If the road suddenly turned smooth after a lifetime of potholes, Tank Tyler would need time to adjust. Tyler is a Chiefs nose tackle, and life hasn?t always been polished marble for the big man.
?Been an underdog my whole life,? Tyler says. ?I always had to move a rock to eat. Moving a rock was hard work.?
Once, he asked his mother for $20. Just to pay for lunch. Maybe to roll a few games at the bowling alley, too.
She didn?t have it. So the 10-year-old got to thinking, and he lined up a lawn mower and some customers, and it wasn?t long before the big kid with deep thoughts was folding six twenties a day into his pocket.
?Underdogs always come out on top,? he says.
That has been his life, from back yards to North Carolina State and then to the Chiefs. Tyler says he?s an underdog, and he relishes that role. Because he knows that if he?s ever going to catch up, he can never afford to gear down.
He says the Chiefs are the perfect team to accommodate his personality. Says he?d rather play for a team like Kansas City than a favorite, such as San Diego or New England.
The Chiefs have inadvertently catered to Tyler?s desires. Kansas City has been favored in only two of 24 regular-season games since November 2007. Both were home contests against the Oakland Raiders. That?s who is in town this week, and the Chiefs again are the favorite, this time by three points.
That means the Chiefs have to break a standard way of thinking; coaches can?t play the no-respect card for at least this week; and players such as Tyler have to think of something different to rev their motors.
It?s a rare position for the Chiefs: the football universe expecting a Kansas City victory. Some players hope their teammates didn?t hear the news.
?There?s something to be said for having a little chip on your shoulder,? Chiefs center Rudy Niswanger says, standing in the team?s locker room. ?Unless you had just told me we were favored, I wouldn?t have known. Hopefully, none of these guys look at that.?
Tyler says the role of temporary favorite means nothing to him. He hasn?t often stood in the sunshine, but on those rare occasions when he has possessed a clear advantage, Tyler says he has had to deflect that kind of thinking. Says he put himself back in the shadows and flung himself back toward the bottom of the hill.
That?s why he went to N.C. State instead of Ohio State, a team that had already won national championships. Tyler says the idea of doing something for the first time led him to Raleigh instead of Columbus. He says an achievement isn?t worth savoring if it comes easily. He didn?t win a national title at N.C. State, but he says that only made him hungrier for success in the NFL.
?They had an opportunity to shock the world and never had done it before,? he says of the Wolfpack. ?You take the Chiefs and the Patriots. The Patriots have been there many years; the Chiefs haven?t.
?I would rather play for the underdogs than the overdogs. I?m happy to be a Chief ? a team that has to work for everything that they earn.?
Lately, there have been few rewards and lots of work. The Chiefs have lost 24 regular-season games in the last 22 months. Things have changed within the organization, but the results haven?t.
In both contests in which the Chiefs have been favored since 2007, the other team won. Jon McGraw has played safety for the Chiefs throughout this long, depressing stretch. He said the team has endured the long practices, the uncertainty and the transition ? and players are still waiting for something that takes hold. He said the underdog?s role can help motivate a team, but that?s a role that has been tried and worn out in Kansas City. But after months ? and now years ? of roaming the NFL with a hangdog look, it becomes less charming than pitiful. McGraw said he?s ready for something new ? beyond the usual one-week optimism when Oakland visits. Especially when that optimism fails to translate into a victory. He says the Chiefs must take advantage today, using feelings or disrespect or desperation ? whatever works.
?For us, getting a win this week is everything,? McGraw says. ?This is as big as it gets for us right now.?
That?s what Chiefs coach Todd Haley has been saying, too. Players are listening, but Haley has had to fine-tune his message for a team numb from a brutal preseason and months of change.
He has said the rewards are out there, but the team has to secure them by itself, without help and without much outside faith. He has said that winning is the only path toward legitimacy, to shedding that underdog?s role for good instead of for a few days.
He has seen it happen. Haley was on Arizona?s sideline last year as the Cardinals plowed through the playoffs, defeating the 10-point favorite Carolina Panthers and then the 3 1/2 -point favorite Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC championship.
Haley said that, sure, coaches reminded players that they were short on respect, and those players responded. Haley admitted the underdog card works, but he doesn?t want to keep that one in his coaching billfold longer than necessary.
?You?d like to get to the bash-everybody?s-brains-in card when you can,? Haley says with a smile. ?You?d like to obviously get to where you step out on the field and everybody in the country thinks you?re going to win.
?It doesn?t really matter to a good team what anybody thinks. We?re trying to be a good team.?
