810 WHB is reporting that Larry Johnson signed a 5-year contract extension today worth a lot of money.
I’m still worried about our offense.
LJ’s in Camp
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Monthly Archives: August 2007
Vick to Plead Guilty
So I’ve maintained relative quiet during the whole Michael Vick dogfighting debacle. Today, CNN announced that Vick would (as predicted by most) plead guilty to felony conspiracy charges that resulted from a federal dogfighting investigation this summer.
There are so many things that I would like to say about this case – how disgusted I am by the evidence I’ve heard, the way that it just shows how broken our system is that people have the ability to plea bargain to shorten their time in jail, essentially showing that you can, in fact buy favorable judgment. It all makes me want to puke. In the interest of not ranting and raving without facts, I’ll keep this short, but I’ll say this:
I hope the NFL bans him for life and that the judge (who is reported to be pretty tough) gives him the maximum sentence.
One thing is certain – it has certainly changed the way I view my most hated teams in the NFL. The order of the most hated now goes:
3. Denver Broncos
2. Oakland Raiders
1. Whoever pays Michael Vick’s salary
Cruelty to animals is awful and there are studies that show that it leads to more violence, possibly toward human beings. Not only that, but the way in which the dogs are treated is reflected then upon the breed. 
I have a friend who has bred Pit Bulls for a while. He brought his stud over to our house one day, a beautiful blue dog named Geno (at right). And while Geno was certainly fierce-looking (and his head was bigger than mine), the dog was one of the most well-behaved, sweetest animals I’ve met.
My brother has posted about this before. Pit Bulls are a very misunderstood and extremely mistreated breed of dogs. The answer is not to ban them in cities, but to have harsher fines and prison terms for those that mistreat them. You have to eliminate the cycle. Punishing Vick to the fullest extent of the law is a start. Allowing him and his co-defendants to plea bargain down to a lesser punishment isn’t justice…it’s business. And it sucks.
My New Obsession
On a random trip to Wild Oats yesterday, Alli and I happened upon some natural chips that were for sale. There were several different flavors of Boulder Canyon Potato Chips on sale, so we picked the Hickory BBQ and the Sea Salt & Black Pepper kinds in the 2-for-$3 deal Wild Oats was running.
Words cannot express just how awesome these chips are. In the immortal words of Charlie’s father (Mike Myers) in So I Married an Ax Murderer:
“BECAUSE THEY PUT AN ADDICTIVE CHEMICAL IN THEM THAT MAKE YOU CRAVE ‘EM FORTNIGHTLY SMARTAAAAASSSS!”
If you have the opportunity to try some of them, I suggest you do so straightaway. But don’t come to my house for them. Ours will be all gone soon.
Trip Days 8-10: Florence
Leaving Venice was tough. We loved the canal city, but were excited to head off to the capital of the Tuscan region of Italy, Florence.
It’s been written and said that Florence contains richer art than any other city in the world, so we were excited, particularly to see Michelangelo’s David in the Accademia museum. We were also looking forward to enjoying some quality time in Tuscany, enjoying the rolling hills and sunflowers.
NOTE TO TRAVELERS: While Florence is technically in Tuscany, it is not really a great sampling of the region. It is the capital of the region, just not a good representation of the region in the same way that Talahassee is probably not the most telling example of the state of Florida.
First impression of Florence was, MAN, this place is CRAZY. Coming from Venice, it was hard to adjust to the hustle and bustle of a metropolis like Florence. Even Paris managed to avoid feeling like this with its spacious sidewalks – everything in Florence is on top of the confusing, random roads. Those roads make navigating the city quite difficult, although the Florentines make it easier by indicating which side of the Arno River you should stay on (the sides of the river translate to “THIS Side” and “THAT Side”).
The architecture is quite nice, although because the buildings are so close to each other, it’s difficult to get a good feel of what they actually look like. We arrived in the afternoon and checked into another great find of a hotel – the Torre Guelfa, a nicely placed hotel near the center of the city that boasts the “tallest privately-owned tower in Florence”. It’s not the cheapest place you can stay in Florence, but it certainly isn’t the most expensive and it offers access to the tower at all times, which is really pretty cool.
