I have mentioned before that I am very broad in the application of my fandom. My standard comment is that I have not met a sport I cannot get into. The level of immersion depends mainly in this order:

Availability – I have to be able to get the game on TV
Team attraction – I become quickly connected when I even loosely select a team
Player appreciation – liking a player or two on said team is an end game

I have mentioned many times that I have an interest in European Football. It is actually much deeper than I have alluded, and more qualifies a true passion and potential obsession. My top attraction is Premier League and my team is Tottenham Hotspur. I will paint a picture of how and why I became a fan.

FAQ (You Should Be Asking Me This)

Q: Are you really writing about European Football on an NFL team specific site?
A: Yeah

Q: Do you really think this is a good idea, and that anyone wants to see this?
A: (shrugs) I dunno…

Q: Will this have a point relevant at least a little to the Chiefs?
A: I think so…

Q: Is this something you really want to put here, or just an excuse to not talk about how bad the team looks right now?
A: YES to both.

My Soccer Passion Story

I constantly move between football, European Football and soccer when talking about the sport. This is twofold: I may be discussing with a certain audience and feel compelled, and choose to be authentic. Or I am just doing what I feel like, which is more likely. Interchanging is just something I do. Anyway, I have been a Tottenham Hotspurs fan for about a decade. For the Premier fans that do read this:

Yes, I know they are a constant letdown (picture the Bengals – good from time to time, but you know they really aren’t going anywhere), and no I don’t need a reminder.
I’m not interested in any Harry Kane comments not related to him being captain of England and a badass.
Arsenal can suck it (Spurs biggest rival).

My first experience really watching the sport was the 2010 World Cup. My to the dismay of those close to me I made the conscious decision to spread myself for thin and dive into becoming a true fan. Premier League made the first step of the Europeans to being on US TV, which checks step 1. Set on the Premier League I set to pick a team. I arrived at Tottenham by pretty much following this article by my favorite sports writer, which set step 2. I was 90% of the way to picking Spurs. The last 10% happened on 20 January 2013 (date written European way for dramatic effect) by this sequence of events:

I turn on Spurs vs Manchester United with the specific goal of knowing GO/NO GO on Spurs. No specific criteria, just letting fate decide.
It’s a rainy day in London (most are) at White Hart Lane, and the pitch is a mess.
Spurs are down nearly the whole match by count of Dutchman Robin Van Persie’s 25′ goal.
And then fate happens: new to the squad, US born, Clint Dempsey scores a goal in the 90+3′ to force the draw. Step 3.

My Love of Soccer

I love the sport, the Premier League and Spurs for many reasons. The big clubs have international watch parties, which are truly communities, and I have friends for the sole reason of watching a Spurs match with them. I always have a group of friends to seek in any new city due to the Spurs match being on. Heck, I am friends with people I have not actually met because we linked online talking Spurs and ended up in a fantasy baseball league. This passion for an on the road community describes my love and work with Arrowhead Kingdom.

I love the sport itself. Think about all of the “problems” with baseball in that the game is too long and too slow. Soccer is the opposite in that the games start exactly on time, and you are done within two hours for a normal club match. You can plan your schedule even easier than an NFL game. I really love than Premier League matches are often Sunday morning and wrap before the noon central time kickoff, which means an extended Sunday Funday. Please note you cannot drink all day if you don’t start in the morning. The pace of the match is perfect for me.

The real love is the passion of being the world’s sport. The writers who cover speak poetically when covering the beautiful game. Game recaps include intricacies of of events and feats of leadership and vision. It really ends up being the combination of what you can read about a great QB and point guard wrapped into one. And that happens for most game write ups. The other really interesting thing is that the fans feel like the fabric of the club, and it is because they are there.

The Essence of Club

The fans are engrained due to both time (most prominent Premier League teams can trace their roots into the 1800s) and journey. I will be here for another 2000+ words if I get into details of promotion and relegation, so will avoid that. What I will say is this: I could grab a dozen guys a hang with at a bar and start an official club. We would have the (very far fetched, but totally possible) chance to play ourselves to the Premier League over a long enough timeline. So generations have been part of a journey like this.

It really is community where fans can have a seat at the table. Many supporter groups get seats to board meetings to comment on the club’s direction. This can get managers fired and players sold. Very often the concerns are “heard and taken seriously,” but fans have undeniable power in the sport. Check out this quick read about the Super League, and for a longer watch check out this James Cordon video.

My Intrigue of the Financial Model

I mentioned the promotion and relegation system sending teams up and down leagues due to performance. Picture sending a tanking NBA team down to the G league, and only letting them back when they win the G league in a future season. That is real life for big European clubs, and that all but ensures the effort is always there. I mention the financial model as extension to the comment above about buying and selling players. Again, this could go on forever, so will try to briefly explain:

Any player can move from one club to another during the two transfer windows over summer and winter. The only barrier to a move is the new club to give the player a raise and throw a large amount of money at the current club. That’s it. There is not a salary cap. The closest thing we have to that in the US is MLB and teams like the Dodgers. Now, imagine the Dodgers not having to worry about contract status or negotiating a play/pick trade. The only barrier is throwing a meaningful amount of money at the player’s current team.

All of this history and business practice leads to the place I am heading for the hate. Take a team that is old, has deep pockets, wins all the time, and add fans that demand multiple wins a year or the season is devastatingly shot…. and you get Real Madrid.

