KC fans’ bitterness turns to boorishness

• Flickr: Rhonlynn
• Chiefs fans’ hearts are as empty as the seats these days.

It turns out, you can push a fanbase only so far. Who knows if it was The Wall Street Journal calling Kansas City a loser last week for the ineptitude of its sports teams, the Royals’ decision to raise ticket prices following the miserable 2012 season, or the latest display of offensive inefficiency at Arrowhead, but Kansas City Chiefs fans lost their minds Sunday when they cheered that an injury would force quarterback Matt Cassel from the game.

Decades of losing have ground down this fanbase’s genteel nature. And that’s how you found the Chiefs’ biggest offseason acquisition, offensive tackle Eric Winston, practically spitting with anger Sunday afternoon in a postgame locker-room interview. Arrowhead Pride collected all of his quotes, but here is the heart of it:

“When you cheer, when you cheer somebody getting knocked out, I don’t care who it is, and it just so happened to be Matt Cassel, it’s sickening,” Winston said. “It’s 100 percent sickening. I’ve been in some rough times on some rough teams. I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life to play football than in that moment right there.”