FOOTBALL

In the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs suffered another loss Sunday at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens.  The most notable thing about the game, however, was when the Ravens injured Chiefs’ quarterback Matt Cassel.  Cassel went down, and suddenly… the entire Chiefs fan base started cheering.  They were ‘cheering’ that their starting quarterback was injured. This ignited anger from Chiefs’ offensive lineman Eric Winston who publicly lit into Chiefs’ fans saying that cheering when someone gets injured is absolutely sickening and disgusting.  Winston said that fans can say anything they want, bad or good, but cheering when a person is seriously hurt is ‘not ok’.  After all, Cassel works his hard for the fans, and goes out there and plays the best he can.  Cheering for his physical demise is disgusting.  We’ll see what happens next in Kansas City.
Elsewhere in the NFL, despite a putrid performance against the Chicago Bears, which included throwing two interceptions that were returned for touchdowns, the Jacksonville Jaguars have said they have no plans to bench their second-year QB, Blaine Gabbert.  Jacksonville is a young team, with a young offensive line, and up-and-coming receivers like Justin Blackmon.  They’re hoping that even in a bad performance, the players are starting to jell more.  Then again, Maurice Jones-Drew (the team captain) has struggled with that offense, and couldn’t get much going against the Bears on the ground.  The Jaguars clearly have some major holes in their game, but consistency at quarterback is definitely something they feel passionate about.  They believe in Gabbert, and truly think he will improve.

SOCCER

The United States are in their qualifiers for the World Cup in 2014.  In 2010, one of their best players was Jozy Altidore, a young soccer phenom that put on a terrific performance for the U.S.  Just yesterday, U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann dropped Altidore from their next qualifying game.  Even though Altidore is playing well professionally in the Netherlands, Klinsmann said that he has not been happy about his performance the past few games with the U.S. as well as having some off-the-field issues with Altidore during their practice sessions.  Nevertheless, the decision to drop a quality player like Altidore is controversial, especially because he did select former hero Landon Donovan, despite Donovan struggling with an injured knee.  In the end, the U.S. needs to make the World Cup, and they need to show the world that they’ve made serious progress since 2010.