Tag: Kansas City Chiefs

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

We’re All in Kansas Now

I was struck last weekend by a Twitter thread from GOP presidential candidate Joe Walsh. Yes, there is a Republican seeking to challenge President Trump for his party’s nomination, but he’s tilting at windmills, since the GOP establishment has already eliminated primaries in many states in order to protect Trump’s incumbency.

Walsh reported that he walked a line of Trump supporters outside the president’s Iowa rally last week, trying to convince them to consider his candidacy. Here’s what he wrote:

“Plenty of Trump supporters were angry at me and many got in my face. But here’s what made me sad: I asked about 40 folks a very simple question: Has Donald Trump ever lied to the American people? Every single person said ‘No.’ Trump has never lied. Every single person gave me that answer. But that wasn’t all. A few people told me that Trump, unlike Obama, has never golfed. Nobody in line knew that Trump was increasing the debt way faster than Obama. Nobody knew that under Trump our deficit was now greater than $1 trillion. Nobody I asked could think of one single thing that Trump has done that has disappointed them. Nobody thought Trump did anything wrong with Ukraine.

“Almost everyone thought that China was paying for Trump’s tariffs. Nobody cared that Russia screwed with our 2016 election. On and on it went. I left sad and frustrated because all of these folks in line were being fed a sea of lies by Trump, Fox News, and the rest of Trump’s media sycophants. … They didn’t believe basic truths.”

Anyone so far down in the Foxhole that they don’t think Trump ever golfs is pretty much beyond saving. Facts truly don’t matter to them. Trump is perfect, godlike. It was Obama who golfed, not our magnificent president!

After the president’s much-mocked tweet congratulating “the Great State of Kansas” for the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory, the usual Fox pundits lined up to rally the troops. Maybe the snooty liberal coastal elites don’t realize there is a Kansas City, Kansas, they snickered. There are Chiefs fans in Kansas, too, they snorted. Silly snowflakes! Remember when Obama said there were 57 states?

Seriously, is it really that hard to just say the president goofed? Must he be utterly without fault, a flawless golden Superman? This level of intentional ignorance — and the amplifying of said ignorance by right-wing media — is terrifying.

If it makes you feel any better, none of this is new. There is a thread of know-nothing-ness that has woven itself through American history, usually driven by xenophobia and politicians who seek to exploit it. There was even a major political party that surfaced around the time of the Civil War that called itself the “Know Nothings.” I went down that Google wormhole so you wouldn’t have to:

“The Know Nothing party, formally known as the Native American Party and the American Party, was a far-right nativist political party and movement that operated nationwide in the mid-1850s. It was primarily an anti-Catholic, anti-immigration, and xenophobic movement, originally starting as a secret society. Adherents to the movement were to simply reply ‘I know nothing’ when asked about its specifics by outsiders.”

Shorter version: The Know Nothing party was anti-Catholic, anti-immigration, and sought to keep America white and protestant. Sound familiar? Same as it ever was.

But if you really want to get your mind blown, see if you can guess the author of the following:

“I am not a Know Nothing — that is certain. How could I be? How can anyone who abhors the oppression of negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ We now practically read it as ‘all men are created equal, except negroes.’ When the Know Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.’ When it comes to that, I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”

That was soon-to-be President Abraham Lincoln writing to a friend in 1855. Does history repeat itself? Nearly 165 years later, it would appear so. Let’s hope America survives this latest round of Know Nothings.

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From My Seat Sports

Our Titans!(?)

Here we go, Titans, here we go! Right? Well … not so fast.

An NFL team representing Tennessee — the state in which Memphis has long lived — is one win away from playing in the Super Bowl. So naturally, those of us in the Bluff City will find a Derrick Henry jersey or at least some shade of blue when the Titans face the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday for the AFC championship. Or will we? The Titans call Nashville home, of course, however they choose to present “Tennessee” on team merchandise. Nashville and Memphis share a home in much the same way Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier once (actually three times) shared a boxing ring. So might red be the color of choice this Sunday, support leaning toward a team — the Kansas City Chiefs — a half-century removed from its last Super Bowl appearance?

Herewith, a case for Memphians to root against the Titans this weekend … and a case for full support of “Tennessee’s team.”

• Titans down!
If you’re old enough to remember the 1997 Tennessee Oilers, you’re as likely to wear a Patrick Mahomes jersey this weekend and pull for the Chiefs as you are to don Titans gear. Houston Oilers owner Bud Adams departed Texas for Tennessee after the 1996 season when taxpayers wouldn’t fund a new stadium for the franchise he founded in 1960, longtime tenants of the Astrodome. Trouble was, it would take a couple of years for Nashville to build that swanky new coliseum. So Adams convinced Memphis mayor Willie Herenton (among others) to let his team play two seasons in the Liberty Bowl. Memphis would pay for dinner but let someone else take its date home.

Those ’97 Oilers went 8-8 and featured a pair of rising stars in quarterback Steve McNair and running back Eddie George. But Memphis saw through the artificial wooing of Adams and didn’t even take a seat for that dinner. Tennessee drew the smallest crowds in the NFL that season, selling an average of 28,028 tickets for its eight home games. (The next-lowest total was the Atlanta Falcons: 46,928.) The most popular sports brand in America got a collective “who gives a s*^t” from Memphis. If “Tennessee’s team” wasn’t ours playing at the Mid-South Fairgrounds, you think they’re our team today? This is Cowboys country, Saints country. Hell, this is Falcons and Steelers country before Titans territory. The most famous player in Titans franchise history is Earl Campbell, and he never carried a football in the state of Tennessee.