The first night in Florence we were hungry, so we went off to grab some pizza. We had heard rumors that you needed reservations to get into the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia Museum, but after finding that all the reservations were sold out for the weekend, we decided we should scope the museums out to see what we might be up against.
We found a tolerable line at the Uffizi and decided to go through it. I was glad we did because while in line, we discovered that while the Uffizi was closing about an hour after we entered (6:45 p.m.), the Accademia would be open until 10:00 that evening. I was thoroughly unimpressed with the Uffizi – for €10 each I felt like we didn’t get to see nearly enough. Even the Louvre on FULL PRICE days is only €8.
The crown jewel of the Uffizi, however, is Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Those managing the Uffizi have decided to treat Botticelli’s masterpiece in the same way as da Vinci’s Mona Lisa at the Louvre – it is their brand. To be honest, I was much more drawn to Botticelli’s work than I was da Vinci’s. Not only is it beautiful and meaningful, but it is also massive, measuring over 9 feet wide by almost 6 feet tall.
However, the rest of the museum really left something to be desired for me. It was worth the trip to see Venus, but I just didn’t see it as nearly as important as everyone seemed to make it out to be. Once we exited, I checked the map for the general direction of the Accademia (which was sort of across the city, but not across the river) and I proceeded to get us lost, walking directly past the (very poorly notated) entrance to the museum twice before realizing that it was, in fact, on the side of a non-descript white building on a normal, non-descript street in Florence.
Another €10 in the pocket of another Florence gallery and we walked slowly through the virtually deserted museum, passing I don’t know how many paintings of Mary and the Bambino (one can only take so many of those) before coming to the end of a hallway that led to the rotunda where David stands.
Michelangelo’s David is, without question, the most stunning piece of sculpture I’ve seen in my life. The first thing you notice is its size. Standing 15 feet tall atop an additional 6-foot pedastal, David is an imposing figure. However, the brilliance in the sculpture lies in that, despite the massiveness of the marble statue, I felt such peace. Michelangelo sculpted David not violently standing on the slain Goliath’s head, but in peaceful reflection, a stark contrast to the many other homages to the early King of Israel.
I was so glad that we had found out about the evening hours for the museum because there were only perhaps 30 other people in there with us. Accademia was built solely to display David and it completely does it justice. The way he is displayed only enhances your viewing of this masterpiece. However, there is very little else to see in the gallery, so our time was spent almost entirely in front of Michelangelo’s wonderful work.
After our evening in the two major galleries in Florence, I was ready to move on to the next city. While David was certainly an artistic highlight of the trip, there just wasn’t a lot else I wanted to do in the city. We considered a day trip to Siena, a city in the region that was supposedly much more “Tuscan”, but decided against it, opting instead to stay in the city and see what else it had to offer.
The next morning we awoke and had breakfast at our hotel, enjoying the standard coffee, croissant, orange juice, and a roll. We decided to head across the river to the Palazzo Pitti, the huge Medici palace in Florence, and spend the morning walking around the Boboli Gardens that surround the castle.
This turned out to be a dubious choice. It was the hottest day that we’d experienced yet, and walking around the dusty, hilly “gardens” made us sweat profusely. For the €11 it cost to get into the gardens, I expected a bit more, but really the Boboli Gardens seemed more of a park. There just didn’t seem to be that many flowers. Still, it was large enough that we could walk around for a while. In fact, we had to, because it took a while just to figure out how to get out of the gardens.
After making our way back across to “This Side” of the river, we found our lunch spot, Cantina Verrazano, a charming cafe in downtown Florence across from our intended gelateria for the day, Perche No! (which translates to “Why Not!”). We found the Cantina terrific; our waiter spoke very good English and French (and I’m assuming Italian) and we had some wonderful fresh bruschetta and caprese salad.
After that, we stopped by Il Duomo, the massive cathedral at the center of Florence. Outside the church is a large square and we found some horses taking a break from their busy schedule of pulling tourists around the city in carriages. As we looked at them, we realized that one of the horses had a funny sign on his bridle that said “Don’t Touch! Bite!” (click the picture at left to see it larger). I’m assuming that the translation meant something like “Don’t Touch! He Bites!”, but it was funnier this way.