Tyler doesn?t know what he?d do with that kind of swagger. The successful underdog carries doubt just so he can overcome it. So what good would he be if all doubt were erased? Tyler says he wouldn?t understand that feeling.
If an enterprising spirit took the 10-year-old to the bowling alley, and making his name at N.C. State got him to the NFL, what can he expect if the Chiefs follow Tyler?s approach and turn that disappointment into a long-awaited breakthrough?
?That?s when you shock the whole world,? Tyler says. ?I think the team in here can shock the whole world.
?That?s why we are the underdogs. There?s something about those people that people don?t like, and people don?t think they?re good. Let them say what they?re going to say. And let them fall asleep. We?ll wake them back up.?
It does happen. Tyler has seen it. So has Haley. Chiefs right tackle Ikechuku Ndukwe has, too. He played for Miami last year, a season after the Dolphins went 1-15. No expectations and hardly a prayer of making the playoffs. Ndukwe said that his old team entered last season disrespected, and even when the Dolphins started winning, they still entered contests feeling that any victory was a long shot. Then Miami won the AFC East, flying past the Patriots and into the playoffs.
He said that Miami?s opponents this year will take the Dolphins a little more seriously, and Ndukwe said that?s where the Chiefs want to be. Not that they wouldn?t like to capitalize on that surprise factor for now.?You?ve just got to win one,? Ndukwe says. ?Just win that first one, and I think we?ll get this thing going. This team is ready to win. They worked hard. They know what it feels like to be so close.
?Any time you challenge any person, let alone competitive athletes, you kind of challenge their identity or their respect, whatever it is. There?s something inside you that wants to rise up and prove that you deserve to be there. I think you can use that.?
Tyler stands at his locker and discusses the past, describing examples of how sour times can strengthen a boy or reinforce a college athlete or motivate an NFL team for promising times ahead. But he admits that, yes, a rut that lasts long enough can induce doubt among some.
That?s why Haley said this team needs to experience a victory: to remember what it was like to stand in a locker room and feel like anything but an underdog.
Tyler leans back and smiles. Favored or not, Tyler just can?t accept it.
?Even though we are favored to win,? he says, ?nobody expects us to win. We?re the last in the league and the least-expected to succeed. We appreciate and accept the role.
?We?re going to eventually come out on top.?
?Been an underdog my whole life,? Tyler says. ?I always had to move a rock to eat. Moving a rock was hard work.?
Once, he asked his mother for $20. Just to pay for lunch. Maybe to roll a few games at the bowling alley, too.
She didn?t have it. So the 10-year-old got to thinking, and he lined up a lawn mower and some customers, and it wasn?t long before the big kid with deep thoughts was folding six twenties a day into his pocket.
?Underdogs always come out on top,? he says.
That has been his life, from back yards to North Carolina State and then to the Chiefs. Tyler says he?s an underdog, and he relishes that role. Because he knows that if he?s ever going to catch up, he can never afford to gear down.
He says the Chiefs are the perfect team to accommodate his personality. Says he?d rather play for a team like Kansas City than a favorite, such as San Diego or New England.
The Chiefs have inadvertently catered to Tyler?s desires. Kansas City has been favored in only two of 24 regular-season games since November 2007. Both were home contests against the Oakland Raiders. That?s who is in town this week, and the Chiefs again are the favorite, this time by three points.
That means the Chiefs have to break a standard way of thinking; coaches can?t play the no-respect card for at least this week; and players such as Tyler have to think of something different to rev their motors.
It?s a rare position for the Chiefs: the football universe expecting a Kansas City victory. Some players hope their teammates didn?t hear the news.
?There?s something to be said for having a little chip on your shoulder,? Chiefs center Rudy Niswanger says, standing in the team?s locker room. ?Unless you had just told me we were favored, I wouldn?t have known. Hopefully, none of these guys look at that.?
Tyler says the role of temporary favorite means nothing to him. He hasn?t often stood in the sunshine, but on those rare occasions when he has possessed a clear advantage, Tyler says he has had to deflect that kind of thinking. Says he put himself back in the shadows and flung himself back toward the bottom of the hill.
That?s why he went to N.C. State instead of Ohio State, a team that had already won national championships. Tyler says the idea of doing something for the first time led him to Raleigh instead of Columbus. He says an achievement isn?t worth savoring if it comes easily. He didn?t win a national title at N.C. State, but he says that only made him hungrier for success in the NFL.
