Arrowheadlines: Kansas City Chiefs News 10/9

Good morning! From Los Angeles to New York, in Texas and Indiana, on ESPN and in USA Today, and across the Atlantic Ocean, people are reading about how poorly Chiefs fans act (not all fans, but that part always comes later in the story). So, thanks for that Mr. Winston. Think before you run your mouth next time and falsely paint a large group with one stroke. I get what you were saying and agree it's wrong to cheer an injury, but you stepped in a pile of crap and you need to do a better job of cleaning it up.

Here is your Kansas City Chiefs news.

Chiefs Find Themselves At Odds With Their Fans from KC Star

The downside is that many people now wrongly believe 70,000 people cheered Matt Cassel's concussion, and if general manager Scott Pioli is fired he will almost certainly use this to slam Kansas City fans to national media - "off the record," of course.

But the good part is that our city's worst-kept secret is no longer kept, and the men in charge of the Chiefs can no longer ignore it or pretend that a win at Tampa Bay this weekend will fix a broken foundation I've been writing about for weeks:

Chiefs fans actively dislike this team. Now, it appears the feeling is mutual.

KC Fans' Ire Directed At GM, Owner from FOX Sports

Sickening? A smattering of cheers for an injured $66 million quarterback with a rating of 66.2 and a league-leading 14 turnovers?

No. No. What's sickening is how easily Winston, Kansas City's right tackle, deflected the national media from the real story. One of the most passionate fan bases in sports - Kansas City Chiefs fans - has been abused so thoroughly the last eight to 10 years that it is turning unruly.

Eric Winston Defends His Criticism Of Chiefs Fans from KC Star

"I didn't mean all 70,000 (fans) were cheering," he said. "It might have been 7,000. It might have been 700. It's still too many. Of anything I said, that's the one thing that might have been misconstrued. That was the one thing just looking back on it that I want to make sure people know, that I didn't think it was the whole stadium."

Winston's comments sparked more than anger among Chiefs fans in Kansas City. They were played repeatedly on ESPN throughout the day on Monday, turning a local story into a national one.

Q&A With Romeo Crennel - 10/8 from The Mothership

ADAM TEICHER (KANSAS CITY STAR): Are you ruling Cassel out of Sunday's game?

CRENNEL: "No, not totally. Just from what I've seen about concussions, they can be difficult. A lot of times, the individual is the thing. Some individuals recover faster than others. With the emphasis on concussions in the league, they're making sure that we do due diligence on the player's health in making sure he's not rushed back. We'll evaluate it and see."

Chiefs Start Crafting Offensive Plan With Quinn At QB from KC Star

Romeo Crennel's first act as Chiefs head coach last December was to name Kyle Orton as the new starting quarterback. In making the announcement, Crennel expressed plenty of confidence that Orton could help the Chiefs win.

Crennel is now on the verge of making another quarterback change, this one forced by the concussion to Matt Cassel. Crennel didn't sound on Monday as confident in Brady Quinn, the probable starter in Sunday's game against the Buccaneers in Tampa, as he was in Orton.

NY Giants' Kevin Boothe Sounds Off Against Fans, Says Cheering An Injury Is 'Where You Draw The Line' from The NY Daily News

K.C. fans showed no concern for Cassel, however. The QB, who has struggled this season and already has thrown nine interceptions, lay on his back for a few minutes as fans cheered his injury, a scene that K.C. tackle Eric Winston would later call "100% sickening."

Cassel - who is unlikely to play this weekend against Tampa Bay and would be replaced by Brady Quinn - was later diagnosed with a concussion.

Bad Fan Behavior Comes To Kansas City from USA Today

Sure, Kansas City had a little brawl last summer at the Home Run Derby, qualifying for any top 10 of the world's most ridiculous little brawls. The fans booed quarterback Matt Cassel at that All-Star Game even though the immediate vicinity included neither an incompletion nor an interception. Yet on Sunday, they burrowed themselves into a fresh layer of disgusting, even if a Kansas City Star poll as of midday Monday did find a three-quarters majority condemning the cheering of the potential concussion.

What relief . . . except, well, didn't you kind of hope for 99%?

Fear And Self-Loathing In Kansas City from ESPN

"It's 100 percent sickening," Chiefs tackle Eric Winston said after the game Sunday. "I've never, ever -- and I've been in some rough times on some rough teams -- I've never been more embarrassed in my life to play football than at that moment right there ... Matt Cassel hasn't done anything to you people."

