Blob Gretz = IT'S A TOUGH, LONG FIGHT

[teedubya]

IT'S A TOUGH, LONG FIGHT
SEP 17, 2008, 5:04:21 AM BY BOB GRETZ - FAQ

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/2008/09...gh_long_fight/

Let me start by writing about the Battle of the Bulge.

No, not the pivotal moment in World War II when the Germans made a last ditch effort to turn the tide of the war with an offensive against the Allies in France and Belgium. This epistle is about the battle tens of millions of Americans fight on a daily basis. I’m writing about the fight to lose weight.

How many times have you said “Starting (fill in the date) I’m going on a diet and I’m going to exercise and I’m going to lose (fill in the amount) pounds.” That start-day comes, you are motivated and prepared and for a few days, you eat less and work out more. But then your will wanes and you sneak a little something sweet here, and a little something salty there. It’s just a little; it can’t hurt.

Before you know it, you are back where you started.

I use this tale in relation to where the Chiefs and their fans are after two games of the 2008 season.

Before all this got started, Herm Edwards spoke for months – make that years – that the Chiefs needed to get younger. When the bottom dropped out of last season and the team finished 4-12, it provided the perfect storm. The roster was trimmed, draft choices were accumulated and the rebuilding through youth began.

Based on the e-mail and conversations I had with hundreds of Chiefs fans, the strategy was considered a winner. Most liked the idea that the direction of the team was changed and a group of young players would drive the future.

When a team goes in this direction, there is no going halfway. That would be a giant waste of time. You don’t dip your foot in the rebuilding through youth pool. It’s got to be a head first dive into the deep end.

But it’s one thing to say you are going young and rebuilding. It’s quite another thing to live through the efforts. They are not pretty. They do not always go well. There are ups and downs that wreck the stomach and create anger, second guessing, panic and delusions.

I write this only because I’ve read the e-mails I’ve received here at kcchiefs.com and at my own website, bobgretz.com. I’ve heard a few callers on sports talk radio. I’ve seen the writings and heard the rumblings of various pundits. There is outrage, there is anger, there is second guessing, there is panic and there are delusions.

Going young suddenly doesn’t seem to be the way to go. Fans want the Chiefs to go out and sign somebody, anybody. Others want somebody fired. It doesn’t matter who. They just want someone called on the carpet, head placed in the guillotine to answer for being 0-2 and losing as badly as the Chiefs did last Sunday to the Raiders.

Listen, the team’s performance against Oakland was without a doubt woeful. It was not up to the standards the team established the week before in losing to New England.

But it was but one picture in a series of 16 pictures that will make up the gallery of the 2008 Chiefs season. Those pictures very well may be a series of ups and downs as young players get their feet under them and learn the business of playing pro football. What few older bodies remain will play their way out of the picture or suffer injury that steals their availability.

This is what rebuilding looks like. It’s a dirty, stinkin’, gut-wrenching business, as difficult as anything there is to do in the game of football.

Some would say the Chiefs aren’t rebuilding, they are building. But that’s semantics. What the Chiefs had here for the better part of the last 18 years was winning football. It wasn’t the ultimate success, it wasn’t championship football, but there were more victories than defeat. There was always hope of something better. Eventually, there was a desire for something more concrete than hope.

Right now the Chiefs are trying to re-build a winning football team, one that will be good for years and will challenge for a championship. They easily could have gone out and signed various veteran free agents and put together a more experienced team that would go 9-7, maybe 10-6 and slip into the playoffs every once in awhile.

Would that be satisfying?

From personal experience, I can tell you the only way to lose weight is to eat less and use more energy and that must become a lifestyle, not a momentary thing.

The Chiefs have made a lifestyle change. There are going to moments of hunger, but the goal is better health and a winning football team.

It’s not time to start cheating.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by Claythan

Hey Warpath, now do you see what I was talking about with Thigpen?

HE SUCKS.

In no way does he deserve to start another game.

