Christmas Day Cup O’Chiefs

                             Happy Holidays to everyone and thanks for your support.

                            May the next year bring you health, happiness and hope.

Consider this your Cup O’Chiefs Christmas stocking.

It’s filled with a bunch of little presents to provide entertainment over the next few days. No lumps of coal here, just little jewels of information.

Enjoy.

A PRETTY LOUSY LOSS TO A LOUSY TEAM

After the Chiefs 41-34 loss to Cleveland I wondered whether it was the worst late season loss at home in Chiefs history. The Browns came into the game with a 2-11 record

It’s close, darn close. Here are the candidates for the worst late season home defeats suffered by the Chiefs over 50 seasons:

• December 7, 1975 against San Diego at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chargers entered the game with a 0-11 record. The Chiefs were 5-7. San Diego left town with a 28-20 victory.
• December 26, 1982 against San Francisco at Arrowhead. In a season that was shortened because of a 57-day players strike, the 49ers arrived to play the game sporting a 2-5 record. They left town with a 26-13 victory.
• December 20, 2009 against Cleveland at Arrowhead. The Browns were 2-11 coming in the door and left 3-11 after a 41-34 victory.

One was just as ugly as another on this list. OK, so maybe that’s a pretty big lump of coal. 

IT HASN’T HAPPENED IN A LONG TIME

The Bengals will be the AFC North champions with a victory over the Chiefs on Sunday. They can still take the division title if they lose and Baltimore beats Pittsburgh.

It has been a long time since the Chiefs beat a team headed to the playoffs on the road in December. The last time it happened was in 1991, when they beat the Raiders in the last game of the regular season. The Raiders finished 9-7 and ended up coming to Kansas City for a first-round game in the playoffs, the first ever at Arrowhead Stadium. That was 18 seasons ago.

The last time the Chiefs won a game in December against a team that made the playoffs was in 2005, when they beat the Bengals at Arrowhead on January 1, 2006, the final day of the ‘05 regular season.

AS BAD AS IT GETS?

So many things have gone wrong for the Chiefs in 2009. With just a week away from starting a new year, there’s certainly not enough time to turn around a season that will go into the record books in so many different ways as a football disaster.

Has it ever been worse around the Chiefs? Has there been a time in the past where players went on and off the field, even on and off the roster with such fluidity? Yes, more than 30 years ago the 1975, 1976 and 1977 seasons were very similar to what’s happened this season.

Want a strange roster story? Here’s one of the best in Chiefs history. It involves an offensive lineman named Gery Palmer, a guy who just happened to be born on Christmas Day.

Palmer was born in Texas, but ended up in Kansas City and graduated from Center High School. He went off to the University of Kansas, where he was a defensive end and won letters in the 1970-71-72 seasons with the Jayhawks. In the 1973 NFL Draft, he was selected in the fourth round by the Baltimore Colts as an offensive tackle. As a rookie, he spent the entire ‘73 season on the inactive list. The next year, he underwent knee surgery in the pre-season and was out for the rest of the year. Palmer started the 1975 training camp with the Colts, but was released.

He moved back to Lawrence with his wife and was working to stay in shape while also helping out at an auto sales lot. As the ‘75 Chiefs season went on, there were multiple injuries along the offensive line, especially at guard, where eventually seven different guards started games.

In late October, the Chiefs signed Palmer off the car lot. He did not play against Houston, got his first taste the next week in a Monday Night game against Dallas. Then in the next game against Pittsburgh, starting right guard Tom Condon went down with a knee injury.

So here was Palmer, just two weeks removed from selling cars in Lawrence and he was trying to block Mean Joe Greene. Pittsburgh won 28-3. Palmer actually started the next week against the Lions and the Chiefs won 24-21 in overtime. In that game, he also played some defensive tackle as injuries took two defensive linemen out of the game. He also started the next game against Baltimore, a game where the Chiefs allowed seven sacks. He did not play in the last three games and his pro football career ended right there.

So if you think it’s crazy that a player like Chris Chambers can go from the waiver wire, to starting lineup, to energizing a team’s offense all in the span of a week, then consider the story of Gery Palmer. He went from selling cars, to being on an NFL roster, to playing across the field from Mean Joe Greene to starting two games, to playing both ways in one game and then sitting for the next three and ending up completely out of football. All that happened over the span of seven weeks.

SIGNINGS, INJURIES & MOVEMENT AROUND THE LEAGUE

• COLTS – placed WR Anthony Gonzalez on the injured-reserve list (knee).
• LIONS – placed QB Matt Stafford on the injured-reserve list (knee).
• PANTHERS – placed QB Jake Delhomme on the injured-reserve list (finger); promoted QB Hunter Cantwell from the practice squad.

IT HAPPENED TO THE CHIEFS IN THE POST-SEASON.

On Christmas Day 1971, the Chiefs lost to the Miami Dolphins 27-24 in double-overtime in an AFL Divisional Playoff Game at Municipal Stadium. It remains the longest game in pro football history and is truly the end of Super Bowl era Chiefs. It was a balmy Christmas, with game-time temperatures right around 60 degree. The Chiefs jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter thanks to a 24-yard FG by Jan Stenerud. The Dolphins then put 10 points on the board in the second quarter and the game was tied at half-time.

The Chiefs came out of the half-time locker room and scored next, as Jim Otis went over on a one-yard run. The Dolphins answered back with a one-yard TD run by Jim Kiick. The Chiefs scored again, as RB ED Podolak scored on a three-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Miami answered back with a five-yard TD pass from QB Bob Griese to TE Marv Fleming. That made the score 24-24 with 85 seconds to play. The team’s played through a fifth quarter without a score then in the fifth period. Finally in the sixth period, the Dolphins forced a Chiefs punt and they took over for what would prove to be the game’s final drive. RB Jim Csonka rumbled for 29 yards into Chiefs territory and four plays later, Garo Yepremian kicked the 37-yard FG that won the game.

What a performance by Podolak who provided 350 all-purpose yards (85 rushing, 110 receiving and 153 yards on kickoffs.) It was the last Chiefs game played at Municipal Stadium and would be the last game in the playoffs for the Chiefs until 1986.

FROM THE PAGES OF CHIEFS HISTORY

On Christmas Day 2004, the Chiefs beat the Oakland Raiders 31-30 in a Saturday afternoon game before 77,289 fans at Arrowhead Stadium. A 38-yard FG by Lawrence Tynes with 22 seconds to play sent Chiefs fans home with some holiday cheer. The Raiders had taken a 30-28 lead just a minute before when K Sebastian Janikowski nailed a 46-yard FG. The Chiefs had a pair of TD runs by Larry Johnson of four and six yards. QB Trent Green and TE Tony Gonzalez connected on scoring passes of two and 26 yards. Green finished the game hitting 32 of 45 passes for 358 yards and Gonzalez caught 11 passes for 124 yards. The KC defense provided an interception by CB Benny Sapp and sacks by DE Jared Allen and LB Monty Beisel.

SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY …

Born on December 25, 1950 in Weimar, Texas was G Gery Palmer. A graduate of Center High school in Kansas City and the University of Kansas, he joined the Chiefs in the middle of the 1975 season when injuries decimated the offensive line. Palmer played in three games.