Mellinger Minutes: Snyder, Mahomes, Houston (he’s coming back), Andy Reid and Twitter

By Sam Mellinger

Updated November 6, 2018 7:12 AM

There are moments that define athletes and coaches and seasons and programs, and most of the time those moments are identifiable only with hindsight. Here comes an exception:

Kansas and K-State football each hitting relative rock bottom simultaneously.

The Sunflower State is not big enough or home to enough high school talent to support two winning programs. The race is on, then, and before we go any further let’s pause for a little context.

K-State is many standard deviations ahead of Kansas, no matter how many times Bill Snyder chucks a player under the bus, and no matter how many times KU AD Jeff Long promises to break the cycle.

K-State has advantages in culture, history, commitment and even recruiting. Nobody should deny this.

But KU has rarely had an opportunity like this, and K-State rarely had this much urgency.

The last time K-State (very momentarily, but still) lost its control of the rivalry was the last time Snyder lost his way and eventually retired. K-State hired the wrong replacement, Kansas hired the right coach, and had the right series of breaks to build a sort of popup football power for a few years.

But for most of the last 30 years or so, Snyder has maintained a chokehold on the rivalry that Kansas has not been able to loosen.

And if you had to bet, you would need tall odds to put your money on Kansas. Snyder is a better coach on his worst day than anything KU has had since Mark Mangino (a former Snyder assistant, of course) and Kansas has shown little reason over the last decade to trust it will make the right decisions.

But, this is an opportunity for Kansas. The in-state rival is in flux, and KU has its most competent and well-intentioned athletics director in years. There is so much room to improve, and to do it quickly assuming Long has the funding. A better coach can attract better assistants, and with more money he’ll be able to hire a more complete staff.

Kansas football will never be Oklahoma, but with the right coach surrounded by the right support, why can’t it be Iowa State? Why can’t it be Texas Tech?

One of the biggest obstacles to progress has been Snyder’s success. That appears on the way out, and if he does indeed retire after this season, K-State will need to do what it failed to do in 2006 in order to stay ahead of Kansas.

Let’s be clear. This is not a prediction that Long and KU are about to flip the rivalry. But there is at least a path for that to be possible, which is different than anything we’ve seen in a decade.

This week’s eating recommendation is the artichoke and risotto croquette at Tavern, and the reading recommendation is my friend Brady McCollough on USC assistant (and former national champion quarterback) Tee Martin balancing football and family.

Please give me a follow on Facebook and Twitter, and as always, thanks for your help and thanks for reading.

A reminder: you can help support the best and most thorough coverage of Kansas City sports available and have a year of unlimited access to all of our work for $30 with a subscription to the Sports Pass.

I got kids to feed, you guys. OK, let’s get to it:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">P.S. Minus the Patriots game of course, but the Chiefs actually won that game morally.</p>— M. Pence (@Dharmabum1974) <a href="https://twitter.com/Dharmabum1974/status/1059416957894590464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

The consistency has been remarkable. Some of this was in the game column, which I hope you read, but you’re here now and we’re all family so here are a few things that stick out:

- the Chiefs have scored 37 or more points in all but three games, and at least 27 in all.

- they have only trailed in three games, and only trailed in the second half of two.

- 12 receivers have caught passes, nine have caught touchdowns, two are on pace for more than 1,300 yards and another for more than 900.

- six of the last seven opponents have scored 23 points or fewer.

- the Patriots are the Chiefs’ most obvious threat, and here comes a run-on sentence: they have scored fewer than 30 points in four of nine games, including 10 at Detroit, and beat the Chiefs on a last-second field goal after giving up 31 in the second half because Patrick Mahomes played his worst half of professional football in the first half and also they were missing Justin Houston and Eric Berry.

- the Rams are the Chiefs’ toughest remaining game. For all the talk of how much better their defense is, they just gave up 45 at New Orleans. Marcus Peters is a major problem for them, which we’ll talk about more soon.

- the Chargers might still end up the Chiefs’ toughest actual threat. They have not beaten the Chiefs in years.

The problem for the Chiefs will be about maintenance. Every team has rises and falls. Some of that is the nature of football, much of it is the nature of NFL roster rules. The Chiefs have not had that yet.

