I light stepped it onto the snow and ice in my crocs this morning to see two things:
:: What headline The Star had come up with for yesterday’s crushing loss at Arrowhead Stadium
:: What lead sports columnist Sam Mellinger had to say
I was not disappointed on either front.
The headline was a fitting “BURNT ENDING.”
And Mellinger? He rose to the occasion of the biggest game ever played at Arrowhead with perhaps the most insightful and expressive column of his still-young, sportswriting career.
…Before getting into the column itself, I want to say how lucky Kansas City is to have a sports columnist of Mellinger’s ability. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say “of his stature,” either, even though he’s only 39 or 40.
He’s been the lead columnist nine years now, since succeeding not one but two heavyweight columnists: Joe Posnanski, who elevated sportswriting at The Star into poetry, and Jason Whitlock, who wielded his fearless pencil like a cudgel.
We lost those two great columnists a year apart — Posnanski to Sports Illustrated (which didn’t last) in 2009 and Whitlock to TV, talking-head status (what a waste) a year later.
(As an aside, do you remember the personnel game that played out, with The Star saying for weeks Whitlock was “on vacation” when he was on his way out the door?)
Into the breach stepped young Mellinger, a Lawrence, KS, native who was about 30 at the time. He had started at The Star in 2000, fresh out of KU, covering high school sports. When he was tapped to be a sports columnist in March 2010, he had been the Royals beat writer for four years.
Mellinger wasn’t exactly ready for prime time, but this was when The Star was spiraling downward and many staff members were either fleeing or being laid off and management was plugging key positions as best it could.
It was clear from the outset, though, that Mellinger had a ton of talent, and he quickly grew into the job. Now, it’s not an exaggeration to say The Star probably owes many thousands of online and print subscriptions to Mellinger. If he left tomorrow, the call takers at 16th and McGee (or India or wherever their call center is) would have their hands full processing cancellations.
What we must brace ourselves for, though, is that some day Mellinger almost surely will leave. Better-paying, wider-profile opportunities abound for even journeymen sportswriters and columnists. In recent years, The Star lost longtime Chiefs’ beat writer Adam Teicher to ESPN and short-term beat writer Terez Paylor to Yahoo Sports. And those two, while very capable, aren’t close to being in Mellinger’s class.
So, we must embrace and enjoy Mellinger while we’ve got him.
**
From the start of today’s column, Mellinger captured the pain and frustration Chiefs’s fans experienced yesterday.
“The image that sticks about the Chiefs who almost changed it all is Patrick Mahomes, handcuffed to the sideline by the toss of a coin, watching his first season as a starting quarterback dissolve into one more Tom Brady comeback.”
Dwell on some of those words: “almost changed it all”…”handcuffed to the sideline”…”watching his first season dissolve.”
What all great columnists do, in sports or otherwise, is put into words the way readers feel about a game, a development or a situation. They take our confusion, frustration, anger, joy — whatever — and wrap it up in words that confirm our feelings and amplify or clarify them for us. Often, we go away from great columns feeling comforted or more encouraged.
Mellinger, again…
“Patriots players laid on the field and screamed. Chiefs players kneeled and stared, stunned…There is so much to digest. So much pain, so many could’ves, so many unpredictable and unstoppable moments that kept Kansas City from having one of the greatest parties in her history.”
Ah, yes, the party that would have been. The party that will have to wait. The party that seemingly might never come?
Mellinger wrote about the lost coin flip heading into overtime, the flip that put the ball back in Patriots’ Quarterback Tom Brady’s remarkable hands at a time when the Chiefs’ defenders were exhausted.
And then he turned to what surely was the hardest thing to swallow about Sunday’s game — linebacker Dee Ford being flagged for lining up offsides on a play that would have turned the ball over to the Chiefs and allowed them to run out the clock for the victory.
It was a terrible mistake, a knife in the gut. But through Ford’s eyes, Mellinger helped us put the mistake in perspective. Quoting Ford…
“I gotta see the ball. I gotta see the ball. Especially the time of that game, and what was at stake, you just have to see the ball.”
That doesn’t make it much easier to take, but it shows the urgency of Ford’s thinking and why he risked taking a chance.
Mellinger closed by swapping places with Chiefs’ fans and musing about the vexing question that will nag for years to come:
“Remember that time the Chiefs lost in the playoffs because a guy lined up offsides, and they lost the dang coin flip?
The answer, always: Yes.
**
Something else I’ll remember for a long time: This beautiful column and the years we’ve been lucky enough to have Sam Mellinger talking us through the peaks and valleys of Kansas City’s vibrant sports scene.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
One of my greatest frustrations with The Star is the fact that it does get to hire a ton of talent and then often wastes it. Amazing how The Star manages to have such a sterling sports page, but then falls short elsewhere with the same level of talent. If they can do it with sports, it is obviously not the talents’ fault that they don’t rise to the occasion.
