Chief Thoughts: February Observations & Clark Hunt

Clark Hunt finally made a public appearance and, well, did nothing. He said a lot of good things, but nothing changed. The Chiefs just went through one of their worst seasons ever (& that is saying something) and nothing really changed. Sure gives you hope for next season, right?

Herm is retained as head coach

Unfortunately, Herm the Liar will be coming back next year, but that is good news to all the Kool Aid drinkers out there. It never ceases to amaze me how many people rush to his defense and make excuses for him. I’ve seen people defend his “21 Points” comments, his drafting ability, his lack of drafting ability, his coaching skills, his lack of coaching skills and his outright lies. Unbelievable.

Since some of you need to be reminded again how bad Herm did this year compared to Chiefs history, here we go. Again.

-Fewest rushing yards in a non-strike season.
-Fewest rushing yards in a game (10) in 42 years, vs. the Jags.
-Fewest points in a season.
-Longest losing streak in a season.
-Most losses in a season.
-In two years, Herm has two of the six worst losses in Chiefs history.
-Herm has a worse win/loss record in two years than Gunther, and Gunther was fired.

Wow, after looking at that, not only should we give Herm another year, hell, let’s give him a raise!

I am a Chiefs fan, and I will continue to be one. I will support the players and root for them to win, but I will not support the coach. Until Herm the Liar shows some humility, class, honesty, remorse, accountability, and stops backstabbing his coaches and players, I will continue to document the lies, half-truths, mistakes and stupidity that comes out of Herm’s big mouth.

If Herm the Liar manages to squeak out 10 wins next year, I know there will be a few on the message boards to come out and say “we don’t want to hear from all the Herm haters, you were wrong, blah, blah”. Winning 10 games does not automatically make Herm an honest person. I can be happy the Chiefs win 10 games and still think Herm is a douche.

Gregg Easterbrook

ESPN Page 2 columnist Gregg Easterbrook once said this:

“Leading 14-12 in the second half but having considerable trouble with the San Diego pass defense, Belichick made a Belichick-style move by switching to a three-tight-end power set and running the ball; Laurence Maroney finished with 16 yards rushing in the first half and 106 yards in the second half. Smart coaches such as Belichick aren’t afraid to change the team’s look completely in midgame — yet surprisingly few NFL coaches try this.”

JD: And surprisingly, few coaches go 18-1. But that’s ok, because Herm HAS A PLAN! Belichick does what it takes to win, and Herm tells us we just don’t understand what’s going on.

Clark Hunt

Clark Hunt finally spoke to the public about the worst team in Chiefs history, which he is the owner of.

HUNT: “Obviously, over the large part of the last 19 years the team has been very successful. In 2007 that was not the case. It was a great disappointment for me and my entire family, and Carl bears the responsibility for that as GM. No doubt about it.”

JD: Are you sure you don’t want to blame Dick Vermeil? Everyone else does. If it’s Carl’s responsibility for this mess, I’m so glad you are retaining him for another year. That makes total sense.

HUNT: “I mentioned earlier today that our drafts from 2001 to 2005 in the way that coach Vermeil went about building those football teams really laid the foundation for what happened this year.”

JD: Woops, spoke one sentence too soon. I wonder how Dick feels about everyone blaming him for Carl and Herm’s ineffectiveness? What about the ‘97 and ‘98 drafts that led to Gunther’s ineffectiveness?

HUNT: “So the net result is we had four or five starters from those draft classes, and you really need double that to have a chance to be successful. So (Carl) shares responsibility for that, no doubt about it.”

JD: Second shot at Carl, yet you felt the need to keep him for another year. Makes sense.

HUNT: “In my view, if we ever want to have a chance, a real chance of competing in the Super Bowl, we have to develop our own franchise quarterback. Doesn’t mean we have to draft him; we can get him in a trade.”

JD: You mean like Trent Green?

HUNT: “But he needs to be young and still in a phase where we’re developing him. When you look at the teams that are playing last weekend, this weekend, they have franchise quarterbacks. … We have to do that. I hope it’s Brodie (Croyle), and we’re going to find that out over the next year. That really has to be one of our focuses. And we have a head coach who is willing to do that, and that’s a risky proposition, because he knows we’re going to take some arrows doing that.”

JD: Is that why Brodie started in the ‘07 season opener? He didn’t?

HUNT: “I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about where we are and how we got here and where we go from here, and I do think we have the right coach in coach Edwards to help rebuild the team.”

JD: Rebuild? With Herm? He’s been here two years and the team is getting worse. What in the blue hell has he been doing the last two years? Besides making excuses.

HUNT: “Philosophically, he and I are on the same page, which is to build the team through the draft and develop a young franchise quarterback along the way. I want our head coach to share that philosophy. He likes to and will play young players. It’s one thing to say you want to build a team that way, but if you’re not willing to develop and play those players in a relatively short time frame, you don’t really know about them when their contract comes up. With Herm, those players are going to play and we’re going to know about every one of them.”