Their offense started like a rocket ship and has not wavered. Their defense is so much better than it was early, particularly with tackling but also pressure on the quarterback. Their greatest weakness remains the safety position, and coverage of running backs, and if the Chiefs are right that Berry will return soon — LET’S ALL ROLL OUR EYES TOGETHER OK? — that could be the most significant midseason acquisition of any team in the league.

Logic and history are pretty convincing that a slump is coming, or at least a bad game, but my job is to be completely honest with you which means I have to tell you that Patrick Mahomes is a pretty convincing argument against logic and history.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">looking at the Patriots schedule moving forward, is the 13-3 you predicted last week going to be good enough for the Chiefs to get home field advantage?</p>— JT (@TarH2O23) <a href="https://twitter.com/TarH2O23/status/1059414351600369664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

Probably not. The Patriots are 7-2 and have a remaining schedule made by Early 1990s Bill Snyder: at Titans, at Jets, Vikings at home, at Dolphins, at Steelers, Bills at home, Jets at home.

Using the predictions at FiveThirtyEight*, the Patriots have at least a 68 percent chance of winning each of their remaining games, save the Steelers, which is at 47 percent.

* Yes! I agree! Predictions should not be taken as fate!

The computers give the Patriots 12.1 projected wins, and the Chiefs 13.2. If that’s the way it goes, obviously the Chiefs would have a potential AFC Championship game against the Patriots at home.

But I would take the under on two more losses by the Patriots, and I might take the under on one.

For conversation’s sake, let’s say the Patriots lose one more time. That would mean more than one more loss by the Chiefs would put the hypothetical AFC Championship game back where the phones don’t work.

If the Patriots have just one remaining game where a loss would not be a significant upset, the Chiefs might have three — Rams in Mexico City, Chargers at home on a Thursday night, and at Seattle on a Sunday night. That doesn’t include a home game against the Ravens, who have the best defense in the league.

Before the season, it appeared the Chiefs’ schedule would lighten in the second half, but at the moment this is one more piece of evidence that judging an NFL team’s schedule by the preseason is a fool’s errand*.

* Which, of course, makes it perfect for me and I’m sure I’ll do it again next year.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">After watching Michael Thomas abuse Marcus Peters so badly I felt like I should call a hotline, I’m beginning to think that wasn’t such a bad trade. Your thoughts?</p>— Ed Bartel (@EdBartel) <a href="https://twitter.com/EdBartel/status/1059429160458698752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

Thank you for the question!

Those of you who’ve read this space before know I was infuriated by the Chiefs’ trade of Marcus Peters. I hated it from just about every possible angle: as a football move, as cover for some of the Peters hate, as a judgment against what they got back, and as a statement of where they were as an organization.

I am here before you today to say I was wrong, with one small caveat:

I do wish the Chiefs would have taken a share of the blame for it not working out. I have no doubt that they did everything possible to make it work, but they’re the adults in the room here, the ones who went in with eyes wide open about who Peters was. The very, very, very least they could have done is raise their hands and say, Our bad, we wish we could have made it work.

That said, when it comes to judging this trade here is my message to Brett Veach, Andy Reid, and Bob Sutton:

I don’t know exactly what to make of Peters this season. I’m sure this is something we’ll get into more next week, when the Chiefs and Rams prepare to play each other.

I know there have been questions about whether he’s healthy, but that rings hallow to me. Peters is tough, and he’s proud, so maybe he’s playing through some stuff. But he’s been so bad you’d think they’d sit him if it was physical.

Because he’s been jaw-droppingly bad: 108th among 117 corners who’ve played at least 20 percent of their snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, and here’s more — five touchdowns and 27 catches on 38 targets and (clears throat) 138.7 passer rating in coverage.

That is atrocious, but just for comparison’s sake: he did not give up five touchdowns in either of his last two full seasons in Kansas City, and never worse than a 67.1 passer rating in coverage.

Again, I don’t want to get ahead of myself in what to say about this. I assume Aqib Talib being out has made it more difficult, but Peters is supposed to be good enough to handle his side of the field no matter what.

I like Peters. Probably always will, and maybe the solution is coming. He’ll get healthy or the Rams will better figure out how to use him or he’ll simply play better. Whatever.

