The Kansas City Chiefs are undergoing renovations at Arrowhead stadium that plan to keep us not-as-far-behind the new billion dollar stadium craze.  The new stadium and practice facility will bring with it an array of LED screens, revamped club-seating and suites, and many other treats that all the up-to-date stadiums have these days according to the Kansas City Business Journal.

The new screens will be nice.  If I ever get tickets in club-seating I'm sure I would enjoy the renovations that are being done to them.  But these aren't the reasons I go to Arrowhead stadium.

I go for the tailgating, the somehow-still-astonishing sea of red, the fans and most of all for my team.

I like that I can go there and look at the names of the past on the Chiefs Ring of Honor.  Well, those are being replaced by LED screens.  Okay, I can live with that.  The LED screens will display those contained on the Ring of Honor sporadically throughout the game.

I like that I can challenge anyone to top the gameday experience at Arrowhead stadium. 

The renovations cost money.  From whom?  A combination of people, including sponsorships.  Tammy Fruits, VP of sales and marketing for the Chiefs said, "Some of these teams have absolutely crazy amounts of revenue they can raise through sponsorships. Revenues from naming rights are so significant. Even if we land ours, the naming rights for cities like Dallas and New York are probably going to be five times larger." [Ed. Emphasis mine]

Um, naming rights?  Like my challenge for the best gameday experience might be changed to Sprint field at Arrowhead or something else completely not KC?

Fruits continues, "It is certainly our hope to incorporate the Arrowhead name and tradition into whatever we end up doing, not unlike Invesco Field at Mile High, that sort of thing."

Tammy, Tammy, Tammy.  One thing you do not do in this town, at any point in your life, is compare US to the Denver Broncos.  But even that's besides the bigger point.

I thought our charm was the tradition.  The fact that we weren't sell-outs.  The fact that we did sell out.  No matter what.  The Dallas' and New York's of the world can spend billions on their stadiums but they can't match our gameday experience or our tradition at Arrowhead.

Unfortunately, the second we change the name of Arrowhead to Corporate whatever, is the second we lose our edge

RIP Arrowhead Stadium: You fell to the (necessary?) desires of a front office to bring in an extra $5 million per year.

One of our many series that may or may not finish, I'll be taking a look at what I think to be the most interesting individual match ups next season. First up in Week 1, the New England Patriots.

With a new starting cornerback, a second year player in the nickel spot and two safeties with combined experience of four years, the easy answer this week is say watch the Kansas City Chiefs secondary compete against the record setting, All World, yada yada yada New England Patriots offense. I'll admit if the Chiefs are able to at least feign containment on Brady and Moss in Week 1, I'll be impressed. And I do that that would at least vaguely point to developing talent in our secondary if they performed well against the best. But if the Pats destroy the Chiefs secondary, then what will we say? That's what we expected?

That's why I'm going to tell you to watch the Chiefs' Jared Allen-less defensive line against the Patriots' foundation, their offensive line.

Right at the beginning of the season, the Chiefs will have a difficult test to gauge how far (or how steady) the team's 2007 strength has fallen. The Patriots offensive line, while a fantastic unit, is more dependent on the influence of Brady and Moss in that offense than the actual skills of their entire line. For example, only left tackle Matt Light and center Dan Koppen were cemented in their positions last year, with the guards and other tackle able to interchange quickly.

So, if the Chiefs are able to develop a successful pass rush during the game on September 7th, we'll know we have something to build upon.

Frankly, it's time for Tamba Hali to either become a pass rushing force or relegate himself to the "Also played" category of NFL players who had a couple of decent seasons. We will see in Week 1 if Hali is a player on his own or if he needed those dozen or so sacks by Allen the last two seasons to skate under the Chiefs' radar.

The same goes for the defensive tackles in Week 1. Glenn Dorsey gets a big time NFL test in his first game and we hope, we hope to see progress from Tank Tyler or Turk McBride, or both.

In other words, the Chiefs will get to see how immediate of an impact their '07 and '08 draft picks will have.

I know this is a lot of hot, hypothetical air over a game the Kansas City Chiefs will likely get whooped up so bad in that we won't be able to glean any lessons from it. But you see where I'm going with these? As this team changes and grows, what will be revealed to us this season about our current condition? We may lose, but what are we learning? Who can't cut it anymore? Or never could?

Because if you're not a Chiefs fan who is thinking in terms of two to three years down the road, you're setting yourself up for angry disappointment.

Ha. Good luck trying to swing your "false positive" excuse again.

A highly placed source in the NFL told Fox 31 sports reporter Josina Anderson that if Henry failed the test that the troubled player would be "up for a suspension".

