Pioli is innocent

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

http://kan.scout.com/2/1241444.html

After another embarrassing home loss by the Kansas City Chiefs that featured a lackluster crowd wearing more black than red in the stands, I’m ready to give in to the fact that all the blame for the teams 1-9 record can’t be placed at the feet of General Manager, Scott Pioli.

I know I’ve heard it from all of you and probably said it myself in regards to the Chiefs embattled General Manager, Scott Pioli. It’s the same story when I talk to Chiefs fans around town, Pioli must be fired. But as I stated on my TV appearance sunday morning on KSHB TV 41, I really don’t see Chairman, Clark Hunt, making that move.

Yes there’s going to be changes in January for the Chiefs. They may include a new Head coach, a new offensive coordinator and not one but likely two new quarterbacks added on or before draft day. But the one place that fans want it the most at the general manager position, may not even occur.

If you sit back and look at the team as a whole, Scott Pioli isn’t the primary reason the Chiefs are failing right now on the field. Sure he’s responsible for assembling the current team in his image; the one he carried with him to Kansas City from New England. But I have to believe, that Pioli, with so much pressure on his shoulders, may have become more humble in November than at the beginning of the season.

And that probably has to do something with the fact this entire city wants his job handed to him on a silver platter with a one-way bus pass out of town to boot. Again, I just don’t see it that happening after this miserable season ends.

Instead I lend more credence to the fact that Pioli, who is still entrusted by ownership to fix the team going forward, will get another shot to deliver the goods in 2013.

And if I were Clark Hunt, I’d lean far more towards opening up the purse strings in free agency and make other changes on the coaching staff; that could finally put the two men atop the organization on the same page.

As fans, what we’re missing with our anger at both men is we forget they’re paddling backwards in the same row boat. Hunt knows he can never shed the image of his late father, Founder Lamar Hunt, until he delivers Super Bowl to this town and Pioli has yet to shake the image he can win without Bill Belichick

So both men have something at stake, and even more to prove.

And to date with Hunt being silent and Pioli yet to give up more to the media of any real substance, all signs indicate that behind the Arrowhead curtain, the distance between both men - might not be that far apart.

I’m sure this isn’t what Chiefs fans want to hear. And I can already hear you cursing me that I’m heading another direction. But I’m a realist. And with 50 years of life on this earth as a Chiefs fan, I’ve seen it all in Kansas City.

But I do.

I’m not sure why the sudden epiphany occurred on Sunday watching the game from the press box. But as I entered the Arrowhead gates today barely hitting my brakes on my car once as I left Johnson County, it hit me, Pioli probably is coming back next season.

So I thought instead of writing about another Chiefs loss on Sunday, I’d talk myself into refusing to buy into the fact that Pioli is to blame for everything. Yes he has much to do with the teams failures this season. But he can’t make the players do what the coaches are telling them to do on the field. Nor can he instruct his coaches how to get that done.

At the core of Pioli’s rise from grabbing leftover pizza after an 18 hour days as an intern in Cleveland to a three time Super Bowl winning General Manager, he’s now experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

So that could mean as he sits at the crossroads of his professional career in Kansas City, maybe he’s learned something. I think he’s learned that dipping into the ‘Patriot Way’ does not work in this town.

Or maybe he’s learned that treating agents who have high profile Thorobreds in their stables, might land a few more of them in Kansas City in 2013.

And just maybe if your a diehard like yours truly, he appreciates the last chance he might get from his owner to right the Chiefs ship, by understanding that finding another way to get things done is critical for long-term tenure in Kansas City.

Thus if Pioli does let down his guard and starts making decisions based on a consensus that comes from a deep rooted, well thought out offseason game plan that puts everyone in this organization on the same page, he just might get the job done.

However for this philosophical, humbling plan to work, ownership has to start speaking and give Pioli a thumbs up for 2013. Because the longer Clark Hunt stays silent contemplating changes and keeping them in secret as he has to date, more fans will fade to black.

So as we sit at 1-9 on the season, you have to wonder no matter which road Hunt takes regarding the future of Scott Pioli, my gut tells me that ownership isn’t going to make the grand gesture to the fan base that they’re clamoring for at this time.

Instead, much like Lamar Hunt did with Carl Peterson’s initial five-year plan and the three that nearly followed, that young Hunt probably should give a humbled and motivated Pioli, one more season to fix the mess they all created together.

If not, then at least during Thanksgiving week, I’m taking a break from the negative energy surrounding this organization and going to eat my Turkey and fixings in peace.

[DTHOF]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

Above his computer, Athan has an inspirational message from RAC:

"Right good callums."

[Flachief58]

Originally Posted by Hog Farmer

We almost beat the Ravens !

And the steelers too!

[BossChief]

Athan trying to get more access next year in case Pioli isn't fired.

[siberian khatru]

The comments at his own board are good:

You've lost your damn mind.

Nick Athan is a goddamned moron.


