Lifetime Injuries

As an average NFL fan and a diehard Kansas City chiefs fan I look for the games on TV that are going to be the highest scoring, has the biggest hits, and is the most entertaining. One of the things that fans and players alike take for granted is the safety of the players playing the game. You can go an entire NFL career without a major medical injury but you can still have a long painful life after football. According to nfl.com/injuryreport 85% of retired players that have played for more than 5 NFL seasons need to have some sort of knee, hip, or shoulder procedure as a direct result of contact for playing the game. Every player comes out of the league with a long term injury; it is merely the degree of the injury that sets each individual apart.

A 1990 Ball State study, commissioned by the NFLPA and covering the previous 50 years of league history, revealed that among 870 former players responding to a survey, 65% had suffered a major injury while playing, that is, an injury that either required surgery or forced them to miss at least eight games. The study also reported that the percentage of players incurring such injuries had increased drastically: from 42% before 1959 to 72% in the 1980s, after many stadiums had switched from grass to artificial turf. Two of every three former players disclosed that their football injuries had limited their ability to participate in sports and other recreation in retirement, and more than half of them also had a curtailed ability to do physical labor. Of those who played during the '70s and '80s, nearly half (50% and 48%, respectively) reported that they had retired because of injury, up from 30% in the years before 1959. This rate only continues to go up today as players get stronger and hits get harder.

Knee, hip, shoulder, and head injuries are increasing as age increases and as players in the NFL get bigger and stronger causing harder hits on the field. I guess that’s why all these players get paid so much money, sounds like a lot of expenses to me. Injuries are part of the game and players know what they sign up for. As a fan I will continue to watch and look for big hits. I’m sure everyone has herd the saying “oh, he’ll feel that in the morning.” I’m going to change that saying to “oh, he’ll feel that in 30 years.”

- chieffan81

Kansas City Chiefs football

The Kansas City Chiefs were found in 1960 by Lamar Hunt, who was a charter member of the AFC (American Football Conference). The chiefs where originally founded as the Dallas Texans but then moved three years later to Kansas City and assumed the current name of the chiefs. Lamar Hunt’s team played Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers in Super bowl one. Although the Chiefs lost the game they still had the AFC championship trophy named after their great founded Lamar Hunt after the AFC and the NFC (national football conference) combined to make the National Football League (NFL) during the AFC-NFC merger in 1970.

Since this time the chiefs have been to a two super bowls, they won super bowl four against the Minnesota Vikings, and have had several playoff appearances. Throughout the years the chiefs have had many great teams, players, and coaches.  We have had hall of famers, draft busts, and just about every form of drama that an NFL team could have. Despite all the past troubles the chiefs are recognized as one the most classy and well respected teams in the league.

The chiefs have a long history so there is much to talk about with them. I have laid the ground work but in the following article lies all of the chiefs history from Super Bowl 1 to the present day chiefs team. Enjoy the article chiefs fans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Chiefs

-          Chieffan81

P.S. follow chieffan81 for more sports updates concerning Kansas city sports.

Best of the Best 2010

Check this out, best plays of 2010.



Technology, Enhancing the game

A lot of people take for granted the way that we watch football today. I challenge people to watch a game on TV from the 80’s, you’ll be surprised on how much different the game looks but for the people in person it doesn’t look any different because it’s being played live. This has come about because of advances in technology. Technology has improved the game in tons and tons of ways. HD television has brought the game closer to home, by making the picture better so people can see all the best angles of the game from the comfort of their living room. It has made the game safer. Pads are being more customized to fit the individual person and then if the player does get banged up medical and physical therapy advancements have really helped players get better faster and it has helped them stay healthy. Technology is used on sports center to help predict how games will play out or to reflect on certain plays that have already happened. They use Madden football games to help reenact the actual game that happened as best that they can.

        Technology has made the game better, faster, and more accessible for the fans that don’t have the ability to get stadium to actually watch the game. The following video is a short clip from a ad for the new 2010 madden videogame. This clip is just a brief insight to how technology not only makes games better but it helps fans connect with the game easier and it keeps fans interested longer.

- cheiffan81

General Inspiration

In an earlier blog post, The Love of the Game, I talked about why i like the sport of footall and what got me into the sport itself and why I like the game so much. Now I want to talk about the single event that got me into football and what made me want to play.