This comes after Henry had successfully appealed a positive test taken prior to last season. Claiming the test was a "false positive", Henry won his claim against the NFL, though as part of the agreement he remained in the NFL's substance abuser program.

Earlier this spring the Broncos released Henry stating that the former Bill and Titan was "too inconsistent as a person. When you're too inconsistent as a person, you usually aren't going to win championships."

When the source was asked if Henry knew of the positive test, he replied, "I was told this result is recent. [Henry] should already be informed. If he didn’t know, he knows now."

There isn't much more to say that hasn't been said the other times Henry has tested positive in a league drug test. Stupid. Cocky. Can we get him the hell out of the NFL already? I suppose he's almost there.

I need to apologize for mixing up my Bronco games in the High and Low post yesterday. The Denver game I went to was the 27 to 11 loss in November. The game I described, as if I was there, was in December at Invesco Field. They were both bad losses at the hands of the Broncos and I simply got mixed up. The credibility of this blog is extremely important to me and I wanted to apologize for giving you misinformation. Won't happen again. Many thanks to the commenters who pointed it out.

Big props to a poster at Chiefs Coalition for the graphic.

I think it's pretty much dead on. Except that period a bit after Joe Montana, around 2003ish I think the freak outs dropped a bit.

Over the next three years or so, do we freak out more? Or less? As a whole fanbase, I think we'll see the freak outs rise this year then drop from there on out.

It's Friday so we'll be heavy on the FanShots so keep checking those out.

Anyone doing anything interesting this weekend? Since our move to Austin, TX, a little over a month ago, Miss Arrowhead Pride has been on an organic food, fresh vegetable kick so I think we're hitting up a local farmers market on Saturday. Then maybe Home Depot. I don't know if we'll have enough time.

Enjoy this Friday, where ever you are.

We're going to kick off this Thursday morning with what will hopefully turn out to be an interesting discussion. I'm serious this time. And there are lots of new FanShots today so check them out too.

Update: Yes, I know I mixed up the Denver games. It was late.

I want to know what you think is the best, most proud, most exciting moment the Kansas City Chiefs had last season. It can be a game, a play, a series. Whatever you want. Let us know where you think the wave crested.

Conversely, let's talk about the lowest, can't get any worse than this moment of last year.

Let me throw mine out first.

The best moment, the one that immediately stuck out when I thought of this topic, happened in Week 11. The Chiefs were playing the Colts in Indianapolis. We were 4-6 at the time and the severity of the team's problems hadn't sunk in yet, so we were still feeling suspiciously optimistic about the Chiefs. Not thinking playoffs per se but more along the lines of looking for solid progress.

With the score 10-3 in favor of the Colts late in the third quarter, Brodie Croyle completed his fifth pass of an eleven play drive to a streaking, smothered Dwayne Bowe in the left corner of the end zone.

Touchdown. Tie game.

With that, Brodie Croyle had taken the team on one of the longest drives of the season, coming in at eleven plays and nearly six minutes.

I loved it not only because it tied the game against the Super Bowl champion Colts but also because it was Croyle to Bowe, a phrase I had been wanting to yell out all season long. I wanted the young guys to play last year and form that foundation for the years of success to come.

The play just made me smile. At the time, with all of the uncertainty surrounding the team, it was something we could point to and say, "That's what we have to look forward to!"

(Read more about that game at these links:

The Kansas City Chiefs Play the Colts Tight but Lose the Game

Kansas City Chiefs v. Indianapolis Colts -- Game Recap)

Alas, that play was one of the few bright spots amid a nine game losing streak. Without further delay, my worst moment of the 2007 season.

December 9th, 2007. Arrowhead Stadium. The only game I went to last season. And it was a slaughter.

The Broncos, and there is no easy way to put this, destroyed the Chiefs 41 to 7.

And the low point of it all was the entire second half. With the Broncos already leading 24 to 7 at half time (You could make a case for the first half of this game too as the worst moment), they pounded us for 17 more in the second half. The Chiefs' drives in the second half went three and out; interception; fumble; three and out; three and out; three and out; and fumble.

When Brodie Croyle was sacked and then fumbled the ball away late in the third quarter, the fans left in waves and when it was over in just a few short minutes, I bet no more than 20,000 fans remained. At the time, I spun it positively. Since I was staying the rest of the game no matter what, I figured it was a plus because there would be a shorter wait to get out of the stadium. And the beer lines would be shorter.

Don't forget that Tony Gonzalez was injured early in that third quarter. The Chiefs were in Bronco territory for exactly two plays in the second half and one of those resulted in a fumble.

Did I mention this was at Arrowhead Stadium?

I mean, it doesn't get much worse than that in franchise history, let alone 2007.