?They had an opportunity to shock the world and never had done it before,? he says of the Wolfpack. ?You take the Chiefs and the Patriots. The Patriots have been there many years; the Chiefs haven?t.
?I would rather play for the underdogs than the overdogs. I?m happy to be a Chief ? a team that has to work for everything that they earn.?
Lately, there have been few rewards and lots of work. The Chiefs have lost 24 regular-season games in the last 22 months. Things have changed within the organization, but the results haven?t.
In both contests in which the Chiefs have been favored since 2007, the other team won. Jon McGraw has played safety for the Chiefs throughout this long, depressing stretch. He said the team has endured the long practices, the uncertainty and the transition ? and players are still waiting for something that takes hold. He said the underdog?s role can help motivate a team, but that?s a role that has been tried and worn out in Kansas City. But after months ? and now years ? of roaming the NFL with a hangdog look, it becomes less charming than pitiful. McGraw said he?s ready for something new ? beyond the usual one-week optimism when Oakland visits. Especially when that optimism fails to translate into a victory. He says the Chiefs must take advantage today, using feelings or disrespect or desperation ? whatever works.
?For us, getting a win this week is everything,? McGraw says. ?This is as big as it gets for us right now.?
That?s what Chiefs coach Todd Haley has been saying, too. Players are listening, but Haley has had to fine-tune his message for a team numb from a brutal preseason and months of change.
He has said the rewards are out there, but the team has to secure them by itself, without help and without much outside faith. He has said that winning is the only path toward legitimacy, to shedding that underdog?s role for good instead of for a few days.
He has seen it happen. Haley was on Arizona?s sideline last year as the Cardinals plowed through the playoffs, defeating the 10-point favorite Carolina Panthers and then the 3 1/2 -point favorite Philadelphia Eagles for the NFC championship.
Haley said that, sure, coaches reminded players that they were short on respect, and those players responded. Haley admitted the underdog card works, but he doesn?t want to keep that one in his coaching billfold longer than necessary.
?You?d like to get to the bash-everybody?s-brains-in card when you can,? Haley says with a smile. ?You?d like to obviously get to where you step out on the field and everybody in the country thinks you?re going to win.
?It doesn?t really matter to a good team what anybody thinks. We?re trying to be a good team.?
Tyler doesn?t know what he?d do with that kind of swagger. The successful underdog carries doubt just so he can overcome it. So what good would he be if all doubt were erased? Tyler says he wouldn?t understand that feeling.
If an enterprising spirit took the 10-year-old to the bowling alley, and making his name at N.C. State got him to the NFL, what can he expect if the Chiefs follow Tyler?s approach and turn that disappointment into a long-awaited breakthrough?
?That?s when you shock the whole world,? Tyler says. ?I think the team in here can shock the whole world.
?That?s why we are the underdogs. There?s something about those people that people don?t like, and people don?t think they?re good. Let them say what they?re going to say. And let them fall asleep. We?ll wake them back up.?
It does happen. Tyler has seen it. So has Haley. Chiefs right tackle Ikechuku Ndukwe has, too. He played for Miami last year, a season after the Dolphins went 1-15. No expectations and hardly a prayer of making the playoffs. Ndukwe said that his old team entered last season disrespected, and even when the Dolphins started winning, they still entered contests feeling that any victory was a long shot. Then Miami won the AFC East, flying past the Patriots and into the playoffs.
He said that Miami?s opponents this year will take the Dolphins a little more seriously, and Ndukwe said that?s where the Chiefs want to be. Not that they wouldn?t like to capitalize on that surprise factor for now.?You?ve just got to win one,? Ndukwe says. ?Just win that first one, and I think we?ll get this thing going. This team is ready to win. They worked hard. They know what it feels like to be so close.
?Any time you challenge any person, let alone competitive athletes, you kind of challenge their identity or their respect, whatever it is. There?s something inside you that wants to rise up and prove that you deserve to be there. I think you can use that.?
Tyler stands at his locker and discusses the past, describing examples of how sour times can strengthen a boy or reinforce a college athlete or motivate an NFL team for promising times ahead. But he admits that, yes, a rut that lasts long enough can induce doubt among some.
That?s why Haley said this team needs to experience a victory: to remember what it was like to stand in a locker room and feel like anything but an underdog.
Tyler leans back and smiles. Favored or not, Tyler just can?t accept it.
?Even though we are favored to win,? he says, ?nobody expects us to win. We?re the last in the league and the least-expected to succeed. We appreciate and accept the role.
?We?re going to eventually come out on top.?
