Stick With Herm. *Ducks. Okay, Seriously. Stick With Herm.

by Ridiculous Matt on Sep 23, 2008 12:08 AM CDT

I'll say it.

I hate Herm Edwards.

Hate him. Don't like the moral superiority both in football philosophy and moral aptitude. Don't like the "We're just going to go out and play football" approach in a highly complex and intricately layered league of schemes and counter-schemes. Don't like the "We've got to stop scoring so much" policy which to me seems against the goal of winning, which, if I'm clear on the rules, involves scoring more points than the other side. I don't like how he never owns up for the failures we've seen. I don't like how he's managed rosters. I don't like how he's managed playcalling. I don't like his sneers or his Hermisms or his 3rd and long draw plays. I hate pretty much everything about him, in that "I hate the taste of sour cream" way. I don't hate him like I hate homophobia, racism, or Oakland Raiders fans, but I hate him the way I hate people that cut me off in traffic and loud talkers in movies.

And you know what? None of that matters if he's right.

I'm not a fan of jerseys, or individual players, or fads. I'm a fan of the Kansas City Chiefs and everything that proud organization has stood for. For pride in a small market, for dedication to the community, to a sea of red and the smell of barbecue on a Sunday morning. I'm a fan of the same team my father roots for and his father roots for. And that means any quarterback that steps on that field is my quarterback, and I hope he absolutely kills the other guys. Whether it's Tyler with some sort of miracle improvement, Damon Huard with a two yard out, Trent Green to Eddie Kennison in overtime in Green Bay, Elvis Grbac, Joe Montana, or Tim Tebow. They're my quarterback and I love them because that jersey means more than Carl Peterson or Herm Edwards or Dwyane Bowe. It's the pride of Missouri, the Show-Me-State. It's a part of people's families, their traditions, a part of their lives. It's a huge part of mine.

Herm Edwards was put in charge and he says he has a plan. Giving up on him when he says the plan needs more time, *right now* is not what I'm in for. I don't want him to fail. I want him to turn it around, shove it in my face, make me laugh and scream "I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Herm!" I want to write a weekly FanPost outlining how wrong I was about his inability to manage clocks, inspire players, develop personnel and direct a franchise. He's my head coach. I want him to succeed.

So I don't want him fired. I want things to turn around. Because that's better than them getting worse and having to start over. If Damon takes over, I want his arm strength to improve. I want this team to do well. Not in a way that belies our actual progress, because that doesn't help us reach our goal of a Super Bowl. But I want it to do well.

Herm may not be your kind of coach. He may drive you nuts. But Lane Kiffin is getting absolutely embarrassed by terrible management that is unprofessional and despicable. We're better than that. We said we wanted to see how he would do with a full year of "his guys." And despite what some might say, these are "his guys" even if they're not the ideal. You don't get your dream roster. You do the best you can with your scouting reports and go from there. And if the players that have talent don't make enough improvements for us to compete, then we can look at that at season's end.

But I was a fan when Gunther was coach, when Derrick died, when Vermeil cried, when Priest hurdled in, when Marcus crossed the line in the snow, through Spider-Man, the X-Factor, Greg Hill, Tony Richardson, the day Tony was drafted, the day Sims was drafed and the day Herm was hired. And I'll be a fan when Herm moves on, when Croyle is gone, when Dorsey goes to the Pro Bowl and the good times and the bad.

And I don't want to spend all my time just saying "Herm Edwards sucks." There's more to a football game, there's more to a football season, and there's more to being a fan. It doesn't make you less of a fan to point out where Herm fails each and every week, it only strengthens your case at season's end when you demand his release. It doesn't make you more of a fan to stand behind him despite his numerous and repeated failures. But I still feel our best option is to make do, to stick together, and weather the storm.

Lose together or die alone.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.

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A big F-ing +1

by NJChiefsFan on Sep 23, 2008 5:26 AM CDT 0 recs

Very Good Post

Although of course Peterson still sucks and is the root of all problems here :)

But we wouldn’t be commenting about it through a really horrible and so far pretty unwatchable season if we didn’t care quite a bit about the team.

Supporting the lesser of two evils is still supporting something evil.

by UCrawford on Sep 23, 2008 8:12 AM CDT 0 recs

perhaps your header should be

“Stuck with Herm”. I agree that firing someone in mid season is the most desperate of measures, only done once here in KC (leading to the immortal Tom Bettis regime). It rarely works.

Having said that, those of us who question Herm on a fairly regular basis have yet to see the case made for his long term employment here. His talent evaluation skills seem to be fairly overrated, he was sold as a defensive specialist, and yet his defenses stink despite “improved drafting” in that area.

by sm7600 on Sep 23, 2008 9:32 AM CDT 0 recs

again

you’re pointing to a cumulative reason to fire him. Let’s save those.

How about sending our ends to the outside when we were getting gouged on counters this week? How about clearly coaching Page to be hyper-aggressive towards the run when we need him in coverage on the deep ball? How about questioning playing Pat Thomas instead of DeMorrio Williams? Let’s get specific. Otherwise it’s just the same arguments over and over and over again and they’re all subjective.

