on to sports: like a good little journalist, i frequently abstain from all that i really want to say about sports because i know my "audience." and by audience, i mean the 3 friends that actually check my blog + my mom and dad and sister (to whom i am having to constantly re-email the link to the blog because they always forget that it exists...it's called bookmarking! hello!). anyway, the reality is that i could spend a good amount of time talking about sports. if you were to ask me, at any given time of day, what i'm thinking about, it's probably one of the following: 1) dream team of former ksu football players 2) who i would start this year if i were coach snyder 3) my top 10 sporting events that i would love to attend in my lifetime 4) brett favre and ken griffey, jr (sorry, kirk, but i've had a massive sports crush on them for longer than i've known you, so...) and 5) how awesome it would be if frank martin was a teacher/administrator at my school. i'm sorry, it's who i am. but my "audience," as it were, is mostly family and college friends and a few other friends that are just nice. i feel like maybe these people just wants to read a little mendy-blog, not a sports-blog, so that is why i abstain (did you follow the stream of consciousness???).
anyway, today will be a sports-bloggy day, so if that is not your cup-o-blog, you should probably just.....keep reading because you are my friend and it's the nice thing to do. but you could also have your husband/boyfriend/sporty-wife/dad/sporty-sister read. i don't know, do what you want. i'm kinda funny and i'm cracking myself up right now. hahahaha.
ok, so nick wright (610 sports) was talking on today's "what's right with nick wright" show about the 9 components that make a super bowl-quality football team. if i were actually a good little journalist i would probably do a little research to find out if this is his idea or if he was commenting on someone else's "top 9" but i'm not really a journalist, i'm a teacher, so i did no research. the 9 components i think can also apply to bcs-quality teams in college football. they are as follows:
1. a top 8 QB
2. an above average offensive line
3. a premier running back
4. a reliable and accurate kicker (hello - martin gramatica - ksu football dream team!)
5. a standout secondary player in the defense
6. a standout defensive front 7 player
7. a defensive line that can stop the run
8. a coaching staff with an overall positive effect (not necessarily the same as a "good" coach - more emphasis on the effect of the whole staff on the dynamics of the team... probably "good" coaching is more important for college football purposes since there is so much teaching to be done)
9. a significant home field advantage
so, nick, being a good little journalist, had done the research, and went back over years of super bowl teams and found that, although no team ever had all 9 components, to be in contention they had at least 6 or 7. i'll take his word for it.
this little formula should make it really easy for athletic departments/NFL owners to evaluate their teams and say, "ok, what do we have that's solid? what are we developing? what do we need???" the chiefs, in all their blundering idiocy the past few years, are actually not too far off from having 6 of these 9 components. here's what we have pretty solidly (this is according to nick wright, but i found myself thinking the EXACT same things just before he said them...typical.): running back - jamal charles, kicker - succup (not too shabby), coaching staff - after the changes this off season - definitely a move in the right direction, home field advantage - arrowhead has always had a good fan base, even when they're in the depths of despair. so there's 4 of the 9.
then, we are close, but not quite there, on a few components: defense - brandon flowers? can he be that standout secondary guy? not sure. not no. but not yes either. and we drafted eric berry with the #5 pick this year, so there are high hopes, but he's not proven and he'll take some time to learn. i still think glenn dorsey could be the real thing on our D-line, he just had a little "issue" with the coaches last year and didn't get much early playing time. but when he did, he definitely stood out on defensive (in a good way). and then jackson is another defensive end. so, it's like, we could be ALMOST there with the secondary and defensive line standouts, but not quite there. once we're "there," that 6 of the 9.
finally, the major holes? offensive line and QB. those are two pretty major holes, if you ask me. i'm going to make the case that you have to have at least one of these two to be successful. i don't think your "6" components can be without both a QB and an O-line. so, in that regard, i don't think this little "6 of the 9" formula holds up, i guess. i mean, we've seen good, hall-of-fame QBs look hideous because they're constantly on their backs or running out of the pocket when that's not a strength (oh, my dear b favre, i hate to say it, but it's so true). and we've seen O-lines holding up the pocket all day long and QBs that can't make decisions or have no arm or throw flat or have bad footwork or crap for timing or whatever, so it doesn't really matter how much time they have. they could have all the time in the world and they're still eric crouch (oooh. little nebraska dig. hehe.) or jamarcus russell. it's just a heckuva lot of pressure on either of those 2 components if the other one stinks.
so, i guess i'm saying that the chiefs could have their 6 components, but i still don't see them being able to compete with the ravens/vikings/saints/colts for the duration of the season and throughout the playoffs, as long as they don't have either a good QB or a better O-line. truthfully, i think that O-line component should probably be worth two points. let's just go ahead and make it a 10-component list. if you have that O-line component, then you could get by with an average to above average QB (sorry, still not eric or jamarcus...they're the worst!). maybe matt cassel could look like a top 8 QB with the right O-line. but for now, this pairing doesn't do much for me and it sure doesn't do much for the chiefs trying to move forward. for this year, i guess we're going to have to hope that the addition of charlie weiss on the coaching staff will result in a huge (no pun intended), miraculous improvement in one or the other, or else we're going to be only a few shades of red and obnoxious-yellow different from last year's debacle of a team.
there's my rambling rant. i'll try to get back to flowers, decorating, gardening, reading, photos, and other mendy-bloggy things so that i don't lose my few friend-readers that i have out of sheer sports-talk induced coma boredom.
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