But right now, I am stunned at how bad he has been. The Chiefs got out just in time.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I'm 46 years old, and this is (likely) the best Chiefs team I can remember, in terms of talent. How do you see the playoffs unfolding in terms of match ups, and how can I possibly enjoy them without worrying about the inevitable kick to the stomach?</p>— AJ (@AJTrueSon) <a href="https://twitter.com/AJTrueSon/status/1059416255269093376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

I am expecting that pretty much every column I write from the middle of December or so on will hit on this theme in one way or another.

This team is really, really good, you guys, the rare NFL team that can win playing it’s A- or so game, regardless of what the other team does. The offense can score from anywhere, the quarterback can make a play from nothing, the defense is coming along, and special teams can break things open.

This team is, in other words, the polar opposite of the franchise’s playoff history.

So, look. Curses are not a thing. We can have fun with them here, and have, but the Chiefs have crumbled in the postseason because of bad luck, ineffective play, and the inability to make plays.

Last year, the offense had to keep the trains moving on time and the defense needed to create turnovers and any letdown in any phase meant doom.

That’s not true here.

That doesn’t mean the Chiefs won’t break your heart in the playoffs again. They probably will, but if it happens, it doesn’t mean the whole thing needs to be blown up.

Just means they need a few more shots.

Because in the past, postseason losses felt like indictments on everything the Chiefs were trying to build.

With this team, a postseason loss might feel like a necessary step, because the pieces are mostly in-house already.

But your question is a cousin to another question, which we might as well get to now...

First, I do not lay awake at 3 in the morning scared about the Chiefs. If anything, I lay awake scared about our old roof caving, or our old car leaking, or our oldest son not eating enough vegetables, or our youngest son not listening enough, or my bosses wising up and wondering why they pay me THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS EVERY YEAR for this nonsense.

But, the spirit of your question.

Injuries are the main thing, and any nightmare about the worst possible Chiefs loss probably has to include some sort of debilitating injury to the quarterback that wrecks his 2019 season. But injuries are a copout answer.

Injuries can torpedo any team, in any season.

The Chiefs can score on anybody. That much is clear by now. The most obvious problem they have is on defense, but more specifically than that, it’s covering backs in the passing game.

You can imagine a scenario where the Chiefs’ playoff loss includes 160 yards receiving by James White, James Conner, Le’Veon Bell, Alvin Kamara or Todd Gurley, though if it comes against Gurley or Kamara the heartbreak would be tempered by the fact that the Chiefs made the dang Super Bowl.

I don’t know what the fix is there, beyond Justin Houston and especially Eric Berry getting healthy. The Browns showed an easy way to exploit this weakness on a 4th and 2 conversion early in the game, with a receiver chipping Breeland Speaks at the line of scrimmage and throwing over his head:

I’m not sure they needed the chip, and that’s an alignment the sideline needs to recognize and call timeout, but those types of plays are often there for the opponent to take.

This is sort of the updated version of The Chiefs Can’t Stop The Run, which is still true by the way, and wrecked playoff games against the Titans and Steelers.

The antidote here is those guys getting healthy, or the offense scoring so much it doesn’t matter.

Eric Berry is not going anywhere. Cutting him after this season would mean nearly $15 million of dead money next year, with just $1.5 million in savings.

Bob Sutton is probably not going anywhere. If he wasn’t fired a year ago, after the defense collapsed and ruined a season and a playoff game, it’s hard to see how he would be fired this year, particularly with the defense’s recent improvement.

Things move fast in the NFL, so nothing is absolute, but so far Sutton is helping keep a defense together despite injuries to Houston and Berry. Dee Ford is a pass rushing star, Chris Jones is developing, and look at what Marcus Peters is doing in a new system.

Houston is a different conversation. I’ve written several times before that this is almost certainly his last season under his current contract, because his production is falling and the Chiefs could save $14 million in cap space.

The most likely scenario is a restructure, depending on what he shows the rest of the season. He’s still a very good player, and his versatility and threat on opposing blockers are important. He’s just no longer the force of nature who demands to be paid like Aaron Donald.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The defense will be top 15 in the league with 29, 49, and 50 healthy. This is a statement. Not a question. <br><br>Right?</p>— Caleb Riekhof (@gophergrubes) <a href="https://twitter.com/gophergrubes/status/1059483561286352898?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

I think so? Maybe?

