talking about being able to make changes. We’re talking about how to guide the discussion here at Arrowhead Pride. I’m not willing to be a cheerleader for someone who’s not best for the team when we talk about decisions. When Damon Huard’s on the field, I want him to play well. When he’s off, I know he’s not going to, and I want someone else to take over.

We guide the discussion here at Arrowhead Pride because it’s fun, because we’re devoted fans. But just because Damon Huard was named the starting quarterback doesn’t mean I was going to be fine with his performance.

It’s almost like you’re taking the negative reaction you had to last night’s game (in my case, it was crying blood), and turning it against the people that want to criticize the team. That wasn’t just bad. That was horrific. The team that went 1-15 ran us out the building last night.

This entire FanPost is basically saying “No one should complain. Because if you do, then you don’t understand what rebuilding is.” The Arizona Cardinals have been rebuilding for 10 years, with no discernible progress. Do you think they should have stuck with the players and people who failed them, just so they can prove they have patience? I’m willing to be patient. For a year.

You want to know how I’ll react this season? If we lose to the Patriots 37-0, fine. They’re a world class organization with top talent, we’re dregs. Fine. If we lose to every team by 17 points or more? That’s unacceptable. But if we stay within range of most of the teams, with a few performances that are bad (but not as bad as last night, which should be easy as it was preseason), borderline horrible, that’s all I ask. If Dorsey looks like he’s going to be a force up the middle and Hali can push off the edge. If Albert manages to give Croyle enough time to at least make a good throw on some plays, and if Croyle can make that throw sometimes. If the offense looks dynamic and hard to predict, and if we manage the clock well. That’s what I’m looking for. Not all at once, together. but some sign that we’re capable of being close to a decent team next year.

You want to throw accusations and condemnations at your fellow fans. All people want to do here is talk about the good and the bad. How great DBowe looks, how great Tony G has been to the organization. How DJ hunts down the ball with ferocity and intensity. Why do you demand that everyone just get in line? We suck, DJ. We suck terribly. It’s not a crime for fans to have doubts when the team has done NOTHING yet to show improvement. We’re not saying yet, that was the whole point of the post. But if time goes by, and we go further in the tank, it might be time for us to ask whether we’re actually rebuilding, or miring in ineptitude.

We have that right.

And if you want to start throwing around declarations about what people should do, heré’s one.

If you want to just sit around and clap for a team that embarrasses us, maybe you should start yourself a cheerleading club. Because accusations and condemnations like this are insulting to the good and smart fans that frequent AP.

I tried making a post that said we should abstain from criticizing people, you say I’m laying the groundwork to call for blood.

I point out that Pollard and Page look like they can be a capable safety tandem, you say that all I do is nitpick and criticize.

Everyone’s optimistic. We’re all optimistic. Hell, Brodie could turn into a great quarterback this season. Albert could become our next John Tait.

No one’s overreacting but you to a few fanposts and the fact that all people have said is that last night, we looked horrible. You haven’t mentioned any of that, because you’re too busy criticizing other posters. There’soptimism, and then there’s blind optimism. There’s room for optimism and criticism this season. We should focus on the positive improvements players are making (I think our receiving corp could actually turn out pretty well), and be able to say when a player or coach shows a level of ineptitude (hello, Damien Mcintosh).

If you want to open a positive thread and a negative thread each week, maybe that’s a good idea. A place where we can focus on what progress the team made and where it continues to show that is in EPIC FAIL mode.

But this self-righeousness makes it look like you’re a better fan than the others, and that’s not what you mean, is it? You don’t honestly think that just by blindly backing a coach that hasn’t given us much to believe in yet, that makes you a better fan? Because a good fan is rational, fair, and supportive. I support this team and I want it to do well. God, how I want Croyle to show promise. He can have a 1:1 TD-INT ratio if it means that he looks like a starting-caliber quarterback.

For the record, I stand by Carl Peterson. Carl’s a part of the family at Arrowhead. He’s led us to good times and bad, and the fact that we haven’t gotten a Super Bowl is not something I put on him. Likewise, I really liked the 3 and 4 receiver sets I saw from Gailey last night and he understand the value of a blocking fullback.

