Dear Santa:
All I want for Christmas is a competitive team to watch and root for on Sundays from September through January (February if I’m lucky, but I won’t push my luck). Instead, I am stuck with a wretched team that makes playing football for a living while making a fortune look like a dead-end office job for $40k a year. I am stuck with a brand-new General Manager who thinks, walks, talks, and acts like he invented the game of football and been christened the next “King of Football” by Bear Bryant, George Halas, Vince Lombardi and John Madden themselves. I am stuck with a new coach who was at the coordinator-level in the NFL for all of two seasons before being annointed the next brilliant Head Coach and all the while expecting grown men to bow at his feet before ever winning a game. Oh and by the way, he still hasn’t won a game. Santa, I am a Chiefs fan and I need your help.
I am a long-time Chiefs fan who traveled from NY to KC 2 weekends ago with my father for my first ever trip to KC. My dad, a life-long Giants fan, was probably rooting for the Chiefs as much I was but for different reasons. You see, he just wanted to see a competitive game at the least. I on the other hand had been dilusioned into thinking the Cheifs would pull off a miracle to annoint ME the great missing link in the Chiefs organization.
The recent ruling of NFL commissioner on the Michael Vick case has created quite a conundrum between what is acceptable punishment and whether he is the right man to levy it. I find myself in a perplexed state about his ruling and which side of the equation I am on. After reading multiple articles and blogs, listening to the talking heads on sports radio and TV, and even hearing the political pundits weigh in, I realize that I am in a unique situation in that I do not stand on one side of the argument or the other. It seems that most people had their minds made up well before a decision even came down from Goodell’s office. It seems to me that most people didn’t even care what Goodell’s decision was, because they were laying in waiting to tell you what he did wrong. You see, this issue is not cut and dry. There is no black and white here, but there is a gray matter that needs to be explored. The plethora of uproarious reactions to the Goodell decision says more about the current minds of sports fans, socialites, politicos, and pundits, than it does about the status of why we’ve gotten here in the first place. It’s about time we explore this and look for a rational explanation instead of accusations, finger pointing, and excuses. It’s time for The Sports Mind to tell it like it is.