Top 20, at least?

Daniel Sorensen is not critical. He’s an upgrade, but let’s move on.

Eric Berry covers some glaring weaknesses on this team. Communication should improve, as well as coverage in the back. Those have appeared to be Ron Parker’s biggest problems, the reasons for most of the big plays he’s surrendered.

Berry is also physical enough and agile enough to cover tight ends and running backs. Nobody can be sure how close to full strength he’ll be when he (presumably) returns, but even if he’s 75 percent of what he was, that’s better than what the Chiefs have had.

Houston gives them versatility, and limits the vulnerability carried when Breeland Speaks is caught in a passing down. He’s a force at the point of attack, and even if teams decide that Dee Ford is a bigger threat until proven otherwise, Houston demands more attention on the other side which should — in theory — create opportunities in other places.

The Chiefs have actually been closer to league average over the last month or so. You can squint and see a scenario in which they have enough already.

My expectation is that there will be an adjustment period of a game or two with Houston and Berry. That’s both with their own strength and working back into the system.

But, generally speaking, yes. At full strength this should be at least an average defense.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How much longer will we have a duo in reid/mahomes assuming continued success? Bel/brady, mike/ben, mccarthy/Rodgers all have continuity. Does reid hang it up with a SB win or does he continue on?</p>— Andrew Corrao (@penguinxcrossin) <a href="https://twitter.com/penguinxcrossin/status/1059502718249766913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

Andy Reid is among the least reflective men in a proudly unreflective league, and this is all by design, which means the answer to your question is almost purely conjecture but here goes:

I believe Reid is having the time of his coaching life.

I believe he has waited his entire career to have something like Mahomes, and being able to surround him with one of the league’s best set of skill players is an unnecessary but welcomed bonus.

I believe you can hear this in the subtle ways Reid describes Mahomes, and I believe you can see it when he basically ignores the defense to sit with Mahomes on the bench between offensive series.

Reid is endlessly creative, and being able to not just coach but mold a quarterback who seems to make all things possible must be one of the greatest professional joys he’ll experience in a career full of them.

If I am even sort of right about any of this, Reid will stick around until he can no longer handle the rigors of coaching.

I am tempted to couch this a bit by saying “or he decides he wants more time time with his family,” but Reid is different. One son is on staff. Other children and grandkids are regularly at games. He and his wife carve out time every week, even during the season, to spend together. They have a sort of code, and she doesn’t use it often, but when she does she can get him out of any meeting at any time.

This is what Reid does, and it’s what the Reids do. It’s just hard to imagine him giving that up until he’s left with no choice.

He’s 60 years old. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t have at least five more years with this, maybe more.

Well, a 38-17 win on the road is not lucky. That’s an ass kicking.

That said, they are decidedly not a contender. They are 5-4 overall, and 1-4 in the SEC. Even if we assume they win out — they’re a 14-point favorite over Vanderbilt this weekend, and should be favored in their last two games, too — a 4-4 conference team is not a contender.

That does not mean this is a bad team, or a bad coaching staff.

I would argue that the ability to keep a team together through adversity — self-created or otherwise — is an important skill for a coach and Odom has shown it repeatedly.

The next step is getting to a place where the season isn’t hugging a cliff every November, and barring a transfer in by Kelly Bryant, that challenge figures to intensify next year with Drew Lock’s graduation.

But this is progress.

Not enough. But it’s something.

Sure!

Depending on your definition of success!

Jeff Long has defined success as regular bowl game appearances, which is both a long way from where they stand right now and realistic for virtually any program.

There are currently 40 bowl games, which means 80 spots for 130 FBS programs. If each of them played to their value, Kansas would still miss a bowl game more often than not, but what are sports for if not a chance to set ambitious goals?

The truth is that “make regular bowl games” is not as successful as it sounds. Schedule three layups in the non conference, then lose twice as often as you win in conference, and there’s your bowl game.

But even that low standard would all require Kansas winning at the margins. Recruiting would need a vast improvement, and a better coaching staff would need to maximize that talent, and they might still need a break or two along the way.