My Hate of Irrational Expectations

Another thing I love about soccer is that it is always on, and not like the NFL is always on. There are literally always games on. The only real dead spots in the club calendar are a couple months over summer, but I really enjoy MLS so all good. There is an endless litany of cups and leagues to play in so always matches to play for something. I am going to stick with my Real Madrid example. They play in La Liga, the Spain league, along with Barcelona, and both are valued over $4.7B. This puts them below the Cowboys ($6.5B), Patriots ($5B), and on par with the Giants and Rams ($4.8B each) as a reference.

These clubs print cash, buy the best players (and sit many on the bench), and demand winning everything. I mentioned that there are plenty of trophies to chase (picture one a weekend for golf), but for this exercise I will focus on 3 (picture golf majors):

La Liga Title (top of the table end of club season)
Copa del Rey (knockout of all Spanish teams of highest levels)
Champions League Title (top 32 clubs in Europe playing each other)

Barca and Real invest heavily (as I will illustrate shortly) and expect to win all 3 every campaign. The closest way I can associate with NLF is an expectation of winning division, having the best NFL record and winning the Super Bowl, or burn the season, coaches and team down. This is my actual point 1,500 words in so I’ll get to it.

A Profile of Real Madrid

I am going to throw out some stuff about the last 10 seasons, which is my time of immersion in soccer, for Real Madrid and the success they have had:

La Liga: 3 titles, 4 runner up, 3 times finishing 3rd
Copa del Rey: 1 title, 1 runner up, 1 final 4, 4 final 8, 1 final 16, 1 final 32
Champions League: 4 titles, 4 final 4, 2 final 16
La Liga Top Scorer: Cristiano Ronaldo (7) and Karim Benzema (3)

This is an NFL team that has played in 8 Super Bowls winning 4, has one of the eight best league total records 8 times, has won their division 3 times and made the playoffs every year for a decade. Oh, and they also have the league MVP every season.

Based on this what would you expect as the state of the club? A happy fan base, a stable coach/manager, and highly revered players is a logical expectation.

The Reality of Being Real

The happy story I painted above is the exact opposite of the reality. Real Madrid has had 7 managers in the past 10 years.
Three of said managers have combined for 18 of the above mentioned trophies: Zinadine Zidane (11), Carlo Ancelotti (4), Jose Mourinho (3). And Karim Benzema, top La Liga goal scorer of the past 3 seasons, who plays striker, is actively on notice as the club aims to buy the top strikers in the world — Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé — to deputize/challenge (pronounced replace) him.

Here is the positive spin on this: this is an ambitious club looking to bring consistent and constant glory to its fans and profits to its board. Fans get a ton of parades and winning, and “die” when the club finishes 3rd in La Liga and “only” makes the Champions League. I get it. It’s exciting. But is this really a place to live?

My Point (Finally)

The Chiefs are a frustrating team to watch right now. It is fair to say they suck out loud in many aspects of the game, and there does not appear to be an end in sight. We as fans do certainly deserve to see a better product on the field, but I think we are a bit out of our elements to act like a bunch of Real Madrid fans calling for the heads of Veach, Reid and Spags as we experience Armageddon. At this point I have to admit that I am pretty on board with changing the DC and ousting Spags, but it needs to happen with meaningful personnel change as well. A midseason firing can make a point, but a trade of Mathieu or Jones and cutting of Clark (which should probably happen anyway) need to reinforce fresh blood.

I am 100% against making a move in any way on the offense unless there is a toxic cancer in the locker room. The coaches should be catching that if there is, and I believe that is what happened with Marcus Peters. I loved that guy on our team, but could easily see what him on a bad day could do to a good locker room. Touching our offense right now would hit me as a knee jerk reaction as opposed to fixing a culture problem. In my opinion calling for anything other than defensive change is pulling a Real Madrid. I get the thought process and path to it, but it is not a place I can personally go.

My Extended Point

I don’t the Real Madrid mindset in a small way because it seems unhealthy as it is irrational. But my bigger problem as I apply it to the Chiefs is the distinct lack of rationally expected success with wholesale changes. A very strong, logically sounds can be made that:

Veach has effed up the draft by trading 1s for potential duds like Orlando Brown.
Reid has lost the locker room and needs to be gone before he can do more damage.
Reid also deserves to be walked out for his play calling alone.
Eric Bieniemy and Mike Kafka need to go for at the very least guilt by association for the play of Mahomes and his turnovers.
Of course Spags and anyone touching the D because watch a game.

If we do all of this here is my question: do we stop there or do we start clearing out every player as well? And then if we do: where do we go for replacements? This is not La Liga/European Soccer and we are not Real Madrid. Changes for us come with personnel consequence. Acquiring a player means giving up something and Clark Hunt cannot throw money at this. I truly believe that if all salary cap rules were out the window that Clark Hunt would be a constant top 5ish salary team playing a bit smarter than Jerry Jones and waiting for the Cowboys to assemble a collection of high priced assassins that hate each other and implode.

Our Reality

There is a limit to what we can do personnel wise, and Clark Hunt knows that. He knows there is not a Super Bowl caliber coaching staff and GM sitting there waiting for his call, and he knows that pulling the rip cord now means punting on next season most likely. Dorsey and Reid proved in 2013 that a one season turnaround is possible as long as the turnaround is making the playoffs. The other reality we need to consider is that some of the core is getting up there in age, a bit overpriced, and kind of tired of each other. The age and price make them hard to move, so only do it if there is a real locker room tumor.

I believe the Chiefs best path is to stay the course, tune out what pretty much everyone is saying, and make it work. My stance: I still expect them to turn this around and win enough games to make the playoffs. No one wants to see Patrick Mahomes in an elimination game.

Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne

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You can also follow Josh on Twitter at: @mkechiefsfans