Commentary: More Hurdles For L.J.

What happened on Friday with the announcement of a one-game NFL suspension for Larry Johnson did not bring an end to his situation or clarity to his immediate future.

It’s just the first of a 100 yards worth of hurdles in front of the Chiefs running back.

I’m sure L.J. himself wishes he could put all this behind him, but the penance and possible punishment he faces for his actions are all parts of the penalty for putting himself in those situations.

He has court dates in December for the two charges filed against him in Kansas City, Missouri. The league has left open the door for further sanctions against him depending on the outcome of those legal proceedings.

That’s a hurdle he’ll have to deal with next month. In the more immediate future is November 10. That’s the day he will return to the team. That’s the day he has to start changing the way the Chiefs feel about him.

From the Hunts, to Carl Peterson, to Herm Edwards, Johnson has fences to mend. He’s got a lot of fence line to ride to get them all buttoned up again, if that’s even possible.

When he signed the biggest contract in Chiefs history in August of 2007, with over $19 million in guaranteed money, he made promises to the owners, the general manager and the head coach. Those promises were not only the unspoken ones that come from signing a deal that big. He told all those parties and stated publicly that he understood the responsibilities that went with the contract and his position with the team.

He said he was up to handling those. He wasn’t. He should get one more chance to prove he can be the type of person the Chiefs want on their roster. …Read More!

Commish Docks L.J. One Game

Late Halloween afternoon NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell finally released his decision on discipline for Chiefs running back Larry Johnson.

Goodell has suspended Johnson for the Chiefs game on November 9th in San Diego.  It’s a one-game suspension without pay at this point.  That will cost Johnson approximately $150,000.

Here’s the statement from the league office:

“Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs was notified today that he is suspended without pay for Week 10 of the regular season for violating the NFL Personal Conduct Policy. Johnson has previously violated the NFL Personal Conduct Policy and has since been involved in multiple incidents in which law enforcement was required to intervene. Johnson also was informed that upon the disposition of two pending law enforcement matters he faces the possibility of additional disciplinary action.”

The important words there are the last five “… possibility of additional disciplinary action.”  The Commissioner has left himself the opportunity to slap further sanctions on Johnson if he’s found guilty of the two charges currently filed against him.  Those will not hit the courtroom until December.

Here’s statement from Chiefs GM Carl Peterson:

“We respect the decision of Commissioner Goodell. The NFL player conduct policy sets forth a set of standards that all NFL players, coaches and staff members must abide by. Upon the completion of his suspension we sincerely hope that Larry will be ready to return to the field for the Chiefs determined to make a positive contribution to our team and, with the assistance of the people around him, turn his life around.”

Early reports are that Johnson does not plan to appeal the one-game suspension.  Also, in his decision the Commissioner took into account the penalty imposed by the Chiefs on Johnson of deactivating him for three games.

That includes this Sunday’s game at Arrowhead against Tampa Bay.  Johnson will be deactivated for that game.

Technically, Johnson’s suspension does not begin until Monday, November 3rd.  He will not be allowed at the team facility for the next week, able to return on Monday, November 10th.

Player Profile: Pat Thomas

He won the starting middle linebacker job in the off-season, which was a bit of a surprise to many who were not aware of Pat Thomas’ talents.

Seven games into the 2008 season and things have not gone well for the Chiefs defense.

That’s why it’s hard to get a smile from Thomas these days. He leads the team in tackles with 45, but he’s not happy with how he and the unit have played. 

He’s hoping for better things over the second half of the season, starting with this Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay.

A California native, there’s much to know about this 25-year old from Miami, Florida and that education starts right here.

Podcast: Len’s Look 10/31

Joining us for a discussion on the Chiefs is the legend, Len Dawson.  The Hall of Fame quarterback talks about what he saw from Tyler Thigpen last week and what the next step is for the young quarterback.  He talks about the spread offense and why it won’t work in pro football and what he would have done in the fourth quarter with the lead and five minutes to play.  And Len provides an interesting look at the special teams shuffle the Chiefs have had in the last two weeks.

Chiefs Update 10/31

From the Truman Sports Complex

Good news for the Chiefs this week as they wrapped up their practice week with a 70-minute workout on Friday in the fall sunshine: RB Jamaal Charles is a go for Sunday.

“He looks good and that’s good for us,” Herm Edwards said on Friday.  Charles suffered a sprained ankle last Sunday against the Jets.

Bad news for the Chiefs: CB Brandon Flowers has come up lame with a foot injury and was limited in his practice work on Friday.

“He should play,” Edwards said of Flowers.

Defensively, the Chiefs will be scrambling at cornerback if Flowers cannot play or is limited.  Veteran Pat Surtain did not practice all week because of a quadriceps injury.  If Flowers cant’ play, that would put rookie Maurice Leggett on the field for the base defense and in the nickel, Tyron Brackenridge would be on the field as the third cornerback.  On Wednesday, Brackenridge wasn’t even on the roster, although he did play in 13 games last season.

Also in Friday’s practice work, LB Wes Dacus and S Jarrad Page were both limited in their participation because of groin injuries.

Larry Johnson was not at practice, nor was punter Dustin Colquitt  After practice, Colquitt said his injured groin feels better and he hopes to be back punting next week.

Friday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

You have to wonder just what else the football gods plan to throw at Chiefs special teams coach Mike Priefer.

Last week, he had a new punter and new kicker.

This week to complete the trifecta, he has a new long snapper.

Nick Novak was released, Dustin Colquitt injured and J.P. Darche knocked out for the season with a knee injury.

Connor Barth, Steve Weatherford and Tom Gafford are in. It does not appear that Colquitt is going to be ready to kick this Sunday against Tampa Bay.

Some teams go seasons without replacing any one of those three key positions in the kicking game. Replacing two of the three happens even less.

But all three and after the season has started? It’s unheard of. But, it’s been that kind of season for the Chiefs.

There was a time when the team had the most stable of kicking groups. In fact, they are the only franchise in pro football history to have a kicking trio all enshrined in the Pro Football’s Hall of Fame.

The long snapper was Bobby Bell. The holder was Len Dawson. The kicker was Jan Stenerud.

From 1967 when Stenerud joined the team, through the 1974 season when Bell was the first of the three to retire, the Chiefs played 117 regular and post-season games. That trio was together for FGs and PATs for 105 of those games. The 12 games they missed came from injuries suffered by Dawson playing quarterback, not holding.

Even the punter was the same guy through all those years: Jerrel Wilson, who arrived in 1963 and punted through 1977.

Consider again that for seven seasons, the Chiefs had the same kicker, punter, holder and snapper for all but 12 games. …Read More!

Podcasting: Goose’s Football 101 10/30

Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News joins us again for a session to talk about the National Football League.  Subjects include the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, PIttsburgh Steelers, the matchup on Sunday between Indianapolils and New England, the unbeaten Tennessee Titans and the Chargers decision to change defensive coordinators. Plus, Goose addresses the decline of AFC West defenses.

Chiefs Still Waiting For Commish

On Thursday, the Chiefs were still waiting for word from the NFL league office in New York on the Commissioner’s decision on discipline for Larry Johnson.

It was Tuesday when Johnson met face to face with Roger Goodell in New York to discuss his off-field problems of late, specifically the two charges that have been filed against him.  Goodell has established during his time as Commissioner that he does not have to wait for the legal system to run its course before he hands down disciplinary measures against players.  Johnson will not be in court on the charges until December, but the NFL can act long before that.

For the sake of the team and Johnson, the Commissioner should make his decision as soon as possible.  Heaven knows, by the time this is posted at 2:30 p.m. CDT on Thursday, a suspension may already be decided.  There seems little question that Johnson will be suspended and fined in some fashion.  Players are not called to New York for meetings with the Commissioner just to chat.  It’s doubtful he’s going to be as lucky as New England DT Vince Wilfork, who was fined but not suspended for actions on the field.

The Chiefs plan to sit Johnson again this week, deactivating him on Sunday.  That would be three consecutive weeks where they’ve taken that approach.  Under the rules and regulations of the agreement wit the NFL Players Association, they can only hold him out of participation for a maximum of four games.  Those are rules that came down in the aftermath of the Eagles problems with WR Terrell Owens several years ago.

Here is one man’s prediction on the direction the Commish decides to go: I believe he will suspend Johnson without pay for four games and he will take the two games he’s already missed and this Sunday’s game as time served.  So he would also miss the San Diego game on November 9, but he would then be eligible to return for the final seven games of the season.

No matter what he decides, Goodell needs to make a decision and do it now on this discipline so the Chiefs and Johnson can move on.

Chiefs Update 10/30

From the Truman Sports Complex

The revolving door that has been the Chiefs roster continued to twirl on Thursday as the Chiefs brought back CB Tyron Brackenridge and placed him on the active roster.

The move was Brackenridge was due to the status of nickel back Pat Surtain who has not practiced this week and is unlikely to play because of a quadriceps injury.  That left rookie Maurice Leggett as the only other healthy CB on the roster.

To make room for Brackenridge, the Chiefs moved CB Dimitri Patterson off the active roster.  The Chiefs had not released the exact nature of the roster move with Patterson, whether he was released or placed on injured reserve.

The Chiefs worked for 90 minutes in the Thursday sunshine as they continued preparation for Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay.  It was an enthusiastic workout, one of the better ones the Chiefs have had since the start of the season.  In an effort to simulate the speed of the Buccaneers defense, the coaching staff has been on the scout team this week to go fast and furious.  That ratcheted up the tempo quite a bit.

The best news for the Chiefs was the activity, although limited, of RB Jamaal Charles.  After suffering a sprained ankle in the Meadowlands, post-game opinions were that the injury could cost him several weeks.  But Charles ran quite well during the workout, although the Chiefs limited his snaps. “He looked a lot better, he might be able to go,” said Herm Edwards. “We’ll have to see.” …Read More!

The Rehabilitation of Marty Schottenheimer

Stand on the same street corner in the NFL long enough and you will see some interesting things.

At the corner of Kansas City and the Chiefs a decade ago was a head coach who the fans and most of the media in town had grown tired of and were in the process of running out of Arrowhead Stadium. Marty Schottenheimer was too conservative, too old-school, his message was tired and various ghouls and goblins were running around spreading rumors about his personal life. He cried too much, ran the ball too much and there was that problem of winning in the playoffs.

When his ’98 team finished 7-9 and well out of the running for the post-season, the pot of tar was boiling, the feathers were gathered and when Schottenheimer resigned as the team’s head coach, it seemed like he was leaving Kansas City a step ahead of the posse.

Everyone thought things would be better with Marty out of the picture.

Fast forward to today, and at the corner of Kansas City and the Chiefs, Schottenheimer no longer is considered an extra-long four letter word. In fact, there are those in the media and those in fandom actually clamoring for his return to the team as general manager, coach, anything. They want him to come in and save the franchise from the troubles that have befallen the red and gold.

“They love you again in Kansas City,” somebody shouted at Schottenheimer this past Sunday. He was at Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands, watching the Chiefs and Jets play.

“I will always have great memories of Kansas City, Arrowhead, the Chiefs fans,” Marty said. …Read More!

Thursday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

It was once a proud division that played some of the best defense in pro football.

In the 70s it was Willie Lanier, Buck Buchanan, Bobby Bell, Emmitt Thomas, Randy Gradishar, Willie Brown, Fred Dean and Jack Tatum In the 80s there were names like Mike Haynes, Ronnie Lott, Deron Cherry, Ted Hendricks, Albert Lewis, Lester Hayes, Randy Gradishar, Louie Kelcher, Gary “Big Hands” Johnson, Art Still and Karl Mecklenberg.

In the ’90s it was Derrick Thomas, Junior Seau, Leslie O’Neal and Steve Atwater.

But in 2008, the AFC West is a defensive graveyard. All four teams rank among the league’s worst in all the important defensive stats. Problems abound from the division leading Denver Broncos, to the last place Chiefs. So upset was San Diego with defensive production that coordinator Ted Cottrell was fired.

There are some obvious reasons for what’s happened. San Diego lost LB Shawne Merriman for the season with a knee injury. The Broncos are trying to switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4 during the season. The Chiefs have had seven new starters in their unit and Oakland is, well, they are the Raiders and how does anyone explain what’s happened there.

Here’s a look at some of the brutal numbers and NFL rankings for the defenses in Denver, San Diego, Oakland and Kansas City:

As any Chiefs fan already knows, the team has the worst run defense in the league. San Diego has the worst pass defense in the league. Denver has the worst combined rankings against the run and the pass. Opponents are completing 72.9 percent of their passes and running for 5.4 yards per carry against the Broncos. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/29

From the Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs practiced for just over two hours in the sunshine of a beautiful October Wednesday.

Participating in the practice was RB Larry Johnson, although he did not work at all with the Chiefs when they were on offense and did not participate with the scout team. He ran through individual drills with the rest of the offensive skill players and running backs.

The Chiefs have not definitively said that Johnson will not play this week although GM Carl Peterson has said he won’t get back on to the field until his issues with the NFL are cleared. Both sides await word from the league office on a possible suspension for L.J. for his off-field problems.

A bunch of injuries piled up from last Sunday’s game against the Jets and limited or kept out of practice the following players: CB Pat Surtain (quadriceps), RB Jamaal Charles (ankle), S Jarrad Page (groin), CB Dimitri Patterson (foot) and LB Wes Dacus (groin).

The Chiefs made official several roster moves, as they added long snapper Thomas Gafford (right) and tackle Andrew Carnahan (left) to the active roster and cornerback Michael Grant to the practice squad. Gafford is wearing No. 48 and Carnahan No. 71. …Read More!

Getting to Know … Pat Thomas

Name: Patrick Wain Thomas.

Born: January 26, 1983 in Vallejo, California. His family moved to New Orleans and then to Miami at the age of four, where he grew up. Dad was in the Navy. Grew up in the Kendall neighborhood of Miami, which is southwest of the downtown area and just southwest of Coral Cables. The Don Shula Expressway runs through Kendall.

Parents: Winston and Monica Thomas. Older sister Laurie Ann and younger sister Cheyenne. His parents divorced when he was four years old and he moved to Miami with his mother.

Attended: Killian High School and North Carolina State University. Other athletes from Killian High included the late Sean Taylor, safety for the Washington Redskins, retired WR Randall Hill, NBA guards Raja Bell and Steve Blake and Tennessee Titans LB Stephen Tulloch.

Miami’s a very big city and there are a lot of temptations for a young man. How did you stay on the right side?
“I’ve came a long way and to look back and see from Miami to Kansas City, you see a lot of different things. There were a lot of influences, friends … just to look back and see that God has constantly made a way out for me whether it was through going to college and not knowing if I was ever going to go to college, to not knowing if I was going to play football and here I am in the NFL. That’s God’s work and graces. My mom always stayed on me, throughout my life, even up to today. I thank her for that. I remember going outside to play and it was night time and she would come out looking for me. She would drive her car around trying to find me and I would be hiding in the bushes. My friends would be like ‘Pat there’s your Mom’ and I’m hiding behind a tree. I would go home and that’s when the whipping came. She never let me forget what was important.”

Is Wain a family name and why the different spelling? “That came from my father. When I was born he was into Bruce Lee movies and he wanted to name me Wain Lee Thomas, but my mother wasn’t going to let that happen. So I think she gave on the Wain. I don’t like that name. Hate it. Why it’s spelled that way only my Dad can answer. I think he just wanted to be different.”

A lot of players have come into the NFL from N.C. State the last five years, how can that much talent not win a national title? “Good question. My junior year was Philip Rivers last year there and we had a great defense that year. My senior year we had a great defense due to our coach Reggie Herring. I was blessed to play with guys who wanted to get to the ball and everybody wanted to make plays and do their job. We’ve got a lot of guys in the league.”

Favorite place in the world? “I would go to Jamaica if I had to pick one place. My family is from there. Both my mother and father were born in Jamaica. My Mom left when she was 16 and my Dad when he was 19. I like the country life. A lot of my family is from the countryside there. It’s real relaxing.”

If the TV is on, what are you watching? “I don’t watch too much TV. I like to watch re-runs: Martin, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Good Times, stuff like that. My mom is like you’ve seen this plenty of times, but I like to sit and watch them over and over.”

Favorite meal: “That would be curried chicken and rice and beans.”

Who is your hero? “Jesus Christ, no doubt about it. He saved me, he saved the human race. I wish people would realize that God is love and Jesus came to show us how to love.”

What was your first job? “I worked at McDonald’s in the back, making burgers and cheese burgers. I didn’t like it much and then one day I came in after working about two weeks and the manager guy says to me ‘I thought I fired you.’ Man that was bad. He checked the list and I was still on there, but I quit the next day.”

What’s your favorite movie? “I like movies I can watch over and over again. A lot of ’80s movies like Karate Kid and Teen Wolf. Recently, the movie I really liked I saw last year, called City of God. It was Brazilian and you had to read the sub-titles but it was very good.”

What’s your ride? “A Chevy Avalanche. Nothing fancy.”

What was your first car? A Dodge Colt. My grandma bought it for me. It was like a little buggy, like a Geo. It was red. I remember I got into my first accident and the hood got messed up when I ran into the back end of another car. After I was driving away from the scene, I was driving home and the wind was blowing, and the hood kept flying up and I had to reach my hand out the window and push it back down. I eventually had to tie it down. It was a mess.”

What was the hardest class you took at North Carolina State? Chemistry. I had it in high school and did pretty good, so I took it in college thinking it would be the same thing. We went over the periodic tables and stuff like that and I was good. But that was the first week. Then came all this other stuff and oh my, it was tough. That was the worst.”

What’s on your I-Pod? “I have a lot of gospel and some reggae too. I like to listen to gospel, songs about Jesus and God. It gets my motor running.”

Hank’s Gallery/New York Jets

Here are just some of the pictures that Hank Young snapped at Sunday’s game in the New Jersey Meadowlands.

Remember, click on the picture to enlarge.

…Read More!

Wednesday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Maybe they were a bit grumpy after their long flights back from London, but there was plenty going on with the Chargers and Saints on Tuesday with their feet back on American soil.

Out in San Diego, the Chargers fired defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell (below), unhappy with the team’s performance on that side of the ball this season.

And in New Orleans, the Saints were back home but after unpacking, head coach Sean Payton blasted the NFL for some of the logistical problems his team faced getting back home from England.

First with the Chargers, where the trio on top of the franchise – Spanos/Smith /Turner – decided the results of losing to the Saints at Wembley Stadium 37-32 was enough. The Chargers defense was considered too passive and at most times played as if confused. Mistakes were not being corrected, in fact they kept happening.

“There are areas we just have to play better, we have to improve,” said head coach Norv Turner. “Over the next 10 days, those areas will be addressed and hopefully we can not only show improvement right away, but then continue to improve over the next eight games.

“There have been a lot of different situations where we feel we’re close and just not quite making the play or getting it done. That’s the areas we’re going to address.”

The Chargers next game comes on November 9 at home against the Chiefs.

Cottrell has been replaced by linebackers coach Ron Rivera, who was the Chicago Bears’ defensive coordinator from 2004-06. Rivera plans to be aggressive in his play-calling, though he was reluctant to talk about it.

“If I told you exactly how I was going to approach it I’d be telling Kansas City,” said Rivera.

Asked if it was correct to assume he would be more aggressive than Cottrell, Rivera said, “Correct.” …Read More!

Herm Speaks – Volume #7

For once, Herm Edwards’ Tuesday session with the media horde was about football. Oh, there were questions about Larry Johnson for sure, but the head coach swatted those away because it’s all out of the team’s hands right now. Johnson’s immediate future rests with the league.

The Chiefs immediate past is 1-6 and their immediate future is the Tampa Bay Bucs, coming to town this Sunday.

Here’s some of what the coach had to say.

ON TAMPA BAY AND ITS DEFENSE

“Defensively, they’re back to playing Buc-Ball, as we called it. They don’t give up a lot of big plays, not a lot of big runs or a lot of big passes. They hold you to about 15 points a game. They can rush the passer. They tackle real well. They’re built for speed, very aggressive that way and can blitz you a lot. They blitz a lot on third downs, bring pressure and put it on the quarterback. They played in a one-score game last week. They held Dallas to one touchdown. It is going to be a test for us – probably one of the best defenses we’ll play all year. Tennessee was very good and these guys are right up there with Tennessee. Not as big, but just fast; that’s how they were built.”

Translation: Oh, how Herm wishes he had a defense like the one that’s coming in to Arrowhead. Just run down the things Edwards said about the Bucs D and the Chiefs have just the opposite. They don’t give up big plays … they hold opponents to 15 points a game … they rush the passer … they tackle real well … they are very aggressive and blitz a lot on third down. His description is what the Chiefs coach dreams of for his defense and right now, it’s the exact opposite. …Read More!

5 Chiefs On First Hall of Fame Voting List

There are 133 men on the first list for nomination to the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2009 was announced on Tuesday in Canton, Ohio. 

