We break down a few of the worst takes that national media pundits have had on the
Kansas City Chiefs this season. Betway
Chiefs Focus @ChiefsFocus Charles Robinson @CRob5769
Years ago journalism was about reporting the news, bringing facts to the doorsteps and television sets of the good people of the United States in order to keep them informed. Somewhere along the way, between the dawn of television news (according to Wikipedia this happened in 1940, hosted by Lowell Thomas) and now, we have strayed from those principles. Now the news is more focused on pushing certain agendas, spewing propaganda, and stoking a sense of sensationalism to viewers and listeners alike. Lowell Thomas is likely rolling in his grave. Unless he was cremated.
Sports media is no different, and if you’re a Kansas City Chiefs fan – I assume you are if you’re reading this – you know full well about the sensationalism, agenda pushing, and propaganda that sports media folks have been levying all season long against our beloved team. While certain former presidents have labeled all news networks (minus one) as “fake news”, I have taken the liberty to label certain sports media personalities as the “Gas Bag Gang”. Do they represent the takes of their networks as a whole with what they say? No. That’s why this is not a blog about the Mount Rushmore of bad sports networks. This is about bringing these slanderous individuals to justice for the atrocious takes they’ve spewed throughout the course of this NFL season. This is a revolution against Gas Bag sports culture. The hottest take is rarely the best take, and I plan to give you 4 (probably more) examples of this.
We’ve all seen it from the beginning of the year until now, the national media’s takes on the Kansas City Chiefs have been a mix of high praise, understandable criticism, and in some cases short sighted idiots completely writing the team off. When teams go on runs like the Chiefs have over the past 4 seasons, the daily talk show crowd is going to naturally try to make their bread by talking about them. Much like a high school hallway where kids talk trash on other kids out of sheer jealousy, some of the talking heads on our TV’s every morning, afternoon, and evening decide they’d like to lash out at the team that is everything that they wish their team could be. After all, these guys are fans too, they just have to play “impartial” when they’re on TV doing their “jobs”.
So I decided to dig into the bag and see who some of the worst offenders were and come up with not just rebuttals to their claims (that would be too easy), but also some empathy in trying to see where their fragile minds went wrong in spewing this garbage. After all, a fragile mind behind a big mouth is a very dangerous thing, so we have to operate with some understanding of these words. All they are looking for is likes, retweets, and views. That’s all. So they can push their own brands, maybe get sponsored by Dude Wipes or Hello Fresh, and continue to act like they’re actually representing their journalistic colleagues appropriately.
We’ll start with some honorable mentions.
“That dynasty right now, as we know it, is over. They will not get to the playoffs this year. This is over for the Kansas City Chiefs, and I don’t know if they can get it back.”
Michael Irvin – after the Chiefs week 7 loss to the Tennessee Titans
Well, well, well…how the turntables.
Breaking news : Chiefs have clinched a playoff berth, and the division championship. Not sure you all knew that. This is a strong take, but only makes honorable mention because Michael Irvin’s true talents do not lie in reporting sports news or breaking down more than offensive football. Where he failed to think outside the box here is that he was looking at a 7 game sample set, from a team that is historically great in November and December, and had key players coming off of injury. While I’m sure Michael Irvin is very familiar with keys, he didn’t pay attention to these. We’ll give him a pass, but welcome him to our honorable mentions list.
“The Chiefs need to prove that they can stay on the same field with the Dallas Cowboys.
- Damien Woody, prior to the Chiefs 19-9 win over the Dallas Cowboys
I believe Mr. Woody’s request for proof was delivered in the form of 276 totals yard from the Dallas offense. Dallas might get a chance to prove that they can stay on the field with the Chiefs in the Super Bowl if things work out, but until then we’ll have to wait and see.
These two guys obviously have to do their jobs and provide a counter point. And their takes since haven’t been as egregious – Michael Irvin was very open with the fact that the Chiefs are nearly unstoppable at the moment in his postgame interview with Travis Kelce after the Thursday night Chargers game – so we won’t go in any deeper on them. That’s the honorable mention list.
“All the jump passes and no-look passes can only take you so far. The greatest QB ever doesn’t do any of that. Brady’s endured and won seven Super Bowls because he’s just sliced and diced you from the pocket.”
-Skip Bayless, after the Chiefs MNF win over the Giants
I mean, I guess he has a point? Brady doesn’t do jump passes or no look passes. And if he had watched Mahomes a little more closely he’d probably understand that those types of plays are the exception, not the norm. But, when you’re like Skip and you live your life like Skip and your worldview and perception are like Skip’s, you probably have issues with delusion and things of that nature. You can’t fault the man for being wrong, but you can fault him for the BS he pulled in being part of what drove Phil Jackson away from the Bulls in 1998 and robbed us of more years of Michael Jordan domination. Shame on you, Skip. If Mount Rushmore had 5 presidents, you’d be on this poorly photoshopped monument.
Now let’s get to the real clowns.
“The Chiefs stink! Absolutely! The Chiefs are not a good football team.”
“ He’s broken. Patrick Mahomes is broken, and he’s broken because he’s the same that he’s always been, and that’s no longer good enough.”