• Titan up!
An informal survey of Memphians among my Twitter community yielded a lot of support for the Titans (“they’re not the Nashville Titans”), with skeptics interrupting (often with a mention of Adams, who died in 2013). There’s something to be said for regional support of a pro franchise. Six states claim the New England Patriots as their own, and those are merely the geographically connected. (Wouldn’t matter if they were the “Boston Patriots.” Maine loves the Red Sox. Vermont adores the Bruins.) The fact is, the Titans are the closest NFL team to Memphis (and this would be the case were we on the west side of the Mississippi River and called Arkansas home). Someone can wake up in Midtown on a Sunday morning, be seated for a noon kickoff in Nissan Stadium, and be home in time for 60 Minutes. (Yes, this person would need radar protection, but it could be done.)

The Titans have never won the Super Bowl. They are one of eight franchises that have played since the dawn of the Super Bowl era (1966) without winning a championship. These are underdogs, and what’s more Memphis than that? The team’s logo features the three stars representing each region of the Volunteer State, and symbolism matters, especially in sports. Finally, we need a team to pull for on Super Sunday. The nachos taste better, the commercials are funnier, and the halftime show goes by quicker. I’ll leave the final word to one of my Twitter pals, a man who understands the NFL landscape in 2020 better than most. Says Chuck Rogers (@ourpoppy), “Any team that beats the Patriots is worthy of my support.”

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Sports Tiger Blue

Dontari Poe Brings Dream to Memphis

Dontari Poe was a good player for some lousy football teams at the University of Memphis. Over his three seasons (2009-11), the Tigers went 5-31, bad enough for two coaches — Tommy West and Larry Porter — to be sent packing. A gap-plugging nose tackle, Poe was good enough to earn second-team all-conference honors in 2011 and attracted enough attention from NFL scouts to declare for the draft with a year of college eligibility remaining. (Five wins in three seasons. Wouldn’t you?!)

Then at the 2012 NFL combine, Poe became a star. Tipping the scales near 350 pounds, Poe bench-pressed 225 pounds an astonishing 44 reps, a number topped by only five men in the history of the scouting extravaganza. But when he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.98 seconds — at 346 pounds — Poe climbed into the first-round mix, a combination of size, strength, and speed rarely seen without green skin and an Avengers affiliation. That April, the Kansas City Chiefs chose the pride of Wooddale High School with the 11th selection, the highest any Memphis Tiger had been drafted since defensive back Keith Simpson went ninth (to the Seattle Seahawks) in 1978.

And Poe hasn’t disappointed. He played in the Pro Bowl after both the 2013 and 2014 seasons, then last November became the largest man ever to rush for an NFL touchdown with a one-yard plunge in a win over the San Diego Chargers. He turns 26 in August so hopes the prime of his career has just begun.

Poe travels frequently between Kansas City and Memphis, returning to his hometown for visits with his mom, Chrissandra Simmons, and to support the Tigers when the Chiefs’ bye week allows him to visit the Liberty Bowl on a fall Saturday. But the trip Poe is making this week will have extra meaning. He’s hosting a free football camp for kids at Wooddale High, the first event coordinated by Poe Man’s Dream, a nonprofit foundation with a mission to lift and support under-served youth in the Memphis region.

“This is for people who are like I was as a child,” says Poe. “As a kid, I would wish for someone to come along and, not so much give me anything, but just tell me how to get things done. There’s no better way to get somewhere than to listen to someone who’s already there, where you want to be. That’s the inspiration behind this. I was in a position that a lot of these Memphis kids are in today.”

Poe and his two older brothers grew up with their mom as the standard for hard work, perseverance, and optimism. Poe Man’s Dream is a way to share those standards with hundreds of kids. Says Poe, “For me to be able to accomplish what I have, and go back to lend a helping hand — anything I can to help them — is really big for me.” Poe has wanted to start the foundation for some time now, but took care in finding the right people to support the cause. Most of the staff at the football camp will be volunteers.

Soon enough, Poe will be in training camp for his fifth NFL season. Only three franchises — the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, and New York Jets — have suffered longer Super Bowl droughts than the Chiefs, who last appeared in the sport’s showcase after the 1969 season (Super Bowl IV). “It’s been a long time,” says Poe. “I feel like every year is our year, but especially this year, because we have a lot of pieces together, and we’re all growing. Both as people and players.” The Chiefs have enjoyed three straight winning seasons and reached the playoffs in 2013 and 2015. They beat Houston in a wild-card game last January before losing to New England in the divisional round.

When asked about his leadership role with the Chiefs, Poe acknowledges and accepts his veteran status. Even in the NFL, a man of Poe’s size can send a message in ways few others can. This Saturday in Memphis, thanks to Poe Man’s Dream, dozens of kids will get a message (or two) that should inspire for years to come. “More than anything,” he says, “[I lead] by example, not talking. That’s just how it is.”

For more information, check out www.poemansdream.org.