DE Bruce Smith, DB Rod Woodson and TE Shannon Sharpe head the list of first-year eligible candidates among the 133 players, coaches and contributors.

Five former members of the Chiefs are part of the list as well: LB Derrick Thomas, DE Art Still, S Deron Cherry, CB Albert Lewis (left) and K Nick Lowery.

From this preliminary list Hall of Fame selectors will choose 25 candidates who will advance as semifinalist nominees.  The list of 25 modern-era semifinalists will be announced later next month.
 
The 25 modern-era semifinalists list will be reduced by a mail ballot to 15 modern-era finalists. 
 
The final list of nominees that will be considered for election will consist of the 15 modern-era finalists and the two previously announced senior nominees: WR Bob Hayes and DE Claude Humphrey. 

The Class of 2009 will be selected from the list of 17 finalists on Saturday, January 31, 2009, in Tampa, Florida the day before Super Bowl XLIII.  Rules provide that between four and seven new members will be selected. …Read More!

Podcast: The NFL And Czar 10/28

Our friend John Czarnecki of the Fox-TV NFL Pre-Game Show and FOXSPORTS.com joins us for another discussion of what’s happening around the league as we talk about Larry Johnson, Daunte Culpepper, the Chargers decision to fire their defensive coordinator, NFL players failing drug tests, the New York Giants and the Tennessee Titans.

Chiefs Update 10/28: Another Special Teams Injury

From the Truman Sports Complex

In what has already been a strange season for the Chiefs took another very different turn on Tuesday.

Last week they had a new kicker and new punter.  This week, they will have a new deep snapper to add to the mix.

J.P. Darche who has handled the snapping duties for the last two seasons is headed for knee surgery and is done for the season.

Darche will likely go to the injured reserve list by the close of business on Tuesday, so the Chiefs can sign a new deep snapper for this weekend’s game against Tampa Bay.  Darche played in last Sunday’s game against the Jets and was good on all of his snaps, but he was unable to run,  which made him a liability in punt coverage.

A few teams each year will change punters or kickers because of production, but few make any moves with deep snappers.  In 30-plus years of covering the NFL, I can’t remember a team that has changed all three parts of its kicking combination – snapper, holder and kicker – in a matter of two weeks.

On Tuesday, Herm Edwards said punter Dustin Colquitt was feeling better, but gave no indication if he will be ready to punt on Sunday.

NFL Review: Week #8

He has to be the most valuable player in the National Football League.

And, the Tennessee Titans have to be the best team in the league.

That’s the results from the eighth weekend of NFL play that finished up Monday night with Tennessee beating Indianapolis 31-21.  The Titans won the game in come-back-fashion and at 7-0 remain the only unbeaten team in the league.

The Titans are proving they are not a pretender.

When the Philadelphia Eagles have Brian Westbrook, they are a contender in any season. When he’s down with injury, which seems to happen on a regular basis, the Eagles are an ordinary offensive team.

Coming back on Sunday from missing two of the last three games because of broken ribs, Westbrook returned to his All-Pro form and rushed for 167 yards and two touchdowns as part of a dynamic all-around effort, and the Eagles beat the Atlanta Falcons 27-14.

“He was dialed up,” Philly coach Andy Reid said of Westbrook.

Besides the 167 rushing yards, Westbrook also caught six passes for 42 yards. That totaled out to 28 offensive touches for 209 yards.

“It feels good to be back,” he said. “My ankle held up pretty well. My ribs held up pretty well. Things went well for me.”

There was the sprained ankle, which kept him out of the game against the Bears, and then the fractured ribs, which occurred on the first possession of the Redskins game and sidelined him for the 49ers game. Until Sunday, he had played little more than two games while healthy. As a result the Eagles offense had been very inconsistent.

The injuries nagged him throughout the game, but Westbrook said, “those are things you have to play through.”

The Eagles hope that they can get in the NFC East race if Westbrook can stay healthy.

“We need to get on a run,” Westbrook said …Read More!

Tuesday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

The Chiefs made it plain on Monday that the performance by Tyler Thigpen (left) against the Jets on Sunday got their attention.

That’s one of the reasons the club cancelled a planned trip to Kansas City by retired/unretired veteran QB Daunte Culpepper that was scheduled for Tuesday.

A club official said the team was going “in another direction.”

They will move forward with Thigpen, Ingle Martin and Quinn Gray for now, although that’s not set in stone either. What seems definite is that Culpepper is not going to be part of the equation.

The Chiefs contacted Culpepper twice this fall about his interest in returning to action. The first time came after Brodie Croyle was injured in the season opener. At that time, Culpepper said he was only interested in returning if he could start.

The Chiefs talked to him again last week when Croyle suffered the knee injury that ended his season. Culpepper expressed some reluctance to end the retirement that he had announced a few weeks earlier because of family and business issues. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/27-No Daunte For Chiefs

From the Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs have cancelled a visit by QB Daunte Culpepper to Kansas City on Tuesday and will move on with Tyler Thigpen as their quarterback.

Culpepper was scheduled to visit the Chiefs facilities for a workout and physical, but the plug was pulled on that visit Monday afternoon. 

It was just part of the news surrounding the team on Monday, as RB Larry Johnson was formally charged with assault in Kansas City, Missouri for an incident at a Country Club Plaza nightclub during the bye week.  Johnson spent approximately three hours in a holding cell at police headquarters before he posted $500 bond and was released.

Johnson headed for the airport, as he is scheduled to be in New York on Tuesday to meet with Commissioner Roger Goodell about his off-field problems.  Whether and when Goodell might take disciplinary action against Johnson remains to be seen, but the fact that he’s been called the league office is an indication that a suspension is very possible.

On to football, where one of the items that’s a constant in the NFL is the roster juggle every week due to injury.  The Chiefs figure to be doing more of that this week due to the ankle injury suffered by RB Jamaal Charles.   No definitive word from team on how serious the injury is as Charles was undergoing an MRI exam on Monday.  But the way Charles left Giants Stadium on Sunday it appears to be something that will keep him out for this weekend’s game against Tampa Bay, and maybe more games after that.

There’s probably a good chance that Jackie Battle will be elevated from the practice squad to the active roster.  Right now, the Chiefs have just two healthy halfbacks: Kolby Smith and rookie Dantrell Savage.

The other injuries from Sunday’s game that will be watched this week are the groin injury suffered by S Jarrad Page and the quadriceps injury for CB Pat Surtain.

Notes: More Tony G. Records

From the Meadowlands in New Jersey

Every time he catches a pass these days, Tony Gonzalez is establishing new records.

With six catches on the day, Gonzalez now has 853 in his career, which ranks him No. 11 in most career receptions. During Sunday’s game he passed both Rod Smith and Irving Fryar. Just ahead of him at No. 10 is Jimmy Smith with 862 catches.

And he’s moving up the charts every time he starts a game. Sunday’s opening was start No. 165 and that pushed him past Tim Grunhard and into third place for the most starts in Chiefs history. The next player ahead of him is former center Jack Rudnay with 171 career starts. …Read More!

Defense: Some Good, Some Bad

From the Meadowlands in New Jersey

It was the type of matchup that a veteran quarterback loves to see: a veteran and gifted wide receiver against an inexperienced cornerback.

That was enough to tempt Brett Favre to make the throw that won his team the game: a 15-yard throw to wide receiver Laveranues Coles with one-minute to play that ended up in the end zone. The New York Jets win; the Chiefs go home with another disappointment.

There was a lot of disappointment for Favre on this day. He threw three interceptions, including one that was returned 91 yards by rookie cornerback Brandon Flowers for a touchdown. It wasn’t until the Chiefs final offense drive came up empty that the veteran quarterback was able to breathe easy.

Coles beat the Chiefs fourth cornerback on the play, Dimitri Patterson. He was in the game because veteran nickel back Patrick Surtain was on the sidelines with a quadriceps injury. In his third NFL season, Patterson has played far more special teams than he has defense.

But there really wasn’t much he could have done on the throw to Coles. He battled down the field with the receiver and there was contact several times. Patterson forced Coles to the outside and Favre threw the ball to the only place where it would have worked: behind Patterson. Coles reached back and caught the ball and got both feet in to the end zone.

“Where his alignment was, I was thinking an inside route,” said Patterson. “But this was Brett Favre and he makes those throws that you don’t think he will make. It was questionable at the point of attack whether he pushed off or not. But I have to make that play at the end of the day. I have to find a way to break up the pass.

“It was a good throw. A good catch.” …Read More!

Chiefs Go College With Their Offense

From the Meadowlands in New Jersey

It’s there every Saturday of the college football season, especially in the Big 12 Conference.

It’s the spread offense, with the quarterback in the shotgun, multiple receivers spread all over the field and little concern for some of the most tried and true offensive pillars of the game.

It’s the Missouri-Kansas-Texas-Texas Tech-Oklahoma State-Oklahoma offensive mentality. Throw, throw, throw. OK run this play, but come back and throw, throw, throw.

Nobody in the NFL does this on a regular basis and don’t expect the Chiefs to start coming out and playing games with this scheme. But for one Sunday, the Chiefs offense could have fit right in with the Big 12 guys. Herm Edwards and Chan Gailey put their team into their version of the spread offense.

Tyler Thigpen took the snaps in the shotgun. He had receivers flanked generally two on each side, with a running back beside him. The Chiefs added the no huddle twist as well. Now, this wasn’t a full-scale jump to the spread. Generally, two of those four receivers were tight ends in Tony Gonzalez and rookie Brad Cottam.

But it was this scheme that finally got the Chiefs offense on track. With Thigpen throwing accurately and with generally good pass protection while in the gun, the Chiefs started generating some offense and some touchdowns.

“It was a change of pace, switch it up a little bit,” said quarterback Tyler Thigpen. “It’s what I ran in college (at Coastal Carolina.) It’s more comfortable. We will probably throw in a few more plays this week. We had a select few plays this week for that. I imagine we will broaden that out.” …Read More!

Tyler Lays Claim to Job But Daunte’s Coming

From the Meadowlands in New Jersey    

It was the laugh of the week in the NFL in the days leading up to Sunday’s game.

The Chiefs and Tyler Thigpen, starting just his second NFL game against the Jets and Brett Favre, the legend, the guy who would be making regular and post-season start No. 282.

In the end, Favre got the last laugh, leading his Jets to a last minute victory over Thigpen and the Chiefs.

But on this day, Thigpen outplayed the great Favre. Here are the numbers:

• Thigpen: 25 of 36 (69 percent) for 280 yards, two TD passes and no interceptions. Passer rating of: 110.9
  
• Favre: 28 of 40 (70 percent) for 290 yards, two TD passes and three interceptions. Passer rating of: 76.

The only number that really mattered was the “W” for Favre. But on this afternoon, Thigpen displayed some of the skills that had the Vikings and now Chiefs quite interested in his services.

“The job has been handed to me to step in there and play football and I’m going to take advantage of that,” Thigpen said. …Read More!

Podcast: Post-Game Report/Jets

From the Meadowlands in New Jersey

Comments from the Chiefs locker room after their 28-24 loss to the New York Jets.

Commentary: Progress, But It Still Hurts

From the Meadowlands in New Jersey

Before a team can learn how to win, it has to learn how to play.

Maybe, just maybe the Chiefs learned how to play on Sunday afternoon at Giants Stadium.

They are now 1-6 on the season and they easily could have that same record and played much better football than they’ve shown for most of those seven games. But they didn’t play good football; in fact, most of the time they were downright awful. They played well in New England and against Denver. Otherwise, their performances were putrid, with no offense, no defense and no special teams. What was most bothersome to everyone involved, from ownership to the fans, with GMs, coaches and players in between, was the lack of improvement. The Chiefs seemed to be going backwards.

That wasn’t the case against the New York Jets on a sunny October Sunday afternoon in the swamps of Jersey. The Chiefs played one of their best games of the season. They made their mistakes, failed to capitalize on opportunities and were beaten physically at times. But it wasn’t anything like the last month. In the fourth quarter, they were not multiple touchdowns behind. They held victory in their hands in the final period with the clocking crawling towards the game’s conclusion. …Read More!

Improvement But Still Defeat as Chiefs Fall to Jets

From the Meadowlands in New Jersey

In what was their best performance as a team in over a month, the Chiefs chased victory right into the final moments of the game against Brett Favre and the New York Jets. But Favre being Favre, he and the Jets pulled out a 28-24 victory at Giants Stadium.

After the game, Herm Edwards told his team that what they had done was shown the world what they are and what they can become. There’s no question there was improved play, especially on the offensive side of the football. Making the second NFL start of his life, Tyler Thigpen outplayed the great Favre.

But in money time, Favre answered as he’s done so many times before. His 15-yard pass to Lavernaues Coles provided the winning points.

“We saw him do that to us last year,” said LB Donnie Edwards of Favre. Edwards returned to the playing field for the first time in a month. “We knew what he could do. We didn’t stop him and that hurts.”

That the Jets were in that precarious position was due to the play of the Chiefs secondary and the performance of Thigpen. Running most of the time out of a shotgun/no huddle offense, Thigpen produced two touchdowns, 330 yards and did not have a turnover. The Chiefs defense picked off Favre three times and returned one for a touchdown, as CB Brandon Flowers went 91 yards on an interception return for a touchdown. …Read More!

Inactives from the Meadowlands

From the Meadowlands, New Jersey

The game-day inactives for the Chiefs today against the New York Jets are:

• RB Larry Johnson
• P Dustin Colquitt
• G Brian De La Puente
• T Barry Richardson
• LB Erik Walden
• WR Jeff Webb
• DT T.J. Jackson

Quinn Gray is the inactive, third quarterback.

For the Jets, the inactives are K Mike Nugent, QB Brett Ratliff, WR David Clowney, CB David Barrett, TE Bubba Franks, LB Marques Murrell and DL Kareem Brown.

Erik Ainge is the third inactive quarterback.

Weather conditions are good today.  After heavy rains and wind Saturday evening, Sunday morning has dawned sunny, with clear skies, but it remains windy.  Temperature at game time should be around 60 degrees.

NFL Network is reporting Sunday morning that Commissioner Roger Goodell has scheduled a Tuesday meeting in New York with Larry Johnson.

Sunday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

From the New Jersey Meadowlands

There are a lot of memories in Chiefs history that have been played out in New York and its environs. Another paragraph will be written on Sunday afternoon as the Chiefs make their final visit to Giants Stadium for a game against the Jets.

It never quite seemed right that the place where the Jets played would be called Giants Stadium. But, the N.Y. Giants were there in 1976, before the N.Y. Jets who did not arrive until the 1984 season. Both teams will play in a brand new stadium that’s being built right next door to the old one and should be open for the 2010 season.

Right now it’s simply called the New Meadowlands Stadium. Price tag: $1.3 billion. That’s right, billion. Capacity will be 82,500 and the new building will host both the Jets and Giants.

Under the schedule formula pre-determined by the NFL, the Chiefs will not play in New Jersey in 2009. They will host the Giants and if they finished in the same position as the Jets in the standings, the AFC East team would come to Arrowhead.

Not that the Chiefs will complain. Coming into this game on Sunday against the Jets, they have a 2-10-1 overall record in Giants Stadium.

There’s another New York area stadium that closed its doors this fall where the Chiefs had much more success. Actually, there were two stadiums that went dark. Yankee Stadium got all the attention, but also shuttering its doors this fall was Shea Stadium. The Chiefs never played in Yankee Stadium, but they played against the Jets seven times in Shea, going 5-2. Shea’s football layout is pictured above.

…Read More!

How The Chiefs Can Beat The Jets

From Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey

Yes it is possible. The Chiefs can win Sunday in the Meadowlands. The chances are not good, but the Jets are not one of the NFL’s upper echelon teams.

Under what’s predicted to be sunny skies, with cool temperatures, here are the most important factors in a potential victory.

Saturday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

There will be a pair of quarterbacks wearing No. 4 and starting for their teams on Sunday at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

One is making his second NFL start. The other will be making start No. 282.

Tyler Thigpen vs. Brett Favre. Other than the number on their uniforms, they don’t share much.

All things being equal, and without injuries to Brodie Croyle and Damon Huard, Thigpen would have spent the week portraying Favre during practice rather than running the first team offense. Instead that job fell to Ingle Martin (left).

But Martin would have been the best guy anyway to do the job. Martin spent an entire season in Favre’s shadow with the Packers. In 2006 as a rookie out of Furman, Martin was the Pack’s No. 3 quarterback behind Favre and Aaron Rodgers.

As the picture above shows, he spent the season wearing a ball cap and head set and handling a clipboard for the Green Bay offense. He also spent a lot of time soaking up everything he could from the legend that is Favre. …Read More!

PODCAST: Goose’s Football 101 10/24

Rick Gosselin is the best pro football writer in the country.  Period.  End Paragraph.

There’s no contest.  Goose has written about the NFL for over 30 years, going back to his days with United Press International in New York and Kansas City, through his time with the Kansas City Star and now the Dallas Morning News.  He’s been honored at the Pro Football Hall of Fame for his work.

Goose doesn’t spend a lot of time with the gossip of the game; he’s hard core football and he’s going to join us each week to talk about what’s going on in the league on the field and especially in the draft rooms, where he’s an expert.

Thanks for listening to podcasting on bobgretz.com

Player Profile: Turk McBride

His rookie season in 2007 was a tough transition for Turk McBride.

Just 22 years old when he joined the Chiefs out of the University of Tennessee, it took awhile for McBride to feel comfortable with the Chiefs, the NFL and Kansas City.

Now in his second season, McBride is starting to make a place for himself in the Chiefs defense.  He’s been a starter at the left defensive end position since training camp and has begun to show the ability to put pressure on the passer.

With his temperment, McBride is also showing some leadership potential as he tries to help his unit get itself back on track during this 2008 season.

Click here to learn more about the Turk, a self-confessed Momma’s boy from Camden, New Jersey.

Chiefs Update 10/24

From the Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs went through a 70-minute practice session indoors on Friday morning to wrap up their preparation for Sunday’s game in New Jersey against the Jets.

Listed on the injury report turned into the league today by the Chiefs is punter Dustin Colquitt as questionable and linebacker Donnie Edwards as probable. 

Head coach Herm Edwards again said that Edwards would be part of the defensive rotation against the Jets.

Colquitt did not kick in any of the three practices this week, although he may have kicked at other times.  Colquitt said he was feeling better on Friday morning as he was getting treatment for his groin and calf injuries, and felt he would be ready to punt on Sunday.

Again, the Chiefs do not have to make a decision until 90 minutes before kickoff on their game-day inactives.  But unless Colquitt has punted or will punt on Saturday, it’s hard to imagine Herm Edwards keeping him active for Sunday’s game.  If there’s any way the Chiefs can keep from having both punters on the 45-man roster for the game, the coach would like that to happen.  If Colquitt and Steve Weatherford are both active, that just means one more body has to be inactive who might be able to help.

Other than Colquitt the only other non-participant in Friday’s practice was RB Larry Johnson, who will be inactive for Sunday’s game.

Zebra Watch #7

So much for the Chiefs having an officiating crew that doesn’t like to throw flags.

Last week at Arrowhead Stadium, Gene Steratore’s crew handled the Titans—Chiefs game. That group came in averaging nine penalties a game. Last Sunday, they had 16 flags, one of the most penalized games in the league. They split those evenly between the teams.

That performance knocked Steratore’s crew out of our top spot for fewest flags. That honor now belongs to Walt Coleman’s crew, averaging 9.3 penalties per game. The gap between least active and most active is closing a bit. Jeff Triplette’s crew is averaging 16.2 penalties per game. They had just 10 in their game last week.

That’s a 6.9 penalty gap. A month ago the difference between top and bottom was 10.5 penalties. Hopefully that means there’s more consistency in the officiating from crew to crew.

I do know this: if you are the home team and you see you’ve got Terry McAulay’s crew, you like your chances. The home team is 6-0 with that group in charge.

The best crews for road teams are Steratore, Bill Carollo and Tony Corrente. All have had visitors win four of their games this year. …Read More!

Friday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

At half-time of Sunday’s game between the Chiefs and Jets at Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands, New York will honor its 1968 Super Bowl championship team on the 40^th anniversary of their remarkable victory over the Baltimore Colts.

Writing the history of American sports in the 20^th Century would have to include a chapter on the Jets 16-7 victory at Miami’s Orange Bowl. It was the upstart American Football League’s crowning achievement to have finally beaten the National Football League on the championship stage. It was Joe Namath predicting a victory before the game, egged on by Colts players and others who thought the Jets had no chance; in some quarters they entered the game as 20-point underdogs.

At the time, Namath was probably the biggest name in sports. He was young, good looking, not afraid of the bright lights and he played in New York, where everything is bigger and brighter, or at least they think so. The underdog Chiefs victory the next January over the Minnesota Vikings only drove home the point that the AFL was the equal of the NFL.

The Jets got there first. Len Dawson sat in the stands at the Orange Bowl that day, attending as a guest of American Express with a bunch of their clients.

