Not all of the 70,000 were cheering for the injury

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.