Stephen A. ACCUSES the Chiefs of being ‘PUNCH DRUNK’ heading into the season 👀 | First Take

Stephen A. ACCUSES the Chiefs of being ‘PUNCH DRUNK’ heading into the season 👀 | First Take

Eagles look to go 2 and 0 on the season while the Chiefs are looking for their first win. It’s the first time these teams will face off since the 40 to22 blowout which wasn’t even that close and saw Jaylen Herz and company capture their second Super Bowl in franchise history. So Madog, what is the bigger deal for the Chiefs? Is it avoiding 0 and2 or beating Philly after that horrible Super Bowl performance? I think the way the Chiefs lost and that was the best game I’ve ever seen Herbert play by the way in South Oh, he played great and and that’s that’s that was important for him. The fact that they lost that first game to me puts last year’s Super Bowl in its rearview mirror. They need to win the game. Denver won, Chargers won, Raiders won. They got a tough schedule. Chiefs were a little flat. They don’t have a lot of weapons. You know, Kelsey, I know he scored a touchdown, but he didn’t do a whole ton. Their defense couldn’t stop Herbert. Third and 14 to scramble for the first down. So, to me, this game is really more about the Chiefs just getting back on the winning track. You know, I understand they got killed in the Super Bowl. That was their prideful team. I get that. But this is not the Chiefs Vikings in 1970. The Vikings beat the Chiefs. Don’t look at me that way. I I just I know I over there. Don’t look at me that way. We weren’t born years later. Anyway, we weren’t born that way. The Chiefs upset the Vikings in the Super Bowl four and then they played the next year in week one and Minnesota killed them to get back at the Super Bowl. This is not that kind of situation cuz I think the Chiefs, they need to really win the game more than going out there and getting a little revenge on the Eagles. So, I think it’s more about this year than last year. Stephen H. You know what? You know what? It’s appropriate this week to use a boxing analogy since I’ll be out in Vegas for this big fight this weekend between Canelo Alvarez and Terrence Crawford. Let me tell y’all something. One of the all time What’s the greatest first round in boxing we ever saw? It probably is Tommy the Hitman Hearns against Marvin Haggler. Okay. Now, obviously he lost that. Now, obviously he lost that fight, but what an epic first round before he got put, you know, he got put out in the third round, but what an epic fight it was. And primarily because of that first round, right? I’m bringing up that analogy, Swagoo and Doggy, is because there is a difference between getting knocked out and getting your ass kicked. True. You understand? If you if you if if you if if if you watch Terence Crawford over a year ago against Errol Spitz, Swagoo, you saw his face. I mean, you had you had people that didn’t even I mean you they were talking about how he should retire. It was it like it was that kind of asskicking. No, he’s a wonderful wonderful guy. I ain’t throwing no shade on him, but my god, it was a beatd down. Okay, that’s what happened to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. We got to put this stuff in perspective. One could argue that to some degree they’re punch drunk. I’m not worried about them if they were 0 and2 because they got Patrick Mahomes. It’s the regular season and I know the AFC West ain’t what it once was. The Chargers and the Broncos are something to contend with and the Raiders can’t be slept on with Pete Carol now as well. We get that part. But the Chiefs are still the Chiefs and it’s hard to imagine that they’re not going to be good enough to get to the playoffs no matter what their record is after two weeks, whether it’s one and one or 0 and two. We got that part. But the reason why it’s important to show up against the Eagles is because they whipped your ass. And I mean, it was a really bad ass whipping. When you don’t pass midfield until the third quarter, when your first nine drives are a bunch of punts, you understand? And and three and outs and interceptions. When you’re down 24 to nothing at the half, when Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are seen on the bench looking like this and just shaking their head and talking to each other about how Lord is it this is bad in the third quarter of a Super Bowl, that’s bad. The residual impact of that to me, Swagule, is what resonates because I’m thinking other opponents see that and they’re going like this. If we could just do this, we could get him. If we could just do that, we could get him. And in this case, it’s rushing four, seven, seven, seven, send them seven back in the coverage, not blitzing at all. Okay. And still dominating. Of course, that’s what it takes. Everybody can’t do that. But to see that happen to the Chiefs, their aura of invincibility has evaporated in my estimation. And that is why I think them showing up against the Eagles is important. It’s not because of the record. You got to show you can you can punch back and you ain’t going down like that. That’s an interesting point. That’s what you got to do. Do you feel like teams are less fearful now with the Chiefs because they’ve seen some vulnerability? 