Leadership

This week, I'm going to dispel from the usual, and write about at issue at the core of the Chiefs' problems.
Leadership. Confidence. Character.
These three qualities define excellence in the NFL. They are the holy trinity of competitive team sports. In the NFL, you can get to the postseason with two of the three, win the super bowl with all three and get the first overall draft pick with none of the three.
Take a close look at some of the teams that will have one of the top five draft picks in April:

Detroit Lions- Head Coach Rob Marinelli will be fired at the end of the season and the General Manager has already been fired, resulting in no defining leadership. Nothing this team has done is giving confidence on offense and defense this year. Character has been hard to see through the turmoil of a 0-13 season.

Cincinnati Bengals- The orange and black has become a character desert. Between Chad Johnson (not Ocho Cinco), Carson Palmer, and Head Coach Marvin Lewis you may be able to find a smidgen of character, most of which comes from Carson Palmer. Palmer has displayed leadership, but is so caught up with injuries he isn’t a factor. Finding confidence with all that has gone on has been like looking for a hairpin in the Sahara desert.

I won’t bore you explaining the Raiders, the Chiefs or the Rams. They are all sitting in the same situation as the Bengals and Lions; the Raiders, of course, exemplify a lack of leadership, confidence and character. This all starts with coaching and managing.
You may be hearing about a team in Dallas that has been having problems. They have the best collection of talent in the NFL this year, but somehow they will probably miss the playoffs. Why? Wade Phillips is not a good head coach and Jerry Jones isn’t acting like a good manager. To simplify it, they aren’t Bill Parcells.
Bill Parcells brings confidence, leadership, and character to every organization he goes to. He’s turned around the Jets in the past, the Dolphins this year and has brought three different teams to the playoffs, brining two of the three to the super bowl.
Dick Vermeil brought three different teams to the playoffs as well, and won a super bowl with the Rams in 1999. Mike Martz took Vermeil’s team back to the super bowl in 2001, and lost.
You watch the Chiefs this Sunday, and tell me where our leadership is? Where our character is? Where our confidence is?