I saw a 7th round pick, who got a limited amount of snaps last week in practice, make some bad decisions and mistakes, which is to be expected of a young guy in that position.

I also saw a QB that has lead this team to more points than any other QB on the roster...

It's really a moot point anyway, because Croyle will be running the show once he's healthy enough to do so.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by luv

You don't think that, if we got a different coach, we'd started seeing at least some chnages within 4-5 weeks?

No.

Here's why:

It's damn near unprecedented for an organization to bring in a new coach from OUTSIDE the organization in the middle of a season.

- Good candidates typically aren't available, they are working for other teams in some capacity.

- Even IF a good candidate was available, why would he want a job in which he's basically auditioning for a new GM? No one is going to take a job under those circumstances

If they fire Herm, either Gunther (most likely) or Gailey will be running the show. Nothing will change except the man sending the message.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

I understand, but here's the problem with that.

People "supposedly" jumped on board with this rebuild in the offseason KNOWING that Herm Edwards would be the coach and that Carl Peterson would be the GM in 2008.

Now, those same people are pitching a bitch because, big surprise, Herm Edwards is the coach and Carl Peterson is the GM.

People expecting heads to roll 2 weeks into the season are exactly the people Gretz is writing about in this piece - it's flat out panic.

I don't like Edwards either, at least as a coach. But it would solve NOTHING to start firing people 2 weeks into the season with 35 new players on a 52 man roster. We'd still witness the same bullshit week in, week out, the difference being who gives the press conferences on Mondays.

REAL change is 15 weeks away. Like it or not.

You know, I have been pissed with the Chiefs since '93, when they traded for a QB that was coming off a major injury, who had three years left at best.

We had been taking the right path in building this team until that point, and even then I had no confidence in the coach to ever take the team to the SB.

Here we are, 15 years later, and we finally have commited to building through the draft again, but we are in the same damn boat as far as coaching is concerned.
We have a coach that I don't believe can ever take this team to the SB.

I don't expect Herman ****ing Edwards and Carl to be fired before season's end, if even then, but I'm going to complain some about the dumb****s until they're gone.

Hell, maybe even after they're gone.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Claythan

Hey Warpath, now do you see what I was talking about with Thigpen?

HE SUCKS.

In no way does he deserve to start another game.

Young quarterbacks usually do suck. What better option do they have?

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by milkman

You know, I have been pissed with the Chiefs since '93, when they traded for a QB that was coming off a major injury, who had three years left at best.

We had been taking the right path in building this team until that point, and even then I had no confidence in the coach to ever take the team to the SB.

Here we are, 15 years later, and we finally have commited to building through the draft again, but we are in the same damn boat as far as coaching is concerned.
We have a coach that I don't believe can ever take this team to the SB.

I don't expect Herman ****ing Edwards and Carl to be fired before season's end, if even then, but I'm going to complain some about the dumb****s until they're gone.

Hell, maybe even after they're gone.

Neither Gretz comments, no mine related to you in any way, shape or form. And you know this.

You're not making asinine demands that Clark nuke the entire front office in Week 2 of a season - there's a BIG difference in being upset about the state of the team, and being an intellectually bankrupt ****tard about it.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Young quarterbacks usually do suck. What better option do they have?

Huard. It's asinine to run out Thigpen. They ARE trying to win.

Fortunately he won't be out there unless Huard gets hurt again. Seriously, Croyle was better last year than Thigpen has ever been.

[luv]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

No.

Here's why:

It's damn near unprecedented for an organization to bring in a new coach from OUTSIDE the organization in the middle of a season.

- Good candidates typically aren't available, they are working for other teams in some capacity.

- Even IF a good candidate was available, why would he want a job in which he's basically auditioning for a new GM? No one is going to take a job under those circumstances

If they fire Herm, either Gunther (most likely) or Gailey will be running the show. Nothing will change except the man sending the message.

