Winston unfairly rips Chiefs fans
Yael T. AbouhalkahChiefs offensive tackle Eric Winston demanded that the local media pay attention to him Sunday, and they appear to be running with his story line:
The Chiefs fans were classless in booing quarterback Matt Cassel after he was injured Sunday during yet another ineffective outing in a 9-6 loss to the Baltimore Ravens at Arrowhead Stadium.
Unfortunately, Winston’s eloquent comments - which came right after the game and riffed on everything from football players not being gladiators to the fact he probably will have a shorter life because he’s chosen to be a football player - weren’t factually accurate on an essential point.
“And he (Cassel) got knocked out in a game, and we got 70,000 people cheering,” Winston said.
However, the great majority of Chiefs fans at the game did not cheer Cassel’s injury.
In fact, as many others have noted, fans were cheering in large part because they were finally going to see backup quarterback Brady Quinn.
And who could blame them?
Cassel once again was absolutely horrible on Sunday. He ended the day with a 38 quarterback rating, after throwing two more interceptions and losing a fumble (after a bad snap from center Ryan Lilja) at the 1-yard line as the team prepared to score.
Essentially, Winston overreacted and much of the media made a big deal out of it.
Can’t blame the sportswriters and other parts of sports media; someone actually went off-script and said something meaningful after a game.
When that happens, the media are likely to play it up.
In this case, though, Winston’s rant unfairly ripped the majority of Chiefs fans, who did not boo the fact that Cassel was injured on Sunday.
Winston’s comments also made it easier for many Chiefs fans to pay less attention to the fact that the team played Sunday as if it had no confidence whatsoever in Cassel. His basic job during most of the game was to hand off to the running backs, a tactic that helped the club move the ball well, but not score any touchdowns.
The fact remains that the Chiefs are now 1-4, out of the playoff discussion once again.
Whether a few thousands fans did or even did not cheer Cassel’s injury on Sunday is not that important of a story, no matter what Eric Winston said.
Val N Lynn Kerley
7 months, 1 week agoWHAT? Nice try Mr Yael T. but either way it means the same thing Cassel down Brady COMES OUT they cheer and BOOOOOO!I am ashamed of our FANS for the first time in Chiefs history”yes I am that old” to be so crude and uncaring.We have always been hard core fans and I understand we have not been happy at all with their so called playing either! I have turned off many games after half time yelling mad!!I think Winston was a team player and taking up for Cassel was heart felt and he is as upset as any of us are…and at the end of yet another loss he was a class act…we should learn something from HIM… Valerie
Steven Fetter
66223
7 months, 1 week agoHave you been to a Chiefs game lately?
The fans are descending to a level that would make an English soccer fan blush. Between the profanity, fights, public urinating, and treatment of fellow human beings in general, the Roman coliseum analysis is not inaccurate.
The fans voted thumbs down yesterday for the fallen warrior. Bring on the next victim.
Suzanne Conaway
7 months, 1 week agoI applaud Mr. Winston’s remarks. Okay, maybe they were just glad to see the backup QB, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that they were cheering as Cassel lay injured.
Anybody who cheers while any human being is hurting is, in my book, less than human themselves. I don’t care if they cheer because one of the other team’s members is injured or one of our own. It shows these people have no compassion for others.
How sad.
Aaron Gross
7 months, 1 week agoIt just showed how classless chief fans have become….. They really think Brady is going to do anything?….You hate Matt because he was a backup….But your cheers are for a backup….hmm…..just keep running that horse charles and once he blows out a knee again you have no one to blame
Mary Dominick
7 months, 1 week agoI am a lifelong Chiefs fan. Always have been and always will be. But the crowds reaction this weekend to Cassel getting hurt is absolutely disgusting. No one and I mean no one has the right to cheer when another hard working honest human being gets hurt. Yes Matt Cassel is having a rough season and yes he is a football player but, he is someone’s husband son, husband and father first. He deserves the same respect we would want someone else to give us if we were in the same situation. And just because teh fans are upset with the bad season so far,doesnt mean we have the right to act like jackasses. I dont beleive that most fans are like that but its those few drunken idiots that make it hard to enjoy going to a game.
Jonathan Taylor
7 months, 1 week agoHere’s the inconsistency, to my mind at least, in your opinion, Mr. Abouhalkah.
They can be inwardly glad that a (potentially) more capable player gets a crack at taking the field. Or to flip the situation around, they can be silently relieved with a dangerous player on the other side of the field leaving the game with an injury. That’s not what I would consider commendable, but its certainly understandable. But when it comes to someone’s physical well being, even if you don’t want them playing, you support the player. You have on the one hand your team’s performance in a game, and on the other a human being’s safety and wellness. No matter if you have a fleeting moment of “thank goodness we have a better shot now”, cheering an injury is disgusting and Mr. Winston is rightly being lauded for calling it out. Shame on anyone who thinks otherwise, yourself included.
Phil Cardarella
7 months, 1 week agoWinston is right.
Fact is, it does not matter if those who cheered Cassel’s injury were a majority or not. They are barbarians.
It may have hit home harder for a guy like Winston — whose job is to protect the quarterback from just such an injury. And who knows the man as a human being, not some name on a fantasy team.
Matt Cassel seems a decent sort — if not the luckiest guy in the league. Most of the turnovers that he is saddled with are not entirely his fault. Even Paydon Manning cannot hike the ball, pass it and catch it all himself. And, Payden Mannings are rare birds.
As a Domer and a KC fan, I hope Brady Quinn does well. But, that is going to require better coaching as well as performance. For example, no high school coach would have punted with 12 seconds left in the half, down by 3. Heck, no Pop Warner coach would.
Michael Johnson
7 months, 1 week agoSpin it any way you wish, Yael. It was a classless act, and Winston was right. To cheer any player’s injury, opponent or otherwise is disgusting. It doesn’t matter if the fans were cheering because Brady Quinn would be replacing Matt Cassel. The reason was an injury to a player and nobody should cheer something like that. If the fans were cheering Brady Quinn, then they should have cheered his entrance to the huddle, not Cassel’s exit from the field.
Keith Gumowitz
7 months, 1 week agoI agree, Phil Cardarella, that Winston was absolutely correct about SOME fans. Maybe in calmer moments he might have emphasized “some,” not the impression of “all.” It’s a game played by grown men for the amusement and entertainment of the fans.
But as he often does, Mr. Abouhalkah takes advantage as the biggest mouth of the Star and misses any opportunity to calmly reflect and contemplate. Yael didn’t have the excuse of having just endured a disappointing 3-hour match.
Talk about someone who got it wrong! Yael strikes again!
Phil Cardarella
7 months, 1 week agoOne of the great things about having the Chiefs (Thank you Lamar & H. Roe!) is that guys like Yael and I — who both spent our youths unsuccessfully praying to not be the one picked last in touch football — can have a chance to opine about the super-talented guys who get to be on the field on Sunday. Itcan be easy to forget that they, too, are human.
I once walked out on the football field at Notre Dame. Even with the seats empty, it was chilling. How much more so for the few who actually get the chance to perform in such venues!
“Is it not passing grand to be a king and march in triumph through Persepolis?” said Marlowe’s Tamberlane.
“Broken bones heal, chicks dig scars, and glory is forever!” said Keanu Reeves in The Replacements.