Stirring the Pot

Oh, the drama! It appears that the latest buzz in Chiefs-land is whether or not Brian Waters has been mistreated by his new GM or head coach. Bill Williams, who blogs on the AFC West for ESPN.com has declared this to be bad news for the Chiefs. As a fan with a blog, I am required to share my incredible insight on this matter.

I want to be as delicate and kind as I can in this first point, so let me simply point out that this article was written by Jason Whitlock. Having read nearly all of Whitlock's articles since he first came to Kansas City, I think he most excels in stirring the pot. Outside of that I'm really not sure what the point of this article is. There isn't a single quote from Pioli, Haley or even Waters! It doesn't feel like objective journalism, but rather an attempt to paint Pioli and Haley as bad guys.

I think the two of them have plenty to do without discussing all of their plans with one of their players. Is Waters good? Certainly. Does Pioli need to fill him in on what's going on? Not at all. There's a new sheriff in town and things are going to work differently.

As for Haley's comment that 22 players off the street could win 2 games ... THAT'S HILARIOUS! (And I think some of last year's players were actually off the street.) Reality check: the Chiefs were horrible last year. Absolutely horrible. Pioli and Haley were given the reins to turn the franchise around. Will Waters be a part of the team in five years? Not a chance. But Clark Hunt has made it clear that he wants stability at the top, and the plan is for Pioli (and Haley unless he bombs) to be around a lot longer than five years. I'm going to side with Pioli and Haley on this one. Waters needs to focus on being ready to play in the fall and let the GM and head coach focus on the direction the team is headed.

It's great to have a star tight end or pro bowl left guard, but neither of those guys is Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. If Brady or Manning were playing for the Chiefs right now, it's possible Pioli would be interested in letting them in on the plan. But they don't play for the Chiefs. Instead Pioli has to try and find one of those guys. I'd rather he spend his time working on that than run things by Brian Waters to see if he approves of the direction the team is headed.

Quick Prediction

The Chiefs just cut Surtain, Edwards and Huard - all moves I'm on board with. Now folks are wondering what they'll do with Larry Johnson and Tony Gonzalez. I'm sure they'll try to trade Johnson, although I don't see them getting much in return.

The real question is, "What happens with Gonzalez?" Will he be traded? He certainly has value, and might net the Chiefs a second or third round pick in the upcoming draft. With a new regime in place, it's understandable that they might cut ties with the past in an attempt to turn the page on the franchise and hopefully move it in a positive direction. Tony even requested to be traded last season.

That being said, I predict Tony will be a part of of the team next year. His departure might mean more talent on the defensive side of the ball, but I think he's more important than whoever that player might be. I have my doubts as to whether or not Tyler Thigpen will start on opening day (although I'm not against it!), but Tony is a great asset to any guy playing QB. I finally finished watching the first half of the Pro Bowl, and even the great Peyton Manning was looking for Tony G to pick up key receptions - which he did perfectly.

I have no idea what will happen, but I expect Tony to stay and retire as a Chief. Just wanted to get that out there in case he's part of a blockbuster trade tomorrow and I'm way off.

As you were.

Doubt Night Recap

I know a lot of friends were praying for Doubt Night last Friday, so I figured I should probably post a short recap of how the night went and thank you all for your prayers.

I had two primary objectives for the evening. First off was to represent Christ well. We really had no idea what to expect as far as the attitudes of the students we would be talking to, and it was my hope that we would respond with grace no matter how we were approached or what questions were asked. As it turned out, there wasn't anyone there that was antagonistic or out to make us look bad, so that was no problem.

The second objective was to share the gospel clearly. I wanted us to do our best to answer whatever questions were presented, but in all of that I wanted to make sure we didn't miss an opportunity to talk about what matters most. That also went well, as we had several questions that involved good works and led into a clear explanation of the gospel and it being solely by grace, not something we could ever earn or deserve.

Throughout the course of the evening there were probably 25 students that were present, although some filtered in and out. I'd say about 15 were there during the entire time. Some of those had some very sincere questions and I think we were able to be at least a little bit helpful for them. We had brought along 24 copies of both The Case for Christ and The Case For a Creator, and gave away over half of the books. They have a lot of great information, hopefully they will be beneficial to those that took them.

It was a great time for me personally and was also a learning experience. It was very interesting to prepare for a list of topics you are expecting and then not see a single one of those issues raised. There were no questions related to science or evolution, while a lot centered around the Bible, its trustworthiness and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

The time went by very quickly and next time I think I'd like to try and keep the answers shorter so more questions can be addressed. We're working on follow up with those who were there, please pray that God will continue to work in the lives of these students and thanks for all the prayers for the event itself, their help was very evident!

Call me Curt

Since I got back from Turkey, Karin and I have been walking every week day at the community center. Right now we're knocking out about four miles a day, which seems pretty good to me. I've also started stretching my hamstrings (which I've been told are ridiculously tight and will cause me lots of problems in the future) so that's been good too.

The random thing I wanted to share today involves shoes. I bought some steel-toed waterproof shoes before going to Turkey, which has turned out to be a brilliant idea in light of winter weather. However, I still have to go back to my old tennis shoes when walking, playing racquetball or playing futsal. As it turns out, my old tennis shoes had seen the last of their days when the soles almost came off and nearly injured me.

Enter cool new shoes! It was a back-to-school style experience to get new shoes, and I'll admit I still had fun picking up a new pair on Sunday. I'll also admit that although a different pair might have been a slightly better fit, I picked the ones I did because they looked so much cooler. Genius.

So now I'm in the process of breaking in a new pair of shoes, which has had a very interesting side effect: the back of my right heel has been rubbed raw. It's just a small area, maybe the size of a dime. But yesterday I noticed it was becoming quite uncomfortable to walk - although I toughed it out anyway, I'm just that manly. But the best part of all was the red stain that I discovered on the rim of my shoe and that which caused it - a bloody sock.

For some reason it really made me happy, and I'm not even a Schilling fan.