Kansas City Chiefs LB Mike Vrabel Will Do What It Takes To Win

Out of fear for his own cash and prizes, he may want to keep him down at the other end of the bench!

They are going to do any and everything that gives them an edge. We all can recite the “winning is everything” quote, and its taught from a very young age…separate man from ball, “if that man comes over the middle, you make him pay for it!” …whatever it takes. Once someone gets to the point where they make a living from it, its different. I say that because, in business, if someone screws your brains out with the most underhanded thing possible to get an edge, they pass it off as “Nothing personal, it’s just business.” NFL Professional Football is based on a game, yes. But make no mistake, its absolutely big business with billions at stake, and you do anything, everything, to win. To think of it any other way is just fooling ourselves about the obvious (just my opinion).

I don’t begrudge them a little diggin’ and pokin’ in the pile. It’s been going on for like, forever. Is it 100% Marquis of Queensberry clean? Hell no. Never has been. American Football has always been a tough, violent sport. Closeline and Horsecollar tackles, legwhips and tripping, all have been legislated away. But, can we truly say Chop blocks are any less ugly and unsportsmanlike? Shannarat used to teach it. A chop block can take out a knee; possibly ending a career. A nutsack grab may hurt and give someone a temporary advantage, but I doubt any long lasting physical effects. Mentally, you may remember it for a long time, and that’s the objective. Mental toughness will give you that longlasting edge.

I remember Pop Warner football. 1st season. One of our players came to the sidelines and complained about getting grabbed “down there”. Our Coach put his hands on the kids shoulders and told him “Son, if that boy wants to hit you in the personals, then you line up against him on the very next play, you block him so hard you knock him down. You keep doing it until he leaves you alone.” It works. Its part of growing up and facing adversity.

I do draw the line at spitting in someone’s ace like Romanowski (sp?) did. I think I remember hearing him say he snapped a few fingers in the pile also. That’s too far in my book. Should it be penalized? Dunno. Maybe a left hook to the jaw would be better served, but that’s just me.

more to the point: just because a ref can’t see it (and therefore doesn’t call it) doesn’t make it “legal” … much less right

as Elmo said (above) … I want my team tough, I want them to be scrappy and hard hitting (within the rules, of course) … but I don’t think there’s a NEED for dirty play (and “everyone else does it” is another lame excuse that I’ve seen on here as well … if it’s wrong, it wrong, called or not, caught or not)

and went a whole lot quicker than I expected. From eye gouging to finger breaking to sac grabbing… It covered a whole lot of bases!

Here’s an excerpt from a section about the Chiefs:

The color of blood surrounds you inside Arrowhead Stadium. It drips from the fixtures of the place and from the seats in the stands and most especially from the people who occupy them on game day — splashed on teh Chiefs coats and Chiefs caps and Chiefs jerseys. It feels like you’re in the deep end of a pool of red, and isn’t red the perfect color for a football team? The color that’s associated with energy, courage, war, danger, strength, power, determination, and passion? The color that sparks emotion? That enhances our metabolism and raises our blood pressure? That’s used in several national flags because of its connotation of fierce pride?

…

And inside their place of pilgrimage, an older white man in a red windbreaker, who would years later wind up making wine in Napa Valley, stood in the middle of mostly young black men and led a battle cry.

“It so well defined what we have to do today,” Dick Vermeil howled. "We gotta go to work.

“All right. Offense?”

“GO TO WORK!” the players say in unison.
“Defense?” asks Vermeil.
“GO TO WORK!”
“Special teams?”
“GO TO WORK!”
“Coaches?” follows Vermeil.
“GO TO WORK!”
“Let’s go,” Vermeil urged. “Let’s go. Huddle up.”

Then protect your junk.