I have no knowledge of the contract extension to which you are referring. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go look over some documents and attend to other such business. This interview is at an end. Good day.

Remember an hour before the draft when the story broke that Matt Cassel had signed a 6 year deal with the Chiefs?  It didn’t seem like big news to me at the time.  Ever since we traded for him it was a foregone conclusion that we’d sign him to an extension, or else why even make the trade?  To pay a guy $14 million for one year of service?  Uh, no.  It was obvious from the start we’d be inking Cassel to a new deal.  I figured it would be big but not huge, and the details would hardly matter anyway seeing as how we have more cap room than we’ll ever use.

In other words, I was focused on the draft and Cassel’s inevitable contract extension wasn’t top priority.  But then a funny thing happened: Scott Pioli denied any knowledge of said contract extension.  I believe “that’s news to me” was the quote.  That raised my eyebrows a bit.  I mean why deny something so obviously true, right?  What’s to be gained?

Since Pioli’s “news to me” quote, all parties (including Cassel) have denied that a new deal is in place, or that one is even being negotiated.  I’m gonna go ahead and call bullshit on all of them.  Michael Lombardo, who originally broke the story, says his source is reliable and that a deal worth $36 million in guaranteed money has been agreed upon.  Scott Pioli says this isn’t true.  Lombardo also broke the story about the Falcons and Chiefs being involved in trade talks for Tony Gonzalez.  Pioli denied that as well, and we all saw how that turned out.  There is a precedent here.  If Lombardo says one thing and Pioli says another, believe Lombardo.  He was even the first to call the Chiefs’ first round pick of Tyson Jackson.  He clearly has a good source inside Arrowhead.  And since the Tony G trade already proved Pioli is willing to lie to maintain his precious secrecy, we should be able to read between the lines here.  Cassel’s deal is done.

The question, again, is why would Pioli play dumb about Cassel’s contract now?  What could his motivation possibly be?  We all know those Patriots love their secrecy, but this is taking it to the extreme.  Things like your playbook, your draft plans, your week-to-week game-planning, you want to keep those under wraps.  I get that.  I don’t blame Pioli or Haley for keeping our defensive scheme a secret, for instance.  Only recently did they even admit we’ll be running a 3-4*.  Unnecessary as delaying that announcement may have seemed to us, you could make the argument that letting other teams know what defense you’re running could give them a hint as to your draft and free agency plans.  In my opinion this is a flimsy argument, but it is an argument, as in it exists, so I’m willing to give the new front office the benefit of the doubt on that one.  Where, I ask you, is the potential benefit to keeping this Cassel deal a secret?  Can we think of any reason, plausible or implausible, for doing this?  If not, then its just secrecy for secrecy’s sake, and I think that’s wack.

*The exact configuration of the defense is still unclear, but we’re going to be starting 3 linemen and 4 linebackers, so I’ll call that a 3-4.  Beast Nation got a hold of the term “4-3 under” a while back and have been waxing poetic about it ever since.  The 4-3 under is essentially a hybrid defense similar to what Clancy Pendergast ran in Arizona.  We may run it, we may not, but for simplicity’s sake I think it’s going to be a lot easier if we just refer to our defense as a 3-4.  That’s where we all know we’re headed.  This “4-3 under” business is a classic example of what happens when Beast Nation learns some new jargon and wants to sound smart.  Now we’ve got a whole blogosphere out there talking about the merits and deficiencies of a system they know nothing about.

Maybe I’m still too irritible from having to suffer through The Lie Guys’ tenure, but I really don’t like being lied to.  When you catch someone lying to you, its difficult to look them in the face again.  Pioli straight-up lied to us about the Falcons and Gonzalez*.  And now he’s lying to us again about the Cassel contract.  That may not have anything to do with his job performance per se, but I’d like for our GM to at least have a reason for being dishonest.  If he proves lying is just standard practice with or without just cause, then I’m going to have a hard time respecting him.  I know his job isn’t to be truthful, but neither is it to always keep his own fans at arm’s length.

*It was actually arguably a double-lie, because after the trade was made he said it was going to make us better in the long run and right away, then indicated that future 2nd would be used as trade-bait this year.  Obviously, that didn’t happen.  So the argument that we’re going to be better this year as a result of that trade is absurd.  Because as far as this year is concerned, the trade was Tony G for nothing.  It’s possible the trade will be better for us in the long run, but literally impossible it helps us right now, unless you assert that removing the greatest tight end in the history of the game is good for our team.  That would require logic even Herm Edwards would find ridiculous.

I probably spend too much time harping on front office duplicity, but it really boils my blood.  I don’t feel like I’m asking a lot here.  If, after being dishonest, a GM would simply say, “OK, I know this action of mine totally contradicts what I said before, but there was a reason for that, and here it is….”, then I’d be totally fine with it, even if I didn’t necessarily agree with the reason.  Instead Scott Pioli can say, “We are not talking to the Atlanta Falcons”, then turn around and make a trade proving he was talking to the Atlanta Falcons, and……thats the end of it.  Never discussed again.  Is it wrong to expect some kind of explanation?  Or at least for someone with press credentials to ask for an explanation?  Fuck football, I’m talking about basic human decency here.  Who tells a lie knowing it will eventually be exposed, watches as said lie is exposed, and then just acts like it never happened?  I mean credibility is totally shot at that point, right?  Am I the only one who cares about this stuff?  I feel like I’m going crazy here.

The bottom line is that we’re only a few months into the Pioli era and he has already proven that we shouldn’t believe a word he says.  Maybe I’m being naive, but I think that sucks.  I want the men who run my football team to be worthy of my respect.  And, once again, I’m not really even talking about football.  I’m talking about human behavior.  When there is a legit strategic reason for dishonesty, I’m obviously cool with it.  But when a GM starts to lie for no reason, I get a little worried.  Scott Pioli officially has me worried.

And that’s where its at, with Big Hatt

PS I actually still think Pioli will end up being pretty good at his job.  And, realistically, I’m expecting too much if I want a GM who’s going to be completely honest with me.  Guys who admit mistakes and subject themselves to full accountability for their actions probably don’t survive long in an NFL front office.  Guys with huge egos and malleable moral codes, on the other hand, shoot right to the top!  I guess maybe its that, more than anything, that I’m complaining about.

PPS Just so there is no confusion, allow me to further clarify exactly what kind of honesty I want from my fearless leader.  We’ll use this draft as an example.  I don’t want Scott Pioli to give any clues of his plans before the draft.  He shouldn’t drop hints, he shouldn’t tip his hand, he should use smokescreens if he deems them necessary.  That’s all part of the game.  However, I do want him to be honest when questioned after the draft is over.  Don’t give us nonsense about how “nobody was calling” and “we’re thrilled with the guys we got.” And don’t sidestep a question about potential trades by pointing to a trade you almost made to get a guy at the end of the third round (who we got anyway in the 4th round!  HURRAY!!!).  Admit you tried to make some moves, none of them worked out, but you feel like you got some pretty good players.  That seems reasonable, right?

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