The Bucs’ next opponent, the Kansas City Chiefs, appear to be a team on the brink.
The team has dealt with a drug suspension (stud defensive end Tamba Hali), injuries (wide receiver Dexter McCluster, a former Largo High School teammate of Bucs cornerback Leonard Johnson) and losing.
Ugly losing.
It’s so bad in Kansas City that fans have taken to the air, flying banners over Arrowhead Stadium demanding the ousting of general manager Scott Pioli.If Chiefs offensive lineman and the Kansas City Star can be believed, yesterday in a struggle with the Baltimore Crows, fans turned on starting quarterback Matt Cassel, actually cheering when he was injured.This has led Cassel’s teammates to express outrage at their paying customers, lashing out at Chiefs fans, details Randy Covitz of the Kansas City Star.
“But when somebody gets hurt … there are long-lasting ramifications to the game we play … I’ve already come to the understanding I probably won’t live as long because I play this game. And that’s OK. That’s the choice I’ve made. That’s the choice all of us made. But when you cheer somebody getting knocked out, I don’t care who it is, and it just so happened to be Matt Cassel, it’s sickening. It’s 100 percent sickening. I’ve been in some rough times on some rough teams. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life to play football than at that moment right there.
“I get emotional about it, because these guys work their butts off. Matt Cassel hasn’t done anything to you people … hasn’t done anything to the media writers who kill him, hasn’t done anything wrong to the people that come out here and cheer him. If he’s not the best quarterback, he’s not the best quarterback, and that’s OK.
“But he’s a person. And he got knocked out in a game, and we got 70,000 people cheering … Boo him all you want. Boo me all you want. Throw me under the bus. Tell me I’m doing a bad job, say I’ve got to protect him more … but if you’re one of those people who were out there cheering, or even smiled, when he got knocked out, I just want everyone to know it’s sickening and disgusting.”
Now there’s two ways to look at this, at least in Joe’s eyes and perhaps, in Bucs’ fans eyes as well.
Either the Chiefs come into the stadium on Dale Mabry Highway a team in total disarray and ripe for a wood-shedding by the Bucs, or the Chiefs come in like a wounded tiger.
Joe’s guessing Bucs coach Greg Schiano is siding with the wounded tiger analogy.
http://www.joebucsfan.com/
