Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.           

                                                                                                Vince Lombardi

Dare I say that WE KNEW THIS. They told us it wouldn't be pretty. Herm and Carl and all them. We knew what we had signed up for before the ink on the rookie contracts had dried. It wasn't even time for training camp when excuses were being thrown about like dust in the wind. But our objectiveness was not objective. Our hope was found wanting, and our team, though young, is not very good. Don't act surprised. Refrain from your bitterness and loathing. Confusion is for the weak of heart. It is time to embrace the truth.

Oh sure, you have heard it all before. No one is truly shocked by the outcome of today's loss to the Panthers. They whipped our butts. As good as we all felt after last week's win is how utterly hopeless we feel after today's loss. The sky is falling and all that. But that is not the truth.

We want to be competitive, not to be the laughingstock. To fight tooth and nail every second that we are on the field. If we are going to lose, then the better team will know that they have just been in a dogfight from hell. Our pride and our honor are at stake. We're Chiefs fans, not fans of the Bills, Cardinals, or Saints. But wait...all those teams are better than us. Truly I must be in denial. How the mighty have fallen.

This is what it is. Should we put completely unrealistic expectations on the team to compete in hostile environments? Can we expect the coaching staff to work miracles with this young team? Where can our expectations honestly fall? 

Our franchise chose this path. We did not go after more veteran players for our rebuilding project like the Raiders, Jets, and Dolphins did. They went for a more immediate "fix" for their teams. But they should have asked us, we are the experts. Carl is the King in scrounging and signing old, washed up QBs and free agents to come in and keep us just competitive enough. Enough to fill seats, and keep jobs, but never good enough to win the Big One. We always fell short. We all swore by blood oath, never again, not us. This time we were going to do it right. We were going to build the foundation from the ground up. These were going to be home grown players who many had never even wore another's jersey. I agreed that this was the way to go. Give us rebuilding, or give us death (little harsh I know!).

After the 1-4 start, and the overwhelming evidence that our team is giving a very lackluster effort, how should we feel? We should swallow our pride and hunker down for the long winter. This is going to take time, perhaps even next year won't be enough to turn this thing around. We have all sat and watched bad teams stay bad for years and said "Thank God that is not my team!". There fans had to be patient. They had to keep hope. Some resorted to wearing paper bags, some just don't go to the games. Some are still in denial. But remember, TRUE FANS stick. They don't run. Don't give up your season tickets just yet!

Understand this, I think that the changes will come. Whether that is GM or Head Coach is still to be determined. But the changes will come. Just be careful for what you wish for, because CHANGE is hard. Damn hard.