Oddly enough, I met Vahe Gregorian in the sponsors’ tent down at Symphony in the Flint Hills when I somehow wound up at the same table with him and his wife and his neighbors. Nice guy, is he still even there?
Oh, yeah, he had a column in this morning, and it’s being played as the lead story online this morning.
https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/vahe-gregorian/article224843050.html
About your frustration…Sports is a narrower band than news; you need a lot of people to cover an area as big and diverse as KC, its suburbs and the surrounding region. It’s in the news area that The Star has had to bail because of the dwindling newspaper industry and the fateful 2006 McClatchy overreach.
Maybe that’s why I always read him — for his “soothing words.”
On a visual note, he would make a good character actor.
And what a year it was for you to give up the NFL! What a season you missed! (er, You didn’t cheat any did you?)
I’ve been caught…by a good and longtime friend.
I watched a little of the first playoff game, and then yesterday we were invited to a small “watch party” at the home of a couple who are rabid Chiefs’ fans…I watched every play and jumped out of my chair and yelled a couple of times, including when it looked like the Chiefs had scored on a possible muffed punt.
I admit it Leigh, I am weak in both flesh and spirit. Thank God there were no head-crunching collisions and, as far as I know, no concussions.
Now, I’ll try to get back on the wagon…
We’re only human. I’ll probably skip the Super Bowl myself. Not that that’s any challenge now.
I’ll be recovering from another knee-replacement surgery, so I’ll probably watch. Got to admit it was amazing to watch Brady hit Gronkowski and Edelman, time after time, right in the hands.
Check that…I’ll be getting ready for knee-replacement surgery — the 8th. But I’ll probably still watch.
My two cents: Like the rest of us, Mellinger has both strong and weak points. You covered your impression of his strong points. I’ll note what I consider one of his poorest efforts.
When Ty Hill was drafted, Mellinger absolutely blasted the pick (“The Chiefs, who brag about their character, draft a man who choked his pregnant girlfriend”). https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mellinger/article74976132.html
But, as the years went on and Hill emerged as a star, Mellinger did a complete 180. He now believes professional sports teams should feel free to draft domestic abusers (“Hill has changed my thinking on this sort of thing”). https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mellinger/article212765599.html
The point is Mellinger was too quick in his original hot take. He should have paused and taken a deep breath. The same complexities which exist today on how to handle domestic abusers were all present when Hill was drafted. Mellinger simply didn’t take the time to better consider them. If he had, he probably wouldn’t have found himself in the position of completely abandoning his original conclusion.
(On another sports note, today is the second anniversary of Yordano Ventura’s death. On the first anniversary, the Star noted that there was still no resolution regarding his Royals contract (“A year after his death, Yordano Ventura’s unsettled affairs still linger”). Why was there no update in today’s paper? I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want an update on where things currently stand, even if it is simply to confirm there is no new information. https://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article195794594.html )
One of the first things that suffers when you cut staff dramatically is follow-up — on just about everything. It’s much harder to keep up with current happenings and developments, much less events that reporters have filed away to follow up on six months, a year, or whatever, later.
As for the domestic abuse situation, I thought — from reading your two links — Mellinger was honest in explaining his change of mind. It should be noted he didn’t say every abuser should be given a second chance.
Like he said, “No two cases are exactly the same, and a million variables — including talent, let’s not be naive — determine the outcome.”
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Mark…
Just two final points:
1) As I’ve said before, I think the Star could do a better job in allocating what limited resources it has. In yesterday’s paper, I counted eight different reporters who wrote stories about the Chiefs. And that’s on top of weeks of multiple daily stories about the Chiefs. I think the Star could have spared one reporter to do some follow-up on Ventura during that time.
2) There is a situation developing with Pooka Williams where Mellinger will get another chance (if he decides to exercise it) to clarify how he thinks players guilty of domestic abuse should be handled. Will Mellinger call for a long suspension or expulsion from the team, or will he say it is a matter that should be left solely to the legal system? It will also be interesting to see what tough disciplinary action (if any) new coach Les Miles takes with his star player. Whatever Miles does, it will send a message not only to Williams, but to the other players and the KU fandom as well. https://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/big-12/university-of-kansas/article224128520.html
I would expect Williams to be back with the team. He was granted diversion a week ago, and if he stays “clean,” his record would be expunged.
https://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/big-12/university-of-kansas/article224128520.html
I would think Sam would go with the legal system in his case. So would I. He’s a young guy and hopefully has learned his lesson, like Tyreek Hill seems to have done. But one more instance and he’s out. No third strikes in this kind of deal.