“We are athletes, OK? We are athletes. We are not gladiators. This is not the Roman Coliseum. People pay their hard-earned money when they come in here and I believe they can boo, they can cheer and they can do whatever they want, I believe that. We are lucky to play this game. People, it’s hard to economic times, and they still pay the money to do this.

“But when somebody gets hurt, there are long lasting ramifications to the game we play, long lasting ramifications to the game we play. I’ve already kinda come to the understanding that I won’t live as long because I play this game and that’s OK, that’s a choice I’ve made and a choice all of us have made.

“But 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. 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.

“I get emotional about it because these guys, they work their butts off. Matt Cassel hasn’t done anything to you people, hasn’t done anything to you people. Hasn’t done anything to the media writers that kill him, hasn’t done anything wrong to the people that come out here and cheer him. Hey, if he’s not the best quarterback then he’s not the best quarterback and that’s OK. But he’s a person. And he got knocked out in a game and we have 70,000 people cheering that he got knocked out?

“Boo him all you want. Boo me all you want. Throw me under the bus. Tell me I’m doing a bad job. Say I gotta protect him more. Do whatever you want. Say whatever you want. But if you are one of those people, one of those people that were out there cheering or even smiled when he got knocked out, I just want to let you know, and I want everybody to know that I think it’s sickening and disgusting. We are not gladiators and this is not the Roman Coliseum. This is a game.

This one wasn’t us. I swear on Gary Papa’s grave that there were absolutely no Philadelphians camouflaged at Arrowhead cheering a man’s brain injury.

Sometimes as Philly fans we don’t even need to show up and our presence is felt. I’m not even gonna pretend that we were anywhere near that Kansas City / Baltimore football Ambien — no sane person pays real American dollars to see that nonsense live. I didn’t even watch the 10 seconds of that game on the Redzone channel yesterday. I suspect instead of instigating this weekend most Philly fans stayed comfortably at home cheering the Mike Vick fumble experience and not donning ugly red Starter jackets and pretending like Missouri is a fun place. Wasn’t worth it this time.

Yet even with most of Philadelphia hundreds of miles from the scene our influence is still felt. That’s OUR MOVE, Kansas City. We started that whole cheer-an-injured-guy shit. Might as well go get yourselves a cracked bell and some cheeseseteak places while you’re at it.

It’s okay though, because just like with culture, when it comes to being asshole fans Chiefs supporters remain years behind. Cheering injuries in 2012? You might as well be listening to a Discman CD single of “Bawitdaba” on your way to the American Pie premiere.

We’re on that next-level asshole fan stuff, KC. Appreciate the flattery, though.