“They were all Colts fans and they were sure the Colts were going to win,” Dawson said this week. “I remember standing up in the fourth quarter and making some sort of comment about who was the best team now.” …Read More!

Daunte’s Inferno Re-Ignited

Twice this fall, the Chiefs talked with Daunte Culpepper about coming to Kansas City and joining the team.

The first came after Brodie Croyle’s shoulder injury in the season opener. The Chiefs contacted Culpepper and he was lukewarm to playing any more football.  It was also not interested in being a fill-in starter, which he would have been until Croyle returned from the injury.  Culpepper wanted the chance to be the “man”.

The second conversation came after Croyle’s knee injury last Sunday against Tennessee. At that time, team officials said Culpepper was reticent to make a decision to return to the NFL.  He said he was happy looking after his financial investments and coaching his son’s youth football team.

Apparently, Culpepper has changed his mind. The veteran quarterback who is his own agent and also is pretty handy with e-mail sent out this note to the media:

“A number of teams have contacted me since my retirement announcement and have provided some important information that has caused me to reconsider returning to the league. As much as I have enjoyed my brief break from playing, I know that I love the game and I have some unfinished business in the NFL. It has never been because of a lack of passion for the game but rather the absence of a fair opportunity to complete and play that caused me to retire.

“Now that there are some real opportunities that match my desire to play, I will choose the one that is the best fit for both the team and me so that I can continue my NFL career. For the second half of this season, I hope to play a role in helping a team win some games. I want to thank all of those who encouraged me to ‘keep a light on’ for the right NFL opportunity that would eventually come back to me.”

In nine NFL seasons, Culpepper completed 63.8 percent of his passes for 22,422 yards and 142 touchdowns and 94 interceptions. That’s a career passer rating of 89.9. The 31-year old Culpepper played in 93 games and had 90 career starts.

A Look At The Middle of the Pack: Part 2

The NFL is heading into week No. 8 and teams are starting to take their spots on the league’s totem pole for 2008.

On top are the Tennessee Titans at 6-0, the only unbeaten team left. Right behind are Buffalo, Pittsburgh and the New York Giants, all with just one defeat.

At the bottom of the pole are Detroit and Cincinnati, still winless at this point. Just a hair ahead of them sits the Chiefs and Seattle, both with one victory.

As always, there are a knot of teams bunched up right in the middle. Specifically, we are looking at a dozen teams: those with at least three victories and at least three loses.

Here’s a look at second half of that group and what direction they might be taking on the NFL elevator over the next few weeks. We looked at the first half on Wednesday.

JACKSONVILLE (3-3)

GOOD: The good news for the Jaguars is that several key players who have been out injured are expected back after the bye week: C Brad Meester, S Reggie Nelson and G Chris Naeole. Special teams have kept them in the season so far, especially K Josh Scobee who has improved his accuracy and his kickoffs have gotten longer. RBs Maurice Jones-Drew (above) and Fred Taylor remain productive talents hindered by the offensive line injuries.

BAD: The Jaguars have only eight sacks or one every 24.5 passing plays. That’s the fourth-worst percentage in the league. That lack of pass rush is likely why Jacksonville has the worst third down defense in the league, as opponents convert 48.6 percent of the time.NFL. Defense needs more takeaways as well, getting just nine so far.

AHEAD: bye week, Cleveland, at Cincinnati, at Detroit, Tennessee.

COMMENT: “You can’t really name too many teams that have suffered as many blows as we’ve suffered. To go through all that and still be 3-3, we’ll take it and build off it.” Jags linebacker Mike Peterson. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/23

From the Truman Sports Complex

If it’s another episode of As the Chiefs Turn  you are looking for, then this is going to be disappointing.

It was football and football only on Thursday as the Chiefs got in a 1-hour, 45-minute practice session inside their facility.  There were no roster moves, no deactivations, no player statements.  No wonder the head coach was smiling more.

It was Just football.  The Chiefs have 64 players who can take part in practice and 62 of them did.  P Dustin Colquitt did not work with his teammates and RB Larry Johnson was taking care of “personal matters” according to Herm Edwards and not at practice.

Everybody else was getting ready for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets.  Edwards said that LB Donnie Edwards has been taking regular turns with the defense during practice and will play this week.  Edwards suffered an ankle injury back on Sept. 21 in Atlanta and has not played since.

“We’ll get him in there and rotate him in and see where he’s at,” Edwards said. “We anticipate him playing on Sunday.”

A decision on whether Colquitt will punt for the Chiefs could wait until Sunday morning at the stadium to see how he’s feeling with the groin injury that he’s suffered.

The conversation turned towards QB Tyler Thigpen, this weekend’s starter, and his willingness to take off running with the football. In fact, it was his run that gave the Chiefs their only touchdown in the last two games, when he scrambled in for a score late in the fourth quarter against Tennessee.  Right now, he’s the team’s third leading rusher with nine runs for 61 yards.  He’s also been sacked seven times.

“His instincts are  to run,” Edwards said of Thigpen. “Most young quarterbacks, if they don’t see a guy open, they feel the clocking ticking in their head and they take off and run.

“You can’t run a lot in this league because eventually it will catch up to you.”

Thursday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

I don’t generally predict things, but I feel quite safe in making this football forecast:

Before the Chiefs 2008 season is over, Herm Edwards will have a quarterback start a game whose shadow has not yet crossed the doorway at Arrowhead Stadium.

That’s the kind of year it’s already been for Herm Edwards and the Chiefs, and the season is only six weeks old. There are 10 weeks to go.

Consider the three quarterbacks on the roster just seven weeks ago: Brodie Croyle, Damon Huard and Tyler Thigpen (left).

Consider the three quarterbacks this week: Thigpen, Ingle Martin and Quinn Gray (below). Thigpen gets the start this Sundy against the New York Jets.

I doubt any one would place bets on those three all being in the equation in seven more weeks.

Edwards made it very plain on Wednesday that the Chiefs search for quarterbacks will continue.  I would expect it to continue right through the last week of the season and throughout the off-season.

The Chiefs already know that the pickings are pretty slim out there when it comes to current free agents on the street.  Earlier in the year they worked out Tim Rattay. This week they worked out Bruce Gradkowski.

They’ve talked with Daunte Culpepper who doesn’t seem motivated enough to end his retirement. That may be because Culpepper is enjoying retirement, or it may be because he doesn’t want any part of being a quarterback for the Chiefs. Others like Kelly Holcomb and Trent Dilfer retired this year as well.

Turnover the rocks out there and the names left are the likes of Chris Weinke, Craig Nall and the aptly named Hefty Lefty Jared Lorenzen.

When a team is looking for what would be their seventh or eighth quarterback of the season, the pickings are pretty slim.

…Read More!

Checking The Maple Leaf QBs

Looking for a quarterback prospects always has NFL teams looking under every rock and pebble for talent.

Right now, it doesn’t look like there’s any top talent in the Canadian Football League’s that’s worth a look. Or in the case of almost all of the top CFL quarterbacks, a second look.

The Chiefs signed Casey Printers out of the CFL several years ago. He’s back north of the border after failing to make the Kansas City roster out of training camp in ’07. His numbers are not much different than they were with the Chiefs in the pre-season.

The league’s best quarterback this year is 36-year old Anthony Calvillo (left) of the Montreal Alouettes. He’s thrown for nearly 5,500 yards, 42 touchdowns and only 12 interceptions. He’s a 15-year CFL veteran, who played his college ball at Utah State. He’s 6-1, 200 pounds and has never had a shot at NFL football.

There are two weeks left in the CFL season. Montreal has wrapped up the East Division with its 1-5 record. Out in the West Division it’s still to be determined as Calgary, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Edmonton are separated by only two games.

Here’s the numbers on the CFL’s top quarterbacks after 16 games. …Read More!

A Message for Larry

Let me establish this right from the start: I like Larry Johnson.

I like Larry Johnson the player. I like Larry Johnson the man.

I know that leaves me in a very small room with all his other admirers. Actually, probably a phone booth is all that’s needed these days. But that’s OK; it’s not the first time I’ve been on the so called wrong side, and won’t be the last either.

Some of the things that Larry Johnson the player and man have done I do not like. He’s dished out a lot of hurt lately, and I’m not just talking about hurting himself. I’m talking about a locker room full of teammates, a coaching staff and an organization that he’s let down. His actions off the field have not been very good either. I know he’s a target out there. He knows he’s a target out there. So I don’t feel sorry for the guy when he puts himself in situations where bad things can happen. Wear a target and walk into a shooting gallery? That’s his fault.

I carry no grudge against L.J. Many in the media do. They are loving this time, because he’s suffering and they are remembering all the times when he wouldn’t play their game, by their rules. Now they can bash away in print and on the airwaves and sound all righteous and pompous about how they saw this coming.

Larry Johnson needs help. On Wednesday before the glaring eye of the media that hates him, he admitted that yes, there’s a problem, and the problem is him. He says he’s going to find help in taking care of his problems. He apologized to the Hunts, the team, the coaches, the GM and the fans.

Where Larry goes from here is unknown. He won’t play Sunday against the New York Jets. The NFL is investigating his two most recent off-field incidents. There’s a suspension coming, that you can count on.

What happens after that is up to Larry. He has professionals who can help him with their advice. He also has friends who can hurt him with their advice.

I count myself as neither friend nor foe. I’m certainly not a professional. But I’ve got some advice for Larry. Coming from a guy who at various times has screwed up his own life pretty good that might seem pretty funny, but that’s not stopping me. L.J. likely will never see this, but I’ll feel better getting it off my chest.

Larry, it’s time to go Rocky. …Read More!

Hank’s Tennessee Gallery

Moments from the Chiefs-Titans game courtesy of America’s best football photographer, Hank Young.

Click on each picture to enlarge. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/22

From the Truman Sports Complex

It was another day of “As the Chiefs Turn” on Wednesday as the team returned to the practice field to prepare for Sunday’s game in the Meadowlands against the New York Jets.

The highlights, so to speak:

- Brodie Croyle and Damon Huard both were sent to the injured-reserve list, ending their seasons. Croyle was expected because of ligament damage to his left knee. Huard was a bit of a surprise; he’s got ligament damage in his right thumb. That means that Tyler Thigpen will start against the Jets, while Ingle Martin as the No. 2 quarterback.

- Larry Johnson will be deactivated again this weekend and Johnson made a statement to the media, apologizing for his recent actions and promising to do what’s necessary to turn around his life.

- The Chiefs officially announced the additions of QB Quinn Gray (above) and P Steve Weatherford (below.) Quinn was signed as a free agent, Weatherford claimed on waivers as insurance pending the condition of P Dustin Colquitt who is battling a leg injury. Herm Edwards labeled him as questionable for Sunday’s game.

- And oh by the way, they had a two-hour workout inside away from the October rain and chill.

It’s been that kind of two weeks for the Chiefs.

Thigpen will get his second NFL start on Sunday. He took the large majority of the snaps with the first team in Wednesday’s practice. “Tyler’s our guy, he’s the starting quarterback this week,” said Edwards.

Gray has started four games in the NFL (with Jacksonville in ’07) and may eventually get his chance to open a game for the Chiefs under center. Both Edwards and Gray said it would probably be two weeks before he could successfully know enough about the offense to make it work.

“He’s big and he’s got a powerful arm; he can throw the ball downfield,” Edwards said of Gray. “He was with Indy in the pre-season and I visited with Tony (Dungy) about the guy. …Read More!

A Look At The Middle Of the Pack-Part 1

The NFL is heading into week No. 8 and teams are starting to take their spots on the league’s totem pole for 2008.

On top are the Tennessee Titans at 6-0, the only unbeaten team left. Right behind are Buffalo, Pittsburgh and the New York Giants, all with just one defeat.

At the bottom of the pole are Detroit and Cincinnati, still winless at this point. Just a hair ahead of them sit the Chiefs and Seattle, both with one victory.

As always, there are a knot of teams bunched up right in the middle. Specifically, we are going to look at a dozen teams: those with at least three victories and at least three loses.

Within those parameters are some pretty powerful teams and a lot of football talent. Let’s break it down by conference:

• AFC: Denver, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, New York Jets and San Diego.
  
• NFC: Chicago, Dallas, Green Bay, Philadelphia, Minnesota and New Orleans.
  

Here’s a look at half of those teams and what direction they might be taking on the NFL elevator over the next few weeks. We’ll look at the other half-dozen on Thursday.

DENVER (4-3)

GOOD: The Broncos are one of the NFL’s most productive offenses, ranking fourth in yards per game and fifth in passing yards per game. Pass protection is very good for Jay Cutler (right) who has been up and down (12 TDs-7 INTs.)

BAD: Defense is killing Denver, as they rank among the league’s worst defensive units overall, against the pass and against the run. They have just seven takeaways. Overall, the Broncos are minus-nine on the turnover ratio.

AHEAD: bye week, Miami, at Cleveland, at Atlanta, Oakland.

COMMENT: “I’ve always got a nasty attitude. That’s just the way I play. But it’s not rubbing off on some people and I don’t like it. It’s getting very frustrating.”
Broncos CB Champ Bailey. …Read More!

Herm Speaks/Volume 6

Most of Herm Edwards weekly gathering with the media horde was a discussion on a guy who didn’t play last Sunday and probably won’t play this coming Sunday: Larry Johnson.

Always, the media wants to talk about those who contribute the least.

So here are some of the important passages of what Edwards had to say about his wayward running back and his current situation.

ON LARRY JOHNSON’S STATUS FOR THIS WEEK

“Right now, Larry will come to work tomorrow (Wednesday.) The decision on that will take place when it has to be made. I don’t have to make the decision on who’s starting and who’s not starting. So that’s kind of where that’s at. Whatever I do, I think hopefully you know me by now, people know me by now, I’m going to do the right thing for the football team, and that’s where it stands with me.”

Translation: I don’t want to put words in Edwards’ mouth, but what I hear him saying is enough. He’s had enough of L.J. and the way he approaches the game and his team. He’s taking a stand and if the NFL is going to be part of that stand, that’s OK with the head coach.

There’s more from Herm on that angle: …Read More!

Wednesday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

There are those that think the Chiefs are the only team with problems these days.

It happens all over the NFL, and not just in Kansas City or Dallas.

For instance, an interesting story broke late Tuesday afternoon out of Cleveland.  It involves a team, a player, an illness, a comment and a suspension.

It’s the story of how one team handled an angry tight end and his public comments about the organization.

The Browns suspended TE Kellen Winslow (left) for one-game for critical comments made about the Cleveland front office. Winslow was upset after the Browns lost to the Washington Redskins because the team did not publicly reveal the fact he had missed a game because he contracted a staph infection.

Winslow was also upset that the team’s GM Phil Savage had not called him during his three-day stay in a Cleveland hospital because of that infection. Apparently, he had a face-to-face confrontation with Savage in the post-game locker room at Fed Ex Field and then spoke publicly about the situation with reporters.

“There’s obviously a problem and we have to fix it,” said Winslow of staph infections around the Browns, who have had seven known cases in the last four years. “Just look at the history around here. It’s unfortunate, because it happens time and time again.”

It was the second staph infection suffered by Winslow. Other Browns who had or still have it were former center LeCharles Bentley, receiver Joe Jurevicius, receiver Braylon Edwards, former safety Brian Russell and former linebacker Ben Taylor. Jurevicius is still battling back from the infection, which surfaced two weeks after his arthroscopic knee surgery in January. …Read More!

Getting to Know … Turk McBride

Name: Claude Maurice McBride, Jr., otherwise known as Turk.

Born: May 30, 1985 in Camden, New Jersey. Located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Camden has about 80,000 residents and one of the highest crime rates in the country. In 2004, the FBI ranked Camden as the most dangerous city in the country, jumping ahead of Detroit. Established in the mid-1600s, Camden was at one time a thriving industrial center and shipbuilding city. With direct access down the Delaware to the Atlantic Ocean, the port of Camden was always busy. The decline of manufacturing jobs changed the character of the town and created many of its problems with crime and poverty today. Well known Camden natives include the poet Walt Whitman, singer and dancer Lola Falana and NFL players Donovan Darius and Mike Rozier.

Family: Father is Claude Maurice McBride Sr. and mother is Paulette. His Dad has nine kids, Turk is the third oldest. He’s the second and youngest son of his mother.

Attended: Woodrow Wilson High School in Camden and the University of Tennessee, where he majored in Sociology.

Why Tennessee? “To be honest, I didn’t want to go to Tennessee. I thought it was too slow and too country. My dream school was the University of Miami. I badly wanted to go there. Miami was everything to me. But when I was coming out of high school I was just 17 years old and I wasn’t mature enough for South Beach and that whole scene. My Mom and my uncle who was my coach made the decision on Tennessee. It worked out for the best.”

Knoxville had to be quite a transition then? “Oh, there was culture shock when I got there. I wasn’t used to seeing that much green, so many trees, open spaces and the people were nice and smiled at you. That was really different.”

Where does Turk come from? “I really don’t know; it’s a family thing. I’m actually Little Turk. My Dad is Big Turk. I’m a junior.”

Favorite meal? “Probably sushi or Thai food. I don’t eat beef or pork at all, so probably sushi is where I’d go first.”

Favorite Move? “The Notebook. It’s a true life look at a relationship. You love this person, but there are times this person breaks your heart. It’s a good relationship flick.”

Favorite place? “My basement. I really haven’t been too many places. I’ve only been to three or four states besides playing football. My basement is a real comfort zone. A lot of the guys come over and hang out there. I’ve got two big screens, one to watch TV on and another one for games. There’s a card table. It’s got everything I need.

What do you drive? “I’ve got an Infiniti QX56 and I have a Grand Marquis.

What was your first ride? “It was a ’95 Acura, white with a peanut butter colored interior. I had some rims on that. It was sweet! It probably had 100,000 or 110,000 miles on it, but it rode great. It was beautiful. I had it in high school.”

What was your first job? “It was called Urban Promise. It was a summer program where I worked as a counselor. That was the first time I got paid by a check and found out about FICA.”

What’s the best advice you have ever been given? “If you don’t want it, what makes you think somebody else is going to want it for you. It wasn’t so much advice and something I realized when I first went to Tennessee and it was the same when I first came here. I didn’t know where to go, I didn’t have any friends; you start having doubts about yourself. I saw my family members and they wanted it for me more than I wanted it for myself and it just came to me that what mattered is if I wanted it and was I willing to work for it.”

What’s your goal in life? “To be the best man I can be in everything. Husband, father, uncle, friend, football player, everything.”

What’s your bucket list? “I want to fix up Camden. That’s one of my main goals. And, I definitely want to show my family overseas. There are people in my family who have never been on a plane and I want to take them somewhere to see things they’ve heard about.”

You are on a road trip, driving back to Camden, what do you have to have in the car with you? “Green tea and honey buns. I probably shouldn’t have the honey buns but I love’em.”

Tell us something nobody knows about you? “I’m the biggest Momma’s boy in the world. My mom wakes me up every day. She calls me every day, for the last year and a half. I talk to her about 30 minutes a day. She comes out about twice a month and runs my household like it’s her’s. I’m the biggest mama’s boy in the world.”

Podcast: The NFL and Czar

As we continue to expand our information options on bobgretz.com, we are beginning to bring you podcasts from some of the best information people in the country.

Today, we begin with John Czarnecki, the information man behind the Fox-TV NFL Pre-Game Show.  Czar has covered the NFL for nearly 30 years and has connections throughout the league and the business.

Here’s our first NFL and Czar.  Enjoy.

Chiefs Change Kickers, Add Punter, Soon To Add QB

From Arrowhead Stadium

Tuesday was a busy personnel day at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Chiefs have booted K Nick Novak and brought back rookie K Connor Barth.

They also claimed P Steve Weatherford on waivers from New Orleans.

And if he passed the team’s physical Tuesday afternoon, they were expected to sign QB Quinn Gray to the roster.

The Chiefs hope the move at punter is a temporary situation.  In the Carolina game, Dustin Colquitt suffered an injury to his right calf.  Remember, Colquitt kicks with his left leg.  He nursed the injury through the bye week and in last week’s practices for the Tennessee game he was able to kick.  In Sunday’s game against the Titans, he punted seven times for 47.6 yards.  But he was limping after the game. …Read More!

Tuesday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

And Mike Nolan makes three.

The San Francisco 49ers pulled the plug on their head coach on Monday, after word broke that they were going to fire him after this coming Sunday’s game. Exposure of their plan forced their hand a week early and Nolan was sent packing.

The Niners are 2-5 on the season and losers of four straight. Since he was hired in 2005, Nolan has directed San Francisco to an 18-37 record.

His interim replacement is Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary (left), who was on Nolan’s staff with the title of assistant head coach/defense.

Singletary now joins Jim Haslett (below) and Tom Cable as this season’s newest coaches. Haslett is 2-0 with the Rams after taking over for Scott Linehan. With the Raiders victory on Sunday over the New York Jets, Cable is 1-1. Singletary and the Niners host Seattle this coming Sunday.

