After reading this story and
watching the video (http://www.kctv5.com/story/19761458/is-this-the-cheering-chiefs-winston-blamed-fans-for), I think Chiefs' Eric Winston #ericwinston needs to apologize to all of the
Chiefs fans who were NOT cheering for Matt Cassel getting hurt during the Chiefs' game against the Ravens on Sunday (October 7, 2012).
I agree with Winston that
regardless of what one thinks about a player, one should not cheer when that
person gets injured. In a postgame interview, however, Winston called out the
70,000 people who were in the stadium, and sparked a national media frenzy
that, for the most part, is erroneously critical of Chiefs fans. I have friends
who were at the game -- and a part of the 70,000 -- and I know they did not
cheer when Cassel went down.
Winston later tweeted that
"Obviously i know not all 70k were cheering. And please don't act like the
cheering started when Quinn came in." That's as close to an apology as
Chiefs fans who did not cheer Cassel's injury are likely to get from Winston,
as he later tweeted that "I've said what I wanted to say and i won't be
talking about it any further."
I'm sure there were some fans who
exhibited less-than-human behavior and cheered when Cassel went down. That sort
of behavior is despicable. And, I agree with Winston that the cheering didn't
start when Brady Quinn entered the game. It is obvious from the raw game
footage posted by Kansas City's KCTV5, however, that much of the cheering was
for Cassel being able to get up and walk off the field. (He wasn't carted off
as the boys on ESPN's Monday Night pregame show claimed, making it seem even
more heinous and sensational. #espnnfl) Dewayne Bowe can even be seen
encouraging the fans to cheer.
So, what can we take away from
this? Several things:
1. Another human being was
injured on the field of Arrowhead stadium. My thoughts and prayers are with
Matt Cassel and his family.
2. One of Cassel's linemen cared
enough to publicly call out those in the stadium who were cheering Cassel's
injury. Unfortunately, he also called out thousands innocent fans who did
nothing more than cheer for an injured player who was able to get up and walk
off the field. In the process, Winston further irritated a Chiefs fan base that
already is extremely disgruntled with the direction the team has taken in the
last few years. Chiefs fans have put up with a lot of disappointment in the
years since the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, yet each year, they come back full
of hope, only to be disappointed once again. The dissatisfaction has built to such
an extreme this year that KC Star sports folks are writing columns critical of
Chiefs' management (rarely heard of in KC), Chiefs fans are becoming increasingly
more vocal, and prior to Sunday's game, someone flew a plane with a banner over
Arrowhead. The banner noted that Chiefs fans deserved better and called for GM
Scott Pioli to be fired and Cassel to be benched. Now I doubt that Winston's
emotional outburst after the game will cause Chiefs fans to boycott future
games, but the Chiefs' relationship with their fans is reaching a tipping
point, and if fans don't continue to support the Chiefs, from where will the
revenue come to pay players' salaries?
3. Once again, national media
jumped on a sensational story without bothering to check out or present all the
facts.
