Chiefs fans cheering Matt Cassel getting knocked out of the game...

[the burgundy and gold]

For those who didn't see, Chiefs fans cheered when Matt Cassell got knocked out of the game from a hit and Brady Quinn replaced him. An offensive lineman on the Chiefs (who is not well known outside of die-hard NFL fans, don't recall his name off the top of my head but he's a legit player in the league for sure.) went on a wild rant to the media after the game about how disgusted he was with the Chiefs fans for cheering a player being injured regardless of who the player was or how poorly they're doing, not too mention it was the franchise QB.

Do you agree that the fans were wrong to boo a player getting knocked out by injury if he's playing poorly?

Did anyone else see the NFL Network Gameday Postgame show with Michael Irvin, Marshall Faulk and Deion Sanders, in which they discussed this issue? I was very surprised/disgusted by their answers.

[Murphs56]

I'm pretty sure I was sobbing for a solid 5 mintues when RG III went down

[HailToTheRedskins14]

It's never okay to cheer an injury, regardless of the circumstances. One of Georgia's big rivals is Auburn, who is about as unclassy and unsophisticated as they come, and even they gave a standing ovation to a UGA player who walked off the field after getting KO'd for about 10 minutes.

[Ghost of Nibbs McPimpin]

Eric Winston was the guy's name and he was absolutely livid after that.

I would be too.

Sidenote: When Chris Chandler went down (Mike Vick was set to go in), there were cheers in the Georgia Dome.

[DarkLink]

I think it is lame to cheer for an injured player even from the other team. It shows what kind person you are. Me personally don't want anyone to be injured during a game.

[RonArtest15]

[mboyd784]

They werent cheering the fact that he was injured. They were cheering the fact that Cassel would no longer be playing. The fans there have been begging for someone/anyone besides Cassel to get a shot and a mild concussion - Cassel was up and walking off in no time - gave them that opportunity.

Also, Eric Winston is a self-righteous bum who is trying to deflect the attention away from the abysmal performance of him and his teammates onto anything possible...in this case, the fans. Watch the replay, Winston is the RT on that play and his man is the guy who gets the sack. It's his 5th game as a Chief and he has the gall to call out the fans?!? I call bull****. Winston will be out of the league by this time next year, Cassel will be riding a bench somewhere else and tens of thousands of life-long Chiefs fans will be shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege to support their team however they see fit.

[orlskinsfan]

still a bush league move to cheer an injured player, even if they dont like how he is performing you dont cheer when a guy gets knocked out of a game. Of course unless its a cowboys..

[Bibby]

Thats pretty horrible. Honestly, I'm sure Fedex Field would have cheered had Rex Grossman went down with an injury. People are taking sports way to seriously these days.

[Sizzla3000]

I am pretty sure we once cheered when Campbell went down in a game.

[Rocket442Olds]

They werent cheering the fact that he was injured. They were cheering the fact that Cassel would no longer be playing. The fans there have been begging for someone/anyone besides Cassel to get a shot and a mild concussion - Cassel was up and walking off in no time - gave them that opportunity.

Also, Eric Winston is a self-righteous bum who is trying to deflect the attention away from the abysmal performance of him and his teammates onto anything possible...in this case, the fans. Watch the replay, Winston is the RT on that play and his man is the guy who gets the sack. It's his 5th game as a Chief and he has the gall to call out the fans?!? I call bull****. Winston will be out of the league by this time next year, Cassel will be riding a bench somewhere else and tens of thousands of life-long Chiefs fans will be shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege to support their team however they see fit.

Wrong on a few counts here.

1.) He didn't give up a sack, it was a pass that was completed, you can't have a completion and a sack at the same time.
2.) If hes at RT, his defender wasn't the first guy to hit Cassel either. The LT or LG (hard to see from the video I saw) was the one who had the first hit on Cassel.

I don't care how bad someone is doing, or how excited you are for a backup to come into the game, its just philly-esque to be a big enough scumbag to cheer while a guy likely has a head injury and is being held in place on the ground by training staff. If this was Grossman and RGIII was behind him, i'd be just as disgusted at fellow redskins fans.

I also don't see Winston trying to push the talk away from the lines play. He even said hes fine with someone telling him he sucks, or that he needs to protect his QB. I don't see anything wrong with what he said, and I'd be happy to have a guy like that morally on a football team who's not going to stand around and let fans treat a player like crap.

