Dancin' In September With L.J.

Sep 29, 2008, 8:38:53 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

Mix master L.J. the locker room D.J. was blasting a nice mix of old school R&B out of his speakers after the Chiefs 33-19 victory over the Denver Broncos.

It seemed especially appropriate when the Earth, Wind & Fire song September came up in the rotation, especially the repeating chorus:

“Say do you remember … dancing in September … never was a cloudy day.

“Say do you remember… dancing in September … golden dreams were shiny days.”

On this September Sunday at Arrowhead, there were no clouds in the sky. There were only golden dreams and shiny days.

And D.J.L.J. was dancing in September thanks to his 198 yards rushing. Combined with a defensive effort that forced four turnovers and allowed the Denver offense just a single touchdown, the long nasty 12-game losing streak of the Chiefs came to an end.

It may have been the most needed victory in the last 20 years for this franchise. It had been so long since the team drank from the cup of victory; not just days, not just weeks, but months. It was many months, 11 months plus in fact. No matter that a large part of the 2008 Chiefs were not around for the nine-game losing streak from last year. For them, it was much like that clunker up on blocks in the driveway that came with the house when you bought your Uncle Fred’s old house. Even though it’s not yours, it still clutters up your life.

And there was no getting away from the negativity hovering above the team. As much as football coaches have tried over the years, players do not prepare each week in a vacuum. They may not spend much time reading the local fish wrap and I doubt any of them listen to a second of sports talk radio. But they hear it from their families, they hear it from their friends, they get text messages from college buddies asking what’s wrong.

Forget what feelings are outside the building, being part of it just plain stinks.

“I can’t tell you how awful it felt,” said Jarrad Page. “It was just … just … it was a kick in the gut every single week.”

Until this September Sunday when never was it a cloudy day.

“I think this is the best feeling I’ve had since I’ve been in the NFL,” said Page. “I’m exhausted, but I’m fired up.”

That was the general tenor of the Chiefs locker room on Sunday. There was mild celebration, maybe a little September dancing, but nothing wild, noting outrageous from these guys. They all repeated the words spoken to them by their head coach after the game. Herm Edwards talked emotionally about taking this victory and the performance that created it and building.

When a team is 1-3 it has no other choice.

“All this does is get the monkey of being on a long losing streak off our backs,” said Brian Waters. “Don’t get me wrong, that’s good. What this did is show everyone in this room what type of effort and emotion is needed to win in this league.

“This has to become our base now. We can’t do anything less. We have to approach each game with the same mentality.”

That should be easier to do without that losing streak wrapped around their necks.

“We didn’t talk much about it, but it was there, we knew it,” said Page. “We just forgot about all that today. We just stopped worrying about the past and the future. We just went out and played every play and when it was over, we moved on to the next one.”

Everybody used to make fun of Marty Schottenheimer and his old cliché “one play at a time.” But it’s so true. A player, a team can’t play the game thinking about yesterday, or the most recent moment. They must move on.

That’s a hard concept for humans to accept. We are not wired that way, at least anybody above the level of a psychotic doesn’t think in that manner. The Chiefs defense had been giving up big plays and during the week Derrick Johnson had admitted that once the first one came, more were likely because there was a general feeling in the huddle of “Oh crap, it’s happening again.”

Herm Edwards verbally hammered them all week about living in the present, making that day’s practice the most important thing. The next meeting then became the priority. What happened in Atlanta, or against the Raiders, or in New England or back into November and December of ‘07 … none of it mattered. One play at a time.

For another Sunday, it worked. It helped slay the ugliest losing streak in the NFL. The outcome was not a cure-all. It doesn’t mean anything more than the Chiefs are 1-3. But a team has to start somewhere.

And for the Chiefs it started on a September Sunday, with golden dreams on a shiny day.

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.