On our last evening in Florence, we headed back across the river to a pizza place, but Alli started to feel a little ill, so we left as quickly as we could and returned to the room to pack and get ready for Rome.
The next morning we walked around the deserted Sunday streets looking for some fruit and cheese to take on the train with us, but that proved to be extremely difficult both to 1) find a store that was open, and 2) find a store that sold fruit and/or cheese (none did). We took a quick nap and then set off to catch our train to Rome.
UPDATE: Alli’s Florence Post.
First Two Pre-Season Games
So we are now 2 pseudo-games into the NFL pre-season and I’ll be honest…I’m largely (yet unsurprisingly) unimpressed with the Chiefs chances to make any noise at all in the AFC West. If we weren’t fortunate enough to be in the same division as the always-inept Oakland Raiders (if you knew you were going to draft Russell, why not figure out a deal BEFOREHAND?), even I would be predicting them to finish last in the AFC West.
Last night’s game (and much of last season) is all I need to know that Herm Edwards is not nearly the coach that everyone thinks he is. I want to like the guy – I like his positive attitude and approach – but I just cannot seem to get onboard with his theories about what wins football games.
Look, it’s true that in the late 1970′s and early 1980′s that the Steelers stifling defenses won them several championships (and even one in Super Bowl XL two years ago), but the game is different these days…even the worst defenses in the league know that we are going to run the ball on downs 1 and 2, then pass on down 3. The element of surprise that Al Saunders managed to perfect during the Vermeil years is long gone with the advent of a former offensive-line coach as the “offensive coordinator”. Mike Solari was blessed with, not only Saunders’ offensive mind, but also a group of All-Pro offensive linemen that included future Hall-of-Famers Will Shields and Willie Roaf. Solari parlayed that into a sweet job as the Chiefs offensive coordinator once Saunders skipped town to a city (and coach) that would appreciate his offensive mind (knowing that with Edwards as coach, offense would be considered by the head coach about as much as Tony Kornheiser considers hair products). The truth is that Solari is one of the luckiest guys in the league. 
His play-calling stinks (and before you throw a hissy and say ‘it’s only pre-season’, you need only think back to the playoff loss to the Colts) and he is about as imaginative as the guys who wrote Rush Hour 3. Roaf and Shields have retired, leaving us with John “Barry Bonds” Welborn and Kyle “I’m a Tackle, No I’m a Tight End, No I’m a Tackle” Turley to fill their spots.
And with the absence of a true offensive leader on the field (besides maybe Tony Gonzalez, but Tight Ends can’t really be “offensive leaders”), the Chiefs offense is in dire straights. Edwards has brought us the second-coming of Martyball, only with more mediocrity and a crappier offensive line. At least Marty’s teams had great linemen like Dave Szott and John Alt. We don’t have that and that’s where our biggest flaws lie and is another example of why Carl Peterson needs to allow Denny Thum to take the reins as General Manager and sit back as the CEO of the Chiefs. Their drafting of the talented (although rumored lazy) Dwayne Bowe will likely prove to be another first-round Snoop-Minnis-Sylvester-Morris-esque bust. Drafted just after Bowe was the Central Michigan standout tackle Joe Staley, who would have been perhaps the “left tackle of the future” if this, in fact, a rebuilding year.
As a massive fan, it’s tough to come to these types of conclusions, but after watching last night’s game and discovering that I was yelling at the TV in a PRE-SEASON game, it’s time to face facts. It doesn’t matter whether Damon Huard or Brodie Croyle (or Casey Printers, natch) is the quarterback this year – as long as we have a sub-par offensive line, an absolutely useless offensive coordinator, and a head coach who couldn’t give a crap if the score is 6-3, we could be in for a LONG season.
Trip Days 5-8: Venice
Traveling to Venice was an utter nightmare. After being delayed out of Paris, we had to switch trains twice, once about a half-hour after our first train out of Nice, then another time in Milan. It was interesting to pass through Cannes, but we didn’t spot Vincent Chase or Billy Walsh pimping Medillin – we didn’t even stop in the town, just rolled through it.
