Who Is Ingle Freakin Martin? We Better Find Out

"Who is Ingle Freaking Martin?" I asked myself and anyone in earshot as I read the KC Chiefs had signed this unknown quarterback from the Tennessee Titans practice squad. I dug around the internet to find that Ingle Martin was a D-II quarterback from Fuhrman who also acted as their punter. He might have also been their waterboy supplying the team with high quality H2O. Ingle Martin transferred to Fuhrman from Florida when Chris Leak got all the playing time during their championship run.

The Titans have Kerry Collins as their back-up QB which isn't a bad guy to have behind Vince Young but the Titans thought so little of Martin that they decided to leave him unprotected rather than to bring him up behind Collins as the number two after Young's injury.

Within 48 hours the Chiefs were trying out the flying circus of Chris Simms and Tim Rattay when New England said thanks but "no thanks" to them. I started to envision Simms, Rattay and Daunte Culpepper driving around in a VW Bus between airports eating stale chips looking for odd jobs as they try out for backup QB jobs in the NFL. My mind does that sometimes.

So the Chiefs tried out Simms and Rattay and I looked at Simms career numbers. Even though they werent super impressive I do remember him being a bit mobile, left-handed, with a good arm and a good pedigree. He is only 28 so the Chiefs could have used him for a minimum of four to seven years given how long QBs are playing these days.

Instead the Chiefs said "no thanks" to Chris Simms and his pedigree and "yes please!" to Ingle Martin. The Titans the next day signed Chris Simms to back-up Kerry Collins. So in essence we and the Titans traded Simms for Martin in a weird waiver-wire deal.

Why you ask did KC do that? The answer is simple. Brodie Croyle is fragile. He is so fragile that "Fragile" Freddie Taylor calls him a sissy. But he isn't just physically fragile evidenced by three injuries in seven career starts but his psyche is crystal right now. He's never won a game in the NFL and he knows the Chiefs' brass are starting to question his toughness. To bring in Chris Simms would be a sure fire way to start a quarterback controversy. Simms would only need a somewhat decent showing for KC fans to be clamoring for him to remain the starter. Herm can't have that. Herm is stubborn beyond belief and once he claimed Croyle was his guy that's what he's sticking with. He can't have some guy like Chris Simms come in and upset this process. Ingle Martin is a nobody that no one is going to be clamoring for to start a game.

The Chiefs used Sunday's loss to the Raiders as a showcase of how bad their quarterbacks behind Croyle were. They even used Hagans off the practice squad to cement in everyone's mind "see and you thought Croyle was bad". Chris Simms would have represented a clear and present danger to that thought process. Chiefs fans wouldn't be clamoring for Brodie to return from injury like we are entering week 3 against the hapless Falcons if Simms were on the roster. On a side note, anyone with Michael Turner on their fantasy squad start him now! He might just break the single game rushing record against a Chiefs team that just allowed 300 yards to a Raiders team with no passing offense.

Well this week I expect Ingle Martin to be activated from the practice squad and to play at some point. Who is Ingle "Freaking" Martin? I dont know but we better find out soon because Tyler Thigpen and Hagans need to be selling insurance in Iowa not sitting behind center for an NFL franchise.

The sweet irony will be if Ingle Martin comes out and looks good the Chiefs will have a quarterback controversy anyway even if they didn't sign Chris Simms.