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 HemiEd

Jesus Christ yourself, you are the one that confined DVs division record to the first two years. It wouldn't make a good case to include any part of the third, would it?

So you aren't into the rivalry thing, go it. I detest the Raiders, not as bad as I used to after the Ben Davidsion thing, but I still hate them. So losing to them, sucks more than losing to the Patriots. If that thinking doesn't work for you, sorry.

Let's think about why I might "confine" DV's division record to his first 2 years....

Could it be that HERM has only been here TWO YEARS?

[triple]

Vermeil inherited a team that was 7-9 the year before. In his third year, they were 13-3.

Herm inherited a team that was 10-6 the year before. In his third year, what will they be?

3-13? 2-14?

[OnTheWarpath15]

I don't have the time to look it up, but I'd be willing to bet that DV's division record over his entire time here is no more than 3-4 games over .500


Which isn't exactly great considering he had a 13-3 season.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by triple

Vermeil inherited a team that was 7-9 the year before. In his third year, they were 13-3.

Herm inherited a team that was 10-6 the year before. In his third year, what will they be?

3-13? 2-14?

YOU CANNOT COMPARE THE SITUATIONS.

Vermeil left the cupboard BARE for Herm. BARE.

Vermeil left Herm with an expansion team, essentially.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by Claythan

YOU CANNOT COMPARE THE SITUATIONS.

Vermeil left the cupboard BARE for Herm. BARE.

Vermeil left Herm with an expansion team, essentially.

That is laughable. DV inherited a team full of dead cap space, convicts and lazy ****ers. Elvis Grbac was the leader! The running back was Mike Cloud.

Herm inherited a playoff team, with aging veterans and very few young talented players. But his team leader was Trent Green and the running back was your very own man crush, LJ.

Bottom line, Herm's ego wanted his team and he gutted it. He hated it when he became HC and people told him to leave part of the team alone. His ego would not tolerate it.

[FAX]

Herm had every right to remake the team in his image. He did not, however, have the right to remake the team in his image while wearing a Moe Howard Halloween mask.

FAX

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Bottom line, Herm's ego wanted his team and he gutted it.

Dude, all the players were old and washed up. You're seriously acting like Trent Green and Eddie Kennison had four or five years left?

Herm had to clean house. Vermeil's veterans were ALL DONE.

[triple]

Originally Posted by Claythan

YOU CANNOT COMPARE THE SITUATIONS.

Vermeil left the cupboard BARE for Herm. BARE.

Vermeil left Herm with an expansion team, essentially.

That's funny, that expansion team made the playoffs.

The cupboard is bare NOW. AFTER Herm has been here for 3 years.

What talent has he infused? Flowers, Dorsey, Albert, Bowe, Charles... well I'm even struggling to get to 10 players who are Herm picks who have done anything

[luv]

Originally Posted by Claythan

Dude, all the players were old and washed up. You're seriously acting like Trent Green and Eddie Kennison had four or five years left?

Herm had to clean house. Vermeil's veterans were ALL DONE.

DO you agree with how he's running this team?

[Fairplay]

Claythan,

Your buddy Nick Athan predicted an 8-8 season.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by luv

DO you agree with how he's running this team?

Not 100 percent, but it's better than going out and and raiding the free agent market and trading away picks.

[TEX]

Whatever Bob - The Chiefs have lost 11 straight and counting. That does NOT have to be part of the deal. He is not the guy for the job and neither is Peterson. Time to CLEAN HOUSE! If that happens, then the Herm hire will be woth it. In any case, afterwards the Chiefs will still be around long after Herm and Carl are gone...

[triple]

Originally Posted by Fairplay

Claythan,

Your buddy Nick "The Erroneous One" Athan predicted an 8-8 season.

Anybody who thought this team could win 8 games must never have seen a football game in their lives

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Fairplay

Claythan,

Your buddy Nick "The Erroneous One" Athan predicted an 8-8 season.

He probably didn't anticipate Croyle getting hurt...

[triple]

Originally Posted by Claythan

Not 100 percent, but it's better than going out and and raiding the free agent market and trading away picks.

nobody says that you ignoramus. everyone is in favor of a youth movement.

we're not in favor of Herm's cluelessness in game planning and preparing the team and his downright stupidity on game day. he might be able to evaluate defensive talent in the draft but he's the worst game day coach in the NFL.