We talked several weeks ago about interim head coaches and their poor chances for success when they get the job early in the season. Haslett is breaking that mold so far, as he’s been able to change a bit of the culture in a very short period of time with the Rams. It helps that he was previously a head coach, having done six seasons in charge of the New Orleans Saints where he did have some success.

So who might be next? There are obviously some Chiefs fans that would say Herm Edwards, but Clark Hunt made it pretty plain last week that no decisions will be made about him until after the season.

Here’s a look at the bottom 10 teams in the league and their coaching situation:

…Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/20

From the Truman Sports Complex

Just who will be the Chiefs starting quarterback in the Meadowlands this coming Sunday against the New York Jets remained a mystery to the two healthy QBs on the team’s roster.

“We’ll come in Wednesday and I’m sure they’ll have something for us,” said Tyler Thigpen, who along with Ingle Martin are the quarterbacks on the roster who are not injured.

During the open locker room session for the media on Monday afternoon, Brodie Croyle was not seen. But nothing has changed with the MCL injury to his left knee that should bring an end to his season. Damon Huard was there with his right hand and specifically his right thumb bandaged. He suffered that injury in the fourth quarter against Tennessee on Sunday. He volunteered no update on the injury and whether he could grip a football.

Of course, whether he can grip a ball on Monday is not important. It’s whether he can grip the ball on Thursday, Friday and Sunday that will decide whether he can play against the Jets.

The Chiefs were mining the waiver wire and ready lists Sunday evening for a veteran quarterback who can come in and help out. No matter who that passer may be, it’s unlikely he would be able to step in and make a contribution.

NFL Sunday Review 10/19

Things are pretty bad for the Chiefs defense these days, after giving up a club record in rushing yardage on Sunday to Tennessee.

A couple of guys who used to be part of that Chiefs defense had a better Sunday than most, especially LB Kawika Mitchell (right.)

Playing now for the Buffalo Bills, after winning a Super Bowl last year with the New York Giants, Mitchell had seven tackles, one sack, one interception, one tackle for minus yardage, one quarterback hurry and two passes defended against San Diego. The Bills won the game 23-14.

Things did not end up so good for Minnesota, as the Vikings lost to Chicago. But it wasn’t because of DE Jared Allen, who contributed six tackles, two sacks, four tackles for minus-yardage, two quarterback hurries and a forced fumble.

Mitchell’s interception and forced a fumble came in the final four minutes and helped lift an injury-depleted defense.

“We’re building, that’s for sure,” Mitchell said. “It’s definitely a big win to get against a team like that, it means a lot to our team. I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

Now 5-1, Buffalo matched its best start since 1995, and came out of its bye week by bouncing back from a 41-17 loss to the Cardinals in Arizona.

Mitchell turned the game around by intercepting a pass from San Diego QB Philip Rivers a yard inside the end zone. Rivers was throwing for TE Antonio Gates. The turnover led to a 44-yard FG by Rian Lindell. That gave the Bills a 23-14 lead. On the Chargers’ next possession, Mitchell came from the left side and hit Rivers, forcing a fumble, which the Bills recovered to run out the clock. …Read More!

It All Falls Apart For Chiefs Against Titans, 34-10

From Arrowhead Stadium

It was another chapter in a familiar and disastrous story line for the Chiefs 2008 season.

Unable to generate any consistent offensive attack and unable to stop the other team’s running game, the Chiefs were soundly thrashed by the Tennessee Titans 34-10 on Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium.

This was an oh so familiar plot for the Chiefs. They were unable to mount any consistent scoring threat under three different quarterbacks. Brodie Croyle returned to the starting lineup, but he did not even last a half, leaving early in the second quarter with a sprained left knee injury that will end his season.

Damon Huard came in and played into the fourth quarter, but he suffered a right thumb injury. He was replaced by Tyler Thigpen who finished out the game and led the team on its only scoring drives.

“Offensively, we’ve got to score points,” said Herm Edwards. “We can’t play the first half of games getting shut out. It puts too much pressure on us.”

(Story continues below)
—————————————————–
Game Coverage Titans vs. Chiefs

• Audio Report: post-game in Chiefs locker room.
• Commentary: Titans dominate line of scrimmage.
• Sad End to Brodie’s Season.
• Run Defense Sets Records For Bad.
• Chiefs Honor Tony Without His Help.
• The view from Nashville.
• Game Statistics & play-by-play.

——————————————————–

The Chiefs had 272 offensive yards, with 91 of those yards coming after the Titans were already up by 27 points. In the first quarter they had 27 yards. In the second quarter the Chiefs had 113 yards. In the third quarter, they produced 10 yards.

“I just felt early in the game they set the tempo being physical and were playing on the other side of the line of scrimmage both offensively and defensively,” said Edwards. “We got behind; that’s not good for us. That puts you in a passing mode and that’s what they want to get you in.” …Read More!

Post-Game Audio Report/Tennessee

From Arrowhead Stadium

From the Chiefs locker room, here’s an audio report after Tennessee’s 34-10 victory on Sunday.

[podcast]https://bobgretz.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/post-game-report-titans.mp3[/podcast]

Commentary: Chiefs Beaten Up On Line

From Arrowhead Stadium

It’s a fact of football. If you want to figure out which team is going to win or lose the game, watch the area about two yards on either side of the line of scrimmage. That’s where the nitty-gritty war of infighting takes place, where the offense tries to control the defense, and the defense reacts in a negative fashion.

The Chiefs lost that war on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans. They didn’t just lose it … they were destroyed. Constantly, the red and gold defense never got past the line of scrimmage, let alone into the area two yards behind the snap of the ball. Offensively, the Chiefs offensive line was backpedaling like bad cornerbacks as they got shoved around by the Titans defense.

In the end, that was the story of the Chiefs fifth loss of the season and their 14^th in the last 15 games. …Read More!

Inactives/Game Day Notes for Tennessee

From Arrowhead Stadium

Gameday inactives for the Chiefs today against Tennessee are:

• QB Ingle Martin
• RB Larry Johnson
• LB Donnie Edwardds
• G Brian De La Puente
• T Barry Richardson
• WR Jeff Webb
• TE John Paul Foschi

Tyler Thigpen is the third inactive quarterback.

For the Titans inactives of note are both starting WRs Justin Gage and Justin McCareins, along with starting DT Tony Brown.

Also inactive for Tennessee are CB Reynaldo Hill, RB Chris Henry, T Mike Otto and DE William Hayes.  Chris Simms is the third inactive quarterback.

Replacing Gage and McCareins in the starting lineup will be Lavelle Hawkins and Brandon Jones.  At DT, Jason Jones will replace Tony Brown. 

Hawkins and Jason Jones are rookies.  Brandon Jones is a fourth-year player out of Oklahoma.

TE Tony Gonzalez’s career receivng yardage record for tight ends is scheduled to be honored at the first timeout, with a video presentation inside the stadium and presentation of the record football to officials of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who are on hand for the ceremony.  Whether or not Gonzalez takes part in the ball presentation remains unknown.

The newest Chiefs player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame will receive his Hall of Fame ring in pre-game ceremonies.  Emmitt Thomas will receive his ring from Hall of Fame executive director Steve Perry on the field.

At half-time, those Chiefs alumni in attendence will be honored and the newest member of the Chiefs Hall of Fame will be introduced to the stadium, DT Curley Culp.

Sunday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

The Chiefs will have the opportunity to remember their storied defensive history on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. It’s Alumni Day and the team will honor two of its greatest defenders: newest Pro Football Hall of Famer Emmitt Thomas (right) and newest Chiefs Hall of Famer Curley Culp (left.)

The duo was honored Saturday evening at the Chiefs annual Alumni Dinner at Arrowhead.  Nearly 50 former Chiefs took part in that affair.  More will be on the field today, as Thomas will receive his Hall of Fame ring from Canton officials. Every Hall of Famer decides where he wants to be honored with the ring ceremony and Thomas selected Arrowhead. His Atlanta Falcons are on the bye week this Sunday.

That timed up perfectly with an already decided Alumni Week, an annual celebration of Chiefs history. Culp becomes No. 38 in the Chiefs Hall and the eighth starter from the great defense that the Chiefs fielded in the late 1960s. Because the team won only one Super Bowl title in that time, those Chiefs are often forgotten in the discussion of great defenses.

They shouldn’t be. They are just one of four defenses in pro football history that now have a Hall of Famer at every position group: defensive line, linebacker and secondary. …Read More!

Keys To Beating Titans

Yes, on paper it doesn’t appear that Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead will be an enjoyable experience for the Chiefs against the Titans. KC is 1-4. Tennessee is 5-0, the only unbeaten club left in the NFL. The Chiefs have one of the NFL’s worst passing offenses, while fielding the worst run defense. The Titans have one of the best defenses in the league, and they have an offense that produces running yardage.

But the Chiefs can win; it’s the NFL remember, and anything is possible. Here’s what they must do to make that happen.

Saturday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

They are the only remaining unbeaten team in the National Football League. They are 5-0 for the first time in franchise history as LB Keith Bulluck is signaling below.

Yet, just two years ago, they were 0-5 at this point in the schedule.

That’s how quickly things can turn around in the NFL, and why those initials are often translated as Not For Long.

Since that horrendous start, the Titans are 23-10.

So what was the difference between Tennessee going 0-5, and then 8-3 the rest of that season, 10-7 and in the playoffs last year and now 5-0?

Let’s take a look. Was it because they added a big name quarterback? Not really, although they did add as their No. 1 draft choice in ’06 Heisman Trophy winner Vince Young. But to call him the catalyst for the turnaround would be a stretch and he’s not been any major part of this year’s 5-0 start. Young started 28 of those 33 games, and had 22 TD passes against 33 interceptions. He also scored 10 rushing TDs. Right now, it’s the soon to be 36-year old Kerry Collins who is leading the way. …Read More!

Honoring Tony Whether He Liked It Or Not

From Arrowhead Stadium

On Wednesday, after he wasn’t traded by the Chiefs, Tony Gonzalez hoped that planned ceremonies to honor his record receiving yardage for a tight end would be postponed.

And, as Gonzalez said at the time, “Hey, they don’t listen to me, obviously.”

Well they didn’t. The Chiefs honored Gonzalez, but not with the plans they had before last week’s controversy. The original idea was in pre-game introductions was to announce Gonzalez by himself, have him run on the field carrying the record setting football and have him hand the ball to officials from the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Instead, during the first TV timeout, the Chiefs showed a one-minute video of Gonzalez’s record setting plays for catches, TDs and yards. Then, the camera cut to Pro Football Hall of Fame president Steve Perry holding the football on the sidelines.

Gonzalez did not take part in the ceremony, as he was in an offensive huddle on the sidelines. He did however, acknowledge the crowd which gave him a loud ovation and chanted “Tony, Tony, Tony.”

PLAYING IN THE BAND

After he scored on a 66-yard run, rookie Chris Johnson made a stop with the Pack Band behind the end zone and played on the bongo drums for a moment. It’s surely a clip that will get replayed many times in the coming days.

It will also likely cost Johnson some money in an NFL fine. It certainly cost him a tongue lashing by his head coach.

“I told him regardless of the score I n the game, you just can’t do that type of thing because then we end up kicking off from the 15-yard line and end up giving up points,” said Fisher. “He’s excited and celebrating and all that kind of stuff. I think he used (poor) judgment and realized that and if he didn’t then he realizes now that he can’t do that under any circumstances.”

Said Johnson, the Titans first-round draft choice out of East Carolina: “I thought about it before the game. I was just out there trying to have some fun. Coach Fisher told me I can’t be doing those things.”

With the kickoff moved back because of that 15-yard penalty, the Chiefs were able to begin their last possession at their own 46-yard line. Five plays later, Tyler Thigpen scored Kansas City’s only TD.

TITANS DO IT SHORT-HANDED

When you are the last unbeaten team left in the NFL, it’s generally because you have a lot of talent. The Titans do.

They were without four starters on Sunday and did not miss a beat. Out were starting WRs Justin Gage and Justin McCariens, as well as starting DT Tony Brown. Starting DE Kyle Vanden Bosch was active, but played very little as he’s recovering from an injury.

“He (Vanden Bosch) really wasn’t ready to go, but he was close,” said Fisher. “The plan after warming him up was see if we could get him 25 to 30 plays. But he was nervous about having a setback, so it was best to just have him sit and continue to rehab this week.”

OFFICIALS BUSIER THAN NORMAL

Gene Steratore’s crew came into the game as the league officiating crew with the fewest penalties, averaging just nine per game.

Well, that number jumped to 16 for this game, as each team was hit with eight flags.

That was easily the most penalties in a game this season for the Chiefs, whose previous high was five flags.

Nailed by Steratore’s crew were S DaJuan Morgan for an illegal block above the waist on a kick return, RT Damion McIntosh for a false start, delay of game on the Chiefs offense, CB Dimitri Patterson for holding on a punt return, T Herb Taylor for a pair of false starts, LB Erik Walden for illegal use of hands on punt coverage and LB Rocky Boiman for unnecessary roughness on a kickoff.

One noticeable note on the penalties: four were on offense, four were on special teams. No penalties were called on the defense.

TO CHALLENGE OR NOT TO CHALLENGE

When Nick Novak’s 39-yard FG try was called wide left by the officials, holder Dustin Colquitt took immediate offense. Once the replay was shown inside Arrowhead Stadium, everyone understood why. The ball looked like it went right over the left upright.

Herm Edwards considered challenging the call and during a TV timeout had a discussion with Steratore about the subject. He was told he could challenge, but he would lose, so Edwards did not call for an extra look.

BOWE RISING ON CHARTS

WR Dwayne Bowe caught seven passes for 86 yards, one of his best games so far this season. He became the fourth player in team history to have 100 catches or more in his first two seasons with the team. He now has 104 in 22 games. Ahead of him are WR Derrick Alexander with 108 (1998-99), WR Andre Rison with 112 (1997-98) and RB Priest Holmes with 132 (2001-02).

As for receiving yardage, his total of 1,405 in 22 games ranks fifth for receiving yardage in the first two seasons. Alexander has the most yardage with 1,824 yards in ’98-99.

OTHER NOTES

The Chiefs spelled McIntosh at right tackle several times during the game with Taylor, something they planned to do going into the game and will continue to do. It’s pretty apparent that McIntosh is on his way out.

Chiefs also continued with the trend of having rookie TE Brad Cottam on the field more often by himself, and giving Gonzalez a rest.

Dantrell Savage ripped off a 59-yard kickoff return, the longest by the Chiefs in 27 games, dating back to the end of the 2006 season when Dante Hall ran back a kick 60 yards against Denver.

MLB Pat Thomas led Chiefs tacklers in the post-game stats with nine tackles. FS Jarrad Page had seven tackles and LB Derrick Johnson was credited with six stops.

The Chiefs announced paid attendance of 74,200, but there were not that many in the stands. A guess would be somewhere between 60,000 and 65,000.

Defense Sets Ugly Record In Defeat

From Arrowhead Stadium

On Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, Chiefs defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham moved from the coaching booth to the sidelines.

The idea was to have the chance to talk directly to his players and make adjustments in a faster, more concise manner.

Gun may consider going back to the press box level after what happened against the Titans.

The Chiefs defense cemented its status as the worst run unit in the league by giving up 332 rushing yards in losing to Tennessee.

Some would say that 146 of those yards came on two long touchdown runs in the fourth quarter with the game already decided. That still doesn’t explain the other 186 yards.

Those 332 yards were a franchise record total for the Titans, topping the 296 yards that the Houston Oilers gained against the Chiefs on November 27, 1977 at the Astrodome.

It was also a franchise record for the Chiefs, as in most rushing yards ever allowed in a single game. The performance broke the previous record of 330 yards gained by the Pittsburgh Steelers on November 7, 1976.

Consider those Chiefs defenses, of 1976 and 1977. In the history of the franchise, they are among the worst defensive units ever fielded. …Read More!

Player Profile: Rudy Niswanger

He is the pivot of the Chiefs offense, the guy who starts every offensive play.

Rudy Niswanger will make his seventh NFL start this Sunday taking on the Tennessee Titans. He’s still getting his feet wet in the battles along the pro football trenches.

But he has a great pedigree, winning a state championship in high school and winning a national championship while playing at Louisiana State.

He’s also pretty brainy, graduating from LSU with a 4.0 GPA and a host of post-graduate scholarships so he can continue his future education.

There’s plenty more to him that that. To learn more, click here.

Sad End To Croyle’s Season

From Arrowhead Stadium

It was without a doubt, the saddest sight of a very sad day of football for the Chiefs.

Just outside the team’s locker room are double-doors that lead down the tunnel at the 50-yard line and out to the field. Just before half-time, those double doors opened and Brodie Croyle limped through with a doctor and a trainer at his side.

Tears were streaming down his face.

That’s when he saw his wife Kelli waiting for him. Together they embraced and he sobbed on her shoulder for several minutes.

All the hard work, all the rehabbing, all the blood, sweat and tears that have been so much a part of Croyle’s life for the last year ended in an athlete’s greatest disappointment on Sunday. Damage suffered to the medial-collateral ligament (MCL) in his left knee is so severe that his season is finished. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/17

From the Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs worked inside for one hour this morning in their final preparation for Sunday’s game against Tennessee.

All players took part in the workout, although Herm Edwards said CB Patrick Surtain was limited because of his sore right shoulder.  He will be available to play against the Titans.

Edwards also acknowledged after practice that Chiefs fans will get their first peek at WR Mark Bradley in a Chiefs uniform.  He was added to the active roster in the week before the Carolina game and was not active that weekend.

“He’s shown the ability in practice to make some big plays,” Edwards said of Bradley, who is wearing No. 83. “He has some explosion.”

In 32 games over three seasons with the Bears, Bradley caugth 38 passes for 583 yards and four TDs.

NFL Zebra Watch Week #6

This Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs and Titans will go head to head and the officiating crew that will handle the game is one of the league’s best.

At this point in the season, Gene Steratore and his crew have averaged the fewest accepted penalties of any of the league’s 17 officiating crews. Steratore and his group average nine flags per game.

That’s nearly half of the most active crew in the league at this point. Jeff Triplette’s group has seen an average of 17.4 penalties per game walked off.

Again, that’s a huge difference in officiating consistency. The most flags Steratore’s crew has marked off in six games was 13. Triplette’s crew has had games with 19, 21 and 22 penalties accepted. There fewest in five games was 11 penalties.

Steratore’s crew does not tend to overthrow their flags in any one area. Their favorite penalty is illegal contact on the defense. They call more pass interference calls against the offense than the defense. …Read More!

Friday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

It’s a punishment, not a suspension. It’s a chance to play taken away, not a paycheck gone.

So why did Herm Edwards decide to discipline Larry Johnson with a punishment and no chance to play this week against Tennessee, rather than a suspension and taking his weekly game check?

It’s a dilemma that all coaches and managers face in today’s world of professional sports. The money for players has become so big and so plentiful that fines frequently have no effect at all on changing behavior. The higher up the pay scale, the less effect a fine has on a player.

When it comes to the pay scale, none around Arrowhead Stadium comes close to matching L.J.’s overall deal: $45 million with $19 million guaranteed through 2012. It was the biggest contract in Chiefs history when he signed back in August of 2007.

But there’s one thing all athletes want and that’s the chance to play. They are performers. They don’t work hard all year, stay in condition, lift weights and run sprints and miles to do only that. It’s all done so they can play, so they can be in the spotlight. Practice is something to put up with, as are all the other rules and regulations. It’s done to get to the games and the chance to perform in front of a stadium full of people and millions more watching on television.

Nobody loves the spotlight more than Johnson. He likes it in New York, he likes it in Miami Beach, he likes it in Las Vegas and he likes it in Kansas City. …Read More!

Saying Goodbye to the Creator of the Vegas Sportsbook

If you’ve ever gone to Las Vegas and dropped a couple dollars in one of the casino sports books out there, then you should know about Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal.

He’s the man who brought sports betting to the Vegas casinos in the 1970s. He was also the man who Robert DeNiro patterned his role as Sam “Ace” Rothstein in the movie Casino, one of the top 10 best “guy” movies of all time.

Lefty passed away this week at his home in Miami Beach. He was 79 years old.

Casino  was about Vegas and the influence of the mob on what was going on as the city grew as a gambling destination through the 1960s and 1970s. Where the great Godfather  and Godfather II  movies of Francis Ford Coppola set up the early history of the mob in Vegas, Casino showed us the next step. And, a lot of that was tied directly to Kansas City, where the mob was run by the Civella family and later Carl “Tuffy” DeLuna.

