the chiefs prediction

"There are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. There's
something inside that they can't take away from you. That they can't get
to, that they can't touch".
"What are you talking about?"
"Hope".

"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good
thing ever dies".

-- Andy Dufresne, "Shawshank Redemption".

There are those who will argue that this is just another game on the
schedule. Not any more important than, say, our upcoming game at Houston
next week. Or the back-to-back roadies at oakland and denver to open
November.

And to those people, I say, you're wrong.

This is not just another game.

This is the game that checks the character, the makeup, of the 2010 Kansas
City Chiefs. This is the game that will define who the 2010 Kansas City
Chiefs are.

Because come 3:30pm on Sunday afternoon, we'll know exactly what the 2010
Kansas City Chiefs are. Either this is a legitimate playoff team, a rising
power in the AFC that cannot be ignored or dismissed by the national media
and football experts any longer ... or I'm completely clueless about who
the 2010 Kansas City Chiefs are.

Sure, you can enter this Showdown Sunday with disbelief. That's certainly
your right. You can sit there on your couch, entertain every negative,
draining thought about these guys. You can believe the peyton manning
hype, buy into the "whoa, the Colts lost last week, they're going to really
come out ready to win" ridiculous bullsh*t of Chris Berman, and envision a
31-10 beatdown that so many in the national and local media seem to think
is going to happen.

Or ... you can buy in to what these boys are selling. You can believe that
what we've seen so far is reality, its not an illusion, its not a mirage.
You can look at the statistics, the facts, that point out just how
ridiculously good this defense is, how awesome our rushing attack is, how
dominant our special teams are, how insanely ready-to-perform-now our draft
class was, and how completely overwhelmed the Colts are in the coaching
aspect of this game, and you can hope. You can envision it. TJ offtackle.
Charles in the flat. Flowers streaking down the sideline for a Pick Six as
peyton manning displays the face that made him famous. Dex refusing to
fair catch the punt, turning a corner, blowing past the coverage ... to the
40 ... the 30 ... the 20 ...

You can hope.

It's your call.

But me?

Hell yes, I hope.

Hell yes, I believe.

Hell yes, we're winning this game.

I am fully aware that this is only week five. Sometimes, though, week five
defines your season. Think back seven years ago, to that magical first
Sunday in October, 2003. It's a game, it's a day, I will never forget as
long as I live. In case you've forgotten the play that defined the season
for those AFC West Champion Chiefs:

(kevin harlan) the punt by micah knorr. Dante Hall back at his 10 and
fields it ... surrounded by a team of broncos ... but he's around the
corner and he finds a seam!
(randy cross) he's gone!
(kevin harlan) one man to beat and that's knorr ... ladies and gentlemen,
you are seeing something that has never happened before in the National
Football League! Seven returns in ten games! Incredible!

If you were there that day, just close your eyes, and remember. I remember
every freaking detail about that return, right down to me simply collapsing
in my seat as Dante blew past micah knorr, and beginning to cry. Yeah, I
can admit it, I've cried at Chiefs games before. And I will again.

Because for the first time in at least a couple seasons, these guys matter.
The games we play on Sunday, actually are important. We, us, the Red and
Gold, our "Overachiefers", we matter to more than just some semi-delusional
hot-as-hell 33 year old in south Kansas City.

And as that semi-delusional hot-as-hell 33 year old, I think that's pretty
damned cool.

If you're a Chiefs fan, this game SHOULD have added meaning to you. We're
facing the AFC's best team from last season. In their home. I'm not
surprised the Colts are favored -- they should be. They're not chumps.
This isn't some second rate football team that you schedule because you
know they're horribly coached, horribly prepared, have little to no talent,
and you're going to win by 50 if you simply remember to show up. The Colts
ain't KU. They're a team that's won 12 or more games 8 straight years.
They've won their division 7 of the last 8.

And of course, they're quarterbacked by peyton manning, a man that is so
great, so invincible, so utterly undefeatable, so supremely intelligent,
that we should just hit our knees now and verbally fellate him just for
allowing us to tune in and watch him perform every Sunday.

(In the interest of full disclosure -- I DESPISE peyton manning. Not
dislike, not don't care for, not "aw, that guy always beats us, that sucks"
level of contempt. I DESPISE him. There is no athlete I have ever hated
as much as I DESPISE peyton manning. And I am fully aware that I have
stated on multiple occasions that the day john elway is buried, I am
showing up at his gravesite just to piss on his tombstone. I hate john
elway. I DESPISE peyton manning. Just so we're clear on that).

So far, we've beaten every challenge thrown at us. We are the only
undefeated team in the NFL. Not the Jets, not the Ravens, not the
Steelers, not the Patriots, not even our esteemed opponents on Sunday.

Only one team has faced every opponent thrown at it, and beat them all.
That's us. The Chiefs.

But as the great Ric Flair would note, "To be the best? WOO! You gotta
beat the best!"

Come Sunday, we're gonna do it.

The late, great Bobby Thompson, he of the "Shot Heard Round the World", was
asked once what made him special. Why was his home run so fondly
remembered? He was nobody special. A semi-decent shortstop. But no Hall
of Famer, no game-changer, nothing more than a couple lines in the
historical register of the Giants franchise.

