As many of you know, there are two things I like to remind readers of….
That I voted for Obama twice and I’m really not much of a sports fan these days. So go ahead, call me a fair weather sports fan.
Speaking of which…
With the Chiefs taking names and kicking butts, even I had to break down Sunday and watch most of the game. Too bad I was like 20 minutes late because I tuned in just in time to miss their second touchdown of the first quarter.
Just as I’d been a “Republican” growing up, I’d been a pretty fair Chiefs fan with 50 yard line seats from the time the team arrived in KC at the old Municipal Stadium until 9 or 10 years ago when former big Chief Carl Peterson began extorting money from season ticket holders on his way out the door.
But enough about me…
The crying shame about this year’s Chiefs team? That long-suffering fan Craig Glazer is pushing up daisies and isn’t around to literally explode with enthusiasm and declare the team Super Bowl bound.
That is until the Chiefs’ defense costs them two or three games in a row at which point he’d likely call out the team as DOA until next season and switch to singing the praises of KU basketball coach Bill Self.
Oh yeah, and ripping KU football while damning MU and K-State’s teams with faint praise.
Sound familiar?
Speaking of which, I’m going to inch out on a limb here and take a few swipes at KU and K-State based onmy limited reporting and keen sense of impending doom.
Talking to an ardent KU fan this morning about the future of football coach David Beaty and whether his twin wins behind explosive running back Pooka Williams might be enough to buy Beaty another year,,,
No way, is the word.
The lopsided loss to Baylor – a team many picked KU to beat – was probably the final nail in Beaty’s coffin.
Look for Beaty to be shown the door during KU’s bye week October 13.
Or as Lawrence Journal World sportswriter Tom Keegan put it, “Even if the feel-good vibes born of a two-game winning streak against non conference foes didn’t completely disappear, they were pushed beneath the surface by a question that ruled the day: Has Kansas improved enough for it to translate into better results against Big 12 competition? In this season’s Big 12 opener, the answer was no. At halftime, the answer was hell no!”
As for beloved K-State coach Bill Snyder, seems to me his age is catching up to him.
Snyder turns 79 on October 7th and has at least two things working against him.
Both of which would appear to make for iffy future recruiting.
First, incoming players have to wonder how long Snyder’s age and health will hold up as they look three, four years into their college football futures. Second, can a dude pushing 80 really relate to the young thugs of college football today?
Not to mention somewhat obviously that K-State is having its worst year in my recent memory, and things are not looking promising for the rest of the Big 12 season.
Or as USA Today said earlier this year, “Snyder looks frail – he was noticeably thinner after the cancer treatments, and in the last couple of years he appears to have aged a decade. But the Wildcats went 8-5 last season with a young team. The nucleus returns, and Snyder has used staff attrition to reshape with younger coordinators. And while opposing coaches have brought up his age with recruits for years, he just shrugs.”
And just imagine what would happen if KU sauntered (limped?) into Mad Town on November 10th and beat the Mildcats at home.
Stay tuned…
Very dispassionate proffer yours, HC… Kerouac agrees. Here my always subtle takes:
Kansas State: Snyder has become the George Halas of K-State: venerable, beloved and past his prime. Whether Snyder (79) does as Halas (who was 73) did back in 1968 and severs/retires himself, remains to be seen. As the nascent modern-day dupes pleading sports (and by extension coaches as players) are superior to those past, they remain as ever unable validate said, subjective ‘ifs, and’s and buts’ their phantom leg to stand on.
Kansas: Who wants to play football for KU? Same people who want to play basketball for NU/Nebraska, those want to be on the Jamaican bobsled team or water polo team Libyan Desert. The ‘tradition’ just isn’t there/almost nonexistent (must go back to the days Hadl, Coan, Sayers and a brief spurt Pepper Rodgers find semblance pulse. Who will be KU’s next sacrificial football lamb Head Coach? Reality, doesn’t really matter.
Chiefs: Twas the day aft game three, when all through Kansas City, ‘this is our year’ part 2018 verse 49, rest the NFL we pity! Fandom hungover, soon stadium bunting too, Championship visions dancing sloshed heads – so what else is new?
Sideline Andy looking ‘phat’ accoutered his red hat, ea$y berry stands supporting team too, moral if no run/pass support – defense we eschew; aye – there’s the rub.
Time to settle down another long winter’s nap, St. Nick isn’t coming… is a natural born swiss chiefs fact.
As their journey (and inevitable demise), begins anew, $eats as coffer$ remain full Arrowhead… deafening trophy case echos too. Kerouac (who has only been correct predicting the Chiefs demise for ’48’ consecutive years now), notes that aft 3 weeks (same as aft week 1 and 2), swiss chiefs have the worst ranked defense in the entire NFL. Could cite many reasons (how much time and internet paper do I have?) why 2018 will end no more happily swiss chiefs than seasons before, but here’s just one:
* Name the last NFL team won a Championship that had the worst ranked defense in pro football?* [ Hint: it rhymes with ‘Motel 6 and we’ll leave the light on for you.’ ]
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Funny stuff…
Ah, but lest you forget, was it not KU that played MU at Arrowhead Stadium in 2006 when the teams were nationally ranked numbers 1 and 2?