The central character in Casino was Rothstein/ Rosenthal. So much of what happens in the movie to DeNiro’s Rothstein happened in real life to Rosenthal: running a casino, even though he could not governmental clearance because of previous legal difficulties, hosting his own Vegas TV show, marrying a Vegas showgirl who he divorced after she had an affair with Rosenthal’s boyhood friend from Chicago, surviving a car bomb and going on to run a sports betting website. He lived for 26 years after that car bomb went off in October 1982. Authorities say that because he had not yet closed the door of the car before he started it, the explosion blew him away from the vehicle and the resulting inferno that would have killed him. …Read More!

Fisher Speaks on Chiefs

Thought you would be interested in hearing comments from Tennessee head coach Jeff Fisher on the Chiefs.

It’s an interesting perspective from a guy who has gone through the same situation the Chiefs are living in right now.

…Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/16: L.J. Is Out For Sunday

From the Truman Sports Complex

This week, the Chiefs have the highest paid scout team running back in the NFL.

After Thursday’s practice, Herm Edwards announced that Larry Johnson will not play this Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.  He will be one of the seven players who will be deactivated on game day.

This action is not a suspension.  But it is a punishment.  It has nothing to do with what became public this week about an off-field incident that happened back in February.

It has everything to do with Johnson being late for meetings and other team sessions and not following through on the duties that all Chiefs players must handle on a daily and weekly basis.

It is a one-game punishment.

“He broke some team rules,” said Edwards. “The consequences are that he won’t play this weekend period.

“I had a good talk with Larry on Wednesday.  He knows exactly where I’m coming from.  He’s practicing his tail off, being a pro.  He’s on the practice squad, running practice plays, doing everything he can do to help us on defense. He understands that I have to make decisions that reflect my ability to lead this football team.”

Kolby Smith will be in the starting lineup and he’ll split the running back duties with rookie Jamaal Charles.

Johnson’s absence will be nothing new to starting QB Brodie Croyle.  Johnson missed Croyle’s first six NFL starts last season and has been on the field with him only in this season’s opener at New England. …Read More!

Clark Hunt Speaks on Carl & Herm

The boys at the local fish wrap got Clark Hunt to sit down for an interview at the league meetings in St. Petersburg, Florida this week.

If you are one of those fire everybody fans who wants heads to roll because the Chiefs are 1-4 with their young team, it appears you are going to be sadly disappointed.

When asked if Carl Peterson was doing a good job, Hunt said:
“I think he is … the scouting side working in hand with the coaching side that really starts with Carl. He’s done a good job of overseeing that.”

When asked if Herm Edwards was doing a good job, Hunt said:
“I think he is. Certainly competing in the NFL with as many rookies as we have on our team and as many rookies as we have in our starting lineup is difficult. But Herm is doing the right thing. He’s giving those players experience. I’m sure to some degree some of those decisions are very tough. But he knows where he wants to go and what he needs to do to get there.”

Will Edwards be coaching the Chiefs next year?
“We haven’t made those decisions. Something that’s true for all our personnel is we will evaluate that thoroughly at the end of the year. I don’t feel that doing it in the middle of the year serves any purpose.”

Have you made a decision on Peterson’s future?“I haven’t. I would give you the same answer with him that I gave you with Herm.”

Peterson’s contract has one year left; have there been discussion beyond that?
“When we re-signed Carl three years ago, he mentioned to me at the time that he planned to retire at the end of his contract. He and I have not had a specific discussion on that point, but I don’t have any reason to believe his desires have changed.”

On the situation with Tony Gonzalez and a possible trade: “I don’t think there’s any other player on the team we would have been willing to do this for. But Tony’s been such a big part of the Chiefs, such a terrific pro, that we felt the right thing to do was to see what kind of interest there was out there in him and see if there was a transaction that made sense for Tony and also made sense for the Chiefs. At the end of the day, there wasn’t.”

Thursday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

When Jeff Fisher was named head coach of the Houston Oilers on November 14, 1994, the National Football League was a very different place.

On 11-14-94, the Raiders were in Los Angeles. So were the Rams. There were no Ravens, Texans, Jaguars and Panthers. The Browns were still the first Cleveland Browns.

Bill Belichick was an NFL head coach … in Cleveland. He was fired the next year. Wade Phillips was an NFL head coach … at Denver, the first of four teams he would lead. Norv Tuner was an NFL head coach … in Washington, the first of three teams he would lead. Mike Holmgren was the head coach in Green Bay, where he would eventually win a Super Bowl title.

And the head coach of the New York Jets was a guy named Pete Carroll, who would go on to greater fame in the world of college football.

Right now, Fisher has the longest coaching tenure in the NFL. Sunday’s game against the Chiefs will be No. 230 regular and post-season for him in leading the Oilers/Titans. The only current head coach that comes even close is Denver’s Mike Shanahan, who took over the Broncos in the 2005 season.

Here is how mind boggling Fisher’s tenure is as an NFL head coach. Counting the men who were head coaches at the time he was named to replace Jack Pardee with six games remaining in the ’94 season, there have been 136 men who have held the title: NFL head coach. …Read More!

Getting to Know … Rudy Niswanger

Name: Rudolph Nelson Niswanger.

Born: November 9, 1982 in Monroe, Louisiana. Located in northeast Louisiana Monroe and its twin sister West Monroe are separated by the Ouachita River, pronounced wash-eh-taw. That’s an Indiana name for good hunting grounds. The first name for the city was given to it by the French: Poste du Ouachita Parish. There are approximately 170,000 people in Ouachita Parish. Monroe was the birthplace for Delta Airlines, which was headquartered there from 1926 to 1941. There have been a host of pro football players who have come from Monroe, including Bubby Brister, Billy Joe Dupree, Stan Humphries, current Minnesota DT Pat Williams and Chiefs Hall of Famer Johnny Robinson. It was also the birthplace of basketball great Bill Russsell.

Family: Parents are Joe and Dee. Joe runs a truck parts business and some logging and regular dump trucks. Dee is a retired school teacher, who taught French and England for over 20 years. He has an older sister Jody and older brother Fritz. His family now includes his wife Patricia and daughter Emory.

Where does Rudolph Nelson come from? “Niswanger is a German name and my Dad when he and my Mom were having my brother and me and they were naming us, he wanted to go with German heritage names. So my brother is Fritz and Rudolph for me. It could have been worse, knowing some of the German names out there.

Attended: Ouachita Christian High School and Louisiana State University, class of 2006. He graduated with a degree in Kinesiology and a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Why LSU? “Growing up in Louisiana, there’s really only one place to go. I went on visits to Florida State and Texas A&M. But when I came down to it, I was born in Louisiana, I was raised there, I had pride in that state. I felt like that was where my heart was. I even tell that to recruits now coming out of high school: go to your in-state school. There’s so much more pride when you are playing for them, when it’s your team. It’s not just a team you are part of for a few years. It’s part of a team that you grew up loving. When you go back home, there’s nothing like having played for your state school.”

You were recruited by the infamous Nick Saban and his coaching staff to go to LSU. Tell us about Nick Saban and your impression of him: “He is a businessman 100 percent. He is there to win. He is there to be the most out of players. He is not there to coddle you. He’s not your best friend, he’s not your daddy. He’s your coach. It’s a work attitude. When he came into LSU, he made it about discipline. When he got there he saw there were little things that weren’t right, like when players went through the Friday walkthrough with shoes untied and their shirt wasn’t tucked in. They were little tiny things, but that whole attitude of not doing things correctly, carries over into people’s personal lives. He tries to create the atmosphere that every little thing you do it right, because that’s the way you are supposed to do it. Not because somebody is watching you and not because you are going to get something for it, you do it right because that’s the way it’s supposed to be done. That’s the way he is.”

Favorite meal: “I’m a steak and potatoes guy. And, because I can’t get it up here like back home, some great boiled crawfish.”

Favorite movie: “Shawshank Redemption. Whenever it’s on TV, I sit down to watch a few minutes of it and before you know it, I’ve watched the whole movie. It’s like Dancing with Wolves or Braveheart. It’s one of those movies that draws you in and keeps your attention.”

First Job: “I worked summers for my Dad’s companies, but my first real job came at LSU a summer job before my first year where I worked in this warehouse for Industrial Specialist Contractors. We went around and picked up trash, we swept up the warehouse, we dusted off shelves. That summer there was a flood and this company had an accountant and his house got flooded and we had to go out and pull up his carpet. Sometimes we were laying down in two, three-feet of water, disgusting mildew water and stuff. They obviously give the freshmen the worst jobs. It wasn’t like you clocked in and left. You had to work.”

What’s your ride? A 2001 GMC Sierra.

What was your first car? “A 1982 baby blue Cadillac. It was my grandmother’s car that she gave to my mom. When I was 15, that’s what I drove; I learned to drive in that car. I drove that for a few years before I got a used truck that my Dad got for me.”

How did you meet your wife? “We actually met in junior high. We went to high school and college together. We started dating my senior year in high school. I knew I wanted to marry her from the time I saw her; that was it.”

What’s the best thing about being a Dad? “Just coming home and you walk in and whether she’s playing or no matter what she’s doing, I say hello to her, and just how her face lights up. When I flew home from Carolina, she didn’t know we lost, nor would she have cared if she did know. She was just happy to see me. There’s nothing better than that.”

What was the hardest class you had in college? “The second physics class I took at LSU. I took the first test and I got 55 out of 100 on it. I figured I’m going to bomb this class. I kept studying and kept going and ended up pulling out an A. It was all this theoretical stuff with magnetism and electricity; it wasn’t up my alley.

Who is your hero? “My mom raised us as a single parent early on. The things she went through, the sacrifices to keep us in food and clothes. She raised three kids on a teacher’s salary. I still don’t know how she did that.”

What’s on your I-Pod? “Well, Damon (Huard) just loaded like 48 gigs of music on my I-Pod and on Brodie’s (Croyle), so I’ve got a lot of new stuff on there. But I’ve got different things. I’ve got my slow mix for coming home after games, just very chill calm music; some stuff is just instrumental, very slow. Then I’ve got a pre-game mix for going to the game, something totally different.

If you are on a road trip driving back to Monroe, what do you have to have with you? “If it’s me by myself, I have to have my I-Pod and a really good cigar; a Churchill cut, something like a Cohiba, Romeo & Julieta, maybe a Montecristo No. 2. If I’m with my wife, then it’s just the I-Pod.

What’s your bucket list? “My wife and I want to travel around Europe, six weeks, two months or so and travel all over. Before that, it’s win a Super Bowl. I won a state championship in high school, a national championship in college and there’s one more level. I want to win a Super Bowl here with the Chiefs.

Chiefs Update 10/15

From the Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs worked inside for just over two hours on Wednesday, beginning the full scale preparation for this Sunday’s visit by the Tennessee Titans to Arrowhead Stadium.

With the exception of WR Jeff Webb, everyone on the 53-man active roster and nine-man practice squad took part in the workout.  Webb became a father early Wednesday morning and the head coach excused him for the rest of the day.

Working at his left tackle spot was Branden Albert, who took just about every snap with the first team offense. …Read More!

Tony G. Speaks About No-Trade

From the Truman Sports Complex

Tony Gonzalez was back in familiar surroundings on Wednesday, practicing with the Chiefs in their indoor facility and then holding court for the media horde after practice.

Gonzalez spoke to his teammates at their morning meeting, with no coaches in the room at his request. 

“I told them the situation, how it occurred what my thought process was behind everything, why I wanted to go and how I thought maybe it could help the team,” Gonzalez said of what he told his teammates.  “But now it’s over.  So, it’s done with.  I’m a Chief now for these next 11 games.  I’m concentrating on going out there and trying to be the best player that I can be and help this team win. 

“I wanted to make sure; I think most of them know me, the guys that have been around for awhile know what I’m all about.  But I wanted to make sure those young guys know that this is about winning football games, about being the best football player you can be.  No matter what the situation is, whether you are frustrated or you are extremely happy, you have to go out there and bust your tail every day and try to get better and help this team win.”

He also had plenty to say on various subjects: …Read More!

Chiefs Add A Rocky

From the Truman Sports Complex

With a roster spot open due to the release of LB Napoleon Harris the Chiefs signed another veteran linebacker Rocky Boiman.

“He’s just such a dedicated guy,” Boiman said of Cunningham in this year’s Eagles media guide.  “The way he approaches the game and how he incorporates everything. It has a big effect on me and I owe him a lot.”

He will likely have an effect first on special teams, where he has 91 career tackles in the kicking game.

Boiman spent four seasons with the Titans (2002-05) and then signed as a free agent with Indianapolis where he was part of the Colts championship team in 2006. He also played in Indy last season.

In six seasons, he’s played in 86 games with 19 starts. He’s taken part in 194 total tackles with 1.5 sacks, five interceptions, including one that he returned 60 yards for a touchdown against Pittsburgh in 2003.

A native of Cincinnati, Boiman played his college football at Notre Dame.

He was on the field Wednesday when the Chiefs held their first practice in preparation for the Tennessee Titans.

Tony G. Aftershocks

As could be expected, there’s been plenty of fallout from the Chiefs decision to not deal Tony Gonzalez before the NFL’s trading deadline on Tuesday.

Here are words from Gonzalez himself to Fox Sports Jay Glazer.

In Philadelphia, the Eagles didn’t get Gonzalez or Roy Williams, who went to a division rival in Dallas.

Here’s a story out of Milwaukee that says the Green Bay Packers wouldn’t offer the second-round pick that Carl Peterson was looking for in a deal for Gonzalez.

Up in Buffalo, they don’t understand why the Bills weren’t more active in trying to land a weapon for their offense.

With the Giants, the decision to not trade for Gonzalez was not a surprise, given the way the team has operated in recent years.

Herm Speaks: Vol. 5

It was an unusual Tuesday for Herm Edwards weekly meeting with the media scum. The looming trade deadline and the possibility of a deal involving Tony Gonzalez had the coach pushing back the start of his press conference. Then, the conference started with no news, as Gonzalez wasn’t traded so there was little to speak of on that situation.

But of course that’s the only angle the media horde wanted to address. There was little or no discussion on Brodie Croyle returning to the starting lineup.

Here are some of the highlights, with again my comments, translation and analysis.

ON WHAT HE EXPECTS FROM GONZALEZ:

“He’ll be like he always is. He’s a professional football player. He’s a pro. One thing about Tony, he will prepare himself this week to play well. That’s what we expect out of him.”

Comment: That was Herm talking about what he hopes happens with Gonzalez. What he does not need is another pout session like what happened after the Denver game when Gonzalez did not get his record. He needs his veteran tight end to show his young players how to deal with adversity, a concept they are struggling to learn. …Read More!

Wednesday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

The NFL trading deadline came and went and when the smoke cleared, two players were traded but the biggest name out there was not.

There’s been plenty written and said already about the Chiefs failure to deal TE Tony Gonzalez. Here’s one more tidbit on some of the offers the Chiefs received for Gonzalez: several teams were interested only if changes could be made to his contract, and only if Gonzalez would agree to play more than one season with his new club.

Even at that, what they were offering did not rise to the level of what the Chiefs were asking.

Which I know confuses some fans because they see what Detroit got for WR Roy Williams (left) in a deal with Dallas. The Lions will receive the Cowboys first, third and sixth-round draft choices in 2009. Detroit also sent its seventh-round pick next year to Dallas.

Why couldn’t the Chiefs get that for Gonzalez, who while older is certainly better than Williams has been in five seasons in the league?

They might have, if Jerry Jones was looking for a tight end. But the Cowboys owner wasn’t trolling for a tight receiver because he has one of the league’s best in Jason Witten. But it brings up the most important factor in any trade, no matter the business: deals get done when both parties are highly motivated and interested in getting something done.

Why did Jones want Williams so badly that he would gut his ’09 Draft? Because the Cowboys owner is putting all his eggs into this year’s basket; he’s building that huge new stadium out in Arlington and he’s got a lot of his own money tied up in the deal. To make it work, he has to sell luxury suites, club seats and assorted other premium seating. He needs to do that now, before the place opens. …Read More!

Chiefs Waive Napoleon Harris

Lost amidst the chatter on the Tony Gonzalez no-trade situation on Tuesday was a roster move that the Chiefs did make.

They released veteran LB Napoleon Harris.

Last season, Harris was the team’s starting middle linebacker, playing 16 games and starting 13 times.  He led the defense in tackles with 123, and also had 1.5 sacks one interception and one forced fumble.

He lost his starting job at middle linebacker back in the off-season program and then was hobbled by knee problems throughout the pre-season.  Harris played quite a bit in the final exhibition game against St. Louis, but figured to be a long shot to make the roster.  Coaches felt Harris showed last season that he was too slow and too stiff to play linebacker in the manner that Gunther Cunningham wants.

Still, the Chiefs kept him on the final 53-man list, but he did not dress for any of the five games this season.  The Chiefs attempted to trade him, but when that failed, he was released after the trading deadline passed.

Harris has already drawn attention from his old team, the Minnesota Vikings.  They’ve had some injury problems at linebacker and would like to bring him in for a physical and a look see.  Reportedly, one other team is interested in Harris.

Carl: It Was Never Close

Speaking from St. Petersburg, Florida where the NFL is holding its annual October meetings, Carl Peterson said Tuesday night that a deal for Tony Gonzalez was never close to happening.

“No, it was never close,” Peterson said.  “For a player of Tony’s stature I was willing to accommodate something I don’t normally do.  I went out to see if there were teams interested in him.  I did that and there were very few teams that were interested.

“Tony and his representative (Tom Condon) knew from the start that any deal had to make sense for the Kansas City Chiefs and no one came close.  No proposal compared to the value of Tony Gonzalez to the Kansas City Chiefs.”

Peterson said it all came down to three teams that he would not identify.  He would not comment on the proposals, but said none of them contained a first-day draft choice (rounds one through three) in compensation.

“I used as my measuring stick the fact that the New York Giants got a second and fifth round picks for Jeremy Shockey,” said Peterson.  “Although he is five years younger, in my opinion he’s not as good and never will be as good as Tony Gonzalez.  Had a team come to us with a second-round pick, then there would have been a reason to continue the conversation.  That never happened.

“As far as I’m concerned, if you trade Tony Gonzalez for a second-day draft pick, you really have demeaned one helluva football player.  I know where he’s at, I know he’s 32 years old.  His value to the Kansas City Chiefs exceeds anything that was offered.

“I listened to proposals that were not even close.”

Does Peterson have any concerns about Gonzalez and his return to the team after this disappointment?

“I saw some comments made by Brian Waters and I have to agree with them; I think Tony will be a professional and he’ll handle this the way he’s done everything else, by coming in and working hard,” Peterson said.  “I’m sure he’s not happy, but he understood the situation from the start.

“We were not going to just give Tony Gonzalez away.  He understood that wasn’t going to happen.”

Now The Ball Is In Tony’s Hands

For the second time in a month, Tony Gonzalez did not get what he wanted.

The first occasion was the failure of the Chiefs coaching staff to make allowances and get him the career receiving yardage record at Arrowhead Stadium in the final moments of a victory over Denver.   Tony G. had all his family members and friends in the stadium that day.  A big party was planned afterwards to celebrate the moment.

Gonzalez pouted after not getting the record, a pout that continued 24 hours later when he spoke publicly about it in the Chiefs locker room to the media.  He said then that he didn’t feel he was being selfish.

Now comes strike two against Tony G.  His desire to be traded away from the Chiefs so he would not have to suffer anymore the pains of rebuilding ended up in nothing.  The league’s trading deadline passed at 3 p.m. CDT and he remained on the Chiefs roster.

On Wednesday, he reports back to the Chiefs facility at the Truman Sports Complex, pulls on the No. 88 jersey and gets back to work.

Now, the most important question is how Tony will handle this matter with the teammates that he wanted to abandon?  Will he pout like he did after the Denver game? Or will he stand up and say in some similar refrain  ‘Hey, I took a shot. It didn’t work out.  I’m ready to go out and get a victory against Tennessee’? …Read More!

No Deal For Tony

From Arrowhead Stadium

The deadline for trading in the National Football League in the 2008 season passed Tuesday afternoon and Tony Gonzalez remains a member of the Kansas City Chiefs.

The veteran tight end requested over three weeks ago a trade to a contending team and Chiefs GM Carl Peterson tried to make that deal happen, with heavy negotiatons taking place in the last five days.  However, no team was willing to pay a reasonable price for the player who holds every career receiving record for tight ends in pro football history.

WE WILL HAVE MORE ON THE GONZALEZ SITUATION LATER THIS AFTERNOON

Tuesday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

The As The World Turns soap opera that is the Dallas Cowboys had quite a Sunday and Monday.

To put together just a light review of the script, the Cowboys came from behind and got a field goal against Arizona to send the game into overtime. Dallas won the toss, but they are without one of their important weapons, rookie RB Felix Jones, out with a hamstring pull. On the first play, Tony Romo got knocked down and fumbles. Romo recovered the ball, but two more offensive plays produced nothing and punter Mat McBriar came in to kick the ball away.

That’s when Arizona’s Sean Morey blocked the punt. It was recovered by former Chiefs LB Monte Beisel who tumbled into the end zone to become the first man to win an NFL game with a blocked punt returned for a TD.