Unfortunately, we missed our connection in Milan. With train tickets, this is typically not much of a problem. Since there was a train to Venice every hour, we just got on the next one per the instructions of the conductor at the terminal. One problem. The other hundred or so people who also missed the Venice train had to get on as well and the first class cabin was completely full. I spent the first hour and a half of the two-hour trip standing in the hallway. Once people got off in different cities, seats opened up for me and Alli in a cabin with some folks from Canada we had befriended along the way. (Amazingly, we managed to run into them later in Venice on the busiest bridge in the city.)
We made it to Venice and made our reservations for Florence immediately while we were at the station. We then got on the public boat (amazingly expensive for public transportation – €6 each one way compared to €3 for both of us to take the subway in Paris) and made our way to our bed and breakfast in the Dorsoduro neighborhood.
Again, we found ourselves extremely fortunate in our choice of lodging. Ca’ San Trovaso was a place that was recommended by another hotel that was totally booked. After looking in briefly, we quickly reserved the last available room and hoped for the best. We were not disappointed, finding a very cozy yellow house, complete with a Russian-speaking Meryl-Streep-look-alike manning the front desk. It was late when we checked in, but we managed to find a pizza place open and finished it off with our first gelato of the trip before crashing after an extremely long day-and-a-half of travel.
The next day, we explored the city, which was fantastic. My brother didn’t like Venice much when he visited it a couple years back, but we absolutely loved it. The canals, the bridges, the piazzas and the personality of the city all contribute to a charming, romantic experience that is virtually impossible to duplicate because I don’t know of another city that exists like Venice. Wired Magazine named it one of the 10 places you must visit before it disappears, which is pretty likely considering the rising ocean waters combined with the fact that it is sinking as well. We managed to walk around much of the city, which was a welcome quiet compared to the hustle-and-bustle of Paris. No cars or scooters to compete, just boats, whose hums provide a gentle texture to the air. I loved the history of the city, the architecture and the narrow passageways that connect each street. Alli loved all the laundry hanging out to dry and the colors of the flowers.
As we crossed the Accademia bridge on our way back to our hotel that evening, we both managed to catch pictures of this beautiful sunset over the Grand Canal…
…and even then, it is hard to capture the appeal of this unique city.
And what would a trip to Venice be without a gondola ride? The answer is, of course, about €80 cheaper. But it is something worth experiencing, and we enjoyed our tour of the historic city from that perspective, given by our skilled (although he spoke little English) gondolier, Paolo. Our second day, we explored the parts of the city we hadn’t seen yet, traveling up to the Northern part of the city after the gondola ride to take a look at the very unique farmer’s and fish market,
where Alli found courage enough to hold a crab for the picture at right with one of the vendors. We also found the best gelateria in all of Italy, ‘Il Doge’, which we visited several times, sometimes twice in the same day. We also saw many dogs throughout Italy, ones that were much more behaved than ours. They would sit patiently outside shops and wait for their owners, sometimes following them into the shops where they are welcome, other times sitting quietly outside like watchdogs.
All these things contributed to the unique personality the Venice offers visitors. While it’s true that the areas like St. Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge are extremely crowded with tourists, you can find pockets of peace and romance still evident in this city. You can’t help but wonder what this city was like even 10 years ago, before travel became as easy as it is these days. I can’t imagine it would be any less charming than we found it this summer. Of all the places we visited, Venice was my favorite and was a stark contrast to our next city, Florence, which I didn’t like much at all.
UPDATE: Check out Alli’s overview of Venice.
Trip Days 1-4: Paris
After an extremely difficult trip from Kansas City to Newark (via Philadelphia), we arrived in Paris around 1:30 p.m. If you consider that we were supposed to arrive about 9:00 a.m., you’ll get a pretty good idea of what our dreadful flights from the states were like.
We tried to figure out what train to take from Charles de Gaulle airport, which took us about 45 minutes and then managed to make it to the Louvre train station around 3. Once we exited the subway (which is, by far, the best way to travel in Paris), I realized that I had NO CLUE how to get to our hotel…only that it was close.
