Ed’s Thoughts on Life and the Universe

Entries from November 2008

Chiefs Should Fire Gunther Cunningham, Carl Peterson, and Probably Herm Edwards

November 23, 2008 · 10 Comments

I remember the days in the 80’s when the Chiefs were horrible, when I had to listen to them on the radio because the games were blacked out on television; but this team is far worse than any of those teams.  I also remember the reigns of Dick Vermeil and Marty Schottenheimer as the head coaches of the Kansas City Chiefs. Game-day at Arrowhead was packed, with a roaring and insanely loud crowd every time the opposing team had the ball. They would look at each other in confusion because they couldn’t hear the play-call and they would self-destruct. That’s how it USED to be at Arrowhead anyways, not recently though, not in the last 2 – 1/2 to three years at least. Today Arrowhead was fairly empty; half empty by the 2nd quarter, 4/5th empty by the 4th quarter. We got embarrassed by the Buffalo Bills, not just embarrassed but humiliated at home. By giving up 54 points today, the Chiefs set yet another infamous team record during Herm’s reign, last held by the 1983 Chiefs.

In our house, the place where teams used to fear to tread, we got totally owned, embarrassed, humiliated. Now teams on losing streaks come here to get their confidence back. It used to be that even if we were having a bad year, at home we were still a fearsome place for opponents to play. But like I said, not anymore, now we’re a bye week on other team’s schedules.

No more excuses – no more of this ‘we’re young’, no more ‘we’re injured’; it’s enough already. We have young guys yes, but also 1/3 of our team are players released by other teams, not draft picks but castaways. What’s the excuse for that? Certainly not the salary cap, we are an NFL best mind you, 28 million dollars under the cap. I understand rookie draft picks, second, third year players, even more than a few  undrafted rookies and cut players, but having that many players picked up off the street? Something has got to change, and not at the end of the season, not the year after that; right now, right now something has to change if you want to have even any HOPE of regaining that Arrowhead swagger and the confidence of the fans.

I for one don’t see next year’s defense being much better than it is right now (worst in the NFL), that’s why I would start with firing Gunther Cunningham. The offense has been doing their job believe it or not, scoring 20 -30 points a game for the last 5 games. I would fire Gunther Cunningham right now, and see what another guy could do with this defense before the end of the year. This losing streak lies solely on the defense. And it’s no secret that players for years have said they do not like Cunningham’s coaching style, that is exactly why he got fired from being the head coach after Schottenheimer left.

The players say he is too loud, too in their faces, he yells too much, he is not a good motivator, and not a good communicator. He doesn’t change up the defense in the game either, when the opposing offense adjusts to our defense – that’s it, game over, Cunningham doesn’t know how to respond. That kind of old school, inflexible, in-your-face, adversarial style of coaching is a thing of the past, it’s why Art Shell failed in his return to the Raiders as head coach a few years ago (not everything is Al Davis’s fault).

FIRE GUNTHER CUNNINGHAM. If he doesn’t get fired, then fire Carl Peterson and Herm Edwards, the new coach and GM will bring in their own defensive coordinator. I like Herm Edwards I really do, but enough is enough. Twenty losses in 21 games? I don’t care if you’re the best talent scout and motivator the NFL as ever seen, 95% of owners would fire the guy. Coming from a lifelong Chiefs fan who supports the team and believes in them week in and week out no matter what, this humiliating performance, especially at home is not just embarrassing but degrading. I don’t care if it’s not the right thing to do or in hindsight it was a bad decision, to save the morale of the fans, SOMEONE needs to get fired, TODAY. Clark Hunt – You’re starting to lose the confidence of what used to be, the best fans in the game.

Categories: Chiefs · NFL · editorial · football · sports
Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Things That Annoy Me: Drivers Who Don’t Use Turn Signals!

November 18, 2008 · 1 Comment

I don’t care who you are, where you’re driving, who’s around you or any other excuse you might give, if you don’t use your turn signal when driving your vehicle you make the roads a little bit less safe. On city and country roads – okay maybe you can have a little lea-way, but for gosh sake when driving on the highway, use your friggin’ turn signal!

I was driving on the highway today and noticed several cars zooming in and out of traffic at 80 – 90 mph with no turn signal usage. That’s a brilliant idea, lets take our thousand pound plus vehicles at high speeds in high traffic and NOT use our turn signal.  I don’t care if you want to go 120mph, just use your signal to let me know what the hell you’re doing.

One of the easiest things in the world to do is to use your turn signal, I have no sympathy for stupid drivers who are too lazy to use it, especially on the highway. So if you see someone flipping you off on the road, maybe it’s me because you forgot to do something as easy as tapping your finger on the turn signal.

Categories: editorial · life · rants
Tagged: , , ,

Lieberman, You Gutless Wonder, Stay Republican

November 7, 2008 · 1 Comment

What A Joke. Let me say it again – Joe Lieberman is a joke. What does he want in his recent meeting with senate leader Reid? After sitting next to McCain for months now, going to Palin rallies, hitting every major political television and radio show shouting back-handed insults at Clinton, at Obama, at everything that even remotely resembled a democrat. For months, for months he did this, shouted down democrats with not just lame but borderline hateful republican talking points. You can’t shake the devil’s hand and then expect to waltz back into heaven, after they lose the war. (Not that McCain is the devil it’s just a metaphor, relax people.) I don’t care if it means the dems have a majority in the senate if he votes our way. His political career should live and die with republicans now, period. Like it or not, for better or worse he is married to them now.

It’s the same way I feel about Bill Richardson, (a man who’s political career was made by Bill Clinton in the 90’s) who couldn’t wait until after the primaries were over to support Obama. You don’t give the middle finger (again a metaphor people) to the team that had a great helping hand in making you who you are today, it’s called having respect. Now of course I am an Obama supporter, but I, like many Hillary supporting democrats, (Al Gore) waited until the primaries were over to voice support for Obama. You don’t see Obama rushing to appoint Richardson to a cabinet post do you? No, and there is a reason for that, you can’t trust his political support, things like that reverberate, and Lieberman should go crawl back under the republican rock he was in.

Categories: Hillary Clinton · current events · editorial · news · politics
Tagged: , , , ,

Barack Wins

November 4, 2008 · 2 Comments

Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States. Woot, we win, oh yeah. Did you hear his speech tonight? Amazing, really. I am a cynic of the highest nature sometimes and even I was like trying hard not to get wrapped up in the hope that Barack’s election gives us. It really does give us hope, that we can not only move forward has a unified people in America, but that the world’s view of America (as Barack said in his speech) is once again one of a place where dreams do come true and anything can happen. So coming from a self-apointed cynic – maybe it is time to start really believing in hope. Congratulations Barack Obama, the next president of the United States.

Categories: Barack Obama · current events · news · politics · presidential race
Tagged: , , ,