100%. 100%. You know what disappointed me more than anything about that Chargers game. I didn’t feel like the Chiefs had any dog in them. I felt like they just felt like, well, eventually Pat will make a play and we’ll be able to win this game. And I think that’s part of the issue with Kansas City right now is they got to stop living off that a little bit and become cuz here’s what people don’t acknowledge because we’ve been so punch drunk over the greatness of Patrick Mahomes that this team was really built on being a physical football team. If you think about the Super Bowls that they won, the running backs could have been the MVPs of those games. The offensive line, defensive line, the first time we saw them get destroyed was against Tampa Bay and it was because the offensive line wasn’t really good. The following year they go revamp the offensive line. They get back to some physicality, win the Super Bowl. The last time we saw him on the football field before before this season started, they were getting destroyed on the offensive line. I didn’t feel like and and I felt like that season after Tampa within Kansas City’s building, there was a there was a feeling of we got to go get out, get back. And I didn’t see that against the Chargers. It felt like the Chargers kind of knew that this not the same Kansas City Chiefs that we’ve been playing against. And look, they’ve they they’ve had the the the Chargers have had this revamp of energy from Harbaugh. They want to be a physical football team. They leaning into Justin Herbert. Greg Roman is there now who came from Baltimore who’s been able to run the football on everybody and they had a tremendous amount of success. I think Kansas City has to get their stinger back. I think a little bit of it is gone. That’s why like I would love to to go against Stephen A on that, but I’m I’m a I’m in that lane with him about their stinger. It just don’t feel like when they take the field that they want people to fear them. And I used to feel like that about Kansas City. Now it’s about what Patrick Mahomes can do more so than playing the Kansas City Chiefs as a whole. Swag. Swag doggy. Let me just throw Let me just throw I mean because I know I’ve said it to other people, but I’ve never said it to both of y’all on the show together. Let me just run down a little short list for y’all to hold on to for this season when I bring up Punch Drunk and the Kansas City Chiefs. Fully expecting them to make the playoffs, but seeing some vulnerabilities. Didn’t pass midfield until the last few minutes of the third quarter. First nine drives of the of of the, you know, first nine drives of the Super Bowl into the third quarter, six punts, two interceptions, one turnover on downs. They became the first team all season long, regular season or postseason last year, where the offense didn’t run a single play in their opponent’s territory in their first nine drives. 12 of Kansas City’s 13 offensive drives went for five or fewer plays. No drive exceeded four plays in the entire first half. And Patrick Mahomes was sacked a careerhigh six times. And the Eagles didn’t blitz once the entire Super Bowl. Ladies and gentlemen, that is an ass kicking. That is a beatdown. And when you see someone as great as Patrick Mahomes, as great as Andy Reid, as great as Travis Kelce is, regardless of how he looked last year, to some degree, he’s still Travis Kelce. Damn it. When you see people that great, that humbled, it doesn’t just go away. Yeah, that’s true. It doesn’t. Absolutely. The Eagles are gonna have one of their stingers back that they didn’t have last week cuz Jaylen Carter will not miss any future games for spitting on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott. Instead, Carter’s going to forfeit his week one game check. It’s 57,000 and change. That according to our Adam Shfter, the NFL stated Tuesday that since Carter was ejected from last week’s season opener without participating in a single play, the league would consider Carter to have already served a oneame suspension. Mad Dog, do you agree with this punishment? Yeah, I’m okay with it. I mean, I’m not okay with what he did. What a disgrace. And by the way, the Florida kid who did the same thing in South Florida there on Saturday lost in the game. He if I was in Florida, he’s not playing for a couple games. that I’m not putting up with. Especially after the whole world saw Carter do it two days before then and how the reaction was and then this kid does it two days later in the same situation. Oh, that drove me crazy. Crazy. I mean, listen, Carter, we all know he’s had a, you know, he had the drag racing thing. He’s had a little shaky. That’s why