I wandered out of the stadium and into the parking lot of Arrowhead wondering, like most fans that day, how in the hell did this happened? When did this talent separation between us and Denver occur?

I also wondered where the nearest place I could grab a drink was. Turns out, it was in our car! And did that beer taste bitter. Not bitter because of the loss but because I'm pretty sure it was Keystone Light I was drinking.

(Read our coverage of that game at these links:

Chiefs Finally Hit Rock Bottom in Blowout Loss to the Denver Broncos

The Worst Game of the Season for the Kansas City Chiefs

Sunday Was the Worst in a Long String of Bad Games for the Kansas City Chiefs)

I looked back at these last night and I have to say I really enjoyed my writing on the site at the time and the comments were numerous and intense during that time period. Definitely close to the site's zenith.

Let's hear your worst and best moments.

We're going to have a ton of visitors to the site today because of this Tony Gonzalez story so I just wanted to throw a short bit out there about Damon Huard so we don't bump the TG story too far down the middle column.

Now, Damon Huard appears to be a player that doesn't fit the mold of what Herm Edwards is trying to do. He's a veteran backup quarterback (and a nicely paid one at that) who will conceivably be out of the NFL in a couple of years. There are three young, green QBs surrounding him, all with more talent than the old man.

Is Huard still on the team because of his veteran presence on the QB depth chart?

Is he still around because of personal promises made by the Kansas City Chiefs that his job would be safe for X period of time?

Are the Chiefs waiting to deal Damon Huard later in the summer, when the inevitable injury occurs to one of another team's quarterbacks?

I think these are all solid questions to ponder when thinking about Huard. He just doesn't make sense on this team.

Personally, I think Herm Edwards believes that quarterback is probably the one position on a football team where a mentor is extremely helpful. Other specific players at other positions could use a mentor I'm sure but QB seems to have that combination of physical ability, mental ability and that unknown "it" factor to justify pouring as much information into a player as possible. The more defenses a QB has seen or is aware of, the more effective their going to be in their career. A veteran QB helps deliver this info.

Thoughts on Damon Huard? Why does a player who in no way fits into Herm Edwards self described youth movement remain on the team?

Now this is the kind of news we like to see coming from the Kansas City Chiefs mothership.

Last Thursday, Tony Gonzalez, star tight end of the Kansas City Chiefs was dining with his wife October and newly born daughter Malia at Capones restaurant in Huntington Beach. Across the room a man, Ken Hunter started to choke on his steak. When Gonzalez realized nobody was doing anything to help him, he jumped up and rushed over to the man and performed the Heimlich Maneuver. "I just did what my natural instincts told me to do, help someone in need". "I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing". "The man was in distress and he needed help quickly".

Hunter, a long time Charger Fan, said he will be "forever grateful to Tony and will now be rooting for him and his team in the upcoming season". "Me and my girlfriend couldn’t thank him enough, he saved my life".

Hunter just had just taken a second a bite of his Filet Mignon when he realized it wasn’t going down.

"It got stuck in my throat and I couldn’t breathe". "I tried to take a drink of water and then the water wouldn’t go down. "I knew I was in trouble".

A nurse dining in the establishment later commended him on his quick instincts.

Hall of Fame career. Stunningly (and I mean stunningly) beautiful wife. Millions of dollars. And now Tony Gonzalez saves a man's life. That's a heck of a life resume.

Joe Delaney would be proud, Tony.

John Paul Foschi (That's FAH-she), signed by the Kansas City Chiefs in mid April, is the prototype of the off season signings of Herm and Chan Gailey.

Completely under the radar signing. Check.

New York Jet under Herm. Check.

Yellow Jacket under Chan Gailey. Check.

It makes a lot of sense that coaches prefer players they're at least remotely familiar with. I count three Tech guys who played under Chan Gailey and I think at least five connections to Herm's Jets.

Foschi was picked up by the Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2004. He bounced around on the practice squads of the Jets, Broncos and Vikings in '04, before playing in ten games and starting five for the Oakland Raiders in 2005.

Foschi blurs the line a bit between tight end, fullback and probably even a sub on the offensive line because of his size - 6'4", 270 pounds. Playing that many positions means you're on the field a lot, with Foschi playing virtually every snap during his senior season at Georgia Tech. He's played mainly at fullback while in the NFL but like his bio says, Foschi is expected to work at the tight end position.

The signing of Foschi is more evidence pointing towards the Chiefs looking to use multiple tight end formations this year, which has been reported elsewhere. 7th round draft pick Michael Merritt is 6'4", 263 pounds. Second year guy Michael Allan is quite big too, 6'6" and weighing 254 pounds. Brad Cottam is 6'7" and 269 pounds. So we have some massive players at the tight end position and none of them are particularly known for their receiving ability.