Tony Gozalez after a touchdown

Dad told me that I went to my first football game at the age of 6. I went to a pre-season game against the San Fran Cisco 49ers. It was the third pre-season game which means that the starters get to play most of the game where as in the other ones they don’t. The game was quite an experience from what he was telling me, he said girls where flashing cameras, and people where having too much fun for a Sunday. AS the game went on he said that the chiefs where driving down the field and we got to the red zone. We were sitting fairly close to the field so I could see everything. Rich Gannon, the quarterback at the time, drove the team all the way down the field and on 3^rd and goal from the 3 yard line. Gannon drew up a play action play and threw it in the back of the end zone. Dad said that Tony was double covered and pushed people out of the way. Then with his 6 foot 8 frame he jumped up to about the length of the crossbar and scored. I was amazed in what I saw. Dad said I asked, “Dad how did that linemen jump that high” Dad laughed and then went on to explain the position of the tight end and what their job entails. In the following months Dad said all I talked about was being like Tony G. I would play football with my little brother and him in the basement and address myself as him. Then that Christmas I got a Tony Gonzalez jersey. Then we went to my grandparent’s house and I got another jersey. Afterwards dad took me to an autograph signing and guesses who was there. Tony Gonzalez. He signed a chief’s banner for me. Following the end of the season, he framed one of jerseys and the signed banner.



Tony Gonzalez



            These events single handily made me want to play football. I’ve talked about in some of my blog posts that I didn’t start playing until 7^th grade. Tony Gonzalez inspired me to play the game because since then all vie wanted to do is play the position of tight end. Tony Inspired me to play, but my dad got me to play. 

 - cheiffan81

NFLPA

Al Davis - Raiders Owner

Jerry Jones - Cowboy Owner

In the last few blogs I have been talking about the Player Union the owner’s union and the collective bargaining agreement going on between the two parties through this offseason. Now I just want to give you a better insight into what the actual player union is and then go into the owner’s side of the business equation. The player’s union is called the National Football League Players Association or NFLPA. It is the labor union of the players in the NFL that was founded in 1956 but didn’t get its complete collective bargaining agreement in 1968. After a lost strike in 1987, the union was formally decertified, converting into a professional association in order to pursue antitrust litigation designed to win free agency for its members. When that tactic worked it reformed as a union and resumed collective bargaining with the league in 1993.

Click this link to read the whole article on Wikipedia about the entire history of the player’s union dating back to when it first started. Very interesting stuff, any football fan and/or business men should really find this interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League_Players_Association

Clark Hunt - Chiefs Owner

The owners, like I stated in the previous blog, just want to extend the season to 18 games generating more revenue for their city, team, and to improve their personal pocket book. There is no CEO of the NFL. It is a public company where the owners of each team have rights and the commissioner overseas all the actions going on in the league from trades and free agency, to business deals, to the punishment of players and teams. Owners believe that they have the most power in the NFL because they “foot the bill” for the games to happen but then ultimately get paid back in the end. (There greedy snakes and need to stop crying about it and just let the men play the game and let the fans who work hard to make money to watch these games watch what they pay for.) Like anything else, the NFL is a business and people always want more, more, more and these owners believe that they can get what they want. I hope a deal can be reached by March 4 so that we have football next season.

Collective Bargaining Agreement

Roger Goddell

Now that the super bowl is done and football is over for the year what do players and fans look forward to now. Most players would be enjoying the time off before starting training again for the 2011-2012 season. Fans look forward to the draft and wait to see what the best college football players end up playing for. This year, however, it is much different. Players aren’t enjoying vacation and fans aren’t gearing up for the draft. Players, fans, and owners alike are stressing over the new labor deal that the owner’s union and player’s union are trying to get figured out so that there is a season next fall. It’s called the collecting bargaining agreement. What this is exactly is the NFL team owners want to expand the regular season to 18 games reducing the pre-season by 2 games but they don’t want to pay the players anymore and they don’t have to give them more compensation for long lasting head injuries to retired NFL players. I can talk all day about what is going on but I want everyone to hear it for themselves. The following links are to topics that Roger Goodell has addressed that concerns the NFL labor agreement.

Click on this link to listen to what Roger Goodell, Commissioner of the NFL, says the NFL owners are committed to striking labor agreement. http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/story/09000d5d81e1e6e8/article/goodell-owners-committed-to-striking-labor-agreement

Click on this link to watch the overview of Goodells news conference concerning the labor agreement during his Super Bowl conference. http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-super-bowl/09000d5d81e1efba/Commissioner-news-conference-highlights 

Click on this link to read about Goddell saying how he’s “committed” to getting the job done. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d81ded3da/article/commissioner-pledges-to-cut-salary-to-1-if-work-stoppage-hits

Now that you have a better insight into what is going on give me your thoughts. What should the NFL do what should the owners union do, and what should the players do. Here’s my two sense about the whole thing. I get the fact that the owners and the people who work for the NFL want to make more money. There’s a general worry that the best athletes will stop coming to the NFL and go play baseball where it is safer and they can make more money. Owners want to extend the season so they can extend their wallets. I don’t understand why they want more money. The players run the league, without players there is no sport. These owners don’t know how good they have it. Other guys risk their physical well being to entertain people and to make the owners money. The owners need to make the player happy and stop being so selfish. Plan and simple, no NFL season next year, the NFL will lose lots of fans. Come in guys get it figured out, we all want to watch football.

