It seems to me that there's a lot of concern floating around right now about how the Chiefs have performed, or rather behaved, early in the season. This concern seems to have started in earnest about the time Kansas City kicked off in the Georgia Dome but there were certainly tendrils of angst seeping about in the weeks leading up to that first preseason game.

Hear me now, O' faithful clan of Chiefy Nationalists: worry not they pretty little heads.

Since almost the beginning, Pioli and company have made it their full-time hobby to bamboozle those of us who live and die(-ish) with the organization. Remember all the BS about him giving Edwards a shot? Remember how many times Scott said how terrible an idea it would be to draft a safety at number 5? Remember all the promises that he'd leave his wife? That we'd make a home together and finally be happy? He's a bastard I tell you! A whoring bastard!

:collects self:

The point is, he'll say anything to get in your pantsIMEANTHESUPERBOWL.

Now, contrary to what you may have assumed to this point, I'm no Pioli-hater. The man's only had his job for a few months and I would never assume to judge a general manager so early in his tenure. Furthermore, while I'm not sold on several of the Pioli-era players, I am intrigued with several others and I do realize the need to be patient with draftees.

But the fact remains that he's a big fat liar; that his pants are perpetually aflame; that his nose continually grows.

Or does it?

I say no. Here's why.

Games come in myriad forms: there are games of skill, games of athletic ability, and games of chance just to name a few. Most games combine one or more of these things. Poker, for example, is mostly a game of chance but to deny that psychology and mathematics don't figure into the long-term success of the best players in the world would be silly.

Football is no different and that's why we all love the game so much. There are aspects of skill (game-planning, match-ups, in-game play-calling). There are aspects of athletic ability. There are aspects of chance (injury, coin toss, bounces). And, indeed, there are aspects of psychology.

If, for example, Scott Pioli had run all over Missouri in the days before the draft screaming about how great a safety Eric Berry is and how thin the Chiefs were at safety, the chances that we would have drafted him would have been monumentally lower considering the ability of other teams to trade draft places.

The same can be said for the preseason. If you run all over the place, telling teams how to gameplan for you, they will; every front office is going to take every advantage they're given and, if they don't, they won't be employed for very long.

It's part of the game. The Chiefs will continue to bluff at times. At times, they'll tell the truth, just to make sure everyone knows they aren't ALWAYS bluffing.

And we'll be caught in the middle, reminding ourselves that he doesn't lie to us because he respects us so little but rather for our own good. We really do deserve it.

Just wish he'd leave some money on the nightstand :/

Barry