Opinion: Cheers were never for Cassel

Eric Winston laid into Chiefs fans in regards to cheering for a Matt Cassel injury.  On twitter I wanted to defend it, and in parts defend myself.  I hate injuries...I went through surgeries and rehabilitations.  I know the damage and time it takes to come back from an injury, wouldn't want that for anyone.

The emotion that I felt when the injury occurred was feeling bad that I was feeling good about a new Quarterback.  Yeah I feel bad for anyone that gets hurt, but for me that moment was nothing about Cassel.  Any bad feelings for Cassel was trumped with the idea of a new QB.  After I didn't see anything brutal on the hit, Cassel was not part of my thoughts.

I think the disconnect with many conversations on Twitter I'm having is what was booed.  I'm pretty sure only a few of us know what the injury is.  No fan booed Matt Cassel laid out on a stretcher.  We watched a hit we seen Matt Cassel get up from routinely.  We saw him walk off of the field.  Unfortunate but until we know...I don't even know what I'm supposed to feel bad about yet.

I say the Chiefs fans cheered change.  In that game it was Matt Cassel as the reason for much of our issues.  Overall it's been a 4 year mistake that hasn't been corrected.  For football reasons fans had evidence to be unsatisfied with the results at the Quarterback position.  That reaction was due to the fact a change was made.  That isn't on the fans, or on Winston...Pioli should have never made this situation possible.

Matt Cassel costing us games in his 4th year is no longer Matt Cassel's fault.  It's pretty pronounced who Cassel is as a Quarterback.  Yet he continues to be the unchallenged starter.  Fans every offseason have talked about replacements, hell the organization has.  We can pretend but few want this Quarterback, and to no fault of his own he's trotted out there as our signal caller.

This moment was more than just cheering an injury.  For a few perhaps they go to games to watch injuries happen.  But I can't follow that logic.  This fan base has never cheered injury, and if that's your take I have to call it short-sighted.  This was about change, change this organization won't pull the trigger on.

It's unfortunate that the change most wanted came because of an injury.  Make no mistake, that change could have happened at a water cooler on Monday and there would be excitement.  Go to the comments prior to this on twitter, and a lot of people have talked about change for a very long time.  Every day people want to fire someone in this organization, few were tweeting for bad health.

To me the Cassel injury was a perfect storm at a bad time.  The Fans, Winston, Cassel should have never been in position for that moment.  That moment should have happened in the offseason or during the week.  The staffs inability to pull the trigger in a way made this moment happen.

For me the timing was terrible, but that emotion was connected and pointed at something entirely different.  This fan base has seen a lot of bad Quarterbacks get injured, but never reacted like this.  This uncommon reaction was led by the uncommon events unique to us.  Our QB history, our inability to identify a signal caller, our faith in Cassel as an organization, our inability to change.  In that moment the Chiefs hand was forced, and the injury was a wrong place wrong time.  This fan base doesn't do that.

That was a fan base that was sending a message, and it wasn't to Cassel.  That message was one of the few ways the Chiefs can communicate and be heard.  To me that message was directed at Hunt, at Pioli, at Crennel, at the players.  That was one of the few times the fan base could be heard on what they thought of Pioli's "Decision" on Cassel, rather than what they thought of Cassel.