So the Cowboys lost in heartbreaking fashion. And, body breaking fashion. They also lost their starting quarterback for four to five weeks as Romo broke the pinky on his right passing hand on that first play in overtime. They lost punter McBriar for what’s likely to be the rest of the season with a fractured right foot that came on the blocked punt. Jones is out for at least two weeks with his hamstring. Dallas was already hurting without CB Terence Newman and S Roy Williams, both missing multiple games with injuries.

And did I mention that Pacman Jones is waiting to hear if he’s going to be suspended by the NFL for his hotel bathroom altercation with his bodyguard.

Yes, things are going crazy in Jerry Jones’ world. Serenity now!

Oh and Monday was birthday No. 66 for Jerry. …Read More!

All Tony, All The Time

It’s time for our tight end talk segment here on KTG, that’s all Tony Gonzalez, all the time. This is your host AG and the phone lines are jammed so let’s go to our first caller. It’s Fred in Raytown. Go ahead Freddie.

Man AG, I don’t understand this. Have the Chiefs gone loco? Why are they trying to trade Tony Gonzalez? He’s the best player on the team. Has Carl Peterson completely flipped out?

Freddie my man, you haven’t been paying attention. The only reason the Chiefs are trying to trade Tony Gonzalez is because he asked them too. Not once, not twice, but several times. He does not want to go through the rebuilding project that the Chiefs are in right now. He wants out. They are just trying to make him happy.

Let’s go to Shannon from Lenexa for our next question.

AG, I understand Tony wants out, but would they let any player out if they walked into the office and said ‘Carl, trade me’?

Probably not Shannon; Tony’s situation is unique, at least on this team right now. Everybody thinks Carl Peterson is such a hard-ass, but here’s another case where he’s a softie for a guy he likes, and he likes Tony G. There are some teams and GMs that would have told Gonzo to take his request and said “don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.”

OK, here’s Johnny Mack out East, what’s your question?

I want to know what we can get and who are we going to get it from. Tell me what’s coming back to the Chiefs and I’ll tell you if it’s a good deal or not. What do you say to that?

Johnny, I don’t think the Chiefs are going to make this a fire sale with Gonzalez, meaning they’ll take whatever they can get for him in a trade. That sets a very bad precedent for future players, who can say ‘Hey you let Tony G out of here for a sixth rounder’ Plus, if the Chiefs don’t get a decent draft choice in return, they’ll get smacked twice by the public: once for trading Gonzalez and then for not getting enough for him.

One more question man. Surely somebody would give us a No. 1 pick for the best tight end in the history of the game. Come on, we shouldn’t take less.

…Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/13

From the Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs returned to work from their bye weekend off.

So did Tony Gonzalez.  When the team went through a short walk-thru and conditioning session Monday afternoon, Gonzalez was with the team.  As Brian Waters reported, when the offense went to line up for the first play, Gonzalez was at tight end.

“We were back to work, preparing for the Tennessee Titans,” said Waters.  “It was business as usual … nothing’s changed.”

Whether Gonzalez will be there the next time the Chiefs hit the practice field on Wednesday remains to be seen.  The Chiefs are trying to grant Gonzalez his wish to be traded away to a contending team.  If that’s going to happen, it must be done by 3 p.m. CDT on Tuesday.

“We haven’t had to deal with something like this in awhile, but if you are in the game long enough, it happens,” Waters said of the Gonzalez situation.

On whether there’s resentment inside the Chiefs locker room towards the tight end for wanting out, Waters said that’s not a problem.

“The one thing about this game is we are tough skinned people,” said Waters.  “We realize that Tony Gonzalez is a great football player, and regardless of whatever happens, if he’s still here, we are going to need him to win football games.  That’s just the way it is.

“All that resentment and things like that, I think that’s brought up by you guys (the media.)  Guys in the locker room have a mutual respect and we understand the business aspect.”

And what if no deal gets done and Gonzalez is forced to return on Wednesday?

“Then he’s got to come back to work and we’ve got to move on,” Waters said.

October League Meetings Begin in St. Pete

The NFL movers and shakers have gathered at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg, Florida for their annual October meeting.

On the agenda for this two-day meeting of owners and lead executives will be labor relations, especially discussion on the league’s relationship with the NFL Players Association in the post-Gene Upshaw Era.  Remember, the owners opted out of the current agreement with the players and it will end after the 2009 season.

Other discussion matters will be the restructuring of the NFL regular season-schedule, with the possible addition of another game or two.  The situation involving the ownership of the Pittsburgh Steelers by the Rooney family will be talked about as well.

Also on the early agenda for the meeting was a Chiefs proposal put forth back in the spring that would esetablish regulations on how much hair may came out of the back of a player’s helmet.  It was tabled at that time.

NFL Sunday Review #6

On a NFL Sunday when five games were decided on the last play, it was the return to prominence of the Indianapolis Colts offense that draws the spotlight.

The Colts dominated the Baltimore Ravens 31-3 with an offensive performance they haven’t displayed all season. The Ravens come into the game as the NFL’s top defense overall, against the run and against the pass. Baltimore opponents were averaging less than 200 yards per game.

It was Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison who were back in synch. The two-time NFL MVP was hitting receivers in stride, beating Baltimore double coverage and controlling the tempo of the game at the line of scrimmage. Manning finished 19 for 27 for 271 yards and three TD passes. Those numbers could have been better, but the Colts shut down the passing game late with the big lead.

It was the Colts first victory in their new Lucas Oil Stadium, having lost both pre-season games and the first two regular season games.

Baltimore was simply overwhelmed. Their offense went nowhere, producing just 49 yards in nearly 2 1/2 quarters, while the defense watched Manning beat them every possible way. He burned Chris McAlister for a 67-yard TD pass to Harrison on the Colts’ second series. Manning then threw a perfect strike to Wayne for a 22-yard TD in the back of the end zone on the next series to make it 14-0 and the rout was on.

“We’ve just been a little off and not been as sharp as we need to,” Colts head coach Tony Dungy said. “We saw more of that sharpness today. I think it’s good for the young guys to see how I think we can play.” …Read More!

Sunday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Are we in the final days of Tony Gonzalez’s time with the Chiefs?

It’s sure building to that conclusion. Attempts by the Chiefs to keep things under wraps have failed, as those types of attempts always do in these days of the 24-your news cycle. That Gonzalez is available and that they are talking to NFL teams is now very public information. You can bet there will be a new angle contributed on the Fox-TV pre-game show with their information man Jay Glazer. He’s good friends with Gonzalez and over the last few years the Chiefs have fed Glazer a number of scoops.

There is no question now that the Chiefs have been in contact with several teams about their unhappy tight end. Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Philadelphia and the New York Giants have been mentioned prominently. I’m told there’s at least one other team that’s in the mix. With the exception of the Bills, all of the teams involved are in the NFC. And, only one of the teams is on the Chiefs schedule over the final 11 games: Tampa Bay visits Arrowhead on November 2. Wouldn’t that make for an interesting afternoon!

Some media outlets are reporting that Gonzalez went to Carl Peterson and requested a trade last week in the days after the loss to Carolina.

The reality is that Gonzalez went to both Peterson and head coach Herm Edwards pleading for a trade after the team lost in Atlanta on September 21. He had subsequent meetings with Peterson in the last two weeks, again requesting a ticket out of the rebuilding of the Chiefs. …Read More!

Zebra Watch Week #5

Here’s a quick update on our weekly look at the NFL officials and their effect on the game. Here are the numbers from the fifth weekend of games.

Before we get to the details, check out this Peter King story on NFL Commish Roger Goodell giving his referees a peop talk this week.

The Commish might want to talk to his guys about inconsistency, because the differences in their crews is starting to really show themselves. Walt Coleman’s crew threw just six flags, with five accepted in the San Diego-Miami game. At the other end of the spectrum was Bill Carollo’s crew that threw 24 flags, with 21 walked off in the Tennessee-Baltimore game. That’s four times the number of flags.

Ed Hochuli and his crew were busy again, with 18 flags accepted. Same with Ron Winter’s group, that also had 18 penalties walked off. Those were both near their season averages, which rank among the busiest crews in the league. …Read More!

Saturday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

All the sudden the e-mail started backing up yesterday with word that the Chiefs had traded Tony Gonzalez.

The next e-mail said they had deal in the works and it would be done before Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline.

Then, the next one said they heard that Gonzalez was available in trade and the Chiefs were shopping him.

Somebody wrote and said they heard on the radio that the Chiefs wanted to trade Gonzalez as soon as possible.

Everybody had an angle, but it all was based on apparently one certain fact: the Chiefs were going to trade their record setting tight end.  The NFL trading deadline is this coming Tuesday. 

So let me throw my two cents in. I made some phone calls Friday night. The Chiefs folks are scattered around the country and they weren’t going to address the issue anyway. Others around the league provided few insights.

Are the Chiefs actively shopping Gonzalez, with actively meaning they are calling the 31 other NFL teams to generate a trade? Highly doubtful in this case.

Would the Chiefs trade Gonzalez?  Sure, if another team made a good enough offer. When a team is rebuilding and holding a handful of cards that say 1-4, they have to consider everything. Dealing your 32-year old tight end who says he’s only going to play one more season would make sense with the right return. But I can’t imagine them putting him on the market in a fire-sale situation. …Read More!

Player Profile: Dantrell Savage

He came to the Chiefs back in late April as part of what Herm Edwards likes to call the “Gong Show”, a mini-camp for rookies and unattached players, who were all trying to earn a contract with the Chiefs.

Dantrell Savage was part of that mini-camp, earned a contract and went to training camp. When the smoke cleared on the pre-season, Savage had a spot on the 53-man roster and it’s turned into more than that, as the 5-8 dynamo is now the team’s primary return man and he’s even getting some snaps with the offense now and then.

But just who is this young man that shocked everyone and earned a place in pro football. Click here to find out.

Best College Quarterbacks: Part 3

Some Chiefs fans have already decided the team needs to grab a quarterback in the 2009 NFL Draft.

If you are one of those fans, then you should know something about the potential selections. Over three days, we have looked at the top 25 quarterbacks that could be available in April ’09.

That’s could be available because this list includes not only the top senior quarterbacks, but junior quarterbacks who would all be eligible for selection. The juniors would have to declare for the draft. Plus, there are three sophomore quarterbacks thrown in as well.

The NFL draft rules say a player must be three years removed from high school graduation to be eligible to apply for early entrance into the annual selection meeting. Thus, any sophomore who took a redshirt season would be three years removed and thus eligible. It’s very rare for any sophomores to leave early, especially quarterbacks. But just to cover all the bases, we’ve added three of them to the mix.

We had our group of the first eight on Wednesday, our second group of eight on Thursday and today the final nine quarterbacks. They are listed in alphabetical order. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/10

From the Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs went through a 50-minute practice session Friday morning, closing out their bye week.

The only news coming from the workout was the return of LT Branden Albert to the starting offensive line.  Albert took most of the snaps with the first unit.  He’s wearing a huge brace on his right arm and it was the first full practice activity he’s had since suffering the injury on Sept. 28th in a game against Denver.

If he can come back and repeat that practice work on Wednesday when the Chiefs start getting ready for Tennessee, the chances are good he’ll be ready to play.

Herm Edwards has given the players Saturday and Sunday off.  They report back to work on Monday.

Friday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

So five weeks into the 2008 season, the Chiefs are 1-4, with an offense that ranks 29 out of 32 teams in the league in yards gained, and a defense that ranks 30^th in yards allowed.

That’s bad.

Football produces a lot of statistics. The NFL crunches all the numbers and produces rankings in more than 200 categories by the time they are done each week.

And after five games, the Chiefs are actually leading the league in one category: opponent fumbles recovered. They’ve grabbed eight, or one more than Arizona. No other teams have more than five and the league average is three per team.

The Chiefs are second in total takeaways with 11. Only Tennessee has more with 14. No other team has more than 10. They hold no other rankings that high.

On the flip side of the numbers, the Chiefs are last in the league in a handful of categories, most of them on offense. They are last in % of first down plays gaining four or more yards. That’s 27.6 percent; the league average if 44.9 percent. They are last in % of first down passing plays gaining four or more yards at 21.4 percent. The league average is 40.0 percent. They are last in average gain on first down, at 2.81 yards. The league average is 5.02 yards. …Read More!

Best College Quarterbacks: Part 2

Some Chiefs fans have already decided the team needs to grab a quarterback in the 2009 NFL Draft.

If you are one of those fans, then you should know something about the potential selections. Over three days, we’ll provide you with a look at the top 25 quarterbacks that could be available in April ’09.

That’s could be available because this list includes not only the top senior quarterbacks, but junior quarterbacks who would all be eligible for selection. The juniors would have to declare for the draft. Plus, there are three sophomore quarterbacks thrown in as well.

The NFL draft rules say a player must be three years removed from high school graduation to be eligible to apply for early entrance into the annual selection meeting. Thus, any sophomore who took a redshirt season would be three years removed and thus eligible. It’s very rare for any sophomores to leave early, especially quarterbacks. But just to cover all the bases, we’ve added three of them to the mix.

We had our group of the first eight on Wednesday. Here’s the second eight and on Friday we will finish up with the final nine. They are listed in alphabetical order.

JOSH FREEMAN/Kansas State        JR    6-6, 248                                   1/13/1988

Freeman’s story is well known around Kansas City, where he was one of the best schoolboy football prospects of the last decade. At Grandview High School he threw for 7,175 yards and 78 TD passes. Freeman narrowed his college choices to K-State, Kansas, Nebraska and Oregon, choosing the Wildcats. He became a starter as a freshman in ’06, opening the final eight games of K-State’s season. He’s got the size that NFL teams like and the arm strength. While he’s not a dual threat quarterback on the run, he has shown the ability to get himself out of trouble with his feet. Coming into this season, most scouts pegged him as a first-round talent for the 2010 Draft with continued improvement. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/9

From the Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs went through another 90-minute practice on Thursday morning, their second of three workouts during this bye week.

There was no change in the injury situation.  LT Branden Albert and LB Donnie Edwards did not practice.  Albert and his bum right elbow did some of the individual position drills.  Edwards and his sprained right ankle continue to rehab on an adjacent practice field.

QB Brodie Croyle came back after his first practice in over a month and showed no problems with his right shoulder due to the extra work load.  Croyle threw the ball with velocity and distance when necessary. 

“He’s just rusty with his timing and that’s what is good about the bye week; he’ll have another day tomorrow and then next week with three more  practices,” said head coach Herm Edwards. “He looks strong.  He makes solid throws and it’s just the timing with the receivers right now.”

What Edwards has stressed to his team this week is the need to develop some consistency, by falling back and refreshing some of the fundamentals of playing each position.

“We are not a consistent football team right now,” he said.  “We need to correct that.”

After a Friday morning practice, the players will have Saturday and Sunday off before reporting back to the facility on Monday for meetings and a short practice.

Foundation Update

The Chiefs 12 draft choices from the 2008 NFL Draft are the foundation of the franchise’s rebuilding effort. Ten of those 12 are on the active roster, joined by six other rookies.

The bye week seemed a good time to sit down with Herm Edwards and talk about his football babies.

-DT GLENN DORSEY (left) – Through five games, Dorsey has been credited with 19 tackles and one forced fumble. “He’s getting better each week,” said the coach. “He’s the most unselfish defensive lineman we have. He’s doing exactly what we are asking him to do. He’s beating up the guard and he’s taking on the double-team block so he doesn’t have the stats people look at. But he’s giving the linebackers the chance to go make plays. He has to improve on his pass rush, in using his hands. That takes time, especially when you are playing against the kind of guards he’s playing against.”

-LT BRANDEN ALBERT (below) – Over three games and one half, Albert has shown the Chiefs they were correct in moving him from guard, where he played most of his college career, to tackle. The only thing that’s held him back are injuries, a foot in the pre-season and now a dislocated right elbow which has cost him the last game and a half. “He’s doing very well,” Edwards said. “You draft a guy, you ask him to play left tackle, he misses the whole pre-season and then he comes in the first game and he plays every snap. And, it turns out he played those snaps really well. I’m not sure people realized how unusual that was. He continued to follow that up in the games after that.” When asked if he the Chiefs can consider the left tackle spot filled for the next decade, Edwards said: “I wouldn’t know why not. With his talent and his mentality, he’s going to be there a long time.”

-CB BRANDON FLOWERS (below) – In five games, Flowers has 26 tackles and a fumble recovery. “The game is not too big for him,” said Edwards. “He has great moxie and he’s tough. He’s learning how to play nickel back (the cornerback covering the slot receiver when the Chiefs go with five defensive backs.) It will take him a year. It took Ronde (Barber of Tampa Bay) about a year and five games to figure it out. I see Brandon on the same road.”

-RB JAMAAL CHARLES – So far in five games, Charles has run the ball 21 times for 98 yards and caught 12 passes for 68 yards. He’s also returned three kicks for 79 yards and has three tackles in special teams coverage. That’s not nearly the production the Chiefs envisioned for the fleet back out of Texas. “We don’t have enough plays,” said Edwards. “He’s been the guy that’s probably been hurt the most by that. If we can get eight or nine plays put together, then we can start using him and getting the ball in his hands, and let him go. I think the more he gets in there, the more he touches the ball, you know he can make a big play. If we can stay on the field, I think you will see more and more big plays from him.” …Read More!

Thursday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Quarterback changes are not something that’s happened only with the Chiefs in this 2008 season.

On Wednesday came public word that Tom Brady’s knee surgery was done this week and everything turned out OK for the Patriots quarterback. Details are here.

But New England is just the most visible spot where the QB position has been in flux. There are starters watching, backups playing, quarterbacks of the future are sitting. There are four quarterbacks this week that everybody will watch when injury reports are officially filed on Friday.

Beyond Brodie Croyle, here’s the changing QB landscape for this week.

Seattle – Starter Matt Hasselbeck (left) has been battling injuries all season.  Currently it’s his right knee. He did not practice on Wednesday.  Neither did backup Seneca Wallace, who has a calf injury. That left all the work to No. 3 guy Charlie Frye. …Read More!

Getting to Know … Dantrell Savage

Name: Dantrell Montanner Savage.

Born: February 15, 1985 in Columbus, Georgia. It’s located on the Chattahoochee River that separates Georgia and Alabama. Phenix City, Alabama is directly across the river. Columbus was the site of what may have been the last battle of the Civil War. It happened on Easter Sunday 1965 when Union forces attack the city and burned many of the industrial buildings. The battle came after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Columbus is the nearest town to the Fort Benning Military Reservation, home of the U.S. Army Infantry School. Famous folks from Columbus include John Stith Pemberton, the creator of Coca Cola, novelist Carson McCullers, guitarist Robert Cray, baseball player Frank Thomas and former NFL players like Otis Sistrunk, Brentson Buckner and Nate Odomes.

Family: The only son of Virgil Willis Dunlap and Monica Hubbard. He has two half-siblings, Arsenio and Lastanicha.

Attended: Jordan Vocational High School in Columbus, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston, Mississippi and Oklahoma State University.

Why did you end up at Oklahoma State? “My J.C. and the Oklahoma State coaches knew each other. They felt that was the best spot for me. I thought it would be great to be away from home to be in another culture.”

Were you surprised when you were not drafted? “I wasn’t surprised. It happened for a reason. I have always been about proving myself, so this situation is no different.”

When you look at your production, you ran for 1,000+ yards in high school, 1,000+ yards in junior college and 1,000+ yards in major college football. Why do people still doubt your ability? “It’s just human nature; people think you have to be a certain size to play football. They don’t realize that some of the best backs in history have been my size. Look at a guy like Darren Sproles and his production.

Going into the draft, you decided to stay in school, rather than leave and spend your time preparing for the NFL Combine. Why? “I was 18 credits short of graduation and I wanted to graduate. It was a very hectic time. I was training to get ready for workouts and the combine and I was taking Spanish, Math, History and the line. I was somewhat stressed out. I had to prove to myself that you could do anything.”

Where does Dantrell Montanner come from? Is that a family name? “It came from my Auntie and it’s just something she made up as far as I know. I’m not really sure how she came up with it.”

Who is your hero? “That would be my Mom, because she’s been such a strong woman. She worked three jobs when I was growing up to support the family. I stayed with my Grandmother because my mom was in and out all the time going back and forth to work.”

What’s your favorite meal? “I’m a down-home Southern boy and I like soul food. Give me some cornbread, collard greens and a turkey neck.”

What’s your favorite place in the world? “Home. There’s no place like home, isn’t that the saying. It’s true. When I’m away, I look forward to going back.”

If the TV is on what are you watching? “I like the oldies. I love to watch Good Times, Sanford and Son, and The Jeffersons. I love George Jefferson.”

What’s on your I-Pod? “A lot of gospel songs and some Kurt Franklin. Slow jams, R&B-type stuff.”

What do you drive? “It’s an orange 2004 Honda Element. That’s my sweetheart. It’s got 20 inch rims and a TV. My Dad hooked me up with it. I’ve had it since junior college. Right now I have about 80,000 miles on it.”