But maybe Cassel has. Not to the degree that he got what he deserved or that the fans were justified in cheering him being physically hurt, but the resentment for Cassel as the Chiefs' quarterback has been building for months. The cheers could have been more about the physical nature of the game forcing a decision that coach Romeo Crennel and the front office seemed reluctant or didn't have the guts to do.

Chiefs Fans Make A Classless Display from The Joplin Globe

Some folks in the Kansas City media have tried to argue that some of the fans weren't cheering because Matt got hurt but because backup quarterback Brady Quinn was coming into the game. I'm sorry, but I don't get that distinction.

To be fair, not all the fans at Sunday's game cheered when Matt got hurt. I would like to think, as a matter of fact, that those cheering while Matt was led off the field were in a small minority. But, apparently, they were a loud minority.

Chiefs Fans Deserve Criticism from The Examiner

Sunday I was embarrassed to witness something at Arrowhead Stadium that made me sick to my stomach.

With 9:48 left in the fourth quarter of a lackluster loss quarterback Matt Cassel - the fans' favorite whipping boy - was knocked nearly unconscious.

As he lay motionless on the ground, fans applauded.

Way to keep it classy, Kansas City.

Extra Points: Kansas City Goes Too Far from KGET.com

Deserved or not, the popular perception is the Midwest has fans who are far more even-tempered than those nasty East Coast cities.

Kansas City, however, became Philadelphia for at least for one afternoon when the fans started cheering after its own quarterback, Matt Cassel, left the team's 9-6 loss to Baltimore with a head injury.

Chiefs' Eric Winston Stands By Remarks; Former Player Demands Apology from CBS Sports

Not everybody felt that way. Former Chiefs offensive lineman Rich Baldinger thinks Winston needs to apologize to the people of Kansas City.

"Needless to say, you cannot, after a game in a highly emotional situation, take your rant that way," Baldinger said. "It came off wrong. You embarrassed a lot of great people in the city of Kansas City that have been so supportive of this team. You go to any other city, and it's worse. These fans have been here through thick and thin."

Sports Fans' Behavior Has Gone Over The Top from The Los Angeles Daily News

Who cheers their own quarterback when he goes down with an injury?

A whole bunch, apparently, so irritated that Cassel isn't as good as Tom Brady or Peyton Manning they actually take satisfaction in seeing him forced out of a game by an injury.

Stay classy, Kansas City. Not the whole city, mind you, just the goons who had the audacity to cheer an injured player.

Fans Who Cheered KC Quarterback's Injury Are Hardly The First To Act Like Boors - As Dallas Cowboys Know from The Dallas Morning News

The sports airwaves have been abuzz all day with harsh denunciations of the so-called fans in Kansas City who cheered on Sunday when Matt Cassel, the struggling quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, went down with an injury.

Cassel didn't move for several minutes after being hit hard in the fourth quarter by Haloti Ngata, a defensive end for the visiting Baltimore Ravens. As Cassel lay on the turf, many in the crowd at Arrowhead Stadium applauded enthusiastically.

'We're Not Gladiators - And This Isn't The Roman Colosseum': NFL Player Blasts Fans For Cheering After Quarterback Suffered A Concussion On The Field from The Daily Mail

A disgusted NFL player ripped his team's hometown fans after they cheered loudly while his quarterback was injured on the field.

The fan response came as Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel was knocked out of the game on Sunday by a Baltimore Ravens defender about 100 pounds heavier, causing him to suffer a head injury.

Chiefs Players Rip Their Own Fans For Cheering Matt Cassel Injury from The Los Angeles Times

It was not a pretty sight Sunday, when fans of the Kansas City Chiefs cheered as their team's quarterback, Matt Cassell, had to leave the game against the Baltimore Ravens because of head injury.

Cassel was hurt when he was hit by the Ravens' Haloti Ngata while completing a pass in the fourth quarter of the Chiefs' 9-6 loss at Kansas City, Mo.

Cheering Players Getting Hurt Is Appalling from The Amarillo Globe-News

Later in the game, Cassel suffered a concussion, an injury of which the ramifications are becoming more serious as more is learned about brain injuries. Many fans cheered, though some claimed they were cheering backup Brady Quinn coming into the game. Maybe so.

I'm sure not all 70,000 were cheering that Cassel was hurt, but enough that it got some of Cassel's teammates' attention.

