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

[lostcause]

Any journalist that continues to question Scott Pioli is obviously incompetent... /truefan

[Boris The Great]

Originally Posted by Tribal Warfare

Even though they brought the NE Model they don\'t know how to run it properly. The other way to look at is they are trying to mimic rather than creating their own culture of success.

Neither of those have anything to do with what Whitlock wrote here. He is describing the CIA-like secrecy as something bad. He is saying Pioli wants good little soldiers who wont tattle when he and Haley berate them and demean them.

He certainly isnt saying they should do a better job of operating like NE does, because the Pats operate in the same secretive way that Whitlock is practically declaring evil. And he never comes close to raising the copycat issue.

He cites Parcells and New England as Pioli influences, yet then acts as if Pioli has invented this style of operation all by himself. He calls Pioli the NFL version of Castro. Not Belichick who he learned it from, not Parcells who is running the franchise where a player allegedly got demeaned by the GM, but Pioli. That is dumb by itself. Then he attempts to create reasons for why Pioli operates this way, none of which apply to the influences he would have gotten it from.

And I havent even mentioned the embarrassing part where he tries to link the criminal problems of NFL players to the way teams treat them so horribly, without providing a single example of this terrible mental abuse other than one disputed story about what a team asked a rookie in a pre-draft meeting.

This column is awful is almost every way.

[kcxiv]

lol, has whitless watched a game? he berates them all the time. I dont see what would be different in practice. Its probably worse, but Haley has never EVER hidden his emotions on gameday.

He's just being a dick cause thats his thing. I didnt even freaking read the while thing i stopped after the first paragraph, no idea how this dude still has a job. I understand creating controversy, but this was just playing stupid and worthless.

[lostcause]

I disagree. I like having a columnist covering KC that has a personal vendetta against the management.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by lostcause

I disagree. I like having a columnist covering KC that has a personal vendetta against the management.

how is it personal? did Pioli **** Whitlocks girl? Did Hailey spit in His face?

[kysirsoze]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

how is it personal? did Pioli **** Whitlocks girl? Did Hailey spit in His face?

Probably and Probably.

[BossChief]

He does have a point in one thing, the rookies seemed coached to say certain things. Everyone of them said common things like they are "just trying to make the team"...even Berry. All of them also said they are gonna "do whatever coach Haley wants them to do" Berry even said he would cover kicks.

But geez...quit crying Jason. If you didn't try throwing everyone at 1 arrowhead dr under the bus at every possible opportunity, maybe they would trust you around this young team more. Ever think of that?

There is a huge gap between objective and vindictive and you are the latter.

Good luck!

[kysirsoze]

Originally Posted by BossChief

He does have a point in one thing, the rookies seemed coached to say certain things. Everyone of them said common things like they are "just trying to make the team"...even Berry. All of them also said they are gonna "do whatever coach Haley wants them to do" Berry even said he would cover kicks.

But geez...quit crying Jason. If you didn't try throwing everyone at 1 arrowhead dr under the bus at every possible opportunity, maybe they would trust you around this young team more. Ever think of that?

There is a huge gap between objective and vindictive and you are the latter.

Good luck!

They were most likely coached by their agents.

[BossChief]

no, not unless they all had the same agent.

They all basically said the same uniform statement.

They are on KCChiefs.com go watch em.

I am REALLY starting to love the DMC pick everytime I see this kid. I think he is gonna be a really special player.

[ChiefGator]

They are coached, sure. They are being coached to be better football players, and are being told those lines by the coaches over and over. Of course they would repeat them to the media. And this is the first time they are behind the podium as professional football players. Maybe a little coaching there isn't a bad thing either. Professional media is much different than collegiate media.

[BossChief]

The coaching staff most definitely "set the tone" with these guys in more ways than one.

[threebag]

How embarassing it must be to write an article like that. If he is going to "take up the cause" I wish he would go write about a different organization. I would rather read something from the bleacher report than this crap.

[rocks]

Total crap! How does this guy keep his job? How many crappy articles has he put on paper in the last 10+ years? I wish the Chiefs organization would tell him to get lost!

[KCUnited]

Last week Wright on 610 was accusing 810 of striking a new access deal with the Chiefs and in turn they became the official Chiefs ballwashing media arm. Apparently 810 gets access to players, coaches, and Pioli in exchange for towing the company line for them and 610 doesn't get shit.

Seems to be a theme here.

[Sully]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

how is it personal? did Pioli **** Whitlocks girl? Did Hailey spit in His face?

It seems personal because now he's treatedlike every other journalist in town. He's not being asked into the film room to view tape on prospects, he's not being given inside info, and he's not being coddled.

He also desperately needs to have an opponent. He had one in Carl, and Carl played the game with him. This regime isn't interested in that game, and it is boring Whitlock to death. This is why we keep seeing virtually the same column over and over for the past year.