Wow dude you really need to get your head checked. Pioli is going to become more humble then all of a sudden a great coach will beg to coach this team? I love how you wrote this and made Pioli seem more of a victim. He's the one that failed at filling the two most important roles - quarterback and head coach. That's on him, it failed in coaching twice and this qb is joke. Where have you bee the last four years? You've been saying every offseason they want to open the purse strings and either they are too cheap or when they do open it up no one wants to come here since he can't hire good coaches and he runs a terrible operation, if you think a change in pioli's attitude is going to fly with the fan base then you must all think we're a stupid. Really this story is a flat out joke.

What a buffoon Athan is.

Oh my god... Athan is a complete idiot.

Oh. My. God.
Nick do you believe those words or just angling for some inside information from him. No offense but that might be the worst article that I've ever read here subject wise.

[Predarat]

Nick Assclown Athan is the Matt cAssHole of journalism.

[Bo's Pelini]

[JohnnyHammersticks]

So Nick thinks that Pioli should be given another year and that they probably need a new coach. And that should be some list of candidates lining up for that HC job. I mean, who wouldn't want to work for a frighteningly insecure paranoid omnipotent megalomaniac in a lame-duck situation? All the greats will be knocking down Arrowhead's doors to coach for us, I'm sure. Gruden, Cowher, Jimmy Johnson, Ditka, Bill Walsh, Vince Lombardi....Pioli will have his pick.

Does someone or some entity actually pay Nick Athan to write about sports? If so, PT Barnum was right.

[TrueFanDave]

Originally Posted by Bo's Pelini

fitting

[Tonka83]

The more I read or hear from Athan, the angrier I get.
For the life of me I can't figure out why KC media continues to give that assbag airtime. He has been wrong on every prediction, every statement, on everything Chiefs. The guy is a fraud.

[siberian khatru]

This franchise looks like an episode of The Walking Dead, but Nick thinks Pioli can attract a quality coach and big free agents to be dinner for the zombies.

[siberian khatru]

Originally Posted by Tonka83

The more I read or hear from Athan, the angrier I get.
For the life of me I can't figure out why KC media continues to give that assbag airtime. He has been wrong on every prediction, every statement, on everything Chiefs. The guy is a fraud.

I couldn't look at myself in the mirror if I wrote the shit he does. What a whore.

[FAX]

Wow.


Just, wow.

What some people will do for attention.

FAX

[banyon]

Pioli says Chiefs have three good QBs, didn’t need to draft one

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...-to-draft-one/

Posted by Michael David Smith on May 17, 2012, 1:15 PM EST


Kansas City wanted to sign Peyton Manning this offseason, and when that didn’t work out, there was some talk that the Chiefs might draft a quarterback in the first round. That didn’t happen either, however, and Chiefs General Manager Scott Pioli says that’s fine, because the Chiefs don’t need a quarterback.

According to Pioli, starter Matt Cassel and backups Brady Quinn and Ricky Stanzi have the Chiefs well positioned at the most important position.

“I think that we have a really good quarterback,” Pioli said on WHB in Kansas City, via SportsRadioInterviews.com. “I think we have three good quarterbacks. I think the guy who’s set to be our starting quarterback is a good quarterback, he’s a good starting NFL quarterback. . . . I think as he gets more opportunities, Matt is gonna continue to show people that he’s a good NFL quarterback. It’s interesting. I’ve been out and about town with my family, and I talk to fans, you talk to fans, you hear different things, and there’s a lot of times where I hear from people — there’s people out there that don’t understand the criticism of Matt, or this growing groundswell in pockets of Matt allegedly not being a good enough quarterback.”


Cassel didn’t look like a really good quarterback last season, but Pioli remains convinced that he is one, and he also believes Quinn and Stanzi are capable. And he said using a first-round pick on a quarterback this year would have been a mistake.

“I think we would’ve been reaching,” Pioli said. “By the time we made our first pick there were three quarterbacks off the board.”

Pioli and Kevin Kietzman of WHB got a little testy with each other as Kietzman pressed Pioli about why the Chiefs couldn’t have traded up in the draft, with Pioli at one point asking, “Are you going to let me answer?” when he felt Kietzman was interrupting him, and Pioli zinging Kietzman with, “I hope you become general manager of the Denver Broncos” when Kietzman told Pioli that he would have traded the Chiefs’ entire draft to move up and take Andrew Luck first overall. Pioli doesn’t seem to like the relentless questions from some in Kansas City about whether the Chiefs can win with Cassel.

And Pioli surely knows that the questions will not go away until the Chiefs do win with Cassel. So Pioli just has to hope he’s right that Cassel is a really good quarterback.

[big nasty kcnut]

Nick Athan i hope he die in a fire while being shot with aids needles tipped with antifreeze.

[Chief77]

This had to written by Reid Ferrin, because no one that has sat through the last four years of Pioli would write this garbage. Go back to Viking land Mr. Ferrin!