KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If secrecy and distance from the media are the keys to winning in the National Football League, our Kansas City Chiefs are Super Bowl contenders.
I went to my last Chiefs practice Saturday afternoon. And I suspect my stay in River Falls, Wis., during training camp will be very brief.

I’m going to cooperate with new general manager Scott Pioli. He believes you can’t win football games with the media looking over the coaches’ shoulders. Maybe he’s right. Maybe football is the one professional sport in which the media can completely destroy a work environment during minicamps.
I want the Chiefs to win, so I’m going to do my part and get as far away from the practice field as possible. Even farther than I was Saturday morning during a minicamp practice. Yep, we were allowed to stand about 100 yards (an entire football field) away from where the Chiefs practiced.
It was a waste of time. The top row of Arrowhead Stadium is a far superior vantage point. At ground level, I’m not sure binoculars would help at the distance we were allowed to observe.
You’re going to read this and think I’m whining. I’m not. I’ve never liked practice, as a player or journalist. I love the games. Practices are mundane and tedious. They’re for learning. Games are for evaluating.
Given all the cooperation I’m going to give Pioli during practices, I’m going to be very unforgiving in my evaluation of his work as GM. If things go poorly, Pioli won’t be able to say the media got in his way.
We’re going to put his theory about secrecy vs. talent to the test.
It’s my contention that you win professional football, basketball, baseball and hockey games primarily by securing more talent than your competitors. Pioli contends you do it by keeping more secrets than your competitors.
Hmm. Did the Patriots win three Super Bowls because Tom Brady was the dominant quarterback of the last decade? Or did the Patriots win three Super Bowls because Bill Belichick secretly taped the defensive signals of the opposition?
My money is on Brady, Richard Seymour, Ty Law, Rodney Harrison, Mike Vrabel and Tedy Bruschi.
But we’ll find out here in Kansas City.
Pioli is loading up on secrecy. Minicamp practices are now high-security events. The media have to be escorted onto the field and kept at a safe distance.
Yes, I realize we (the media) are hated. I realize you’re not sympathetic to this message. Many of you would like the Chiefs to win regardless of the methods. Making the media happy is not a priority for you.
What I’m arguing is that our new general manager is a little misguided.
He traded for a locker-room leader (Vrabel) who doesn’t want to be here. Much of Vrabel’s value is symbolic and intangible. The fact that Vrabel has skipped the voluntary offseason program significantly undermines his value.
Pioli’s and Todd Haley’s war with Brian Waters is equally silly. Despite Waters’ attendance at the three-day minicamp, there has been no thawing in that cold war. Waters potentially could’ve been recruited to play the role Pioli wants Vrabel to play.
The Chiefs had a boatload of salary-cap room, a couple of trade-worthy commodities and decent draft position, and they used all of that to get Matt Cassel, Zach Thomas, Mike Vrabel, Tyson Jackson, Bobby Engram, Mike Goff, a 2010 second-round pick and a defensive lineman-to-linebacker conversion kit.
Seriously, at the rate the Chiefs are shedding pounds — Haley said the team has collectively lost 300 pounds — I fully expect Glenn Dorsey to line up at free safety by October.
I’m reluctant to say what I think about Kansas City’s prospects for this season. As previously stated, I couldn’t see much of anything at the practice I attended. The only thing I thought I saw was that Cassel seemed far more accurate than Tyler Thigpen.
Well, I also thought I saw a team that looked no better than Herm Edwards’ 2-14 team. But that’s pure speculation from an uninformed member of the media.