Friday, April 24, 2009

Tony Gonzales : Kansas City Folk Hero


The entire Kansas City metro area is at DEFCON 5. Suicide watch is on, pharmacies are running out of Xanax. Sports shops look like Old West ghost towns. Citizens are walking around aimlessly with a cold, lifeless stare in their eyes, as if they're extras in a George Romero movie. Things have gotten so bad that people were actually seen in the Power and Light District wearing untucked shirts. My god, the apocalypse. What has happened to my fair city?

Of course. Tony Gonzales has been traded. And the inevitable has begun; Chiefs fans are starting to question Lord Scott Pioli and his Patriot ways. How dare he run the most beloved athlete in KC out of town! The Chiefs might as well pack it in for 09-10. Hell, the 2nd round pick we got for him is for next year's draft anyways. Isn't ironic that a Patriot seems to show no loyalty at all? Might as well pay attention to the Royals.

Except, you know, that this was the RIGHT move. Actually, it was the right move last year, where King Carl put the amount of butts in the seat as a priority over number of wins. Where Gonzo would have warranted multiple draft picks. Where the youth movement could have started a year earlier. But we couldn't let go of Tony G. So when the win total plummeted down to two, we ran Carl out and cried for a GM that would make the necessary sacrifices to build a winner.

Well guess what Chiefs fans, that man is Scott Pioli, and he is doing what's necessary. Letting go of Gonzales, bring in Matt Cassel, and probably trading down on Saturday is what needs to be done. he has no sympathetic loyalties to this team, and that is a good thing. Tony didn't want to be here, as he expressed numerous times. He, like most Kansas City sports fans, doesn't want to wait for a team that is rebuilding. He wants to win now. And he doesn't care if it's in a Chiefs jersey or not. Gonzo is just like every other athlete, not some saintly super-performer who catches touchdowns by day, and saves babies from burning buildings at night. He is no more loyal than anybody else.

When it comes down to it, Gonzales and Pioli only care about one thing; winning. And the only way either of them was going to get what they want was to part ways. This is how it works. Throughout the entire Peterson Era, there was nothing but bitching about how the Chiefs never went over that hump. Well, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet, which is what Pioli is doing now. And look, the fans are bitching about that now. You can't have it both ways.

I wish Tony Gonzales all the best with Atlanta. I'm sad to see him go, but it had to be done. Hopefully Chiefs fans can start to realize this and understand that it's going to be a rocky road to the top, but man, it's worth it.

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