Chiefs Rip Home Fans for Cheering Cassel Injury

John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel took a violent hit to the helmet from Baltimore Ravens’ Haloti Ngata in Sunday afternoon’s 9-6 loss, tumbling to the grass and suffering a suspected concussion.  Disgustingly enough, Cassell left the field in the fourth quarter to a chorus of cheers from a vocal minority in his home stadium of Arrowhead.

After the hit, Cassel laid motionless on the ground for a few minutes before trainers rushed out onto the field to tend to the 30-year-old quarterback.

The fans leading in the cheers were excited at the prospect of having backup quarterback Brady Quinn enter the starting lineup after they saw him taking snaps on the sideline.

Fortunately, a member of the Chiefs team spoke out about the crowd’s scornful reaction to Cassel.

“When you cheer,” offensive tackle Eric Winston said.  “When you cheer somebody getting knocked out, I don’t care who it is, and it just so happened to be Matt Cassel — it’s sickening.  It’s 100 percent sickening.  I’ve been in some rough times on some rough teams, I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life to play football than in that moment right there.

“Boo him all you want,” Winston continued.  “Boo me all you want.  Throw me under the bus.  Tell me I’m doing a bad job.  Say I gotta protect him more.  Do whatever you want.  Say whatever you want.  But if you are one of those people, one of those people that were out there cheering or even smiled when he got knocked out, I just want to let you know, and I want everybody to know that I think it’s sickening and disgusting.”

Winston wasn’t the only player on the Chiefs team to defend his quarterback.

“It’s not right, you know what I’m saying?  I’ll speak that for any stadium, any player to get hurt,” said Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles.  “When someone gets booed, it’s not right.  It’s his health.  You know what I’m saying  He got hurt.  You have to respect.”

While much of the blame can be cast upon the starting quarterback for a bad start to the season (1-4, last in AFC West), Cassel shouldn’t be debased to this kind of treatment.  Simply put, “We are not gladiators and this is not the Roman Colosseum!”  Winston expressed.

There is no place for fandom to be this disrespectful to a player on the field, let alone their starting quarterback.  The message was a clear indication of the delusion between football and moral human behavior.  It was a sad day for football.