he got picked ninth. That was terrible behavior there on Thursday. But I’m going to be fair about it. I don’t know what the Eagles did. They’re not going to tell us. I’m hopeful they did something to him, a message, something, find him, whatever they did. They said they were gonna do something. They weren’t going to make it public. Bottom line is I’m okay with the NFL. He did get the oneame suspension. He embarrassed his team. He put him in a tough spot. They almost lost. Could have lost. I think he’ll be on his best behavior. I’m not going to go crazy. He got the oneame suspension, so I’m okay with it. I’m not going to go crazy. I’m not going to go crazy either, but I’m not satisfied. I thought he should have been suspended for this week. I thought he should have been suspended for an additional game. You know, to spit on another person. I mean, it doesn’t get much more disrespectful than that. What position, Swagu, is the most protected position in all of sports? Quarterback. It’s the quart in all of football. It’s the quarterback. They’re most protected. What’s the most popular franchise in sports worth $13 billion? It’s the Cowboys. Not only did you spit, but you spit on a cowboy. You spit on a star quarterback for the Cowboys on national television with the referee two feet away. The epitome of stupidity. There’s no way around it. Everywhere you look, it’s just flagrant stupidity. I’m not saying that the guy should be suspended for multiple games or anything like that, but you showed up on the field, you were in uniform, you warmed up. the reigning defending Super Bowl champions came out through all the smoke and all of that stuff for the introductions and everything else. As far as I’m concerned, it’s your damn fault you didn’t play. You didn’t play the game, but you didn’t miss it either. You were there. No, your ass need to be home because guess what? If this penalty had come down, maybe I would feel differently if the penalty had came down immediately. But since they just announced it and you brought up what you just brought up that happened in college, doggy, then you got cats out there mimicking stuff. We’re talking about role models, right? We’re talking about making sure that behavior ain’t emulated, right? We’re talking about making sure that you understand the severe ramifications that come with such a heinous, disgusting act like spitting on somebody, right? Guess what? Another game ain’t no problem suspending that guy. And that man for Florida, he should be suspended multiple games, too. I listen, you you remember years ago, like a lot of years ago, I like you like to go back in the past, Bill Romanowski did this. Oh, I know. I don’t like him either. And and it was like, you’ve heard me say this before too, Molly. There’s a code that we all really supposed to live by in the league. We don’t have to like each other. We don’t have to be the best of friends, but this is one of those offlimit things that’s supposed to be understood within the league, right? Within the NFL. It’s a lot that goes on out there. It’s a lot of talking. We talk about your mama, your dog, your sister. Everybody understands that that comes with the territory. I was on last week after Jaylen Carter did this and it was stupid. It’s immature and his maturity is always the part for me that comes into question like when are you going to get to the point where you realize that the world is your archer right now young fella like you are you are considerably thought as one of the best if not the best defensive tackle in the NFL. Someone around him someone in his circle needs to get around him and let him know that if you do this the right way you can have everything you want out of this game. I agree with the it’s a $57,000 spit. Like I know we live in this world where a lot of people make a lot of money and all 104 sound better. 104 105,000 sound better. Steve that that that works. That works. Penalty. Yeah, that works. Cool. But that’s whatever whatever you want the penalty to be. I just think it’s more important. Find him. He got kicked out of the game. That’s enough for me. It’s more important Carter beyond the Philadelphia Eagles in his life and people around him to understand that the game of life, not just the game cuz it’s disrespectful and it’s beyond embarrassing. We got to leave class there for $29,000. Y All right. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Stephen A. Smith, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and Marcus “Swagu” Spears join Molly Qerim on First Take to discuss the Kansas City Chiefs facing the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2.

0:00 What’s worse: 0-2 start or losing to Eagles?
2:33 “It was a beat down!”
4:39 Chiefs lost their “dawg” mentality?
6:39 Stephen A.’s list for the Chiefs
8:04 Jalen Carter not being suspended
9:35 Does Carter deserve a harsher punishment?
11:29 Swagu on the “NFL code”

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