JD: I have to keep saying this because people have short term memories, 2007 was NEVER a rebuilding year. Herm started a crapload of old veterans, and refused to replace them even as the season was slipping away. It was only after the season was lost did the whole “rebuilding with rookies” talk start.

HUNT: “I fully appreciate that the team Herm inherited was an old, veteran team. In fairness to him, he needs to be given the opportunity to build the team in his image.”

JD: He’s had TWO F’N YEARS, how long does it take? Marty cut half the team in his FIRST year before the first game. Why wasn’t Gunther given the time to build the team in his image? He did have Marty’s players after all. Vermeil got rid of a crap load of players his first year too, by the way.

HUNT: “That’s what he’s doing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t happen overnight…”

JD: Actually it can. Unfortunately, when you continue to change your excuses and plans every time the wind blows, it will take several years to employ whatever philosophy you are using this week.

HUNT: “…..It does take several years.”

JD: Several years? Boy, Marty sure screwed up then by taking a 4-11-1 team and turning them winners in only ONE year.

HUNT: “I’d like to think coach Edwards is someone who could be here for a very long time period.”

JD: Then you will have empty seats for a very long time period. No wonder there are so many Kool-Aid-drinking, head-in-the-sand Chief fans, the owner is right there with them.

HUNT: “I expect us to be competitive this year and to be competing for a playoff spot this year. Because we’re going to be such a young team, you could expect us to be better in 2009 than in 2008, which is what you want. We’ll be a younger football team. We’ll be an exciting football team. We’ll be much better on the offensive side of the ball.”

JD: I hope Kansas City would be better offensively, seeing as how 2007 was the worst offense in Chiefs history. At the same time, what specifically makes you think that will happen? Have you seen Herm’s record?

HUNT: “But rebuilding a team is not something that happens overnight. It’s hard to have a 4-12 season and then play in the Super Bowl the next season. I’m sure there are some examples out there where it’s happened, but usually it’s a couple-year process.”

JD: Actually, rebuilding overnight has become the norm. The only teams that don’t are the perennial losers, and that is the excuse they use. Dick Vermeil’s Rams went 4-12 in 1998 and went 13-3 in 1999, winning the Super Bowl, but that’s OK. Herm has a plan.

HUNT: “If you look at the Green Bay Packers, what they went through the last few years is very similar to what we’re going through now. They had a lot of veteran guys who either left the team or they had to let them go. They started the process of getting very young. They had a 4-12 season. They had an 8-8 season. Then this year they had a 13-3 season. That’s about where we are.”

JD: Except that Green Bay FIRED the coach that went 4-12, Mike Sherman, and they also had Brett Favre. Wait a minute, SHERman, HERman? Coincidence? If you are going to model yourself after other teams, that includes dumping incompetent coaches.

Keanu Reeves

“The Day the Earth Stood Still,” staring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly, features Reeves as a humanoid alien who comes to Earth.

Humanoid alien? You know what I would really like to see, a movie featuring Reeves where he plays a real, believable, human being.

Brian Billick

Why would the Ravens fire a coach with a nine game losing streak? Don’t they realize:

1.  it was a rebuilding year?
2.  how many young players were getting experience?
3.  they have to give credit to their opponents?
4.  the team was always prepared, the players just need to make plays?
5.  they had a lot of injuries?
6.  they could only dress 45 players per game?
7.  Billick was just doing the best he could with the players he had?
8.  the fans just do not understand what’s really going on?
9.  the fans no-showing hurt the players?
10.  it is all the media’s fault with their “personal agenda”?
11.  Billick was still hamstrung with Ted Marchibroda’s players?
12.  Billick had “a plan”?

Of course, you can’t compare Brian Billick with his nine game losing streak and Herm Edwards’ nine game losing streak. Brian ended his streak by beating a division winning playoff team and he’s also won a Super Bowl, while Herm Edwards “has a plan.”

Jim Fassel

Fassel was a two-time coach of the year with the Giants and led them to the NFC championship before losing the Super Bowl to the Baltimore Ravens in 2000. He was 58-53-1 in seven seasons as the Giants coach, including a 4-12 record in his final year in which the team was decimated by injuries. He also has a 2-3 career record in the postseason and he led the Giants to an 11-5-1 record as a rookie head coach in 1997.

Look at that, another coach fired after going 4-12. Apparently most teams consider 4-12 as something bad.

Hermisms

EDWARDS: (talking about getting a new OC) “You want a guy that’s called plays. That’s important. He has to have the ability to adjust as the game’s being played and take advantage of people’s weaknesses.”

JD: Interesting. Why wasn’t this important two years ago when you hired Solari?

EDWARDS: “You want a guy who understands that the system has to be player-friendly and has to be easy for the players to learn. Players come first. It’s not about plays. It’s about players.”

JD: Interesting. Then why have you always had the same offense, regardless of who was the coordinator? Why wasn’t Dwayne Bowe given the ball more?

EDWARDS: (on firing most of the offensive assistants) “When you hire a new offensive coordinator, you have to give him the ability to hire guys that he wants to hire. That’s not fair to him to give him too many of the position coaches.”

