Shane Life

No, I didn’t get a job.

It appears the Chiefs have hired Scott Pioli as their next head of football operations. This isn’t exactly news…Clark Hunt has been courting the Patriots’ head of player personnel for weeks now, but Pioli made no bones about the fact that he didn’t want to inherit Herm Edwards and wanted him out the door before he came in.

That didn’t happen, but it appears that it is only a matter of time before the Evil Carl and his awful hire (from the start, as I said time after time on this blog) Herm have both been run out of town.

I’m so happy.

We all know the Chiefs stink. Carl Peterson getting fired (or resigning or whatever) isn’t going to fix our problems. We still have a complete clown for a coach.

I had said to myself that I wasn’t going to blog about it anymore, but watching the hatchet job he does every Sunday, it’s difficult to keep quiet.

Now that Clark Hunt has done the right thing in getting rid of Carl, he should follow up by removing the coach who single-handedly has dealt this team loss after loss over the pass two years. Watching Miami’s Tony Sparano coach his team to a possible playoff berth one year after their abysmal Cam Cameron 1-15 season assures me that with the right leadership, ANY team can turn it around. There are folks who will say that Carl was the problem and that Herm should be given the chance to “get his guys”. Well, I think that Herm could fill every coaching slot with “his guys” and draft for another 2 years and we wouldn’t be much closer then than we are now. He’s just a bad coach.

He was a bad coach in New York. He lucked into the playoffs on the heels of Dick Vermeil’s guys his first year here and has since turned the Chiefs into the AFC’s version of the Detroit Lions. In fact, if the Lions didn’t exist, I doubt there’d be much discussion as to who the worst team in the NFL is.

Clark Hunt has shown that he’s got the stones to do the right thing. He should do it again and get rid of Herm, start anew and renew the loyal Chiefs fans’ faith in 1 Arrowhead Drive. I think that 2-14 is a good enough excuse to blow it up. Let’s now see if Clark Hunt will do it.

Let’s hope that next week’s second half meltdown to the Bengals is the final time we have to watch Herm stomp the sidelines of the field acting like he cares when he really has absolutely no clue how to coach an NFL team. For the sake of the organization, it’s time to let him go.

Carl Peterson has resigned as General Manager/President/CEO of the Chiefs. A new era can begin. Hopefully the first thing the new coach will do is FIRE HERM EDWARDS.

I’ve only been saying this should happen since last season.

I went to see the tragic Chiefs game today with my future brother-in-law, Tyson.

We arrived at the game and the thermostat on my car read 60 degrees. By the time we finished grilling up our burgers, the temperature had dropped at least 20 degrees. Since this was Tyson’s first game ever (and we’d already dropped the $22 for parking – straight-up highway robbery), we weren’t going to let a little cold Canadian air chill us out.

We froze with about 25,000 other people – starting the first quarter and half of the second quarter up in the Northeast corner in Section 339. The Chiefs looked good…a little TOO good. And then I remembered (as did they) that they were the Chiefs, and they are only capable of ONE half of football per game. Unable to stand the cold anymore, we mosied down to section 112, but the wind was just as cold there.

Something happens to the Chiefs when they go into the locker room. Herm’s speeches must be the most mind-numbing, heart-breaking, soul-sucking stories because the team that emerges in the second half doesn’t look a THING like the one that led San Diego 21-10 at the half.

I feel like I’m the only sane person in a city full of crazies. I know that Carl Peterson is mostly responsible digging the grave of this once great franchise, but Edwards is the guy who came and desecrated that grave, stole the gravestone, and replaced it with a bunch of garbage behind the guise of “a defensive mind”. I’m sorry…”defensive-minded” coaches do NOT blow a 21-10 lead with 4:55 left in the game.

This team is a mess. People say that firing Edwards won’t solve the problem. I think they’re wrong. See: Miami.

Also, wasn’t it interesting that Carl Peterson was suspiciously missing from Willie Roaf’s halftime presentation of *GASP!* a framed jersey? This type of thing is the stuff that King Carl lived for. A chance at the spotlight to honor Willie Roaf – one of his minor successes in a long string of absolute failures. Was Peterson’s absence a sign of things to come? We can only hope…

In their last 20 games, the Herm Edwards-led Kansas City Chiefs have won once. That’s five percent.

What kind of league has the NFL become where not a single person is held responsible for this type of futility? I really wanted the Bills to score again, just to drive home the point that the Chiefs really are as bad as their 1-19 record reflects.

I don’t want to hear about “promise” and “potential”. Because promise and potential doesn’t get beaten 54-31 in Arrowhead Stadium. There are other words that describe teams that get beaten by that margin at home. But I won’t print those here.

Herm Edwards and Carl Peterson should both be fired. Peterson’s horrid decision-making is finally to the point where it is affecting ticket sales, which is the only reason that he’s been around so long. Clark Hunt can no longer ignore the awfulness of the Chiefs when 20,000+ fans walk out of the stadium halfway through the 3rd quarter (and those were the ones that actually showed up).