Fortunately, we had gotten a pre-paid SIM card for one of my mom’s old phones and we pulled it out to give the Hotel Louvre Forum a call. Having a cell phone on this trip was great, making it easy for us to talk to our families back home and to contact our hotels and villas along the way. Once we spoke to the hotel, finding it was pretty easy. Our room was quite small, but it was in a great neighborhood – extremely close to the Louvre in the 1st Arrondissement (neighborhood). After a long trip, we crashed for a few hours, woke up and walked around a bit, before catching a bite at a restaurant just around the corner from the hotel.
The next day was a big one. We took the subway down to the Arc de Triomphe and then walked from there to the Eiffel Tower and along the Seine to the Musee d’Orsay, which contains an amazing collection of impressionist artwork. We got tickets to the special exhibition, which was all based upon the collection of one of the most important art dealers near the turn of the century. In the exhibition, we saw the first of 6 celebrities we would see upon our European trip – Jude Law. It was surreal because he was about 10 feet from me when Alli saw him. No one was bothering him, though, so we didn’t either.
The collection at the Orsay is wonderful, full of the stuff that we would not see the next day at the Louvre. It’s a little disappointing that the Louvre chooses not to display the work of the Impressionist era, but the Orsay more than makes up for it with their collection of Van Gogh, Degas, Renior, and many others.
After the museum, we went to Notre Dame, which was great – by far my favorite church that we saw in all our travels. It is beautiful both inside and out and if you take the tower tour, you get a spectacular panoramic view of Paris:
In 1998, I visited Paris with my family. I don’t know what it was about that visit, but I thoroughly disliked the city at the time. It was the normal, garden-variety reasons for disliking the City of Lights (rude people, everyone smokes, etc.). Looking back, those reasons were pretty lame. Perhaps it was 10 years of maturity. Even more likely, it was exploring the city of lights with my best friend and the love of my life. We also didn’t plan particularly well 10 years ago and Alli and I went with a very specific list of things that we wanted to accomplish in the city, accompanied by the Frommer’s Pocket Guide (a must for international travel), giving us the opening and closing times of each of the museums and attractions.
However, it wasn’t so much the stuff that we planned to do that made Paris great this time around, but it was just exploring the city together, walking down the beautiful streets, stopping in small cafes for bread or water, and seeing Paris as fully as we could.
After Orsay-Notre-Dame Day, we crashed. After walking around what seemed like ALL of Paris, we were well-ready for some sleep. The next morning was Sunday, and we awoke early to find a cafe that was open for breakfast so we could get in the line at the Louvre. The first Sunday of every month, admission to the Louvre is free, so we knew that there would be lots of people waiting to get in.
As you can see in this picture, people are already lining up along the left side of the picture. By the time we entered the museum, the line traveled all the way behind where I stood when I took the picture all the way wrapping around to the right side of the picture past the pyramid. It was pretty crazy, especially once they opened the doors and about 25,000 people made their way directly for the Mona Lisa. It’s a mad dash and it’s amazing because people blow right past tons of amazing artwork, including a 2nd-century-BC statue called The Winged Victory at Samorthace.
I think that Alli and I did our best to try and experience the museum, while I felt a lot of people were just there to “see” everything. What is the point of art if not to experience it? I just felt like so many people in the museum saw each piece of artwork as just another attraction in Paris, which is sad because the artwork there is so beautiful and inspiring.
I don’t know if I’d say that for the Mona Lisa, though. After seeing her up close for the first time, I think that my first reaction was, “Big deal.” First, she’s amazingly small…maybe 16 x 20 inches, which is surprising, considering the mystique surrounding da Vinci’s work is massive. I’m not trying to make the accomplishment smaller; I’m just saying it wasn’t really my cup of tea. I much preferred Veronese’s The Wedding at Cana, which sits opposite the Mona Lisa in the same gallery and is a huge contrast to da Vinci’s work in that it is massive and complex, while the Mona Lisa is small and relatively simple in its nature.
I much preferred the Impressionist-heavy Musee d’Orsay to The Louvre, but all the same, Alli and I spent several hours on Sunday making our way through the massive former palace-turned-museum, viewing as many of its 40,000+ works as possible (it is said that if you stood in front of each of the Louvre’s works for one minute, you’d spend over 4 months in the museum!). It’s really one of those things that you must see to appreciate. It’s truly massive.
