Tony DiPardo's Daughter Patti Keeps the Music Going at Arrowhead

Over the years the entertainment has changed several times at Arrowhead Stadium. In the very early days when the Kansas City Chiefs first arrived here from Dallas (where they were known as the Dallas Texans) they had a small marching band who actually sat in the stands and performed the type of music that you might hear at a college game today. This band had many incarnations and was founded and led by trumpet player extraordinaire Tony DiPardo. DiPardo led The TD Pack Band, then the Zing Band and finally back to the TD Pack Band until his death on January 27th, 2011.

Since Tony DiPardo's death, his daughter Patti has continued to preserve the spirit of her father and the music entertainment at Arrowhead Stadium to this day. Patti took over as the band leader for her father in 1989, and when the owners retired the on-field stadium band to make room for more seats Patti continued to direct the music in what is called the Founder's Club at Arrowhead Stadium during home games. The Founder's Club features Kansas City dueling piano favorite Spike Blake and continues to energize the stadium with great music.

The spirit of Tony DiPardo lives on through his daughter Patti, who has dedicated over 3 decades of her life to providing quality entertainment during Chiefs games at Arrowhead Stadium.

Chiefs Chargers 2011 Kansas City News

The Chiefs Chargers rivalry continues today at 3:05pm when the banged up and limping Chiefs take on the San Diego Chargers in their home town. The Chiefs are playing with a skeleton crew after losing star running back Jamaal Charles, tight end Tony Moeaki and starting strong safety Eric Barry. With those players missing from the Kansas City Chiefs lineup, it doesn't leave much left on the field. Matt Cassel is an average quarterback at best, and although Dwayne Bowe, Steve Breaston and Jonathan Baldwin might be talented receivers, it doesn't matter if the quarterback can't get them the ball. Cassel made a few feeble attempts to throw the ball down the field last week vs the Lions, but Cassel's long pass attempts looked wobbly and weak and the receivers had to halt their route and turn around and come back to the floppy passes to try to make a catch. This is not the type of quarterback that you need to win games. Your team's quarterback should be able to throw the ball far down the field with zip and confidence or the opposing defenses will never respect the quarterback's arm and will be able to stack up against the run. It's that simple. As poorly as Cassel throws the ball, Jamaal Charles wouldn't have stood much of a chance anyway as defenses would have been keying on him heavily.

The Chargers are also a little banged up, with Antonio Gates injured and on the sideline for this match. Look for Vincent Jackson to make some big plays behind the arm of Philip Rivers, and possibly some rushing yards from 2nd year running back Ryan Matthews.

As always with Kansas City Chiefs football games, if the Chiefs can somehow get into the end zone first, they stand a better chance to stay in this game. But with the incredible passing skills of Philip Rivers, the Chiefs really don't stand a chance. The Chiefs continue to build towards the "Suck for Luck" losing campaign. If the Chiefs can manage to lose all of their games this year, they will get the first pick of the 2012 draft and have a shot at getting a real quarterback in Andrew Luck. Let's hope that happens as we need to get rid of Matt Cassel immediately.

Eric Berry Out for Season Torn ACL

On September 11th, 2011 Eric Berry was sidelined for the remainder of the 2011 season after suffering a torn ACL in the 2nd play from the line of scrimmage in Sunday's game. Eric Berry will have to undergo surgery immediately for his injury and has been ruled out for the season.

Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium was indeed a dismal day for Kansas City Chiefs fans as the Chiefs took on the Buffalo Bills. In an emotional pre game show dedicated to the 10th Anniversary of the events of 9/11, Arrowhead Stadium was filled to the brim with fans chanting "USA, USA, USA..." and in a live television multicast there was a special performance of Taps and a moment of silence. The best part of the entire day was the incredible fly over by the US Military's A10 Warthog formation, and then...the game started.

The first play of the game on September 11th, 2011 vs. the Buffalo Bills was a kickoff to Dexter McCluster of the Kansas City Chiefs, who proceeded to fumble the ball and turn it over to the Bills on the 10 yard line. Only two plays later, Eric Berry left the field with a season-ending torn ACL injury. The rest of the game was a pathetic showing of what some may even doubt was professional football as the Chiefs went on to lose the game by a score of 41 to 7. Local sports radio shows are on fire today as Chiefs fans are calling in by the thousand in complete disbelief of what they witnessed on the field yesterday. The Bills ran up and down the field at will, mostly using the tight end and completely violated the Kansas City Chiefs defense. The Kansas City Chiefs will have a lot of explaining to do at tonight's live remote from Jazz at The Legends. Of course the have the most reserved and soft spoken Chief representing the team at the live remote in Jamaal Charles. I'm sure that he will not resolve any of the Chiefs fan's inquiries in any sort of coherent manner, Charles will most likely answer with his "cliff note" list of scripted answers such as "Well, I know that we're going to try to get better every week..." and other generic responses.

The loss of Eric Berry will be a huge impact on the Chiefs defense as he was one of the premier players on the team. The Strong Safety duties will now be split between Jon McGraw, Kendrick Lewis, and possibly Sabbi Piscitelli.

Chiefs 9/11 Tribute Sunday Sept 11th

For all of you Chiefs fans who are attending the Chiefs season opener this sunday September 11th, the Chiefs are asking that you please take your seats 20-30 minutes before kickoff (noon) because they are going to be doing a special pre game program dedicated to those who served and those who passed during 9/11 2001.

All of the NFL teams playing on Sunday will be doing a similar program and tribute and they will be switching the television feed back and forth through all of the stadiums. We want to be sure that when the camera switches over to Arrowhead that the stadium is full and that the Kansas City Chiefs fans are dedicated and respectful of the 9/11 program that they will be putting on.

For any of you out there who might be going to your first Chiefs game on Sunday, September 11th, you should know that the pre game shows are one of the best parts of the Arrowhead Stadium experience! Everything from the on-field entertainment to the military jet fly over is something that you just have to experience. All players in the NFL will be allowed to wear special 9/11 tributes on their jerseys, shoes, gloves, etc. in remembrance of the events of 9/11. The show will most assuredly be a great one, music, fireworks, who knows. So if you can, let's all try to make a good showing for Kansas City and get to our seats 20-30 minutes before noon to make a great impression on the rest of the country, thank you from Kansas City News.

Jonathan Baldwin Fight with Thomas Jones

An unusual situation for the newly polished Kansas City Chiefs broke out last week when rookie wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin had a few words with stand out running back Jamaal Charles. Baldwin and Charles did not escalate the argument into a physical confrontation, but the next day, Thomas Jones did. Coaches and players alike have been riding Jonathan Baldwin for weeks about getting better blocking done for Charles and Jones. On the Chiefs, if you're a receiver, your first job is to block for the run, your second job is to block for the run, and then MAYBE they will call a pass play.

Details are not completely in on the fight between Baldwin and Jones, but we would have to assume that it was initiated by Baldwin. Thomas Jones has a reputation of being quite a tough character on and off the field, proving himself in locker rooms from New York to Kansas City, and Baldwin has a reputation of talking smack, and selling out his coaches and teammates to the media. Let's put the two of those facts together and see what we come up with...well...we came up with a broken thumb for Jonathan Baldwin.

Baldwin was back on the practice field today as he was seen playing catch with his left hand, right hand / thumb heavily bandaged up, but participating none the less. So far the Chiefs injuries are:

Jared Gaither, Ryan O'Callaghan, Darryl Harris, Anthony Toribio, Eric Bakhtiari and Gabe Miller.