Former Kicker Lawrence Tynes Had Some Choice Words For Alex Smith During Monday Night Football

Throw it down the field check down master it's the end of the half take a shot.

— Lawrence Tynes (@lt4kicks) September 29, 2015

Wouldn't be mad if the @chiefs put @ChaseDaniel in. Dude slings it all over the park. I'm done with the check down master.

— Lawrence Tynes (@lt4kicks) September 29, 2015

The guy completed 1 pass to a WR in our 2012 NFC Championship game. Signing Maclin is like getting a Porsche when you live on a gravel road

— Lawrence Tynes (@lt4kicks) September 29, 2015

I am a @chiefs fan that's why I'm mad. This is a good team. Maclin, Kelce, Charles. Are you kidding me. Any QB in the league would take them

— Lawrence Tynes (@lt4kicks) September 29, 2015

The typical response to this will be one of harsh criticism. You already know there are going to be people coming out of the woodwork just to remind Lawrence Tynes that while he is a two time Super Bowl champion, he was also just a kicker. I'm going to be honest, until that last tweet, I would have been one of those people. Hell, I was one of those people when ex-NFL kicker AJ Feeley decided to drag Tim Tebow's name through the mud. I simply can't support the player with the least amount of responsibility on an NFL roster when he chooses to criticize the player with the most responsibility on an NFL roster. However, there is an exception, and that exception is when fandom comes into play. That's where my opinion changes. It's so easy to forget that NFL players are also fans of the sport. So easy to ignore that they may, or may not, have their own allegiances to certain franchises. I didn't know that Lawrence Tynes was a Chiefs fan, but looking at his history these tweets make perfect sense. The Chiefs were the first team to give Tynes an opportunity in professional football. It's actually refreshing that the cutthroat business side of the NFL, which Lawrence was obviously heavily involved in, didn't kill his deep-seated devotion to the Kansas City Chiefs. 

If I was going to sit here and criticize Lawrence Tynes then I would also have to criticize myself. In fact, I would also have to criticize every single person that invests far too much in the outcome of a game they have absolutely no say in come Sunday or Monday night. Tynes is no longer an NFL player. Hell, he's not even an NFL analyst, nor do think he is trying to be one. He's just a pissed off fan on Twitter. If you have never been in his position than it's you that is worthy of questioning, not him. There is nothing, other than some notoriety and a couple Super Bowl rings, that differentiates Lawrence Tynes from the 300 pound slob spewing excess wing sauce all over his XXXL Jamaal Charles jersey as he curses the name of his quarterback. If you want to say that Lawrence Tynes doesn't have the resume to be chastising Alex Smith and his prepubescent arm, then you better be prepared to watch in silence next Sunday. You better be prepared to shut down your laptop and not try to fit a snarky, sarcastic observation into a 140 characters when a quarterback throws a terrible interception or a lineman inexplicably jumps offside. I refuse to speak out against Lawrence Tynes not because he was once a successful NFL kicker, but because he is now each and every one of us, and much like each and every one of us, he is completely right about Alex Smith, the checkdown master.