Three from the weekend: Chiefs stink, and Bill Self got rich(er)
The Kansas City Star
We have great food in Kansas City. Nice people. Good schools. Affordable houses in beautiful neighborhoods. The Plaza’s nice. Westport has made a good comeback, and 39th Street by the Med Center is loaded. I can point you to some great spots downtown and in the River Market, and I’ve heard it said that Kansas City has more highway lanes per capita than any city in the country, so our “rush hour” is more like a “rush 10 minutes.”
But, man. The Chiefs and Royals suck.
One of the better lines I heard: Kansas City should pass an ordinance preventing Luke Hochevar and Matt Cassel from starting on the same day.
Let’s just get to it.
Just so we’re clear: no, I don’t expect Scott Pioli to fire Romeo Crennel this week or for Clark Hunt to fire Pioli. But I wrote what I wrote because enough is enough, and barring any miracles up to and including Matt Cassel turning into a top-10 quarterback, time is wasting.
The Chiefs are a lucky 1-3, and with Baltimore coming to Arrowhead Sunday, it’s hard not to see it being 1-4 with four blowouts going on the road against the Bucs.
Remind me why we should believe?
Depending on how bad the next 12 games are, I do think Hunt will make major changes, and I understand I’m in the minority on this. But I think the narrative about him being cheap is exaggerated — cap space and cash spending are two different things — and I think he’s a vastly different guy than his father who kept Carl Peterson around far too long.
But it does depend on just how bad the next 12 games are, particularly the fan reaction, and whether we see some blackouts or near blackouts during the games in November and December that are typically hard sells anyway.
Bill Self signed an extension that will pay him more than $50 million if he stays around to the end, and in some places it’s being received as proof he won’t be leaving Lawrence.
Which is just not true.
The value here is in being proactive, and as good as it is for KU to keep its most visible and valuable employee happy, there is nothing in the contract keeping Self from taking another job. It’s good to show him the love and raise the salary bar that the next place would have to meet, but if we all agree the only thing he might ever leave for is an NBA job then the KU salary was never an issue in the first place.
Self is among the very best in the country at what he does, and KU is doing right to pay him accordingly. But without any kind of buyout or other clause tying him to Lawrence — KU’s side of it is $4.7 million to $5.3 million if it ever wants to fire him — the chances of him leaving for an NBA job aren’t significantly different now than before he signed the contract.
Paul Schroeder
7 months, 2 weeks agoI predicted 7-9 for the Chiefs this year (to myself). I had the Chiefs at 1-5 after 6 games. As I see it, they are right on track. However, the Saints game was not the 1 win. Looking back, I can’t remember which game I did think they’d win, I think maybe it was the Charger game. Oh well. I guess I’m not any better a prognosticator than you are, Sam.