NFL: 5 Things We Learned In Week 5 from The Guardian

RG3 was not the only starting quarterback to suffer a head injury on Sunday, Kansas City's Matt Cassel having to be helped off the field after a brutal hit from Baltimore's Haloti Ngata and Paul Kruger. But where the former injury was met with concern in Washington, the latter was greeted with cheers at the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium.

Cassel has endured a miserable start to the season, his three interceptions against the Ravens taking his tally to 14 after just five games, but to hear supporters cheering a potentially significant injury to one of their own players was nevertheless shocking.

Professor: Fans' Behavior Part Of Mob Mentality from FOX4KC

They have become the cheers heard around the country. Kansas City Chiefs fans are being accosted in the media for what many say was fans cheering as quarterback Matt Cassel laid on the field with a concussion.

But a UMKC Professor says the behavior of fans on Sunday shouldn't be attributed to just Chiefs fans, rather to a mob mentality that is, rightly or wrongly, just a part of human nature.

Winston Doesn't Understand KC Fans Yet from FS Kansas City

The easy narrative -- especially on a national level -- is to lump Sunday in with the fans at Kauffman Stadium who booed Robinson Cano at the Home Run Derby, that Kansas City is somehow Philly West, a bunch of mouth-breathing, rib-chomping savages without a soul or a clue.

And that's wrong. They're not cruel. They're not callous. They're not sadists.

What they are is frustrated as hell.

Cheap Shots: Kansas City Not Exactly Sensitive City from The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel was knocked down with a concussion Sunday and some Chiefs fans cheered as he lay injured on the field. Chiefs management would prefer fans to only cheer positive Kansas City plays. Then again, three hours is a long time for a moment of silence.

Moving On: Kansas City Chiefs from ESPN

Biggest area to fix: The quarterback situation. There are no real options here, but the Chiefs' problems will continue until there is improvement. Both Cassel and the coaching staff (Cassel was allowed to throw just 15 times Sunday) appeared to be rattled.

Chiefs Play Buccaneers With Issues To Solve from Examiner.com

This week, the Kansas City Chiefs, who are in an absolute state of anarchy right now, will be the Buccaneers' opponent. Losing to the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 9-6, the Chiefs could be without their starting quarterback Matt Cassel this Sunday. Cassel went down in the second half of Sunday's game, which prompted cheers from Chiefs' fans in attendance. Apparently, Cassel suffered a head injury and those can be serious injuries. However, fans cheered his injury, which shows just how upset fans in Kansas City must be.

Rested And 'Recharged' Buccaneers Return From Bye, Get Early Start On Preparation For Chiefs from The Associated Press via The Washington Post

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are rested and eager to resume their season.

Coaches and players reconvened Monday following a bye week that provided extra time to evaluate the team's progress through four games, focus on fundamentals in practice and make some adjustments that Greg Schiano hopes will be beneficial the final 12 weeks of the season.

Harbaugh: Ravens Did Have 'A-Game' vs. Chiefs from The San Antonio Express

Baltimore is winning and leading the AFC North, coach John Harbaugh just isn't happy how the Ravens got it done on Sunday.

Ravens' receivers dropped five passes and couldn't separate from defenders even though Baltimore escaped Kansas City with a 9-6 victory. Baltimore's defense allowed the Chiefs to grind out 214 rushing yards, but it was the offense's inability to establish a rhythm that ultimately irked Harbaugh.

Will Charles Wear Out? from The Sports Network

The Kansas City Chiefs are crafting a modern love story even William Shakespeare would be proud of. Call it "Romeo and Jamaal."

I just hope this one won't have a tragic ending.

Brandon Carr To Reach Out To KC Friends from ESPN Dallas

The Chiefs lost Sunday but held the Ravens to nine points. Joe Flacco threw for 187 yards, was intercepted once and sacked four times. Ray Rice had 102 yards on 17 carries.

After Monday's practice, Carr said he had yet to reach out to anybody.

"But that phone call will probably go out today," Carr joked.

Chiefs Report Card: Conservative Game Plan Almost Works Out from CBS Sports

The Chiefs tried to win by playing as conservatively as possible on Sunday against Baltimore. That included running plays on third-and-long and taking as much pressure off Matt Cassel as possible. That didn't sit well with fans but it nearly worked, as the Chiefs were a couple bad breaks away from winning.

Some of those bad breaks were self-induced as Kansas City was haunted by turnovers for yet another week. After giving it away four times against the Ravens, the Chiefs are minus-15 for the year.