- Ryan Clark – on several occasions
Where do we begin with Mr. Clark? This is a prime example of a guy who played on some great defenses, and thinks he now has the ability to criticize every player and team under the sun because of that. I have yet to hear any Chiefs or Patrick Mahomes takes from James Harrison, Troy Polamalu, Ike Taylor, Casey Hampton, or any of the other players that made those Steelers defenses fantastic. That’s right, because those guys lack the insatiable desire to be the center of attention at all times. Look, Ryan Clark probably isn’t a bad guy. But he has trash takes. That can’t be denied. He has gone on record saying that he thinks that he’s the best doing his job at ESPN, but still hasn’t sniffed an actual NFL studio show set. You’d think someone who is that good at what they do and has some knowledge behind what they’re saying would get that opportunity, but not so much for our buddy Ryan. I wish him the best, but he needs to get better at admitting when he’s wrong. When given the opportunity to walk back his comments on Mahomes, his answer was basically “sorry for being right”. Interesting approach.
By the way, the Chiefs are a good football team, a great football team in fact, and Patrick Mahomes just took home the December AFC Player of the Month award, the 4th POTM of his career. Guess he’s not broken.
“The Kansas City Chiefs are done, let me say it right now…Their defense is trash, they can’t stop a cold!”
- Stephen A Smith – after the Chiefs week 7 loss to the Tennessee Titans
I have to start by saying this – Stephen A Smith was correct in saying what he said. The defense, at the time, was not good. Could they stop a cold? Well, that’s debatable. The common cold has been traced to early human history, with its symptoms and treatments being written about in the Egyptian Ebers papyrus, which is the oldest existing medical text. So, with that, we can safely deduce that no one can in fact stop the common cold, and Stephen A just whiffed on his analogy. Are the Chiefs done? No, not yet, and they won’t be for at least another month when the divisional round kicks off. But context, Stephen A. Again, the same crime that Michael Irvin committed – who did the Chiefs have healthy at the time, and even if guys were playing, how many were 100%? It’s not his job to cover the Chiefs in depth, but it is their job to know what he’s talking about. And it’s also his job to make sure he doesn’t end up on old takes exposed, or in write ups like this. But, for one of the guys who invented the gas bag sports journalism genre, it’s not a shock to see him on this Mount Rushmore.
“So they beat the lowly Raiders, who have the second-lowest winning percentage in the NFL over 19 years, now have an interim coach, and lost a couple starters – one to tragedy and one to bad judgement, and now the Chiefs are ‘GREAT’. Pump the brakes a little. Dallas is 8-1 against the spreads this year, it means they’ve been so average for so many years that they’re undervalued. KC, despite last week’s win over the ‘mighty’ Raiders, has hit on like 6 of their last 20 against the spread. Why? Because you can’t unsee how great they were at their peak. They’re OVER-valued. We WANT Kansas City to be back, so they beat the Raiders, and now we have convinced ourselves they’re ‘back’. They’re two weeks removed from struggling at home to beat Daniel Jones. They struggled to beat Jordan Love at home. I think Dallas rolls the Chiefs this weekend. Cowboys 37, Chiefs 24 sounds about right.”
- Colin Cowherd – after the Chiefs week 10 demolishing of the Las Vegas Raiders
Another co-founder of the gas bag genre. A guy who said at the beginning of the season that the Washington Football Team would find themselves in the same positions as the 49ers from 2 years ago representing the NFC in the Super Bowl. A guy who said about Sam Darnold “he’s a playmaker, he plays with a feel. He can move, he can throw. Some of the stuff he can do you can’t coach.” True, but some of the things he does you want to coach in the opposite direction. He called Dak Prescott a “backup tight end” in the NFL. He called Jim Harbaugh more impressive than Nick Saban. And he said the Cowboys would “roll” the Chiefs this year, which is just the icing on the cake for me. This Chiefs take really isn’t that bad, this is more like a career achievement award for Cowherd. He was only off by 29 on the point differential, that’s really not that….who am I kidding, that’s awful for a guy who make what he makes talking about sports. I just can’t wait until he makes an analogy about the Chiefs resurgence comparing it to his third divorce and getting a convertible at the age of 50.
“There’s been more evidence that this team either won’t make it to the Super Bowl or when they make it to the Super Bowl, they’re going to be down or out.”
- Marcellus Wiley – yesterday, after the Chiefs reeled off their 8th straight win
This one makes it based purely on recency. Marcellus….you’re saying these things the day after the most dominating win of the season for the Chiefs, sans maybe their two shellackings of the Raiders. Who are in the playoff hunt, still. Pittsburgh was coming off of a win against the Titans, who are the two seed in the AFC. The Chiefs didn’t lose to the Texans on Sunday, they didn’t beat the Jags or the Jets. They beat a Steelers team who was in the playoffs before they ran into the buzzsaw. Marcellus Wiley, a guy that I truly wish I never had to spend time writing about, got himself onto the Mount Rushmore of bad Chiefs takes because he decided to dog on the team as the team continues to dominate the NFL. It’s a shame.
I got a little upset revisiting all of these takes, but the fact that the Chiefs are 11-4 and heading towards another Super Bowl run really calmed me down. But, Focus Fanatics, do not consider these gentlemen enemies of the Kingdom. We reserve that distinction only for degenerates and convicts from Las Vegas/Oakland, hippie stoners from Denver, and directionless fools from San Diego and Los Angeles. These men are simply misinformed and short sighted. We can help them see the light, and the Chiefs can right all wrongs by doing what we all know is possible – bringing home Lombardi number 3.