Thompson: "No, I'm not anybody special. But I came through. Plenty of
guys have been in my situation, a chance to win the game, a chance to win a
championship. And failed. But I didn't. I delivered. That's why people
remember".

(And yes, I am fully aware that he also cheated by stealing the pitching
signs. Just like peyton manning cheats every damned time he's in the
shotgun formation by moving towards the line of scrimmage prior to the ball
being snapped. Watch him on Sunday. It drives me absolutely bat sh*t
crazy. he will ALWAYS move forward before the ball is snapped. Its a
false start. And nobody ever calls him on it. Just once, I wish a head
coach would charge the field after peyton gets away with it for the first
time, and refuse to leave until either the refs start flagging peyton for
his blatant cheating, or some nice guys in security vests drag said coach
off the field. Sadly, it won't happen. And nobody will ever call him on
it. Why? Because he's peyton manning, the Jesus of this generation
apparently. he can walk on water, and he can do no wrong. Well, other
than this:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2003-11-06-brennan_x.htm
Yeah, I hate his f*cking guts).

Sunday, the Chiefs are going to break through. Sunday, this team will go
from "intriguing" to "memorable". Because we're going to roll up to the
gates of the enemy, and in the words of Brian Billick, prior to his
shock-the-world 2000 Ravens traveling to Nashville for a playoff game
against the heavily favored Titans, we're gonna "come in screaming like a
banshee, and demand to beat the son of a b*tch that lives there!"

Its only week five? An early October game can't write the script for a
season? Flash back fifteen years ago, to the loudest moment Arrowhead
Stadium has ever witnessed. I know I joked about "Tuesday Morning
Football" when we faced the Chargers four weeks ago, but in the words of
Dan Dierdorf, we had "seen it before". Week 6 1995. When early on a
Tuesday morning ...

(dan dierdorf) boy did he loft that one!
(al michaels) the rookie Vanover fields it ...
(frank gifford) uh oh ...
(al michaels) Vanover up past the thirty!
(dan dierdorf) he's gone!
(al michaels) Vanover is almost gone and now he is ... officially gone!
(dan dierdorf) no flags! This one's over!

It's still my favorite Chiefs play of all time. I cry simply hearing it.
Granted, some of that is because the 1995 Chiefs are my favorite team of
all time. A team with 6 win talent on paper, that somehow won 13 games.
But still. Don't tell me an early game can't define a season. Don't tell
me an up-and-coming Chiefs team can't scratch, scrap, and claw its way to
an improbable, unbelievable victory against the best the AFC has to offer.
We've been there. We've done that.

And Sunday, we're gonna do it again. One more time.

You say, "but Stevo! All your examples are neat, but they're all home
games! Of course the Chiefs can beat the best at Arrowhead, but how about
the road? We're going to Indy. We're doomed!"

The hell we are.

This is a franchise that has hit the road early in the season ... and
beaten some damned good football teams. Remember 2000? Week four at Real
Mile High? Man, did we close that place down in style, as a 1-2 Chiefs
team took the donkeys to the woodshed, posting nine sacks, five turnovers,
and a late Grbac to Derrick Alexander bomb to save the season 24-23.

2007, an 11 1/2 point underdog Chiefs team, at 1-2, came into San Diego.
After a night of (allegedly) partying with some questionable women with
loose morals and (allegedly) enjoying some recreational drugs of an illegal
variety, those Chiefs came out and destroyed the Chargers 30-16.

Go back to that magical 2003 season, a week before the showdown with
denver. When the Chiefs rolled into Baltimore a pretty sizeable underdog,
and took it to the Ravens on yet another Dante Hall return for a touchdown.

Or a year later, a game that for my group of tailgaters and fans, was the
end of an era sadly. But an 0-3 Chiefs team, traveling to Baltimore on a
Monday night, and we just obliterated them. Ray Lewis had a Derrick
Thomas-esque meltdown, drawing three personal fouls. The Ravens couldn't
stop us. They were completely outcoached, outplayed, and depantsed in
front of the nation. By us, the Chiefs.

And the enduring image, after the Chiefs had run right over this alleged
great defense, after we'd matched up mano y mano and beaten those guys,
humiliated them on their home field, there was Gunther looking over at the
Ravens offensive coaches in the next booth, and repeatedly screaming two
beautiful words to them.

"F*ck you."

Just like that 2004 Chiefs team, this one is going to go on the road, into
the most hostile of environments, to face a damned good football team, and
they're going to emerge victorious.

To go back to the "Shawshank Redemption" well one last time, I close with
Red's final words:

"I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my
head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at
the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can
make it across the border. I hope to see my friend again and shake his
hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope".

Chiefs fans, I hope. I believe. And come 3:30pm on Sunday afternoon, I
have a feeling a whole lot of people are going to be sharing those
feelings.

This Week's Upset of the Week? Screw the usual reply, it's not strong enough.

"Take a MOTHER f*cking guess!!!"

Chiefs (+8 1/2) 27, at Colts 14.

Believe. Hope. Hope is a good thing! And no good thing ever dies ...