Henne, Kelce and other Chiefs are great. But let’s really give it up for Isiah Pacheco | Opinion

Great offense

Taking absolutely nothing away from Chad Henne, Travis Kelce and all the other Chiefs players who contributed to their second touchdown Saturday during their 27-20 victory over Jacksonville, there needs to be credit given to running back Isiah Pacheco. His long run set up the pass to Kelce. Throughout our victories, Pacheco has plowed his way through tough yards. He doesn’t give up. It’s time to give him due credit for what he brings to this offense.

- Elaine Patterson, Blue Springs

Pick your time

At the end of every NFL regular season, teams start pointing fingers as to why they didn’t make the playoffs. Head coaches, coordinators and assistants are made the scapegoats and canned. This creates mass chaos of interviews with other teams’ personnel. What sticks in my craw is that many of these teams are in the playoffs and still planning games.

If playoff teams’ owners didn’t allow their coaches to interview for jobs, it would not be fair because coaches on non-contending teams would keep getting these opportunities.

So, hey, NFL, here’s an epiphany: How about creating an interview window for all teams from the end of the Super Bowl to training camp? That would keep the desperate owners from bugging other teams while they are preparing for their next playoff game.

- Greg Schoen, Lenexa

Bengals’ blueprint

Change the color of their stripes, and the true identity of the Cincinnati Bengals will be revealed. The Bengals — or should I say Bandits — should be required to wear black-and-white prison pinstripes. Bending a rule to an extreme is on the verge of turning NFL football into rugby.

Their pattern of turning possession of the football into a focal point, instead of having the actual execution of a play being the most important factor in shaping the outcome of a game, reduces it to a championship wrestling-type exhibition.

Time and again, this band of bandits has made a tackle a secondary goal, with ripping the football loose as the main objective. Forced fumbles through contact are a natural part of play, but turning control of the ball into a tug-of-football changes the makeup of the game.

Just ask Travis Kelce in our earlier game against the Bengals, or New England on a likely game-winning drive, or Baltimore on the goal line in the playoffs. Until a needed rule change is made, ball security will be a key, as will staying aggressive on fourth-and-long plays instead of playing a prevent defense.

- Mike George, Springfield, Missouri

Leave this behind

I am a longtime supporter of major upgrades to Kansas City International Airport, and I look forward to the new terminal’s opening. My hope is that the prevalent yellow cones and red tape that indicate delayed maintenance and broken equipment at our current facility will not find their way to the new terminal.

- Jerry Joyner, Overland Park

Under the rug?

As a teacher for many years, I am puzzled by the Republican push to limit what can and cannot be discussed in class concerning systemic racism, falsely labeled “critical race theory” by those who want to forbid teaching it. (Jan. 19, 8A, “Missouri students deserve the real patriotic truth”) If Missouri’s legislators pass laws to limit what we may teach, it raises serious questions in my mind. For example, would I be allowed to discuss the following?

▪ Slavery, the Civil War and Missouri’s role?

▪ Black Codes, Jim Crow laws and the history of lynchings?

▪ Segregation? The Civil Rights movement?

▪ Health issues for Black Americans, such as higher stress levels and much higher mortality rates for pregnant Black mothers?

▪ How about redlining by insurance companies and banks? Home-buying steering practices by real estate firms?

▪ Unequal application of the death penalty? May I discuss the continuing issues of the police and Black America? May I talk about unequal arrest rates?

▪ Gerrymandering or other methods to limit Black voter impact?

It seems to me that the only way to address these problems is to discuss them as part of our educational process. If people are ignorant of their biases, how can we ever expect them to change?

- Terry Rodenberg, Greenwood