Bones. It's not just a noun it's a verb. Not just a nickname, a movement.

by Ridiculous Matt on Sep 23, 2008 10:23 AM CDT up 0 recs

Deckchairs On The Titanic, Matt

I can understand the desire for constructive rather than destructive criticism (because I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I hate how little positive there is for me to say about this season), but Herm is the metaphorical equivalent of the house being on fire and quibbling about individual pieces of strategy is like discussing what color you’d like to paint the house while it’s burning down.

First you put out the fire (get rid of the terrible head coach) then you paint and reorganize the furniture (hire a competent head coach who suits the talent we’ve got).

Supporting the lesser of two evils is still supporting something evil.

by UCrawford on Sep 23, 2008 11:06 AM CDT up 0 recs

Yes, but if bitching about Peterson and Edwards

is the equivalent of spraying the fire with a hose, you alone have already flooded the entire world and our little waterworld raft is getting pretty close to the atmosphere.

It’s not like these incessant calls for his firing are going to stop, and again, I’m fine with a weekly post for people to talk about his long rampant history of failure. But every thread around here dissolves into “None of this matters until we fire the head coach!”

Unfortunately, neither you nor I can. And I understand making your voice heard, but not to the point where it damages the discussion around here. I’m tired of wanting to talk about Page and his ability to read the play-fake or how Darling runs the crossing pattern, only hear the “Who cares?! The first thing we have to do is GET RID OF CARL PETERSON/HERM EDWARDS!”

Not to mention the fact that as strongly as you may feel about the direction of this franchise, if, by some MIRACLE, he does turn it around, you’re only getting in the way. So wait a few months, then write diatribe after diatribe about how he should be fired.

We’re not rearranging deck chairs, we’re talking about football team. It’s not like it’s up to us to stop Herm before it’s too late! or something. There’s no deadline we’re under. Things suck now, they’ll suck in three months, they’ll suck in six months, they’ll suck in 12 months. This thing ain’t getting turned around over night regardless of whether Herm’s the guy or not.

Bones. It's not just a noun it's a verb. Not just a nickname, a movement.

by Ridiculous Matt on Sep 23, 2008 2:44 PM CDT up 0 recs

Lamar Hunt practiced a hands-off policy

And I think Clark will for the most part.

I will give him the credit of considering Mr. Peterson’s employment status when his contract expires. I really do believe he’ll stay on as a business operator. I think he’ll be able to limit his power, and hopefully a new regime would keep it so.

But good post. I’ve been thinking like that constantly. I’m just waiting for something huge to break out. All we need is one win.

by AngryJesus on Sep 23, 2008 4:53 PM CDT 0 recs

I'm so proud

You get it.

I don’t know if you always got it and just didn’t express it this well, or if you just got it. But regardless, you get it now for sure.

I could give a crap about Herm Edwards the man or Herm Edward the head coach. I won’t be following his career when he leave the Chiefs and be waiting for him to have a break out with another team where his vision and philosophy is proven right because I don’t really care about Herm Edwards. I care about the Chiefs and right now, Herm Edwards is the guy running the Chiefs.

I have no delusions that Herm Edwards is a great, ground breaking coach. But neither am I deluding myself to think that everything wrong with the team is his or Petersons fault and that if we could just get rid of those guys everything would magically be better. I don’t nitpick every single call that doesn’t work and say “Oh, Herm must have called that one in”.

There are plenty of things that you can easily point to and say the coach pulled a bonehead move. Calling timeout and THEN using another timeout to review a play. Thats on the coach. Playing Tyler Thigpen against the Falcons when he looked horrible against the Raiders. Thats on the coach. Not having better backup QB options behind the injury prone young guy you’re building the team around so that WHEN he gets hurt the team doesn’t fall apart. Thats on the coach too.

LJ not making it in the end zone on 4th and 2? Thats on the player. D-Bowe dropping the game winning TD in the end zone? Thats on the player. Tyler Thigpen throwing for 38% completion and 3 INTs, Coaches fault he was in there, players fault for playing so poorly. Any of those things change, the Chiefs look like a completely different team.

I have never had a problem criticizing any coach for mistakes that coach makes. What I do bristle at is using a coach, GM or player as a scapegoat for things that he really isn’t directly responsible for.

What I am most protective of Herm for though, is that I DO believe in the method he is going about rebuilding this team. I have always said that I’m willing to go through a couple of horrible seasons in order to reap the rewards in the future, and just because those horrible seasons are upon us I’m not changing my mind. The absolute worst thing you could do is bring in some guy that quits on the rebuild halfway through to save his own butt.

That’s what I admire about Herm. His coaching career is likely over if he gets fired from the Chiefs while they’re playing badly. Yet he is still willing to take that chance to do things the right way. Theres not many coaches in the league that would do that. Look what Mangini did with the Jets because he’s in the hot seat. Go out and overpay every free agent out there in an attempt to save his own job. That team may look better than us NOW, but it will be in bad shape AGAIN in another year or two when we are being seen as one of the emerging powers in the NFL for the next 6 or 7 years.

Honestly once the rebuilding of talent on team is done, I will be much more critical of Herm (if he’s still here) because the focus will move from rebuilding, to coaching and winning. But I’m trying to keep the horse in front of the cart right now.

by ChiefDJ on Sep 23, 2008 5:46 PM CDT 1 recs