What I can’t get through to you is that the minute that Herm shows that he can put a team I look and go “Yeah, this team can win consistently” together, I’m going to say so. If he put us on the path to the Super Bowl, I’m going to say “I was wrong. He’s a great coach, and he’s done a good job.” I believed that when he took over. Since he got here, things have gotten worse than they may have had to, that’s a matter of opinion. I’m willing to give him this year to show that we’re on the right track. That’s what that whole post was about. But you just see it as more attacks on your favorite coach.

What do people think about a weekly dual fanpost set, one focusing on the negative ways in which we continue to have problems, and another that focuses on the positive improvements we made, and who looks like they’re headed in the right direction? I think that way we could avoid more messiness. The game threads will still have the combination of both, as will some of the others. But at least those two threads we could focus on what they’re talking about. DJ can never visit the negative one, so he doesn’t have to heard the negativity that makes his ears bleed, and guys like the CROYLE SUX fanposter can never go to the positive. I for one, would love to be a part of both threads.

That’s probably true, though when Vermeil was first brought in, I was very skeptical. He managed to turn me around with the way the players responded to him. That team had a ton of heart. He neglected the defense until it was too late, it’s true, but he also brought a pride and confidence back to that team that we hadn’t seen since Marty, and honestly, we haven’t seen since. This team doen’t play with a lot of pride, and that’s distressing. Maybe it’s just talent, though.

I’m just saying with the separate posts, it would help us not to get into what you call nitpicking, and the other stuff I call “blindly claiming we’re fine.” We could have one post that covers who did well and what strides we made, and somewhere else for us to talk about the issues. It might help smooth the discourse and stop people from name-calling or telling people they should pick another team, which is just absurd.

Yeah, there are going to be people that call for benchings but it’s just an expression of their passion for the team.

I understand being big picture, which is why I wished you’d taken the fanpost I did on deadlines differently. I’m not chomping at the bit for December so I can blast Herm. I want to see how we do. I just want to be even-handed in our take.

Finally, if Herm delivers us a season like 2003, I’ll be on board. I know we failed miserably in the playoffs, but that year was special for a lot of us.

I still feel like having a Monday Morning Rebuilding Thread would be good, so we could look at the game outside of the individual looks at “why did we lose… again”. We could look at how Turk’s development has come along, and how good DJ looks. On the flip side, a criticism thread could let us say things like “Wow, we are redefining the word suck” and say things like “We really should have thrown more to the right side. We had openings and time on the right side rollouts.”

Just trying to be constructive.

Matt and DJ, I have to say I understand both of your arguments. But I think whatever happens is going to happen. Lucky for us, AP for the most part has a core of intelligent people who are not quick to fly off the handle for no good reason.. at least as far as I’ve seen. This one fella who popped in the other day seems to have started a tailspin that is likely unnecessary in the scheme of things. If the season goes horrible, we may see more of his ilk. If it goes well, we’ll probably see an influx of sunshine and rainbow bandwaggoners.

Through these posts I’ve been a little more on the side of DJ, we seem to share similar philosophies and viewpoints in regards to the Chiefs. But I’m like Frosted Mini-Wheats… and DJ is the frosted side… Matt is the rough, raw wheat side. I’m a mixture of both.

In the end I don’t think AP is going to end up like the KC Star forums, where 29 out of 30 posts are childish and inflammatory and written in 1st grade grammar. And it is the core of the fans here that will keep it from going that way, regardless of the way this season goes.

I wasn’t here last year, but I don’t believe things went downhill dramatically did they? That was the worst season we’ve had in ages. I can’t imagine this one being any worse.

I for one will watch every game this year, no matter how far in the shitter we go. If you want to hear negativity, I can audio tape my viewings because I’m sure at times it will be like a barefoot sailor walking on broken glass. The positive hoots and hollers will be mixed in, and plentiful if we’re doing well. The worse it gets, the more “ksshhhttt” sounds of beer bottle tops popping will be heard as well… it always seems to help.

To sum up… it can’t all be sunshine and rainbows… but it shouldn’t all be doom and gloom either. It’s up to us to balance it out and discuss it like adults to help everyone here understand where we’re coming from – that goes for both sides.