What was your first job? “I worked with my uncle doing construction work. It was the hardest job I ever had. You work in the sun, on scaffolds, in the Georgia summer. It was a good experience.”

What was the hardest class you had in college? “Spanish and Math. Oh yeah, my last math class really kicked me. If you get behind in math there’s no hope for you at all.”

Tell us something nobody knows about you? “Most people don’t know that I’m real fond of muscle cars. 396 Chevelles, old Camaros, Grand Nationals, cars like that. My Daddy put me on to those when I went down and stayed with him in Miami.”

Best College Quarterbacks: Part 1

OK, so you’ve already decided that the Chiefs need to select a quarterback in the 2009 NFL Draft.

If that’s the case, then you should know something about the potential selections at that position for next year. Over the next three days, we’ll provide you with a look at the top 25 quarterbacks that could be available in April ’09.

That’s could be available because this list includes the top senior and junior quarterbacks, who would all be eligible for the draft. The juniors would have to declare for the draft.

Plus, there are three sophomore quarterbacks thrown in as well. The NFL draft rules say a player must be three years removed from high school graduation to be eligible to apply for early entrance into the annual selection meeting. Thus, any sophomore who took a redshirt season would be three years removed and thus eligible. It’s very rare for any sophomores to leave early, especially quarterbacks. But just to cover all the bases, we’ve added three of them to the mix.

Today, we’ve got eight QBs. Thursday we will have eight more and then on Friday the final nine. They are listed in alphabetical order. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/8

From the Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs went through a 90-minute practice outdoors on a spectacular fall morning on Wednesday.

This time was spent on themselves, which is what the Chiefs will do in their three bye week practices.

“You try to specifically try to pick out things you need to improve on and that’s how are practices are put together,” Herm Edwards said.

The areas of improvement Edwads highlighted were on offense, stopping the three and outs, being more consistent with the running game and dialing up some big plays in the passing game.  On defense, he mentioned a need to improve third down defense and eliminate the big  plays.

Edwards said there were no personnel changes planned for this week or next. “The more they play the more they will gain some confidence,” Edwards said of his young roster.  “We are at the point now, after five games, they’ve got to feel like they know what it takes.  They need to continue to prepare.  That’s the whole thing now, teaching them how to prepare each week with a great focus.” 

The Chiefs will not begin working on preparation for the Tennessee Titans until next week, although the coaches will begin film study over the weekend.

LT Branden Albert did some individual stuff during the practice but will not work with the offense at all this week.  Edwards said they hoped to have him back next week, but only time and his right elbow will decided that.  LB Donnie Edwards was at practice but he continues to rehab his sprained right ankle and did not take part in workout.

As expected, Brodie Croyle took most of the snaps with the first team offense.

Hank’s Carolina Gallery

It may have been a bad afternoon for the Chiefs in Charlotte, but that seldom slows down photographer Hank Young when it comes to snapping some of the best football pictures in the country.

Here’s some from the Chiefs-Panthers game.

Remember, just click on the picture to enlarge.

Enjoy!

…Read More!

Wednesday Cup O’Chiefs

He’s got the next 12 weeks.

That’s the time frame available to Brodie Croyle to go boom or bust as the Chiefs starting quarterback.

It’s really not fair that it comes down to a short-time frame like that, because most young quarterbacks need more time than three months.

But that’s the reality of the situation with the Chiefs right now. Croyle must stay on the field for the bye week and the next 11 games and he must show that he has the ability to be the team’s quarterback of the future.

He’s shown flashes of that at times, but there’s never been any consistency. That’s common with young quarterbacks, but there’s only one way for them to play their way out of that stage, and that comes with playing.

That is what’s killing Croyle and chopping down his window to be the Chiefs long-term quarterback answer. He did start six games last year, but he missed a start and other playing time because of injury. He did start the opener this year, but he’s missed the last four games because of the shoulder injury he suffered against New England. That’s seven starts and five starts missed because of injury. …Read More!

Second Look: Carolina

Yes, it’s just as ugly the second time.

That coaches sit there and look through an entire game tape of a performance like the Chiefs had in Carolina has to be one of the worst aspects of the job.

I have an ample middle, but I didn’t have the guts to watch the entire game. Instead I zeroed in on the Chiefs offense in the first half. It was certainly one of the most inept performances by a single side of the football in many years for the Chiefs.

There were 18 situations: 16 official plays and two penalties. Those 18 situations led to just 13 yards. They lost 15 yards on two penalties and the 16 snaps produced 28 yards.

Here’s how it looked the second time:

1^st-and-10 at the Chiefs 18-yard line.The Chiefs came out with one-back (1), two tight ends (2) and two wide receivers (2). The tight ends lined up on the left side, the wide receivers to the right. QB Damon Huard came to the line and changed the play before the snap. This extra time in his stance apparently was more than RG Adrian Jones could handle and he flinched. Jones was flagged for a false start. Result: minus-5 yards.

…Read More!

Tuesday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Now that he has every receiving record for tight ends, what’s left for Tony Gonzalez as he further imprints his career in the NFL record books?

He got the final record on Sunday in Carolina with a six-yard catch in the first quarter (right). That gave him the career receiving yardage mark, surpassing Shannon Sharpe.

Gonzalez will never catch the player with the most receiving yards. That was the great Jerry Rice, who finished his 20-year career with 22,895 yards.

Gonzalez now has 10,075 yards. But he can continue to climb up the receiving charts in catches, yards and touchdowns. Here’s where he ranks among all receivers, not just tight ends:

-RECEPTIONS: Gonzalez now has 841 catches in his career, ranking him No. 13 in pro football history. Just ahead of him is Rod Smith with 849, Irving Fryar with 851 and in the No. 10 spot Jimmy Smith with 862 catches. Rice is the all-time leader with 1,549 receptions.

-RECEIVING YARDS: Now at 10,075 yards, Gonzalez ranks 29^th among all receivers. Just ahead of him are Andre Rison (10,205 yards), Lance Alworth (10,266) and the still active Mushin Muhammad (10,292.)

-TOUCHDOWN CATCHES: He has 68 TDs and that’s tied for No. 32 all-time with Raymond Berry. Just ahead are Hines Ward (still active) with 69, Gary Collins with 70 and Wesley Walker with 71. Rice has the record with 197 career TD catches. …Read More!

Leftovers from Carolina

Thoughts, reflections and opinions on the Chiefs as they begin the bye week:

FIRST DOWN IS KILLING THE CHIEFS

The biggest reason the Chiefs offense is having problems moving the ball and staying on the field is their poor production on first down.

Charting it through the first three quarters, the Chiefs had 14 first down snaps and produced 10 yards. That was eight runs for eight yards and six passing plays for a net two yards. Throw in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs had six more first downs. Five were passing plays and one was a Tyler Thigpen scramble. Those six plays produced six yards.

So combined, that’s 20 first down snaps for 16 yards.

That is almost impossible to overcome for any offense.

CHIEFS FANS STILL TRAVEL

It was quite a surprise to see how many Chiefs fans like the guy on the left were at Bank of America Stadium on Sunday. The Chiefs Red Coaters took a big group, but that was only a small part of the red that was everywhere. Between the first and second quarters, every section that I could see from the press box had at least a handful of people wearing red.

Of course, by the time the game was over all those fans were seeing red after that performance.

HUSTLE TO THE BALL

On Monday, I heard a lot of commentary from radio yakkers and e-mailers about the lack of effort they sensed from the Chiefs on Sunday in Charlotte.

That’s crap. There was plenty of effort. That’s what makes the whole thing so frustrating to the players and coaches. Their horrible performance didn’t come because they weren’t playing hard on Sunday.

…Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/6

From the Truman Sports Complex

Brodie Croyle says he’s been given the green light for full participation in practice and he expects to be taking snaps with the first offense on Wednesday when the Chiefs return to the practice field.

Croyle suffered a separated right shoulder in the season opener at New England and has been on the sidelines ever since.  He took part in practices last week, but did not take any of the snaps during the offensive or defensive work.

When asked if he was the starter for the next game, against Tennessee on October 19, Croyle said: “As far as I know. I’m healthy, I’m going to go.  I have to make sure in the next two weeks that everything keeps going the way it’s supposed to and (I) don’t have any setbacks.”

On their bye week, the Chiefs will continue to work and not get much in the way of vacation.  They will have their regular day off on Tuesday, but they are scheduled to practice on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  They’ll get the weekend off, but they’ll have to report back for work on Monday.

“We’ve got to get everything rolling, get everybody back on the same page,” Croyle said of the Chiefs.  “We are going to be here all week practicing.  It’s a good time to have it.  We’ve had our good moments, we’ve had our bad.  It’s time to build off the good moments and make it more consistent.”

NFL Sunday Review/Week #5

The fifth week of the NFL season is over and it’s now down to two unbeaten teams.

They are the defending champion New York Giants (4-0) and the Tennessee Titans (5-0).

The Giants hammered Seattle 44-6, and was the eighth straight victory for the Giants dating to last year’s playoffs. It gave the Super Bowl champions their best start since 1990, when they posted a 13-3 record and also won the NFL championship.

The Giants were led by QB Eli Manning and RB Brandon Jacobs (left), who made life miserable for the Seattle defense of Mike Holmgren

“Well, that was a good, old-fashioned, you know what,” Holmgren said after the 38-point defeat. “I believe we are a better football team than that, but the Giants really took it to us.”

The Titans have now won eight straight regular season games dating to last season and are 5-0 for the first time in franchise history. They were led in their come-from-behind victory by veteran QB Kerry Collins.

“I like how, with six minutes left, Kerry came in and commanded the game,” Tennessee linebacker Keith Bulluck said. “He showed his poise and his leadership qualities in that last drive when we scored. Being a 14-year vet, with all the things he’s done, I don’t care how much talent a young quarterback has, they don’t have that. They haven’t played enough games.”

Buffalo left the ranks of the unbeaten teams, falling to Arizona 41-17. …Read More!

Game Story: Meltdown Dooms Chiefs Against Panthers

From Charlotte, North Carolina

UPDATED
The Chiefs thought they were beyond something like what happened to them on Sunday at Bank of America Stadium.

Not that they had grand delusions that they were a great team, but after four games of the 2008 season and their performance last week in beating Denver, they seemed beyond an afternoon with multi-system failures.

Not so fast. An inept offense, a ravaged defense and no special teams help doomed the Chiefs as they were shutout by the Carolina Panthers 34-0.

“We were a confident team after last week’s game,” Herm Edwards said of the victory over Denver last Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. “Then we come in here and act like we’ve never played before. It wasn’t very good.  The coaching, the playing, anything.”

MORE STORY BELOW

——————————

CHIEFS/PANTHERS GAME COVERAGE

• COMMENTARY: How do you explain this?
• OFFENSE: Worst performance in 22 years
• DEFENSE: Anemic, tired group gets smashed
• ON THE CORNER: A different Sunday for rookie Brandon Carr.
• NOTES: No QB Controversy and Tony G’s record.
• CAROLINA look at the game.
• GAMEBOOK: with play-by-play and statistics.

——————————

It was the first time the Chiefs have not scored a point since the final game of the 2002 season in Oakland and it’s only the second time in the last 225 games that Kansas City has been shutout.  It’s also the worst shutout defeat suffered by the Chiefs in  24 years, since they lost 45-0 in Seattle during the 1984 season.  The Chiefs did lose 42-0 to Miami in 1987, but those were strike replacement teams.

Not only was the Kansas City offense unable to score any points, they could not move the football, managing just 28 total yards in the first half and 77 yards after three quarters and 127 total yards when the final gun sounded. That’s the fewest yards by a Chiefs offense in 22 seasons, since they got 126 yards against Cleveland in October 1986.

They turned the ball over three times on a fumble by QB Damon Huard, who also threw two interceptions.

“That was the worst I’ve been involved with in my professional career,” said TE Tony Gonzalez, who was playing in his 182nd regular or post-season NFL game.

Defensively, the Chiefs could not stop Carolina RB DeAngelo Williams, who ripped them for 123 rushing yards and 25 receiving yards and scored three first half touchdowns. At the end of three quarters, the Panthers offense under the direction of QB Jake Delhomme was over 400 yards. They finished the game with 441 yards and 205 of that was in the running game. …Read More!

COMMENTARY: No Explanation for Bad like This

From Charlotte, North Carolina

It’s not a good day when the team gets beat by 34 points and the head coach says:

“I can’t explain it … Our staff and I didn’t see that coming at all. It’s puzzling to me.”

But then what other alternative does Herm Edwards have after watching his team’s humiliating performance on a sunny Sunday afternoon against Carolina?

Listen, the Panthers are a good enough team and the Chiefs are a young and inexperienced enough team that Edwards boys could have played well and still lost this game.

But the Chiefs didn’t play well. OK, that’s an understatement. They went out and repeated their horrid performance from the Oakland game. In fact, this effort may have been their worst overall performance by a Chiefs team in many, many years. It’s certainly the worst I can remember seeing since the brutal 1988 season when the team finished 4-11-1 under Frank Gansz and that brought it in the biggest change in franchise history with the hiring of Carl Peterson and Marty Schottenheimer. …Read More!

Game Day Inactives/Carolina

From Charlotte, North Carolina

The game day inactives for the Chiefs in Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers will be:

• QB Brodie Croyle
• LB Donnie Edwards
• LT Branden Albert
• G Brian De La Puente
• LB Napoleon Harris
• WR Mark Bradley
• DT T.J. Jackson

Ingle Martin will be the inactive third quarterback.

Inactives for the Panthers are both of their starting tackles, LT Jordan Gross and RT Jeff Otah.  Also inactive are WR Ryne Robinson, S Quinton Teal, LB James Anderson, WR Dwayne Jarrett and DT Gary Gibson.

Matt Moore was the third inactive quarterback.

Sunday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

From Charlotte, North Carolina

Stand on the same street corner in the NFL and it’s amazing how the same car will drive past you about a decade after it went past the first time.

I was reminded of this when this week Herm Edwards talked about the need for his offense to start getting some big plays in the passing game.

“We need chunks, we need chunks of yardage,” Edwards said.

It was just over a decade ago when Marty Schottenheimer was saying the same thing about his Chiefs offense. He wanted to see some bigger plays.

That Herm and Marty would say the same thing doesn’t come as a surprise, since their approach to the game is very similar. They both are seeking something that is hard to get for them because of the way they approach offense, i.e., not taking too many chances where the ball might be turned over. Throwing the ball around the yard is just not something that either man either man believed in with his offense.

So far this season, the Chiefs have just four pass plays that went for 20 yards or more. Only Baltimore (3) and Cleveland (2) have fewer big plays in their passing game. The common denominator in those three cases is problems at quarterback. The Chiefs will start the same quarterback in back-to-back games for the first time this season when Damon Huard takes the opening snap on Sunday in Carolina. Injury problems with the Ravens forced rookie Joe Flacco into the starting lineup and the Ravens are playing things very close to the vest with him. In Cleveland, QB Derek Anderson is having trouble recreating his ’07 season, when the Browns had 53 big pass plays, ranking third in the league.

We decided to go back and take a look at the big pass plays for the Chiefs offense from 1993, the first year of the west coast offense with Joe Montana at quarterback, the Jimmy Raye years with Gunther, through the Vermeil Flying Circus and into the Edwards Era.

The Vermeil years had just one QB: Trent Green. It also had the most stable offense with receivers, running backs and especially the offensive line.

Running back has been the most stable position for Edwards, even though the offense was without Larry Johnson for the last eight games of the ’07 season.

Some stability on his offense, especially at quarterback, is the only way Herm Edwards is going to see “chunks” from his offense.

NFL PINCHES TURK

Remember that hit Turk McBride had on Denver quarterback Jay Cutler last Sunday, where he didn’t draw a penalty?  The league penalized him this week, slapping him with a $5,000 fine.  Here’s the story.

…Read More!

How To Beat Carolina

From Charlotte, North Carolina

It was an uneventful plane ride here for the Chiefs on Saturday afternoon, as they landed under sunny skies.

The weather forecast for kickoff on Sunday is for much of the same: sunshine and temperatures in the high 70s.

The Chiefs face a tough task against a veteran Carolina team that is rough and tough. They lead the NFL in penalties and they are not afraid to throw in an extra push, shove and shot when the opportunity presents itself.

However, they generally play smart football and wait for the other team to screw up. The Chiefs cannot help them in that area.

Here are the keys to winning against the 3-1 Panthers:

Player Profile: Brandon Carr

He was the guy that had Chiefs fans scratching their heads on the second day of the NFL Draft. Who is Brandon Carr and he’s from where, Grand Valley State?

Now, four weeks into the 2008 season, fans are starting to understand why the Chiefs grabbed this young cornerback in the fifth round. Last week against the Denver Broncos, he recovered a fumble and made his first NFL interception. Carr has gone into the defense and has shown very quickly that the game is not too big for him.

But just who is this guy from Michigan? Click here and find out everything you need to know.

College Preview 10/4

There’s lots of action this weekend and the big TV games have match ups where we’ve covered one of the teams in just the last two weeks.

So we’ll provide updates on their opponents this week.

STANFORD @ NOTRE DAME, NBC, 1:30 P.M.

Stanford

#91 DE Pannel Egboh – 6-6, 272 pounds, SR-Redshirt. Has started the last 24 games for Stanford and contributed 94 total tackles in that time. He has 8.5 career sacks. He played just one year of high school football. In five games this year, he has 16 total tackles and one sack. …Read More!

Saturday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

If you’ve spent any time on our site, you know we love history, especially the history of pro football.

Another forgotten chapter in the game is rising back to the top, so it can be properly remembered.

It’s the story of Marlin Briscoe.

On October 6, 1968, Briscoe became the first black quarterback to start a game in modern pro football when he opened for the Denver Broncos against the Boston Patriots.

Forty years later it’s an obvious historical moment, yet there is no mention in the Denver Broncos 2008 media guide of the event. But that’s not unusual when you look at most history books of the American Football League and there’s no mention of Briscoe and his accomplishment.

Today, the black quarterback is no longer unusual in pro football. That was not the case in the fall of 1968. Donovan McNabb, Jason Campbell, JaMarcus Russell, Vince Young and Tarvaris Jackson were years away from being born. That they now have the chance to be a starting NFL quarterback was because of pioneers like Briscoe. …Read More!

NOTES: So Much For Quarterback Controversy

From Charlotte, North Carolina

Herm Edwards caused quite a stir last week when he said that if the Chiefs won in Carolina with Damon Huard at quarterback, there might be a tough decision for him to make when the team came out of its bye week to face Tennessee.

Scratch that. Any controversy went bye-bye with the Chiefs 34-0 loss to the Panthers and with Huard’s performance.

The veteran quarterback finished the game with a 19.2 passer rating. He threw two interceptions and fumbled twice when hit on sacks. One fumble was recovered by RB Larry Johnson. The other went to the Panthers.

Nobody, not Edwards, Huard or Brodie Croyle had anything to say after this debacle.

But there’s little doubt now that if he’s physically ready, and he showed last week during limited participation in practice that he is, then Brodie Croyle should take the first snap against Tennessee on October 19 at Arrowhead. …Read More!

What A Difference A Week Makes On The Corner

From Charlotte, North Carolina

The last eight days are perfect bookends to what life is like for a cornerback, particularly a rookie cornerback in the National Football League.

It was against the Denver Broncos on the final Sunday in September that Brandon Carr had what amounted to his coming out party in the NFL. He contributed a fumble recovery and an interception in the defense’s top-notch effort in controlling and beating the Denver Broncos.

On the first Sunday of October, it was Carr being treated for third-degree burns after going head-to-head against veteran Carolina wide receiver Steve Smith all afternoon at Bank of America Stadium.

Smith finished the afternoon with six catches for 96 yards in helping the Panthers offense overwhelm the Chiefs defense in Carolinas 33-0 victory.

“Not as much fun as last week,” Carr said in the quiet Chiefs locker room. “It was a struggle for the whole team today.” …Read More!

Anemic, Tired Chiefs Defense Is Hurting

From Charlotte, North Carolina

The Carolina Panthers starting tackles were both inactive for Sunday’s game against the Chiefs. After effects of a concussion claimed LT Jordan Gross and a sprained ankle forced rookie RT Jeff Otah to the sidelines.

Their replacements were Frank Omiyale and Jeremy Bridges. It was Omiyale’s first NFL start replacing Gross. Bridges had not started or played a game at tackle in two seasons.

It seemed a perfect time for the anemic Chiefs pass rush to enjoy putting some pressure on the quarterback.

But it tells you something about what kind of day Gunther Cunningham’s unit had when the Panthers ran 70 plays on offense and the Chiefs defense touched starting quarterback Jake Delhomme one time. Twenty-two pass plays and they touched him one time.

And as a perfect capsule of the Chiefs performance, the one time they did touch Delhomme, DE Turk McBride was flagged for roughing the passer.