After spending our time in the Louvre, we returned to our room for an afternoon nap before venturing out again. If there’s one thing that I loved about our vacation it’s that we never shied away from taking naps. It was relaxing and we still managed to see everything that we wanted to – really a great vacation. We took a boat tour of Paris on the Seine our last night in Paris, which was really enjoyable, albeit a tad cold. Paris had considerably cooler weather than everywhere else we traveled and we weren’t completely prepared for that. We still had a blast though.
Our train from Paris to Venice didn’t leave until 9 p.m. the next day, so we slept in a while and checked out of the hotel, leaving our bags and setting off for our last day in Paris. We returned to our favorite bakery and picked up a little piece of heaven that I dubbed the “Twisty Awesomeness” and took it and some water to the park that sits adjacent to the Louvre. We spent the morning talking, enjoying the sun and our breakfast, and talking over our time in Paris.
We wandered around the city, trying to kill the several hours we had before our train left, but the time seemed to drag on. We weren’t complaining, but both of us were ready to move on to our next adventure. We ended up walking up the Champs Elysees and found ourselves back at the Arc di Triomphe. We found a movie theater and figured it would be fun to check out a movie while we were there, well aware that we wouldn’t be able to understand it. Still, the appeal of air-conditioning and comfy seats was too much to ignore, so we ended up checking out Shrek le Troisième in French. It was pretty funny, but at the same time, French is such a sexy language that when Shrek and Arthur are talking to each other, it just sounds weird.
We went back to the hotel and grabbed our bags, then headed off to Gare d’Austerlitz for our overnight train to Nice, France, where we would meet our train to Milan, then ultimately, Venice. We waited quite a while, arriving a couple hours early to the train station. Then, inevitably, our train was very delayed, and our room was quite small. I suppose that should be expected on a train, but still, that didn’t make the cabin any bigger. Attempting to sleep in the train was even more of a disaster than I imagined. Not only that, but it was also amazingly stuffy in our cabin, but that was nothing compared to the NOISE. I think that I will hear screeching brakes in my nightmares from now until eternity.
The trip from Nice to Venice deserves its own post, so until then, I hope you enjoyed my overview of our time in Paris. I’m certain that I’ve forgotten some aspects of the trip, but in the interest of space, I figured I should wrap it up.
UPDATE: Check out Alli’s review of Paris.
Still Thinking About It
I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on Tuesday and I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m just about ready to read all 750+ pages again, just to re-absorb and re-experience it in all its glory.
One thing that’s caused me to do is to devour all the information that I managed to avoid prior to reading the book – all the reviews and spoilers and such that have been splashed all over the news and internets. Today, I found an absolutely wonderful overview of J.K. Rowling’s accomplishment written for Entertainment Weekly by the king of the horror novel, Stephen King. NOTE: If you have not yet read the book, you’ll want to avoid the article…there are MANY spoilers.
But one thing that King does better than anyone I’ve seen so far is really get to the heart of what an accomplishment this series has been for Rowling. It may not get the literary appreciation and it might not ever be taught in schools, but the sheer scope of the world of magic she created and the way that her characters and their story grew as the years at Hogwarts passed was nothing short of magnificent.
I applaud Rowling for creating this amazing body of work that is appreciated by children and adults alike (although from about Book 5 on, the subject matter could be considered more adult in nature). My hope is that she will continue to write and create because she is more than just the writer who brought the world Harry Potter; she is extremely talented and can communicate to a wide range of age groups with ease, something that should be valued in a world where children and adults very often have trouble finding common ground in communication.
And for those of you who, like myself, felt like they were “too old” or “too educated” or whatever to appreciate Harry Potter and the wizarding world… I implore you to reconsider. What you’ll find in the books is a series that can be read and re-read, passed along to others, and enjoyed for many years to come. Plus, you’ll have 7 rather large books to add to your personal library and everyone knows that having a lot of books is cool.
2007 Chiefs Season Prediction
My beloved Chiefs’ first pre-season game is tomorrow night. Without having seen any of their training camp or any games, is there a better time to predict exactly how they’ll do this season?