But I feel like I’m just repeating myself. It’s really getting old. Not that winning a game would change anything other than just extending the pain of the Herm Edwards era by giving us some smidgen of false hope in a coach who couldn’t effectively coach a Pop Warner team to a championship and a General Manager who should be arrested for theft, larceny and the robbery all the hopes and dreams of Chiefs fans in this city.

But I’ve said this before…it’s nothing new.

Last week, instead of going for overtime, Herm goes for two to win the game. That’s fine. I have no problem with that call.

I do, however, have a problem with NOT going for it on 4th & 2 in Saints territory with 5 minutes left in the game, especially when New Orleans hadn’t had much of a problem controlling the ball. I just don’t get it.

Actually, I do get it. He’s an awful coach. HORRIBLE even. The Saints fan sitting behind me during the game said, “I don’t understand why you guys are running the ball at all. The only thing the Saints can do is defend the run.” Watching the game, I had to agree with him. Thigpen was once again efficient and effective as a passer and would have been even moreso if not for several dropped passes. (I mean, really, D-Bowe…how about you put up TWO hands to catch the ball instead of just the one?)

It’s getting old that I have to keep saying this, but Herm Edwards cannot coach in the NFL. It took a decent offensive coordinator to make this bunch of clowns actually put any semblance of an offense on the field (not Herm’s doing) and yet the Chiefs still have yet to compete in the second half. This is a head coaching problem. I don’t know how many ways I have to say it. Herm is the biggest problem. His philosophies and approach to the game are antiquated and INEFFECTIVE. There’s no doubt that Carl is a larger part of the problem, but let’s be honest: with Herm Edwards, the Chiefs will not return to the playoffs.

Bring on The Chin.

The Chiefs still stink.

I semi-predicted it before it would happen on Twitter. Herm and his ultra-conservative garbage offensive and game planning led to the Chiefs’ meltdown today. At home, they won the turnover battle and Tyler Thigpen turned in another great game. Jamaal Charles was effective.

Unfortunately, Edwards’ and Chan Gailey’s offensive plan for the second half was lay down instead of putting their foot on the throat of the Bucs like they should have. This lack of a killer instinct always has been and always will be Edwards’ downfall. He can’t close.

And that’s why he should be fired.

Our defense was supposed to be better.

It’s worse. Lendale White and Chris Johnson are destroying the Chiefs’ defense today.

End of story. Herm cannot say he doesn’t have the horses on defense…he’s had his drafts. Our defense is as bad as it was during the Dick Vermeil era and at least during that period we could score points. I don’t know what Herm has to do to be fired, but if I were the owner, I’d never have hired the guy.

No, I’m not talking about my creativity and lack of blogging.

I’m talking, of course, about the hapless Kansas City Chiefs, who have been held hostage by the almighty dollar and mediocrity, both by the hand of the devil himself, Carl Peterson. Peterson’s dismantling of Lamar Hunt’s prized franchise has been nothing short of criminal, comparable to the way that greedy investment bankers, useless politicians and shady lending practices have led to this horrible economic crisis that we’re in.

Just as with the economic crisis, there’s plenty of blame to go around. It certainly has to start at the top. One of the very first things that Clark Hunt should have done when he assumed the reins of the team after his father’s death is do the one thing his legendary dad couldn’t do – FIRE CARL PETERSON.

Peterson bears more of the blame than anyone. He’s a brilliant businessman, but he’s an absolutely horrible General Manager. Bad drafts, bad trades, mistreatment of players (anyone remember Pro Bowl LEFT TACKLE John Tait?) and just plain greed ($20+ for parking? Really?) are just some examples of Peterson’s abysmal record of management.

Peterson is also responsible for some of the worst coaching hires in the history of the NFL, including our current coach, who has one of the worst offensive minds in all of football. I’d put the coach at Gardner Edgerton High School (who won their game on last Friday night 69-0) in charge of the Chiefs before I’d let Edwards anywhere near a sideline. Edwards had a losing record when he came here and it’s even worse now.

Granted, the players stink. All of them. I feel bad for Tony Gonzalez…it must be impossible to get open with the garbage he has surrounding him (and throwing toward him either). I’d feel worse for him if he weren’t so darn rich. If Peterson had a shred of decency about him, he would have allowed Gonzalez to go seal his first-ballot Hall of Fame status with a team that had a chance to reach the playoffs in the next 5 years, because the Chiefs certainly don’t…not with Peterson and Edwards steering this rudderless ship.

I truly had hope (if not somewhat misguided) that we might see something new with Chan Gailey running the offense, but I’m convinced that even Al Saunders couldn’t make these fools look good.

And it stinks, because I was really hoping for an 0-16 season. 1-15 might be attainable, though. And that would certainly seal the deal for the #1 pick. It might even be enough to get both Peterson and Edwards out of town (and hopefully in the case of Edwards, out of the NFL forever…I wouldn’t wish that guy on any other team, except maybe the Raiders).