If it's Chan, and what people are saying about Herm harnessing him is true, he won't have anyone leashing him anymore.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by luv

If it's Chan, and what people are saying about Herm harnessing him is true, he won't have anyone leashing him anymore.

Your assuming that Carl would make Gailey, who's a relative outside to the organization the HC, versus Gunther, who has a long history with the team.

If Carl's proven anything over the last 19 years, it's that the good 'ole boy network is not to be deviated from.

[philfree]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

I understand, but here's the problem with that.

People "supposedly" jumped on board with this rebuild in the offseason KNOWING that Herm Edwards would be the coach and that Carl Peterson would be the GM in 2008.

Now, those same people are pitching a bitch because, big surprise, Herm Edwards is the coach and Carl Peterson is the GM.People expecting heads to roll 2 weeks into the season are exactly the people Gretz is writing about in this piece - it's flat out panic.

I don't like Edwards either, at least as a coach. But it would solve NOTHING to start firing people 2 weeks into the season with 35 new players on a 52 man roster. We'd still witness the same bullshit week in, week out, the difference being who gives the press conferences on Mondays.

REAL change is 15 weeks away. Like it or not.

I was backing the rebuild and I still am but not with Herm. I'm not upset because of "Herm" I'm upset because Herm didn't have his team close to prepared for the Raiders. Doesn't matter who the HC is if his team is that ill prepared for a division apponent then I doubt he can develope a young group of players. As soon as the game started anyone could see that we didn't have a chance and that these guys weren't prepared. I bet alot of people who are in favor of the rebuild feel the same way I do at this point. Herm is proving he's not the guy for the job. I say let Chan be the HC for the interim and then make a play for someone like Jason Garrett when the season's over.

PhilFree

[luv]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

Your assuming that Carl would make Gailey, who's a relative outside to the organization the HC, versus Gunther, who has a long history with the team.

If Carl's proven anything over the last 19 years, it's that the good 'ole boy network is not to be deviated from.

Gunther was the coach for what, a year? You think that Carl would put him in that position again?

[milkman]

Originally Posted by luv

Gunther was the coach for what, a year? You think that Carl would put him in that position again?

Two years, and yes, I have no doubt that is exactly what Carl would do.

[Hammock Parties]

Gunther would quit. He would walk if they dumped Herm.

I know that gives some of you a woody.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by philfree

I was backing the rebuild and I still am but not with Herm. I'm not upset because of "Herm" I'm upset because Herm didn't have his team close to prepared for the Raiders. Doesn't matter who the HC is if his team is that ill prepared for a division apponent then I doubt he can develope a young group of players. As soon as the game started anyone could see that we didn't have a chance and that these guys weren't prepared. I bet alot of people who are in favor of the rebuild feel the same way I do at this point. Herm is proving he's not the guy for the job. I say let Chan be the HC for the interim and then make a play for someone like Jason Garrett when the season's over.

PhilFree

No offense, Phil, but that was a typical fan response.

Since when do games against the Raiders count for more in the standings?

Would we have gotten credit for 2 wins had we beat them?

Rivalrys are for fans.

The team didn't seem to be prepared, I'll give you that - but you're insinuating that it wouldn't be as big of a deal had it not been against the Raiders.

A loss is a loss, period.

And for crying out loud, Jason Garrett is being paid Head Coach money by Jerry Jones to keep him from taking another job - the job in Dallas is his, as early as next season.

Jason Garrett, Marty Schottenheimer, Bill Cowher.

Cross them off your list. Not coming here.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by milkman

Two years, and yes, I have no doubt that is exactly what Carl would do.

Anyone who doesn't apparently hasn't paid attention for the past 19 years.

No offense, Luv. It was a great question.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by Claythan

Gunther would quit. He would walk if they dumped Herm.

I know that gives some of you a woody.

Yes, because he's shown over the years how much character and backbone he has by bending over and taking a demotion when he was with the Raiders, and then coming back to KC to be Carl's ball boy after getting fired over the internet.