If Kentucky is winning games in the SEC, Kansas can do it in the Big 12.

But the plan to get there needs to start somewhere other than asking fans for blind trust.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">For KSU it isn't a college football program as much as it is an individual though, Sam. Hadn't you heard? </p>— Bob Wearing (@forsportsonly) <a href="https://twitter.com/forsportsonly/status/1059418179775152129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

This makes me sad. All of it. Bill Snyder is better than this. Or, at least he should be. Or, at least, he was.

Snyder’s ethos has been largely about teamwork and accountability and making sure everyone pulls in the same direction.

Vahe wrote an excellent column about this, and I encourage you to read it, but essentially beginning with the bizarre Corey Sutton drama last year Snyder has stepped out of much of what he had shown himself to be over the last two decades.

Throwing Isaiah Zuber under the bus to protect his son and special teams coordinator was particularly disappointing, for many obvious reasons, not the least of which is the result is almost certainly counterproductive.

The other coaches and players can see what’s happening here, and it’s hard to be motivated to play for a leader like that.

Snyder is one of the greatest coaches in college football history. He never won a national title, or even played for one, but what he did at and for K-State will live forever. He led the charge in saving a program, and in some ways a city.

None of that will ever change. His past will always matter.

But that doesn’t give him cover for letting the thing slip now, and not taking the appropriate responsibility as the head coach.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you were Don Garber, you'd put an SKC home playoff game up against a Chiefs home game right?</p>— #SpookySZN (@AlexTFoster) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexTFoster/status/1059420792939782144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

MLS makes itself hard to love sometimes, huh?

We all look at things through our own perspectives, and before my wife and I had kids, I wouldn’t have cared about this but how about not scheduling playoff games for Halloween night?

How about not making fans choose between their kids and a game?

But, yes. Sunday’s game. Bad timing.

The Chiefs kick off at noon, and Sporting at 2 p.m. That means attending both is impossible, and for the 70,000 or so who will be at Arrowhead catching even the end of Sporting’s game will be next to impossible.

Playing the Cardinals at home might be the least interesting Chiefs game of the season, so maybe some will flip the channel in the third quarter to Sporting, but still. This is a decision you’d rather not force fans to make.

The simplest solution would be to play on Saturday, but of course these things are dictated by TV, and ESPN has college football to air.

I think we all recognize that MLS is in a difficult spot, and open to criticism no matter what. The Falcons play at 1 Eastern on Sunday, so if MLS flipped Sporting’s game with Atlanta United’s the same conflict would exist in Georgia.

The idea for any league is to maximize both revenue and exposure, and while I think when those two priorities are in conflict that a growing league like MLS should choose exposure, that’s easy for me to say because I don’t rely on that money or feel the need to do whatever the TV partner wants.

There are a million complications with MLS making a schedule. The season is probably too long, because the most important games shouldn’t happen in snowfall, but between international lulls and various competitions I’m not sure what the fix is there, either.

Maybe Garber and/or Sporting already did this, but just for the sake of local exposure for a playoff game you’d hope there was a case made to ESPN that more people in the game’s most important market would watch with a different game time.

But, in the end, I’m not sure that would matter or even that ESPN should change. The TV ratings aren’t good anyway.

I don’t know, you guys. But it’s a harder situation that it looks on the surface.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">You got your voting plan together for tomorrow?</p>— Thom (@thombomb816) <a href="https://twitter.com/thombomb816/status/1059415781660942336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

I do!

Your boy does early voting, and believes that everyone should.

This isn’t something I’m proud of, but if this was the old days, when you had to clear out a few hours to drive to the poll and wait in line and then go into the booth to vote, well, I hope it’s not true that I would never vote. But I sure wouldn’t do it as often or consistently as I do now.

Basically, early voting makes it as easy as paying a bill. Print out a form, fill it out, email a copy, receive a ballot a few days later, fill it out, drop it in a blue box.

The whole process takes five minutes. Ten at the most.

One of the weird things about getting older is the ability to remember your younger thought processes. I know I voted in the first election I was eligible, but I also know I got out of the habit fairly quickly.