There are many questions plaguing the Chiefs these days…who will start at Quarterback (I’m predicting Brodie Croyle, making Damon Huard just another overpaid backup), will the offensive line hold up (against the run, they’ll be fine, but the big question is pass protection for the new QB), will Dwayne Bowe start at WR (I’ll predict not in game 1), and will Larry Johnson show up (he’s getting fined $14,000 per day he isn’t in camp…he’ll show up before the season starts)?
The Chiefs defense is in better shape than it has been since Dick Vermeil arrived in town, so they can be expected to be in most games, even with the 2-game absence of their second-best pass rusher, Jared “Double-Dewey” Allen.
However, if Larry Johnson doesn’t show up, the Chiefs could be in serious trouble. If he does report, my predictions are as follows:
Week 1: at Houston Texans – WIN
Week 2: at Chicago Bears – LOSS
Week 3: Minnesota Vikings – WIN
Week 4: at San Diego Chargers – LOSS
Week 5: Jacksonville Jaguars – WIN
Week 6: Cincinnati Bengals – LOSS
Week 7: at Oakland Raiders – WIN
Week 8: Bye
Week 9: Green Bay Packers – WIN
Week 10: Denver Broncos – WIN
Week 11: at Indianapolis Colts – LOSS
Week 12: Oakland Raiders – WIN
Week 13: San Diego Chargers – LOSS
Week 14: at Denver Broncos – LOSS
Week 15: Tennessee Titans – WIN
Week 16: at Detroit Lions – WIN
Week 17: at New York Jets – WIN
I am such a homer. I have them going 10-6 somehow. I don’t know if that will be enough to make the playoffs this year, but if they manage to pull off 10-6…I’ll be ecstatic. I somehow don’t think that will happen. Let’s say I miss one of those games in there and we’ll call the season (with Larry Johnson) at 9-7 and they miss the playoffs.
However, if Carl manages to fumble re-signing Larry Johnson (who probably doesn’t deserve the $28 million guaranteed he’s asking for, but probably deserves somewhere in the realm of $20-24 million), the Chiefs could be scrambling to figure something out. Michael Bennett has proved he isn’t nearly durable enough to be an every down back and there are some pundits out there that are pretty high on Louisville rookie Kolby Smith, but I don’t see either one of them being a good enough replacement for one of the best pure running backs in the league.
Johnson knows this and it is his greatest bargaining chip he has. However, his truculence with the media and his well-publicized rift with former coach Dick Vermeil certainly don’t help him out in the public opinion realm. Plus, there is the obvious negative connotation to anyone that holds out (I don’t care what you say, Tony Gonzalez – fans hate hold outs, even when they are merited).
In the unfortunate event of Larry Johnson holding out all year, here is my prediction for the Chiefs season:
Week 1: at Houston Texans – LOSS
Week 2: at Chicago Bears – LOSS
Week 3: Minnesota Vikings – WIN
Week 4: at San Diego Chargers – LOSS
Week 5: Jacksonville Jaguars – WIN
Week 6: Cincinnati Bengals – LOSS
Week 7: at Oakland Raiders – LOSS
Week 8: Bye
Week 9: Green Bay Packers – LOSS
Week 10: Denver Broncos – WIN
Week 11: at Indianapolis Colts – LOSS
Week 12: Oakland Raiders – WIN
Week 13: San Diego Chargers – LOSS
Week 14: at Denver Broncos – LOSS
Week 15: Tennessee Titans – WIN
Week 16: at Detroit Lions – LOSS
Week 17: at New York Jets – LOSS
That would put them at 5-11 and might even merit them a top 5 draft pick next year. That makes me a little nervous, considering we have an awful tendency to screw up those top 5 picks (Ryan Sims, hello?), but I imagine that Herm would DROOL at the thought of being able to draft someone of that type of talent. What he has to remember, however, is that Carl Peterson will still be the General Manager and you can guarantee that the pick won’t be in camp before week 3.
I hate to be down on the Chiefs…I’ll still watch every game, but at the same time, I wish I felt better about this season than I do right now. Maybe we’ll know more after the pre-season is over.