What next, Clark Hunt in granny glasses and track suits?

The 2-10 Chiefs are a bad team. But are the Chiefs a bad franchise?

The question came to mind during the telecast of yesterday’s Raiders game. As the Chiefs struggled to score an offensive touchdown, the stats for Baltimore’s quarterback, Joe Flacco, appeared on the crawl. Flacco, a rookie from the University of Delaware, led the Ravens past Cincinnati, 34-3. The win pushed Baltimore’s record to 8-4, not bad for a team with a starting QB who played in the Colonial Athletic Association a year ago.

Football fans outside of Baltimore don’t think much about the Ravens. Yes, they won a Super Bowl in 2001. But the organization hasn’t made it back to a conference championship since hoisting the big silver trophy. A carousel of below-average quarterbacks (Elvis Grbac, Jeff Blake, Kyle Boller) has also ensured the team a certain anonymity.  

I think of the Chiefs and Ravens as being two of a kind. The Chiefs, of course, haven’t won a Super Bowl since oilman H.L. Hunt, the billionaire father of team founder Lamar Hunt, was alive. Still, the franchises seem to occupy similar levels of respectability — not the among the elite, but not the butt of jokes, either.

Alas, the Chiefs appear to be slipping into a lower class of football team, yesterday’s win in Oakland notwithstanding.