It’s easy to feel removed from the process or effects. It’s easy to feel like you don’t know enough, or that you’re too busy, or that your vote doesn’t count. You’re in college, or you’re moving apartments every year, or you just don’t find the energy to care enough.

You start to see it differently with time, and that’s particularly true if you buy a house, have a kid, grow some roots.

I can’t imagine not voting, and it literally makes me happy to have the right. I don’t talk about who I vote for with anyone, because political conversations are the worst, especially if you’re open to both parties. It’s among the worst wastes of time and emotion I can imagine.

But I’m glad we all have the chance to vote. I wish I’d understood this sooner. If you are younger than me, I hope you’re smarter than I was at that age*.

* Low bar!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Do you work seven days a week? How much has Twitter changed your job?</p>— Jeremy Evan (@jeremyevan0414) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremyevan0414/status/1059416984499245056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2018</a></blockquote>

There aren’t many days that I don’t do at least a little work. Some are more involved than others. In a typical football week, between a game on Sunday, putting this together Monday, rewatching the game, trying to plan the rest of the week, and making calls on what’s coming I’ve probably worked 30 hours or so by the end of Tuesday.

Hopefully this is unnecessary but I want to make something clear: in no way am I complaining. I work a lot of hours, but I try not to say I work hard, because my work involves talking with interesting people, reading interesting things, watching interesting games, and hopefully typing interesting words.

I’m not digging ditches. There are people out there in the world with real work problems. I am not one of them.

Also, there are holes in the schedule, time you can carve out for yourself, and among my proudest accomplishments over the last few years is a much better balance between work, my family, and myself.

This week, for instance, some things including child care fell into place in a way that I can take most of today off and still do everything I need.

During a typical football week, my goal is usually to have Friday and Saturday mostly to myself. There’s always something to do (a phone call, a game to watch, a stat to look up) and this weird schedule can always blow up if something happens late in the week, or there’s a college game to cover on Saturday.

But finding that time is critical to a happy life. I love my job, consider myself lucky to have it, but literally think all the time about not being the guy who ends his life wishing he didn’t blow off the important stuff for work.

As for Twitter, this is a hard question to answer because Twitter has been around the entire time I’ve had this particular job. But I think I know what you’re asking, and the answer is it probably hasn’t changed as much as you might think. Or, at least I don’t think it’s changed my job as much as others might say it’s changed theirs.

I suppose we should specify what we’re talking about here. In most ways, I believe Twitter makes my job easier, or maybe more efficient. The best part of Twitter is the amount of information I can access quickly. Without it, I’d just have to spend a lot more time finding the same stats or video clips or writing.

The second best part of Twitter is the conversation with readers. I know it’s fashionable to say this is the worst part, and I get it, but I also think it’s pretty easy to filter out what’s worth taking seriously. There’s also the mute button.

The third best part of Twitter is the ability to reach a large number of people quickly and intimately. For some dumb reason nearly 90,000 people follow me there, and I don’t know how many of those accounts are real, but I do know I can instantly reach more people than anyone else covering Kansas City sports. That’s a pretty cool thing.

Now. There are negatives. Of course there are negatives. I waste more time on Twitter than probably any other activity. Giving people access to your pocket means too many of the day’s gaps are filled with thoughts you don’t need in your head. I wish I was better at resisting the temptation to be on Twitter when I’m with my family, and getting better at that is one of my biggest goals going forward.

Also, there are times it’s difficult to tell what’s a real thought, and what’s a few people in an echo chamber.

But all of those negatives are Me Problems. It’s up to me to be more efficient, up to me to not let the dumb stuff bother me, up to me to forget the phone is in my pocket, and up to me to filter out the nonsense.

The positives of Twitter would be difficult or impossible for me to replace somewhere else, so onward we will go.

This week I’m particularly grateful for the trust shown by people in this job. Some of them work for teams we cover, and trust me to either keep information confidential or use it responsibly without their names attached. Others are like Danielson Ike, who didn’t know me from a car mechanic but trusted me to tell his story honestly and fairly. Literally, I would have to find another way to make a living without that trust, there is not a day that goes by I don’t work to protect it.

Sam Mellinger

Sam Mellinger is a Kansas City Star sports columnist.

This story was originally published November 6, 2018 at 6:00 AM.

Sam Mellinger

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