[mboyd784]

Wrong on a few counts here.

1.) He didn't give up a sack, it was a pass that was completed, you can't have a completion and a sack at the same time.
2.) If hes at RT, his defender wasn't the first guy to hit Cassel either. The LT or LG (hard to see from the video I saw) was the one who had the first hit on Cassel.

I don't care how bad someone is doing, or how excited you are for a backup to come into the game, its just philly-esque to be a big enough scumbag to cheer while a guy likely has a head injury and is being held in place on the ground by training staff. If this was Grossman and RGIII was behind him, i'd be just as disgusted at fellow redskins fans.

I also don't see Winston trying to push the talk away from the lines play. He even said hes fine with someone telling him he sucks, or that he needs to protect his QB. I don't see anything wrong with what he said, and I'd be happy to have a guy like that morally on a football team who's not going to stand around and let fans treat a player like crap.

1) Ok, not a sack but a hit. Thanks for the critical semantics analysis.
2) Winstons guy is the one who hits Cassel up high. Watch the play and take note of Winston getting completely annihilated on the play.



Also, listen carefully and try to discern when/if the crowd is cheering for which of these specific things:

The 25 yd catch and run. One of their best plays of the day.
The realization that Cassell is down.
The realization that Brady Quinn, who the fans there have been clamoring for, is about to enter the game.

You can't and neither can Eric "Blind Side" Winston. Winston's entire tone during the interview is passive-aggressive crap..."I've come to the realization that I'm gonna die young because I play this game"...He is building a straw man - The KC fans are bloodthirsty, petulant monsters - to distract from the fact that the Chiefs stink, Cassell should have been benched long ago and Winston got crushed on the play/crushed all year long.

Cassell will be fine. No stretcher, no cart, no blood. Yes, a few drunken fans - say 2000 out of 80000 in the stadium - probably were cheering at the injury. But that's hardly a reason to indict the entire fan base - note how many times Winston says "those people/you people" - especially when there is no way that he could have accurately determined who was cheering for what or when. It is self-serving and counter-productive to the whole concept of team.

Winston should have grabbed the mic and apologized for letting his QB get hammered. Instead, he gets up in his ivory tower and attacks the fan base? That's just ridiculous.

Oh, you may be wondering why I called him "Blind Side" when he plays right tackle? Ask left-hander Matt Leinart. Poor Matt didn't even make it through one half with the great Eric Winston protecting him. and that's why the Texans cut him.

Got something meaningful to say about poor fan behavior? Start a thread about it. But, to defend and buy into the garbage that Winston is shoveling is just foolish.

[kevinklein]

Eric Winston is the man, and despite his words to the contrary, I think he may be a roman gladiator.

[Destino]

They werent cheering the fact that he was injured. They were cheering the fact that Cassel would no longer be playing. The fans there have been begging for someone/anyone besides Cassel to get a shot and a mild concussion - Cassel was up and walking off in no time - gave them that opportunity.

So they weren't cheering because he was hurt, they were cheering because what his getting hurt meant for them. Well in that case who can argue that they aren't classy folk?

BTW - it meant Brady Quinn. Cheering for that is wrong no matter what the reason may be.

Also, Eric Winston is a self-righteous bum who is trying to deflect the attention away from the abysmal performance of him and his teammates onto anything possible...in this case, the fans. Watch the replay, Winston is the RT on that play and his man is the guy who gets the sack. It's his 5th game as a Chief and he has the gall to call out the fans?!? I call bull****. Winston will be out of the league by this time next year, Cassel will be riding a bench somewhere else and tens of thousands of life-long Chiefs fans will be shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege to support their team however they see fit.

There are very few people in the world mentally fast and devious enough to do what you are proposing here. I don't believe for a second that Winston decided to attack the fans because he was afraid someone might notice his own poor play. I think he got emotional and lost his damn mind... insulting the fans, right or wrong, never works out well in the long run.

Also note that Winston was considered amongst the best Right Tackles available this offseason and has started 92 of his 97 games in the NFL since being drafted by the Texans. He's not some starry eyed unproven player lucky to still have a job and I very much doubt he'll be out of the league next season unless his fan comments destroy his image.

[Cliffmark1]

No way kc has 80k seat stadium