While the Chiefs are on top right now, it hasn’t always been this easy to be a sports fan in Kansas City. If you have been a Chiefs fan for longer than the last five years, then you remember the dark days that many other teams are going through right now, the “rebuilding” years. It hasn’t always been rainbows and winning in KC, and we can relate to how other teams diehards feel this season.
The Chiefs just ended one of the longest Super Bowl droughts in the NFL this last season, waiting 50 years to bring the Lombardi home to Kansas City. The Jets are suffering from a very similar situation, not having won the big game since Super Bowl III, one year longer than the Chiefs had to wait.
The Jets thought they had drafted their Patrick Mahomes in Sam Darnold, but it seems like they may have drafted their very own Matt Cassel. Those were dark days, the Todd Haley years, the 2-14 Romeo Crennel year in 2012.
The Jets seem to be in the midst of a year like that currently, and let me just say as a lifelong Chiefs fan, we feel your pain. The moral victories, the tanking for a better draft pick in next years draft, being stuck with a head coach who gives you no hope for improvement.
The Adam Gase era is eerily similar to the Todd Haley era, right down to the creepy press conferences that each coach gives. So Jets fans, we feel your pain, have felt your pain before and know the desperation that suffering through a season like this brings.
The only thing I can say to make you feel better is that things will improve. It will get better. The NFL is a league of ultimate parody, those are last are bound to be first (unless you’re the Browns.)
It starts with the head coach, however. The Chiefs went from 2-14 under Romeo Crennel to 11-5 and a loss in the Wild Card playoffs in the very next year under Andy Reid. And the good news is there is an abundance of coaching talent in the college ranks and on NFL sidelines. Maybe not an Andy Reid, but let’s be honest, coaches like Big Red don’t grow on trees.
But there is a coach who has studied under his system and is the offensive coordinator for the most potent offense in the league in Eric Bieniemy. Although many have him going to the Texans this offseason, maybe the Jets could swoop in and make him an offer he can’t refuse. Who knows, maybe he’s a fan of the bright lights of the big apple.
If the Jets are looking for a 2-14 to 11-5 turnaround then an Andy Reid disciple is the best place to start. Pair that with a top draft pick and anything is possible. So Jets fans, we feel your pain, and who knows, before you know it you could be on top soon enough.
