Tyreek Hill
from Kansascity.com
Copyright © 2020
by Ralph F. Couey
I am thrilled to have the NFL back, even with all the atypical caveats that attach during these difficult times. With the abbreviated MLB schedule, and the uncertainty regarding the other pro and college sports, it is for me an important touchstone towards that nebulous state we used to call "normal."
I am a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Have been as long as there has been a Kansas City Chiefs. I was eleven years old when the first Super Bowl occurred, and 14 when they won their first championship in 1970. Between then and that scintillating victory last February, there lay 50 years of disastrous outcomes that at times could only have been crafted by Stephen King. The victory in Miami was so much more than just a football game. It was a moment when the past was finally buried.
Along with all the other members of Chiefs Nation, I awaited with great glee the approach of the new season. Because of some brilliant wheeling and dealing by GM Brett Veach, the Chiefs returned almost the same roster for the new season, led by an inhumanly good quarterback and a brilliant head coach. All the experts (a term to be used advisedly) predict that this team will repeat as Super Bowl victors, and we were all lined up and ready to watch the parade.
This NFL season is unlike any other in its history. The Pandemic has hung on stubbornly, and effectively changed the paradigm of all our lives. The protest movement growing out of the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of police officers has moved front and center.
I make no public judgements on this issue either way. I have an almost religious respect for the free speech portion of the first amendment, and equally to any of those who have an opinion to state. But I am about the game. If the NFL wishes to express itself in the way that it has, then I accept that it is their right to do so. I want to see my team in the Big Game in February, and really, nothing else matters, at least within the confines of the field.
So, the opening game for the Chiefs, a Thursday night tilt against the Houston Texans, went largely as expected. The Texans scored first, and then Kansas City ran away with the game, much like they did during the playoffs. This week was much tougher. The Chargers lost their starting quarterback literally minutes before kickoff and slid the backup, a rookie named Justin Herbert, into the game. Now, this kid was the backup, which means he had almost no reps with the first team offense during the week. What should have been a dominating win for the team in red was anything but. Herbert, in a word, was simply brilliant. The Chiefs defense could not contain him, or his offense. They ran and passed their way up and down the field with seeming impunity. The Chiefs offense, conversely, could do nothing right. Mahomes missed receivers, receivers dropped passes, the offensive line could neither open holes for Clyde Edwards-Hellaire or protect their $500 million dollar quarterback. That Kansas City was only down 14-6 at halftime could only be described as a miracle.
The Chiefs got better in the second half, and really turned on the jets in the fourth quarter. Tied and into overtime, the Chiefs finally won the game with a titanic 58-yard field goal by Harrison Butker.
Luck plays a part in any sporting event, and it certainly helped the Chiefs today. Granted, games between these two teams have always been close and fiercely fought, but this was an entirely new Chargers squad, and it shouldn't have been this hard. In the postgame presser, Mahomes and Coach Reid readily admitted that they was not sharp today, and that charge could be equally spread around to the whole team. But pretty or gritty, it was a win, and now its on to a tough Monday Night matchup against Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens.
No team is likely to go undefeated in a given season, save the '72 Dolphins, so the first L of the season was expected. But not this early, and certainly not against a team they should have dominated. It calls into question the manner in which this team was prepared and ready for this game. If they play this lackadaisical again in any of the tough games that make up a Super Bowl Champ's schedule, then there won't be any repeat.
But they have committed to being better. And I tend to believe that this was an aberration, not a defining element of the season. We'll see.
But this is why we anticipated the return of the NFL. The entire season is a long list of unanswered questions and unplanned accidents. It's the magic of the short season, where literally anything can happen, and usually does. Its the long wait from Sunday to Sunday, or Monday or Thursday, as the excitement and anxiety builds. And its that magical three hours of time during which fates are decided.
The war against the Novel Corona Virus and its associated illness, COVID-19 will continue. The staggering social and political issues which assail us will be debated and voted for or against. Either we will have a new president in November, or we won't. Frankly, I'm so disgusted with the lies told by both sides, and the abject refusal of Americans to critically challenge their own political parties, that I'm beginning to not care which side wins. Whichever candidate is victorious in 45 days, I can be assured that those supporters will get, not what they want, but exactly what they deserve. The whole thing makes me rather sad. But the NFL is my diversion, my time away from the ugliness that has stained these days. And maybe, just maybe, my sole source of joy. Some of you, perhaps most of you may consider this the act of a coward, and perhaps it is. But it is my life, and my right to live it the within the context of my choice.
I can't stop the flood of hate. So the next best thing is to take shelter.
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