JD: Interesting. Was Mike Solari given the ability to hire the guys he wants to hire? Mike hired Dick Curl? Really? So the new coordinator will be choosing Dick Curl? Really?

EDWARDS: (on a new offensive philosophy) “I don’t want to call it the West Coast because when you call it that, people say, ‘Oh, that’s a bunch of little, short passes.”

JD: Uh, isn’t that what it is?

EDWARDS: “That’s not what we’re going to do. We’re not going to be throwing it in the flat all day.”

JD: Uh, isn’t that what you did all last year?

EDWARDS: “Call it the Chiefs offense, whatever that is.”

JD: Did you just take a shot at your own offense? Since you’re the head coach, shouldn’t you know what your offense is?

EDWARDS: “You have to be balanced. You have to be creative to keep the defense on their heels. You never want them to get comfortable with what you’re doing. You have to have different ways to run the ball, and you have to have different ways to stretch the field in the passing game. You have to be able to make chunks and get big plays in the passing game.

JD: And Herm the Liar returns. This statement is directly opposite of everything you did last year. Why didn’t you do any of this in 2007? I swear, if I didn’t know better, you would think 2007 was Herm’s first year coaching anything.

EDWARDS: “It’s too hard to travel 70 yards on a football field all with short gains.”

JD: Not if you are good. Against Minnesota, early in the game, KC went on a 10 play, 30 yard drive resulting in a turnover. 10 FREAKIN PLAYS TO GO 30 F’N YARDS?!!!!!!

EDWARDS: “Looking at it from the defensive side, you hate those types of offenses, the ones that can pound you running or also hit you for 50 yards. You don’t like playing against that. That’s tough stuff.”

JD: Then why didn’t you ever run that type of offense?

EDWARDS: “I want the ability to play fast-break offense. Some weeks, that’s going to be the best way for us to win. You have to be able to take advantage of people’s weaknesses. If you’re playing a team that isn’t very good when they get into their nickel defense, you might have to throw the ball 40 times if that’s the best way for us to win the game. But you have to have an offense that has the ability to do that.”

JD: Uh, you inherited an offense that did that. And then you dismantled it.

EDWARDS: “…you might have to throw the ball 40 times if that’s the best way for us to win the game.”

JD: How many times during the year did Herm say that throwing the ball all over the place was a bad way to play football? I’ll tell you, A LOT. Don’t believe me? Here it is:

EDWARDS: “Here’s the problem: you can’t have an offense that goes out and takes 45 seconds off the clock because you threw three incomplete passes. You can’t do that. You can’t do that. You’re going to kill your defense. That’s the problem. It looks good that you threw a bunch of passes and you go incomplete, incomplete and incomplete, stop the clock, and you put your defense back on the field. You can say we scored real fast but then the game becomes real long. It looks like a lot of fun but it ain’t no fun.”

JD: Once again, Herm contradicts himself, now he WANTS a passing game. We should sign him to a 20 year contract right now.

EDWARDS: (talking about Vermeil’s system Solari was using in 2007) “The system didn’t allow you to get the ball to certain guys enough when you needed to.”

JD: Now it’s Vermeil’s system that ignored Dwayne Bowe? Can we stop blaming Vermeil for all Herm’s troubles? Unfreakinbelievable! The Chiefs scored 49 points in back-to-back games in 2002. Who wasn’t getting the ball? I think Vermeil’s offense can get the ball to whoever you need to, whenever you need to.

EDWARDS: “I’m not knocking this system…”

JD: Yes you are. You will knock anything if it takes the focus off of your incompetency.

EDWARDS: “I’m not knocking this system because it accomplished a lot of good things here, but it was built on volume. We ran so many plays.”

JD: So? How does running so many plays mean the system is wrong?

EDWARDS: “It can make some positive plays and some negative plays. We had more negative plays than anybody in football, 125 negative plays. Over the years, it’s always been that way.”

JD: How are the negative plays the system’s fault? I thought you always said that the players need to make plays. Now it’s the system’s fault? Are you saying Vermeil’s teams regularly led the league in negative plays?

EDWARDS: “There are a lot of negative plays, and I don’t want negative plays. Negative plays kill you.”

JD: You think? And I thought negative plays were good!

EDWARDS: “I’m not hung up on any one thing. One thing I do know…”

JD: He says he’s not hung up on “one thing”, and then proceeds to tell you about “one thing”. Classic Edwards.

EDWARDS: “….We have to be tough, physically tough, up front on your offensive and defensive lines.”

JD: Then why did you neglect to evaluate/draft/develop quality offensive line players when it was obviously a problem?

EDWARDS: (talking about getting a new offensive coordinator) “The key is really finding the right individual who understands our philosophy.”

JD: Since your philosophy tends to change with the wind, getting someone who understands you would be key.

EDWARDS: “As a coaching staff we all need to be on the same page. To me, it’s about our players and not a system, and we’re looking for someone who is in full agreement with that approach.”

JD: Now that Solari took the fall, it was his fault and the system’s fault. During the season Herm would say the game plans were good and the players were prepared, they just need to make plays, and now he is saying the complete opposite. Again. Yep, Herm definitely deserves another year.