I think you meant 2007 HC; regardless: sometimes even a blind squirrel (but never a Jayhawk… they’re fictional – a Tigers as the hunting eyesight for prey, very real: 2 National Championships.
Great game… no cigar, Still, kismet, serendipity or a fluke, 2007 happened. Price to pay, success? Not able afford prosperity. 12-1 methods and manners (or a lack thereof) aside, how good would Mangino look standing KU’s sideline, today?
If winning Championship is measure, you tolerate. If drinking milk, refraining smoking, alcohol and cursing is, George Allen your man (Allen never did win a Superbowl, however.)
Nod Leo The Lip, if nice guys finish last then KU’s Beaty must be a saint, one lost the still giant KU shadow of Mangino (who also didn’t win Championship, but beggars can’t be choosy.)
Preference a $hiny winner (say a Knight/Bobby) in black armor or a nice white one (former NU Coach Mike Riley example, fired despite being a good guy by all reports, if bad results afield.)
Can’t win for losing it appears, KU… or the swiss chiefs (unless you’re ok with Marty & Andy’s ever close but ne’er a cigar tack.)
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Forgot to include the following link, which would have given the late CG pause no doubt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=8COaMKbNrX0
Modern players are better than yesteryear’s? Only in a nascent’s limited world view.
Shy being able dispense with ‘then’ and ‘now’ as to era, each meeting at a place equal footing as it were, all we are left with in lieu subjective opine are the stats themselves. Even here, what ‘stat’ has occurred last half century has been bastardized by changes in rules, conditions etc. making bogus the majority, if not all them (as ‘juiced’ players and balls variously, totally invalidating the record books, every sport.)
All those yesteryear ‘stats’ that STILL leave the modern-day players/teams in the dust, obliterate ‘today’ (I’ve already listed many of them previously, much to the chagrin CG / others, so will not reiterate… for now. )
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I’m not sold on the Chiefs at all yet. Yes so they have won 3 games already, but remember, we have been down this road before. A rookie quarterback has never won a Super Bowl. In fact rookie quarterbacks as history has proven fall all apart during playoffs and go home empty handed. So enjoy the games but Super Bowl bound…….Fuhgeddaboudit.
Tom Brady won the Super Bowl in the first year he started, which was his 2nd year in the league.
Exact same situation Mahomes is in. CG would tell ya that means a super bowl victory is guaranteed (until they lose their first game, at which point CG would say they’re the worst team in the league).
You nailed it, Phaedrus
I stand corrected sort of, but Brady wasn’t only one who has done it kind of. Brady replaced Bledsoe who was injured at the beginning of the year in the second game in 2001. So Brady didn’t exactly start the year as the team’s starting quarterback. Also Bledsoe had to come back in later in the year when Brady got jacked up in a playoff game. So he didn’t play the whole year as a starter nor win all the games. So in my book Brady and Mahomes are sort of the same but not the same. Still a long way out from any playoffs yet for Mahomes. I shouldn’t have used the term rookie like I did. It appears Kurt Warner really did win a Super Bowl his first season playing full time in 1999. But he had a little more on field time than Mahomes and Brady had. But it was his first full time season on the field that he won the big one after replacing Trent Green who was injured during a preseason game. I was out of touch with football in well 1998 to 2001 while in LA and football wasn’t on my mind much then and this all sort of slipped past me. Glad you brought it up, made me do a little refresher course in football of past. But I will stand on the rookies comment and two who really stick out are Roethlisberger and Marino who I remember for sure falling flat on their face come playoff time after great playing prior to playoffs. Hmmmm, just like another quarterback is doing right now.
So just like the dead Jewish guy — you know nothing about sports …. then I suggest writing about something you know about.
Easy J. Springer…
I think I was suitably self deprecating here, but that doesn’t render me clueless. I’ve been about as fanatical as one need be about the Chiefs fo dozens of years. It’s just that I’ve advanced a bit the past few and moved more in a few other directions. Doesn’t mean I haven’t followed them (I just haven’t swallowed them).
In fact, having a bit of separation I think might make for a more balanced opinion than were I your typical know-it-all Chiefs fan.
Obviously, you beg to differ, I guess.
But hey, it’s not like either of us is hawking heart plant surgery suggestions…seriously…lighten up, mon.
Okay, I got cocky — won my first two FF games by large margins but got killed this week.
I don’t listen or watch sports shows — too much gossip, too much grandstanding for the 2 or 3 favorites of the broadcaster.
I don’t know everything and would never attempt to say that I do.
are you telling me that you wish the Scribe was still here to lead you thru the darkness?
Mahomes is a star. End of story. The sky is the limit on his potential. He has the perfect system and coach for his talents. Those who would lament that “no rookie has won the Superbowl”, or caution that the Chiefs have not won in decades, and make up silly little nicknames for them are really missing the point entirely. It’s fun to watch the Chiefs again! Mahomes is worth the price of admission! As a fan, I don’t care what the Chiefs have or have not done in the past, it’s irrelevant to me. I ask before any entertainment venture, “is it worth my investment of time and money?”, and the answer this year is an unequivocal YES! The Chiefs are wildly entertaining with Mahomes and who knows if they’ll win a Superbowl this year or next, but if Pat’s playing, I’m watching!
Well said, Shawnster…
Sometimes sports fans and zealots get carried away with themselves, when the bottom line is exactly where you’ve placed it!