Chapter 640: Kick someone while they’re down Chapter 640: Kick someone while they’re down “`
The entire league was abuzz, with the aftermath of the Gillette Stadium incident just beginning, and Li Wei found himself once again at the center of the storm.
Clearly, not everyone was used to Li Wei’s—
In the end, as a professional athlete, you should speak through your performance on the field; the hustle and bustle off the field might bring attention, but it could also lead to ostracism.
Back in the day, Beckham experienced just that, to the extent that people never truly recognized his performance on the field.
Now, Li Wei was facing a similar situation, whether the off-field news was positive or negative, constructive or destructive, it was all just tabloid fodder, creating an image of someone who was troublesome and not focused on his profession, an image that was beginning to take root in people’s minds and gradually drawing sideways glances from his peers in the league.
There were those who were envious, those who were jealous, those who were nitpicking, and those who wanted to push him out, or those who simply couldn’t stand the sight of him.
The gaze surrounding Li Wei was becoming sharper bit by bit.
Provocation was inevitable.
In the end, it all came back to the same saying: in the world of competitive sports, everything is cruel and bloody, but also straightforward.
Victory can cover up all contradictions, while defeat breeds endless conflict.
Nothing can’t be solved by a victory, and if one isn’t enough, then two or three, until everyone is silenced.
So, after going around in circles, the focus came back to the main track—
The Kansas City Chiefs lost to the New England Patriots.
In the eyes of a few, the truth behind the Gillette Stadium incident was a different matter entirely.
All that talk about Li Wei trying to defend Mahomes was nonsense, they reasoned.
The real reason must have been Li Wei and Mahomes could not accept defeat; looking for excuses to attack the fans on site, with Goodell cleaning up after them.
That was the real truth.
One didn’t need to exert much effort to recall the weakness and confusion of the Kansas City Chiefs mid-last season, floundering like headless flies, facing a six-game losing streak, barely missing the playoffs.
If it hadn’t been for the AFC West’s other teams lacking competitiveness, not posing enough threat to the Chiefs at the end of the season, and allowing Reid’s team to easily pull out of the slump and regain the confidence to win, escaping disaster to advance to the playoffs, the season could have ended very differently.
At least, that’s what Marvin Lewis, head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, believed.
From various indications, the Kansas City Chiefs were still too young and unstable, no different from last season and far from transformed, relying purely on enthusiasm to persevere and struggle; once that spirit could no longer carry them past the finish line, the outcome could be reversed.
Of course, it’s not to say that this is necessarily bad.
In fact, fighting spirit and belief do play important roles in competitive sports; the issue is the lack of a stable foundation.
This Kansas City Chiefs team had a high ceiling, as evidenced by their five-game winning streak during the season; however, their floor was also very low, one mistake could lead to a domino effect, and their performance with great highs and lows had many uncertainties—
They might win a hard-fought battle against the Denver Broncos, yet also easily sweep the Jacksonville Jaguars.
This lack of stability was exactly the gap between the Kansas City Chiefs and the truly strong teams.
Last season was a classic example.
After the end of the Chiefs’ six-game winning streak, they couldn’t regain their footing.
Lacking the ability to adjust on-the-fly, defeats cascaded down one after another, an avalanche of losses.
This season, despite no significant changes, the Kansas City Chiefs still faced challenges.
Marvin Lewis believed that the Cincinnati Bengals could become the nightmare of the Kansas City Chiefs and even initiate the defending champions’ losing streak.
In some ways, the Cincinnati Bengals could be called another Kansas City Chiefs; to be more precise, the Cincinnati Bengals were the trailblazers, with the Kansas City Chiefs following in their footsteps to reach greatness.
The last glory of the Cincinnati Bengals dates back to the late ’80s and early ’90s, after which they fell into an endless trough—until after the millennium when head coach Lewis took the reins, changing regimes, and the team undertook a comprehensive rebuild, slowly but surely returning to the path of victory.
In 2011, the Cincinnati Bengals selected quarterback “Ginger Head” Andy Dalton in the second round of the draft with the 50th pick, finally finding the last core piece of the puzzle.
From the 2011 to the 2015 seasons, the Cincinnati Bengals made the playoffs five years in a row, evidently becoming a new generation representative of the league.
However, for five consecutive years, the Cincinnati Bengals were knocked out in their first playoff game.
After 1990, a full twenty-eight years without a playoff victory, they led the historical record for this unfortunate track—
Does this sound at all familiar?
The Kansas City Chiefs, Reed, Smith.
The two teams were like brothers in adversity, each having returned to the playoffs only to find themselves unable to break through the first round; for a time, it was unclear which was more frustrating: the perpetual absence from the playoffs or the consistent one-and-done exits.
It wasn’t until the 2015 season that the Kansas City Chiefs broke the curse, finally winning a playoff game and leaving the Cincinnati Bengals alone at the top of the rankings for teams without a postseason win.
At this point, one could only imagine Lewis’s frustration.
Yet, that wasn’t all.
In the 2016 and 2017 seasons, the Cincinnati Bengals were ravaged by injuries and missed the playoffs two years in a row, silencing fans who had complained that “a first-round playoff exit was worse than not making it at all.” Only after truly missing out did they realize that making the playoffs and then losing was still a happier prospect, as at least they could hold on to hope for another week.
Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Bengals had to watch as their little followers, the Kansas City Chiefs who used to trail behind them, surpassed them after ending their postseason curse, and then soared to Super Bowl glory, while the earlier rebuilders remained stuck in place.
Now, Lewis and his Cincinnati Bengals were collectively plunged into depression.
Understandably, when the Cincinnati Bengals finally got the chance to face the Kansas City Chiefs and prove themselves, their ambition was fully ignited.
In Lewis’s view, the Kansas City Chiefs’ season of highlights was just fluke; their foundation was unstable, fluctuating wildly, and with a little pressure, they would collapse—not just Li Wei, but from Reed to the offensive group and then to the defensive group, all of them.
Now, the opportunity couldn’t be more perfect.
From a five-game winning streak at the start of the season to a close defeat by the New England Patriots, from being united and confident to facing tough battles that sparked self-doubt, the rookie’s off-field scandals only served to distract the team.
All signs pointed to the Kansas City Chiefs being at their weakest and most vulnerable, fully exposing their shortcomings.
Lewis would use a victory to prove to the league—
A single season of success meant nothing; they should take a long, hard look at the bigger picture, as it was the Cincinnati Bengals that truly deserved to reach the pinnacle of the Super Bowl.
Not just a victory, but a resoundingly joyful one.