If you ask me, even without even seeing Foschi play a down, I'm betting he won't make the team. We already have Gailey favorite Mike Cox at the full time fullback position, and there's enough competition for the next Jason Dunn (Geez, how quickly did you forget that guy?) that you can't say really anything definitive at this point.

We wish him the best of luck of course. There needs to be a mini documentary done on these practice squad guys. It has to be an interesting life while it lasts. You could be signed by another team thousands of miles away literally in an instant. No warning. Just go.

Since we're talking about fullbacks and that sort of unstable free agent life, I might as well bring up my favorite of the two Chris Manderino Q&As, which was the first one.

Also, as a practice squad player, you know that you are available to become activated by any of the other teams in the league. It is mentally tough to be thinking about whether you will be activated the next week with either your own team or another one throughout the league. You have to try to keep from getting distracted because it is your job to perform your role in helping the team prepare to win. It is mentally tough to be watching on the sidelines on game day when you prepare all week long and do not get to play.

You could at least get one of those cheesy pre-game mini documentaries out of this idea. It helps that Chris was so descriptive and wrote well enough to let you really get into his head. A practice squad player has to have huge amounts of energy to constantly deal with moving, learning near offenses and the general toll that physical football takes on you. And it sounds like Chris adjusts well and has a good attitude about it.

Okay, back to JP Foschi. There's really not much out there about Foschi now that I'm winding this post down and realizing what I've written. He injured his knee against the Chiefs actually in September 2005 that didn't really keep him out long. He's a basketball player as well. Can't get enough of those.

The blocking tight end may be the ultimate symbol of a Herm Edwards offense. You know he loves these guys. Especially the ones that play fullback too. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual action of blocking is Herm's favorite part of the game of football.

That's it for this morning. I'll do my best to get another community projection up later today but I'm not making any promises. This would be a good time for the, ahem, editor at the bottom of this page to come up with a post to add to the pile.

Also, if you're a new reader coming from SI.com. welcome to the community. Create a user name at the top of this page so you can comment. Also, if you register (it only requires an email address and takes a second), when you visit the site and you're logged in, you'll be shown how many comments are in a post and how many of those comments are new. So, it keeps track of what you've read, which is always nice instead of scrolling through the same comments in a long comment thread. Definitely my favorite SBN site feature.

Keep it respectful, intelligent and interesting and you'll be rewarded with a thriving Chiefs community.

Stay safe everyone and have a great weekend. For those of you who are stuck inside because of the weather or just need a respite from the family this weekend, use this as an open thread to talk about whatever you want.

I'm not feeling the organized, list version of our morning update so I'm just going to throw some stuff out there. It's basically Friday anyway.

Unfulfilled college dreams. An 8th round draft pick. Sounds like J.J. Birden knows how lucky he is.

A product of the inner city of Portland, Birden came to Lakeridge because he was in the very last group of students who were bussed in order to achieve racial balance in schools.

While doing his part to promote integration, Birden did even more to help the Pacer football team. He was good as a junior and great as a senior, making the all-state football team.

But where Birden really shined was in track as a sprinter and jumper.

Birden had to wait until his sophomore year to even try out for the Oregon Ducks. I had a most unimpressive college career in football."

"I started as a junior, but I broke my arm against Nebraska. As a senior I twisted my arm against UCLA. I had one touchdown my whole career."

Now, Birden sells "special" chocolate. The chocolate has pain relieving powers, which Birden was sick of using over the counter meds for.

The Kansas City Chiefs will beat up on the Minnesota Vikings during their annual practice a week after training camp starts.

The Chiefs will depart for River Falls on Thursday, July 24 with the first day of practice scheduled for Friday, July 25. Kansas City will hold a joint practice session with the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday, July 31 at UW-River Falls. Family Fun Night is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 2. The Chiefs will open their 2008 preseason schedule with a contest at Chicago on Thursday, Aug. 7. The club is currently scheduled to break camp and return to Kansas City on Friday, Aug. 15.

I have to say that Nap Harris' softball event in Chicago sounds like it was a lot of fun.

Harris was so successful in recruiting his teammates for the game that one might have thought the game was being played in Kansas City.

Chiefs star running back Larry Johnson, linebacker Derrick Johnson, running back Kolby Smith and defensive back Patrick Surtain all played.

Bears running back Garrett Wolfe and wide receiver Mark Bradley, along with former Bear and current broadcaster Jerry Azumah, were on hand to give the crowd some local stars to cheer on.

That's it for now. We'll have a community projection up later in the day but if you're anything like me, your mind is already drifted towards the weekend's activities. Let us know if you have any good 4th of July/fireworks stories.