Tradition Tuesday: Scoping The Choncosphere, 8-26-08

This is the House of freakin' Georges. We got a focus around this House, and it's a rough one. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it? It touches on the football clubs known as the Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs. I fly the Chiefs flag, while Cecil and Seven disgrace their vehicles with stickers like "If God's not a Broncos fan, then why are sunsets orange and blue?" Okay. I lied. Cecil puts his stickers on the Denver metro area buses. Anyhoo, we got this thing called The Tradition, where I go to the cursed football venue in Denver for the Chiefs game, and them twos guys come out here for the Broncos game at Arrowhead. It's great, great fun in that I always like to spend as much money possible to see my team lose a game away from home. This gig's going on eight years strong, and seems to become more of a complicated endeavor with each new season, and Cecil's wife has promised us that that won't change anytime soon. For some text that has a lot to do with the Chiefs and the Broncos and little to do with us chowderheads, click away.

Three pre-season games are in the bag for all squads and the AFC West consenus (more or less) puts the Chargers and Broncos at the top, the Chiefs at the bottom, and the Raiders a fraction above the Chiefs. Predicting the future, especially when it comes to an entire NFL season, is a fun and educational endeavor. Sixty percent of the time, it works all the time. Homers that we are, we're constantly looking for guys that write for other blogs to offer similar stabs and rants about how our squads will fare. This morning, Deadspin published its 2008 Denver Broncos season preview, and I'll be the first to admit that this post is one of the better reads I've come across in some time.

Now, the post is coming from a short-lived Broncos player, so it's a little optimistic, but I think it's also grounded in a good chunk of reality. Some excerpts:

"Nate (Webster) has run with the first unit a lot this summer and should see the most passes of his six-year career...'Guys like Kiper and Clayton and them, to this day they still can’t get past a quarterback being drafted as high as he was with the record he had. They don’t know talent.' (spoken to the author by Jay Cutler's father)...A surfeit of talent can compensate for a lack of leadership. The Broncos probably don’t possess such a surfeit right now...Think what you will about Mike Shanahan, the man knows to handle the media: Say little, divulge less. Sure, people mock his tan and his teeth, but he’s not a terrible guy—just, as one Bronco told me, a guy with a lot of power. And the past two years he’s wielded that power as indiscriminately as at any time in his career, firing his extremely smart and able GM, Ted Sundquist, along with a passel of coaches. Every Broncos team is Shanahan’s team, but this one might as well replace the snorting horse on the helmet with a snorting Shanny. And if it fails? Save the SHANNY-MUST-GO DAMMIT!!!! posts, Broncos fans. Mike Shanahan is your head coach until his contract expires in 2011, and possibly longer."

What I like most about the piece is that it's honest. The presumed accuracy gets credentials since the guy has (admittedly) showered with the boys, and knows the makings of how a team is put together. It's not glittered with homerisms, either. All in all, it touches on strengths and weaknesses equally, and leaves the reader somewhat guessing, somewhat clued in as to just what the author is thinking might happen.

On the other end of the writing spectrum, The Hater Nation has finally delivered its 2008 Broncos feature in this post. Now, the tagline below the Web site's title at the top of the page reads "written by a marginal journalist." So, I guess the blog gets an ounce of credit for that. This piece is put together by a guy who calls himself Conrad Bain, which in and of itself is funny, though I fail to see the ties between Willis and Arnold Jackson's adoptive father and Raiders football. Anyway, the piece contains nothing but hate for the Denver team, which makes sense given a) the name of the site, and b) we are talking Raiders/Broncos here. Suffice it to say that there is very little fresh material in here, perhaps the only tidbit coming in the form of some praise for Cecil's new lovechild, Eddie Royal. And the piece ends with this bit:

"Mike Shanahan is a weak assessor of talent and character. Look at the cast of clowns that's rolled through Denver in Elway's wake... Griese, Greasy, Maurice Clarett, Cleveland Browns, Javon "Ten Splitter" Walker, and Travis Henry, a man whose apparent life mission is to prove that the makers of Reefer Madness may have been on to something."

Now, I've taken my fair share of jabs at Shanahan for some of his draft picks and free-agent signings, but I've always, if under-handedly, acknowledged his merit and success regarding his tenure in Denver. Obviously, the tone of that sentence vastly opposes what was published on Deadspin, and frankly, it's not even funny. I mean, I've probably written similar phrases, but, you know, since I wrote them, they were.

Anyway, enough about the bad guys.

The gang over at Arrowhead Addict has recruited Chris from KC Chiefs Fanatic to do some scribing for AA. Today, he offers his list of top five guys with whom the Chiefs should part ways. It's not a bad list, but I'm not so sure I want to say goodbye to Damion McIntosh just yet.

Shawn over at Chiefs Gab thinks the problem on the KC gridiron is simple: "The Chiefs have too many young players to be competitive." On the one hand, he's probably right, and I'd normally take this opportunity to throw in lots of "buts" and "whatifs." Instead, I'll simply say that there's always the element of surprise. It could take the form of "Surprise! We're actually going to lose 13 times!" or "Surprise! These kids are a lot further along than imagined!" Who knows.

Dwayne Bowe is blogging with YardBarker now, and from his blog, we know a couple of really important things: He has more nicknames than Apollo Creed, an affinity for hot, buttery rolls, and his own Web site, which tells us that "Friday" is one of his favorite movies. Don't think he'll ever be sayin' "...found myself locked up in D-Bo's chicken coop, only person get me out was my momma." You know, unless he knows another D-Bo. Or talks about himself Rickey Henderson-style.

Then there's Jon Yoon over at Home of the Chiefs. He's got a post titled "The Kansas City Chiefs Suck, and That's a Good Thing." Interesting, grabby title. Good read, too.

Finally, if you go here, you'll find yourself a click away from this week's Warpaint Illustrated.com's podcast "Out of Bounds." The topic is Derrick Johnson, and Chiefs HoFer Bobby Bell thinks DJ is primed for an incredible third season. I agree, and have read that many others do, too. Take heed, though, as the 'cast is NSFMH, or Not Safe for Mental Health, in that it has some Bon Jovi in it.