Oh, and Delhomme’s pass to RB DeAngelo Williams went for a 25-yard touchdown when nobody covered the receiver coming out of the backfield.

Carolina’s 34-0 victory decimated a Chiefs defense that was coming off its best performance of the season last Sunday against Denver. This was not a repeat. …Read More!

Worst Offense in 22 Years Sinks Chiefs

From Charlotte, North Carolina

Over the last three seasons, the Chiefs have had some bad offensive performances.

None matches the stinker they left on the field at Bank of American Stadium against Carolina on Sunday.

This was as bad as bad can be. Here’s the evidence:

• The Chiefs were shutout for the first time since the final game of the 2002 season when in a rain storm in Oakland they lost 24-0.  It was only the second time in the last 225 games that they finished without a single point.
• It was the worst shutout defeat in franchise history since November 4, 1984 when they were blanked 45-0 by Seattle. In 1987, the Chiefs strike replacement team was shutout by Miami 42-0.
• They produced 127 yards in total offense. That’s the fewest offensive yards they’ve had in a regular season game since October 12, 1986 when they managed just 126 yards against the Browns defense in Cleveland. They lost that game 20-7.
• They had 35 rushing yards, which is a bit misleading since 16 of those yards came from QB Tyler Thigpen scrambling around in the fourth quarter with the game’s outcome already decided. It came a week after the Chiefs ran for 213 yards against Denver.

It was hard to believe how poorly the offense played. …Read More!

Rest In Peace Reg Dunlop

The week got away from me and I didn’t get the chance to say good bye to Reg Dunlop.

One of America’s great actors Paul Newman passed away last weekend. He was 83 years old.

Throughout his career Newman played some of the great characters in movie history. He was Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He was Eddie Felson in The Hustler. He was Luke in Cool Hand Luke and who could forget him as Butch in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

But in my narrow view, his best performance came as Coach Reg Dunlop of the Charlestown Chiefs in the classic Slapshot.

OK, so maybe it wasn’t a classic in the most classic of movies sense. It did not win an Oscar. It won no pictures of the year awards to my knowledge unless it was the Saskatoon Film Festival.

The movie did win a Hochi. Hochi? It’s the Hochi Film Awards in Japan and Slapshot won the Best Foreign Language Film in 1977. Seriously … you can look it up. I knew those Japanese had great taste!

If you do not know Slapshot and have never seen it, then you must go rent it, buy it, steal it; get your hands on it in any way possible. If it ever pops up on free television, do not watch. It will be edited to death and it will take the guts right out of the movie.

Slapshot is about a minor league hockey team trying to survive in an old steel mill town that’s seen better days. It’s based on the Johnstown Jets who won the North American Hockey League championship in the 1974-75 season. That was a real team, and a real league and Johnstown is a very real town. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/3

From the Truman Sports Complex

A swiftly moving one-hour practice Friday morning culminated the week of preparation for the Chiefs as they get ready to head to Charlotte for Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers.

On the Chiefs injury report this week that gets turned into the league they will list:

Out: LT Branden Albert, QB Brodie Croyle and LB Donnie Edwards.

Questionable: LB Erik Walden.

Probable: CB Pat Surtain, CB Dimitri Patterson and DE Tamba Hali.

The new addition is Walden, who turned an ankle during Thursday’s practice and was a limited participant during Friday’s practice.  If he can’t go, that will hurt the Chiefs special teams, where Walden has been a big factor in four games.

Rookie OT Barry Richardson will be active for his first NFL game on Sunday.  But Edwards said that Wade Smith will be the first guy off the bench if there are any injury problems at left or right tackle against the Panthers.  Smith made 18 starts at left tackle during four seasons with the Dolphins, including all 16 games in the 2003 season.  He played both left and right tackle at the University of Memphis.

Carolina has listed starting LT Jordan Gross as out with the after effects of a concussion.  Listed as doubtful are starting RT Jeff Otah with an ankle injury and quarterabck Matt Moore with a leg injury.

Friday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

The hounds that were nipping at Herm Edwards heels have been collared and chained for at least a week after the Chiefs victory over Denver.

But should they falter again, you can bet the hue and cry will rise: Fire the Coach!

It’s a tried and true maxim in all sports that the head of the coach is always something the unhappy mob seeks on a pike. That’s visible again this week as two head coaches have bit the dust in the NFL after just four games.

Quite obviously, Scott Linehan and Lane Kiffin were not fired because of what happened in September ’08. Their forced departures are tied to what happened last year for Kiffin and the last two seasons for Linehan.

And what chances do their replacements – Jim Haslett and Tom Cable – have of eliminating their interim titles? It happens. Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher (left) took over after 10 games in the 1994 season for Jack Pardee, who was fired by Houston Oilers management. Today, 228 games later Fisher remains head coach of the franchise that moved from Houston to Nashville.

And what does firing the head coach do this early in the season? History would show us it accomplishes little. Linehan and Kiffin became head coaches No. 13 and 14 who lost their jobs after four or less games during an NFL season. Among the previous 12 fired coaches that date back to the early years of the NFL, there were no remarkable turnarounds after the coaching change.

Here are the details:

None of those teams made the post-season after the coaching change. The Raiders axed Shanahan and Art Shell replaced him and had some success. In Philadelphia, Williams was replaced by Ed Khayat who went 6-4-1 in that ’71 season. The next year, the Eagles went 2-11-1. …Read More!

Zebra Watch #4

As we explained when we started this weekly look at NFL officiating, the league has done a good job over the last few years of making the guys in striped shirts a smaller factor in the outcome of games.

Hey, we always know there will be blown calls and the like; that’s part of any package where the decisions have to be made in an instant by humans.

The football folks in the league understand that. What drives them crazy is the inconsistency from crew to crew.

That was especially evident last weekend. Two crews walked off just four penalties in each of their games. Even adding in the declined and offsetting calls, the crews of Walt Coleman and John Parry only pulled their flags 14 times.

Now, at the other end of the spectrum were the crews of Ed Hochuli and Jeff Triplette. They combined to pull their hankies 40 times. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/2

From the Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs went through a two-hour practice on a perfect fall afternoon on Thursday.

Nothing changed on the injury front according to Herm Edwards.

LT Branden Albert and LB Donnie Edwards did not practice and will not play against Carolina.  Edwards is making a good recovery from his right ankle injury.  Albert’s right elbow remains swollen according to Edwards.

QB Brodie Croyle, CB Pat Surtain, CB Dimitri Patterson and DE Tamba Hali were limited participants in the work.  Croyle seems to be throwing the ball very well at this point and Edwards said the quarterback has no shoulder soreness from his work this week.  When the Chiefs defense faces the scout team, Croyle moves to another field with a receiver and runs a few pass plays under the watchful eye of QB coach Dick Curl.

Surtain (shoulder) and Patterson (quadriceps) took some limited reps in the team portion of the practice, but it’s likely one of the two will be inactive for this Sunday’s game against the Panthers, according to Edwards.

College Preview 10/2

ESPN’s Thursday night football features two Big East teams as Pitt travels to Tampa to take on South Florida at Raymond James Stadium.

The best player in this game isn’t draftable right now; that would be Pitt sophomore running back LeSean McCoy. He’s 5-11, 210 pounds out of Harrisburg, PA. If he stays injury free and decides to leave school a year early, he’ll be one of the first players taken in the 2010 NFL Draft. Last year, he ran for nearly 1,400 as a true freshman.

Otherwise, most of the players the pros are keeping an eye on in this game are on the defensive side of the ball.

Kickoff is 6:30 P.M.

Pitt

#40 MLB Scott McKillop – 6-1, 240 pounds, SR-Redshirt. McKilllop came into the season having played 35 games for the Panthers. He became a starter last season at middle linebacker and finished with 151 total tackles, three sacks, one INT, two fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles. His tackle total led the nation last year. So far this season, he had 40 tackles and one sack. He picked up 10 tackles and one sack against Iowa in a Pitt victory. McKillop has all the intangibles to play in the NFL, but lacks top-end speed for a linebacker, so he’s considered anywhere from a fourth to sixth-round projection. …Read More!

Hank’s Denver Gallery

From the field at Arrowhead Stadium, through the eye and camera of Hank Young.

Here are some great shots from the Chiefs-Broncos game.  Remember, copying is a no-no.

Click on any picture to enlarge.

Enjoy.

…Read More!

Thursday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

So, you have to have that first round quarterback to get anything done in the NFL, right?

Wrong.

Just look at the Carolina Panthers. This is a team that gets forgotten around the country, largely because they don’t play in a major media market and they don’t have a superstar that draws a lot of attention.

But five seasons ago they played in the Super Bowl, losing to the New England Patriots by a field goal with four seconds to play, after scoring three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Just three years ago, they were in the NFC Championship Game, losing at Seattle. In those two playoffs, they were 4-1 playing in somebody else’s stadium.

The leader of those teams remains the same man it is this Sunday: QB Jake Delhomme.

Delhomme has been one of the NFL’s most successful quarterbacks over the last five seasons. As a starter in Carolina, he’s 45-29 including the playoffs. When Delhomme hasn’t been able to start in the last two years because of wrist and elbow injuries, the Panthers went 6-10.

And how did Delhomme come into the NFL? He arrived as an undrafted college free agent with the New Orleans Saints in 1997 out of Louisiana-Lafayette.

…Read More!

At The Quarter Pole In AFC West

It’s been an interesting start to the 2008 season in the AFC West.

What was once the NFL’s toughest and best division has gotten off to a slow start. Overall the division is 7-9 at the quarter pole. That leaves the group behind the NFC East (11-3), NFC South (10-6), AFC East (9-5) and AFC South (7-7). They are ahead of only the AFC North (6-9), NFC West (5-10) and NFC North (4-10.)

Denver leads the charge at 3-1, but as they’ve shown in playing three division games in the first four weeks, they are an explosive offense tied to a flawed defense. Despite having the best record in the division, they’ve given up the most points.

Defense is the major problem in Denver and San Diego, while offense is what’s holding back Oakland and the Chiefs.

Here are some important numbers with 25 percent of the season in the books. …Read More!

Chiefs Update 10/1

From The Truman Sports Complex

The Chiefs went through a practice that lasted just over two hours on Wednesday, as they enjoyed the sunshine and cool temperatures.

It was especially enjoyable for WR Mark Bradley, signed by the Chiefs this week to their active roster. The former second-round choice of the Chicago Bears in the 2005 NFL Draft, Bradley is wearing No. 83. He took the roster spot of B.J. Sams who was released.

Bradley, 6-1 and 201 pounds, was released by the Bears on September 23. In three games this season, he was inactive for the season opener and then played only on special teams in the next two games.

Throughout his time in the Windy City, Bradley battled injuries. As a rookie in ’05 he tore an ACL in his knee and played in just seven games. In ’06, he missed five games with an ankle injury and in May of this year he had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.

Overall, he’s caught 36 passes for 583 yards and four touchdowns. He’s 26 years old and out of the University of Oklahoma and Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

“He’s very athletic and explosive,” Herm Edwards said of Bradley. “He can run. I remember watching him at Oklahoma and he was a good football player. He got into one of those situations where he got hurt and kind of got lost in the shuffle.” …Read More!

D.J. Named AFC Defensive Player of Week

From the Truman Sports Complex

For three weeks there were many NFL observers asking the question, where is Derrick Johnson in the Chiefs defense.

“I was asking the same question,” Johnson said.

Well, answers came on Sunday when the linebacker led the Chiefs charge on defense, contributing a half-sack, interception, a forced fumble and seven tackles. That performance earned him the AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors.

It’s the first time in six years that a Chiefs linebacker has been singled out by the league for this honor. The last time it happened was Mike Maslowski in week eight of the 2002 season. …Read More!

Second Look: Defense vs. Denver

Over the previous two games, the Chiefs front seven had its problems. Against Denver, that group played much better football, particularly the linebackers Derrick Johnson, Demorrio Williams and Pat Thomas.

Through in improved play from DT Glenn Dorsey and continued good play by DT Tank Tyler and DE Turk McBride and those were the keys behind the Chiefs winning effort against Denver. Rookie DE Brian Johnston did some nice things in this game as well, consistently getting involved in the action.

In the secondary, Dimitri Patterson provided some aggressive tackling and rookie CBs Brandon Flowers and Brandon Carr both played pretty well. Flowers had a fumble recovery, while Carr had a fumble recovery and an interception. Carr ended up spending most of the game covering Denver WR Brandon Marshall. There were several moments when Marshall got him, including at least three times when the Broncos receiver made the catch and Carr came up to tackle too much on the inside. That allowed Marshall to spin and get more yards after the catch to the outside. With help to his inside, Carr needs to protect that outside first. It’s something that will come with more playing time. …Read More!

College Preview 10/1

More weeknight college action this coming out of the Western Athletic Conference Wednesday evening with Louisiana Tech at Boise State.

Not many prospects in this game, and those that are wear the uniform of Boise State.

Kickoff is 7 P.M. on ESPN2.

Boise State

#41 RB Ian Johnson – 5-11, 198 pounds, SR-Redshirt. Coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons, Johnson has been one of college football’s most productive runners. Last year, he had 1,041 rushing yards and scored 16 rushing TD. In the ’06 season, he ran for 1,713 yards and 25 TD runs. Fans will remember him as the guy who proposed to his cheerleader girl friend after the 2007 Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma. Coming into this season he had 640 career touches and some NFL types are concerned that because of his lack of bulk and upright running style he will not be durable at the pro level. No especially fast or big, Johnson is a slasher with great vision and anticipation. So far this season, he’s gotten off to a slow start with 224 yards on 46 carries and four touchdowns in three games. He’s also returned one punt for 19 yards and three kickoff returns for a 24.7-yard average. Johnson is considered a third/fourth round prospect.

Wednesday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Give this to Al Davis: when he fires a coach he does not like Davis doesn’t send him out with a flurry of meaningless platitudes about what a great job the man did.

No, Davis sends the guy out in a hail of verbal bullets.

Several times calling Lane Kiffin a “professional liar” and a “flat out liar”, Davis sent his young coach packing Tuesday morning and named offensive line coach Tom Cable as his interim replacement.

Kiffin’s firing brought to an end one of the NFL’s ugliest soap operas in recent memory. This marriage went sour some 11 months ago, but it took Davis months to finally pull the band aid off the cut and amputate.

Davis said Tuesday that Kiffin was fired for various transgressions, including embarrassing the franchise, lying and spreading propaganda. There also happened to be the matter of his 5-15 record as head coach.

Kiffin appeared on ESPN after Davis’ late afternoon press conference and made it plain his version of events is quite different. Whether he takes that public or not remains to be seen.  His agent has told him to clam up for now.

The blame here falls squarely on the 79-year old Davis, who hired the 31-year old Kiffin even though the young man had never been a head coach before. This was going to be another one of those genius moves by Al Davis where everybody else is befuddled and he looks like a genius. But this one blew up in his face.

As to his coaching future, there are not many people in the NFL that will hold that 5-15 record against Kiffin; the rest of the league knows how tough it is to work in the crazy environment that Davis has created around his franchise.

“I don’t have any regrets at all,” Kiffin said. “I think it’s been a good experience so far for me. And to deal with adversity that I’ve had to deal with … I think it’s great for me to deal with this at the age I’m at.”

Now, the next two story lines should be very interesting: how will Cable (above) handle the role of head coach and will Kiffin ever see the $3.5 million he’s still do under a contract that ran through 2010. Remember, Mike Shanahan is still waiting for the final $250,000 that was due him as Raiders head coach when he was fired by Davis during the 1989 season.

Shanahan got just 20 games. Since then, Davis has had these head coaches, with their number of regular season games: Art Shell (97), Mike White (32), Joe Bugel (16), Jon Gruden (68), Bill Callahan (35), Norv Turner (32), Shell again (16) and Kiffin (20). That’s an average tenure of 37.3 games.

Davis made public a letter he gave to Kiffin on the Friday before the Raiders played the Chiefs at Arrowhead, outlining various offenses against the organization.  For those interested, here’s the letter.  Al was obviously getting his legal ducks in a row so he could fire Kiffin with cause and thus not have to pay him.

…Read More!

Getting To Know … Brandon Carr

Name: Brandon Carey Carr.

Born: May 19, 1986 in Flint, Michigan. Situated northwest of Detroit, Flint is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the state of Michigan with a 2007 census estimate of 114,000 residents. Fur trader Jacob Smith established a trading post at the city’s current location on the Flint River in 1819. Flint has long been big in the auto industry and was the home in the early days for the Buick Motor Company and General Motors. The city also has a long history of producing outstanding athletes and football players like former Chiefs wide receiver Andre Rison, cornerback Todd Lyght, linebacker Carl Banks, tackle Jon Runyan and defensive tackle Robaire Smith.

Family: John and Kathy Carr with one older brother Tony.

Attended: Carman-Ainsworth High School in Flint and Grand Valley State University, just outside Grand Rapids, Michigan. Played both offense and defense for the Cavaliers, before moving into the college ranks with the Lakers where he was a three-year starter at the boundary cornerback position.

Why Grand Valley State: “I was a late bloomer. I wasn’t the fastest guy and I certainly wasn’t the biggest guy coming out of high school. When I got to college I hit my spurt, growing physically, maturity wise. I was about 5-10, 175 pounds at the end of high school. When I got to college, I had grown up; my first day there I weighed in at 192 pounds. I got faster as well.

So how did you get so much bigger and faster? “That summer I worked out every day. I would get up around 6 a.m. and not get done until 9 or 10 p.m. I worked with a trainer and he helped me get stronger, bigger and faster. I wanted to go and play immediately. So for three months, May, June and July, I hit it hard.”

Did any Division I school recruit you: “Central Michigan did. I went for a couple visits there for games. They recruited my brother Tony four years earlier and I might have ended up there, but the coaching staff was fired.

Is it true you did not give up a touchdown pass in coverage during the three years you started at Grand Valley? “I wish I could say that, but I gave up one TD in man coverage. It was against Delta State.

What was his name? I know you haven’t forgotten that receiver’s name: Eric Marshall, yeah I remember his name.

What’s it like winning a national championship, since you guys won in both your sophomore and junior seasons at Grand Valley? “It’s great. It’s why you play. It’s fantastic.”

How did you develop the mentality to play cornerback, where you know you can do everything correctly and still be beaten? “You have to brainwash yourself. You know you are out there on an island. You have to have that certain confidence about yourself. If you don’t have that, you aren’t going to last long.

Before the draft the Chiefs asked you to describe yourself. What did you say? “Smart, technician, battler. My technique allowed me to stay on top of the receiver. You’ve got to go out there and try to make plays, just fight all the time. I just watch people around me, take advice and try to apply it to the game. I study it as much as I can. I think it’s my job to know the job of everybody on the field, especially the defense.”

Who is your hero? “My father. He wasn’t dealt the best of cards when he was coming up. He was from a big family and he was the second oldest and he didn’t have the things that he provided for me. But he went out and made something for himself and his family. He was a supervisor at Ford for a lot of years, but they are cutting back, so now he’s working in real estate.”

What’s your favorite place in the world? “I’ve got two, both of them down in South Carolina. They would be Myrtle Beach and Charleston. I like to go out there at night on the water. It clears your head on the ocean.”

What’s your favorite meal? “Baked chicken, mashed potatoes and either peas or corn, with cornbread on the side.”

If the TV is on, what are you watching? “ESPN Sports Center, the NFL Network and BET are the only things I watch.

What’s your ride? “A ’08 Denali.”

What was your first car? “It was a Chevy Cavalier. I had that all through high school. There were over 200,000 on that one. When I got to college I didn’t have a car until the second semester of my second year and then my Dad gave me his Taurus. That was pretty close to 200,000 when I got rid of that.”

What’s your favorite movie? “Friday, with Ice Cube and Chris Tucker. I love that movie. Paid in Full, Boyz N the Hood, they would all but up there too.”

What was your first job? “I worked at a Red Lobster. I was a host. It was my 11^th and 12^th grade in high school. ‘ Hello, how are you doing? How many in your party?’ I must have said that thousands of times. I learned to smile even when you are having a bad day. A smile really goes a long way.”

Hardest college class you took in college? “Research Methods. It was a lot of reading, late nights, going through the library. That class gave me a run around!”

What’s on your bucket list? “I’d go scuba diving. I want to go on a cruise and I think I’ll try sky diving. I’ll be screaming the whole way down, but I think I’d like to try.”

What’s your goal for 2008? “To go to the Super Bowl.”

Isn’t that getting ahead of yourself? “Why else do you play?”

Tell us something nobody knows about you?  “I come across as a shy guy, but I love to perform.  I love to sing and I love to dance.  I’ve got my dance moves down.

Do you sing publicly?  “Oh no.  I’m a shower guy, or in my car.”

So if somebody pulls  up next to your Denali at a traffic light and sees you singing away, every things is cool?  “Yeah, I’m doing pretty good then if I’m belting it out.”