simply said, it didn't matter in the big picture.
Signing him, in no way, kept us from signing T.J.

I don't think that signing T.J. would have helped us in the big picture either.
He would be 35, and reaching the part of his contract that hardly ever gets paid to players, and i would hope that by then, we would have had the opportunity to pick up a younger alternative.
I haven't used my words wisely, and have been misunderstood, on a few topics here.

[beach tribe]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Dude, this was your first post in this thread:


That's childish and isn't offering a damn thing to any discussion.

You're absolutely right.
Next time I'll

I just get tired of the huge over-reaction in either direction.

[mcan]

I was at the game, and I can def attest that the fans were pretty awesome after Jamal's run woke them up. The stadium was only slightly less loud than usual on Bill's possessions, and that's with less than half the stadium filled. Everybody was screaming louder and pounding on seats to try and make up the difference. I think that's all Haley was trying to say.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Christofire]

Returning this thread back to Whitlock's column for a moment, Haley demolished the argument that somebody told him to thank the fans today. It was an entertaining exchange.

Originally Posted by beach tribe

You're absolutely right.
Next time I'll

I just get tired of the huge over-reaction in either direction.

Stand up on your part. Way to man up and admit it.

Originally Posted by mcan

I was at the game, and I can def attest that the fans were pretty awesome after Jamal's run woke them up. The stadium was only slightly less loud than usual on Bill's possessions, and that's with less than half the stadium filled. Everybody was screaming louder and pounding on seats to try and make up the difference. I think that's all Haley was trying to say.
Posted via Mobile Device

Heh. I'm 100% convinced the Chiefs also pipe crowd noise in. I've been in that stadium

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by Christofire

Returning this thread back to Whitlock's column for a moment, Haley demolished the argument that somebody told him to thank the fans today. It was an entertaining exchange.

And yet, no link provided for your fellow Planeteers.

[dirk digler]

Originally Posted by InChiefsHell

There is no way signing Housh would have been a bad thing...Jeeez people...

TJ hasn't been playing well at all in Seattle with a much better QB. He has also openly complained about not getting the ball enough. IMO he is in line with the other WR's that played second fiddle to a great WR and went elsewhere and bombed.

On the subject of “diva” wide receivers, Seattle’s T.J. Houshmandzadeh complained last week about not getting the ball enough, which caused some chuckles in Cincinnati. The Bengals source I talked to said the team was happy to say good bye to T.J. and feel his absence has helped clean up the locker room.

[splatbass]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

How many times does it have to be pointed out?

We didn't have to sign Bobby Engram. Could have had Houshmandzadeh.

And by the time we are contenders Houshmandzadeh would be over the hill. No point spending big money on someone that won't be here when we need him. Engram won't either, but we paid little for him.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by splatbass

And by the time we are contenders Houshmandzadeh would be over the hill. No point spending big money on someone that won't be here when we need him. Engram won't either, but we paid little for him.

You know, if Pioli had done his ****ing job correctly, we could have been contending in 2011. We could have built a solid foundation this season and won 6 games, upgraded it next season and won 9 games, and in 2011 - IF HE HAD DONE HIS JOB - we would have been ready to take the next step. Houshmandzadeh would have been 34/35. Wanna guess how old Terrell Owens is? Last season when the Cowboys were considered a "contender" he was 35.

Don't tell me this team couldn't have been competing by Pioli's third season. It's happened before. Pioli is the EXECUTIVE OF ALL-TIME or some shit. He's supposed to make it happen again.

If you don't think Houshmandzadeh could have contributed BIG TIME to helping out a quarterback this season who needed a reliable target, and then providing veteran leadership and a valuable role on offense at 35 years of age when we were ready to contend, I guess that you're opinion. But it certainly makes sense to me.

And money is irrelevant. This team is LOADED with cap space. The franchise needed to do WHATEVER IT TOOK to improve this season and get some positivity going into next year. We could have done that with TJ Houshmandzadeh. Instead we signed Bobby Engram, he's already gone, and next August Dane is going to be telling us all how the Chiefs are going to win four games again.

IT SUCKS.

[Christofire]

Originally Posted by Raised On Riots

And yet, no link provided for your fellow Planeteers.

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2009/12...ference__1214/

The transcribed version has been edited down. If you watch the actual press conference (it's toward the end), you can listen to the whole exchange.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by Christofire

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2009/12...ference__1214/

The transcribed version has been edited down. If you watch the actual press conference (it's toward the end), you can listen to the whole exchange.

It was a nice rebuttal, but I wouldn't say he fed JWhit his lunch, so to speak.

[Christofire]

Originally Posted by Raised On Riots

It was a nice rebuttal, but I wouldn't say he fed JWhit his lunch, so to speak.

Not sure what else he needs to say. He jumped down a guy's throat for insinuating he's told what to say in his press conference.

[Christofire]

It must also be said that he wasn't talking to Whitlock. Somebody else brought it up (didn't recognize the reporter's voice). I doubt Whitlock was in the room.