Chiefs Chide: The Chill Pill

Chiefs Chide: The Chill Pill – yesterday our own David Perkins exposed a tremendous wave of hyper-criticism out there for the Kansas City Chiefs players and coaches in his piece called, “Enough is Enough: the Chiefs Are Winning the Super Bowl This Year.” I would suggest he’s not only right… we do need to put some positivity into practice, but there are good reasons to believe things are not as bad, as the baddest among us, purport things to be.

Days of Putrid Past

My first inclination was to share with you the record of Andy Reid here in Kansas City for the past 6 and a half years but then I thought, let’s take a look at the previous 6 years first, so we can get a better perspective on what Reid’s accomplishments mean. With that said, here is the Kansas City Chiefs record for the previous 6 years up to the time Reid came to K.C in 2013:

K.C. achieved one AFC West title from 2007 to 2012, losing streaks of 8, 9, and 12, with one winning season, but that time period also includes four 4th place finishes in the division. Four. What was perhaps most painful though, was watching the Chiefs go 2-and-14 twice in that period. Why, because I watched every single one of those games and as much as the current Chiefs provide me with a need to take more heart meds, those Chiefs were cold blooded losers.

Losers, you ask? Yes, enough doom and destruction for Chiefs fans to coalesce on their own and not only raise enough money to start a website dedicated to saving the Chiefs called, “saveourchiefs” but also enough to send a banner over Arrowhead during a game which looked like this:

In a piece by Nathan Bramwell for ArrowheadAddict he shares from an interview with those organizing the protest:

“We have raised $4,000 which covers banner expenses and isn’t close to being anything of substance to develop a full out media campaign so we needed a grassroots effort and social media is perfect for that. As of this interview we have close to 104,000 followers on Twitter and nearly 11,000 likes on Facebook. It’s reached epic proportions in just a month.”

Perhaps you can get a feel for how atrocious the Chiefs organization had devolved for fans to go to those lengths. To some, it may be ridiculous to ask, but remains a genuine question: “Do you want to go there again?” If the Chiefs axe Reid… fans need to understand, that kind of organizational spiral is a distinct possibility again.

Back to the Present

Juxtaposition, Andy Reid’s current record since 2013 began:

First, the math: Reid’s presence represents a 34.4 winning percentage turnaround, from 2007-and-2012… to… 2013-and-2019. In fact, he took a 2012 team of 2-and-14 and created an 11-and-5 record the very next season. That’s a turnaround from a 12.5 winning percentage to a 68.75 winning percentage. That’s one of the biggest turnarounds in NFL history (the 2008 MIAMI DOLPHINS went 11-and-5 after going 1-and-15 in 2007) and that’s worth noting.

You hear a lot of talk about the three AFC West titles in a row… but then fans also want to point to the lack of playoff wins and no Super Bowl Trophies, nor appearances. True enough, but is that all there is? Plus, don’t you have to leave winning bread crumbs along the way to a title? Instead of seeing the bread crumbs, many fans are seeing the lack. 

Investing in Futures

First and foremost, fans need to be willing to embrace the fact that the Chiefs have a quarterback who is one for the ages, and he’ll be around for the foreseeable future:

While some fans are already calling for the head of Reid… or Brett Veach… or Steve Spagnuolo… or Dave Toub… or even suggesting sitting Patrick Mahomes: none of that will immediately change the Chiefs future or fortunes. Does anyone think that the best coach in the NFL, Bill Belichick, is going to hang it up in New England and move to K.C. to help this team win a Super Bowl(s)? No, I didn’t think so. So, who else is out there who is going to do that? If you were one of 31 teams in the NFL and I told you you could have the 2nd best coach in the league… would you take that coach?

Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn’t.

However, look at all the other coaches who won the Super Bowl in the past ten years and ask yourself if they were predicted to win it? Here they are:

• • 2017 – Doug Peterson
  • 2015 – Gary Kubiak
  • 2013 – Pete Carroll
  • 2012 – John Harbaugh
  • 2011 – Tom Coughlin
  • 2010 – Mike McCarthy
  • 2009 – Sean Payton

In all other years it was Belichick of course but the only coach I can think of here who could challenge Reid for best coach is Sean Payton. I’m partial to Pete Carroll but like Belichick, who thinks he’s leaving Seattle to migrate to K.C.? 

• • Doug Peterson was able to keep the pedal to the metal and that’s something we’ve all hoped Reid could learn, and he still might. Another Reid protege.
  • Gary Kubiak won because of a great Defense and an aging Manning.
  • Pete Carrol won it but then lost the next year on a crazy call (sound familiar?)
  • John Harbaugh beat his brother but he is a Reid protege and wasn’t predicted to win it all.
  • Tom Coughlin beat the Pats with a strong DL and Manning’s brother
  • Mike McCarthy had Aaron Rodgers (both McCarthy and Reid from the Bill Walsh coaching tree)
  • Sean Payton has Drew Brees and a great winning percentage.

Andy Reid not only has a lot of ties to the coaches who have already won the Super Bowl but can be ranked at the top of this list, even though he hasn’t won it yet. Arguing that he is a losing playoff coach is nothing more than saying the same of any of the above coaches… before they won it all.

Even if Reid never wins it all, he’ll join an elite group of coaches including:

• • • Sid Gillman
    • Don Coryell
    • George Allen
    • Bud Grant
    • Marv Levy
    • Marty Schottenheimer
    • Dan Reeves
    • Jeff Fisher

While none of us wants to see Reid join that list, wouldn’t you rather have one of these coaches pushing for a title, than one of a thousand coaches who will in all likelihood, never be remembered?

Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn’t.

Do I have suggestions for Andy Reid? Sure, but he’s a great coach AS-IS… and so I hope and encourage and… believe he can win it all… until… he wins it all. Any other projections are just negative hype. So, maybe we should all just take a Chill Pill until that day. What else is there to do? I was around when the 1969 NY Mets fans touted, “Believe in Miracles” and they became known the “Miracle Mets” and guess what happened? The Mets won the World Series.

I’ve never been a fan of any New York team but I recall listening to the last game of the 1969 World Series as a teenager and being elated for their team and fans. Here, I leave you with a Shakespearean query:

“Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?”

.

Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

If you are viewing this in Apple News and would like to join the Discussion, [GO HERE.](http://arrowheadone.com/chiefs-chide-the-chill-pill/#disqus_thread)