GRETZ: All About Perspective

Dec 19, 2007, 6:05:03 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

Perspective is a funny thing.

Take last Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. Many folks in the media showed up for the game against the Titans and looked at the number of fans inside Arrowhead and declared it a miserable afternoon of fans staying away from the disappointing Chiefs.

Of course, most of them made these declarations from the warmth of the press box. They didn’t spend four hours outside in the elements.

And it was cold. Take it from me. I watched the game from the sidelines and thank goodness the wind wasn’t blowing, or it would have been really miserable.

I must say I was surprised at the size of the crowd that showed up for the game. Not in how few people were there but how many made the effort to come to the stadium to watch a struggling football team.

The team is mired in a losing streak, the weather is awful, it’s the holiday season and there’s plenty to be done in other areas of life. I figured there would be 25,000 to 30,000 fans there.

The Chiefs release only the number of tickets sold for each game, and that was just more than 74,000. There were not 74,000 fans in the building. After 27 seasons of watching games at Arrowhead, my guess is that there were between 45,000 and 50,000 people in the house.

Congratulations to those fans who had the guts to show up. They were loud too, especially early in the game. They were loud near the end as well, and we’ll talk about that in a few paragraphs.

Now, is that turnout something to be proud of because it wasn’t as bad as expected? No, it’s sad. I’m going to bet about 25,000 people paid for tickets and choose not to attend the game. That is not a good situation and believe me, none of this escaped the attention of the people who own and run the Chiefs.

But some in my business called this a disaster. Frankly, they have no idea what they are talking about because they have no perspective.

You want a disaster, how about December 18, 1983, when 11,377 fans showed up for the season finale against Denver. This was at a time when the Chiefs released in-house attendance, rather than tickets sold. It was also a time when the Chiefs liked to manipulate those numbers a bit, so there’s a chance even fewer fans were actually in the house.

Here’s another disaster: January 1, 1983, the final game of the 1982 season when 11,902 showed up to watch the Chiefs and New York Jets.

At the final home game of the 1985 season, only 18,178 showed for the Chiefs and Chargers.

There was the final home game of the 1987 season when only 20,370 fans were in Arrowhead to see the Chiefs play the Seahawks.

Those were disasters. That was ugly. That was apathy.

Which brings us to the fans who showed up to boo their home team, to scream in anger, to hold banners and signs with negative commentary directed at the players, coaches, head coach and general manager.

My perspective? I think that’s a good sign. It’s an indication that there is still a passion for Chiefs football. Fans are upset and they want to vent. That means they still care.

It hasn’t always been that way. Back in those ugly days of the 1980s, there was no passion. The fans didn’t care anymore. Every year it was S.O.C.=Same Old Chiefs. There was no hope for the future.

The 2007 season has been a bruising, troubling and disappointing time around Arrowhead Stadium. There’s no hiding from that fact. But there is hope for the future. We have seen the future all season in young players getting on the field and contributing. They are making mistakes, but they are also gaining valuable experience that’s going to pay off in the future.

There is a commitment to building this team into a winner again, and an overall understanding in the building that this must be done by getting younger, not by going out and signing veteran free agents by the handful. The landscape isn’t going to change at Arrowhead, it already has.

My perspective? Things are bad, but they’ve been worse, much worse. There’s a plan in place and the future holds hope.

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A former beat reporter who covered the Pittsburgh Steelers during their glory years, Gretz covered the Chiefs for the Kansas City Star for nine years. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Board of Selectors. He has been the senior columnist for the Chiefs web site since its inception.