-chieffan81

Superbowl 45.......behind the scenes

There is one goal of every team in the NFL at the start of every season and that is to win its most prized possession, the Lombardi Trophy. The Lombardi Trophy was named after Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi after his team beat my Kansas City Chiefs in super bowl one many years ago. 45 years later the Packers are back in the super bowl taking on the most winning team in NFL history the Pittsburg stealers. Everyone watches the game, for the most part, so I don’t want to talk about the game but what goes on behind the scenes.

Vince Lombardi Trophy

The super bowl isn’t just a game between two great teams competition for a championship trophy. It’s an all week party atmosphere that not only the team and the team’s venue but the entire city must come together to host such a big event. The Dallas cowboys have one of the biggest stadiums in the NFL costing the city of Dallas 1.5 billion dollars to construct. Naturally they invited tons and tons of people to attend their super bowl event not only to sit in a seat and watch the game but they also sold hundreds of tickets for people who would just sit in the parking lot and watch the game on one of the big screen’s outside the stadium. This is the one topic that I want to highlight that goes on behind the scenes of super bowl games. The Dallas cowboys ran into a big problem this year when selling tickets into their brand new stadium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboys_Stadium This website has the full article concerning the matter but I just wanted to highlight the big points. Basically what happened is that Dallas Cowboys sold 850 tickets to fans in a certain section that apparently they miscalculated the number of seats which was actually only 400. So for the 450 fans that didn’t get into the game, that where obviously pissed off, they Cowboys gave them free merchandise, a pass to walk on the field after the game and take a tour of the stadium the next day, 3 times the face value of their tickets in cash, and a FREE super bowl ticket to super bowl 46. Sounds like a good deal right. Well I just learned today that these people are sewing the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys for more. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I mean I understand how pissed you’d be, especially if you are a Green Bay or Pittsburgh fan, to not get it but after all they gave to you your still sewing them for more? I don’t know how I feel about that.

Please leave your comments I’m curious to what you think about this topic. Are these fans being too harsh and to selfish or do they deserve more? What do you think the outcome will be? I’ll keep up with this story and let you know more as it comes to me.

Rain, Snow, Sleet, or Shine

Three snow days in a row in Maryville Missouri, that’s just unheard of. The amount of snow and ice that we have had here the past few days is just astonishing. With all the free time I’ve had from school I have been spending my time playing video games, watching sports center, and preparing myself for the super bowl this coming Sunday in Dallas Texas. On Tuesday me and a bunch of friends got together and played a big game of snow football in the back yard of the TKE house. We ran, tackled, and scored for almost two hours in the thick snow. It was so challenging and entertaining that it got me thinking of how players and fans react to games that are played when the conditions aren’t perfect. Does it affect attendance? Do players and fans prefer sunny warm games or games where the conditions are a little more intense? Finally I asked myself what I prefer.

Cheifs vs Chargers - Rain game

According advancednflstats.com attendance, on average, decreases a little bit if the weather conditions are bad. The way this stat is kept is buy the amount of ticket sales not by the number of fans that actually attend the game itself. Ticket sales tend to be lower in the second half of the season for losing teams when it starts to get colder in cities up north and in the Midwest. If a team is in playoff contention sales usually stay about the same and in the playoffs the stadiums are sold out no matter what is going on. During times like these are when fans really show if there true fans or not. Players on the other hand don’t have a choice if they attend games or not. They get paid to play so they must attend. According to nfl.com in the 2010-2011 season player took a survey about their work. The Consensus was generally the same and it was this; NFL teams like certain weather conditions for certain teams they play against and if the weather favors the way that they play. Teams like the Kansas city chiefs who run the ball a lot like rain and snow games where as teams like the Colts, a pass happy team, prefer warm conditions or just no bad weather at all. Rain, snow, and sunshine are part of the game and teams must adjust accordingly.

As for me I prefer to have a little bit of both. Being from Missouri and a Chiefs fan I hope to experience all elements of the weather when I attend games. Early in the season I like a little rain and wind, it helps me stay cool and it makes the conditions more challenging on the field, plus it helps the Chiefs with their run heavy offense. As we get into October I like a little sun to go along with the cooler temperature it makes for a more exciting game. Hopefully when playoff time rolls around the chiefs have home games and there’s snow on the ground. Weather is part of the game and it will always be there. True fans go no matter what but I challenge all the “luke warm” fans to butch up and go support your team.

-cheiffan81

What do you guys think of weather and what do you do when the weather gets bad?