Chiefs Lose Strength

Last week, it seemed that Todd Haley’s coaching staff was set.

Not so fast.

On Monday, the Houston Texans announced that Cedric Smith, the Chiefs strength and conditioning coach for the last three years, has joined the staff of head coach Gary Kubiak.

“I’m extremely excited to be here,” Smith said from his team office. “Knowing Gary Kubiak from being in Denver, I look at it as a great opportunity to be part of something special here, with a team up-and-coming and on the cusp of winning a championship.”

Smith worked with the Denver Broncos when Kubiak was there. A number of assistants on the Texans staff were also part of Mike Shanahan’s group that included Smith as an assistant strength and conditioning coach.

“To me it is a natural fit, having a chance to work with great personalities and good people that you know,” Smith said. “After having a chance to work around them and understanding their mindset, it’s just a natural fit.”

The departure of Smith leaves only his former assistant Brent Salazar as the only coach on Haley’s staff who was with the team prior to 2009.

Who Dat? World Champion Saints

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Miami Gardens, Florida

“This is about so much more than just the game. This is so much more than a win. This is much, much bigger.”

Linebacker Scott Fujita said this over and over again after the New Orleans Saints surprising 31-17 victory over the Indianapolis Colts to win Super Bowl XLIV at Sun Life Stadium.

It was a theme repeated time after time by the victorious Saints. It was something that was talked about during the days leading up to championship Sunday. There was a tangible sense of the power of belief and this football team believes a Super Bowl victory was their destiny.

“We never doubted we were going to win,” Fujita said. “We felt that back on Tuesday when we first walked into this stadium. There was just never a doubt because we were playing not just for ourselves, not just for each other, but for an entire city and region. All we wanted to do was give New Orleans a championship.

“I can’t wait to get back home. I wish we were leaving tonight, but this is going to be one great party, and let me tell you, this team knows how to party and we live in a city that knows how to party.” Read More..

Man Of The Year #5 … Game-Day Cup O’ Super Bowl

From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Last Sunday, the lone Kansas City representative on the field at Sun Financial Stadium for the Pro Bowl was K.C. Wolf.

Things will be different this Sunday for Super Bowl XLIV.

First of all, Kansas City’s Sultan of Sod George Toma has worked the playing surface and it’s ready to go for the championship game between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints. In the post-game ceremonies, Chiefs Hall of Fame QB Len Dawson will deliver the Vince Lombardi Trophy to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to hand over to the winning team.

And in pre-game ceremonies, current Chiefs G Brian Waters will be presented with the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award for the 2009 season.

“It’s a great honor,” Waters said Saturday in Miami, as word leaked that he was selected over two other finalists: Washington LB London Fletcher and Cleveland WR Mike Furrey. “It’s very meaningful because of Walter Payton and his family and the history of this award and those who have received it before. It’s a great group and humbling to be part of this award.”

And it now includes five members of the Kansas City Chiefs – more than any other franchise in the NFL. Waters joins Len Dawson, Willie Lanier, Derrick Thomas and Will Shields as winners of the trophy that symbolizes on-field excellence and community service. (Complete Man of the Year List below.)  Read More..

The Hall Of Fame Class of 2010

From Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2010 includes the leading receiver and rusher in NFL history. The group includes a Hog and a guy who painted his face before most games.

WR Jerry Rice and RB Emmitt Smith led the full class of seven new members that was decided during a seven-hour meeting of the Hall’s Board of Selectors on Saturday at the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center.

Joining Rice and Smith were Washington Redskins guard Russ Grimm, New Orleans linebacker Ricky Jackson and Minnesota defensive lineman John Randle. Also joining the group were both seniors nominees, Detroit DB Dick LeBeau and Denver RB Floyd Little.

The discussion involving Rice and Smith lasted a combined 10 seconds, as they were mortal locks.

The rest of the meeting was filled with lively debate on the other 15 names in front of the group, as the 44 voting members struggled with cutting the field to the maximum seven inductees.

The modern era 15 nominees were: Rice, Smith, Grimm, Jackson, Randle, WR Tim Brown, WR Chris Carter, head coach Don Coryell, C Dermontti Dawson, DE Richard Dent, DE/LB Charles Haley, DT Cortez Kennedy, WR Andre Reed and TE Shannon Sharpe.

Those 15 were cut to 10, with Brown,  Carter, Coryell, Craig and Haley eliminated.

That group of 10 was then voted down to five, with Dawson, Dent, Kennedy, Reed and Sharpe eliminated.

That left five names and the vote on those were yes or no, with induction depending on each player receiving 80 percent of the vote.

As a member of the board of selectors, there is only so much information that I can reveal from the meeting. I will have more on Monday, but the candidates that generated the most discussion were Coryell and Little.

Another Hall of Fame Saturday … Cup O’Super Bowl

From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Saturday morning, 44 men and women will enter a meeting room at the Broward County Convention Center and decide on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2010.

I have a seat at the table and have had since January of 1997. I’m asked generally two questions about the Hall of Fame process: how does the voting work and does this committee have any idea what it’s doing?

Here’s a quick explanation of how it works. The Board of Selectors is made up of members of the media; one for each franchise city in the NFL, including two for New York. There is a representative from the Pro Football Writers of America and then there are 11 at-large voters. Among that group are 30 newspaper writers, 10 writers for sites on the Internet, two magazine writers and two television reporters. There are 42 men and two women.

This group elects each year a class of between four and seven new members. After mail-in preliminary votes, a group of 15 finalists is reached. There are two others put up for nomination by the Board’s Seniors Committee, made up of the more veteran members of the committee.

On Saturday morning, the first bit of business is the senior candidates, this year they are former DB Dick LeBeau and RB Floyd Little. Each candidate will be discussed and then the vote will be yes/no on each man. To gain election, there must be 80 percent yes votes.

The meeting then moves on to the 15 other finalists. Each one is discussed by the group. Sometimes that discussion can lasts for just a few seconds. That will be the case this year with WR Jerry Rice and RB Emmitt Smith; no discussion is needed. The leading receiver and rusher in NFL history are automatic first-ballot Hall of Famers. Read More..

Bob At The Super Bowl … With Tony Gonzalez

From Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Tony Gonzalez hoped by leaving the Chiefs and joining the Atlanta Falcons he would be playing on Sunday in Super Bowl XLIV.

Instead, he’s here in south Florida on the same ticket that has taken him to Super Bowls in the past: as a celebrity doing promotional appearances. He visited the Gatorade Performance Lab (above, with Gatorade Sports Science Institute scientist Melissa Tippet) where he took part in physical testing. It was right up his alley of doing everything he can to help his body play another year of pro football.

Everyone can see him go through the testing with former Denver-Baltimore TE Shannon Sharpe on the CBS Super Bowl Pre-Game Show on Sunday.

As always, Gonzalez has been very busy. He’s written a combination cook book-nutrition guide called “The All-Pro Diet.” He and his wife October will welcome their second child next month as River Christian Gonzalez is schedule to arrive on March 15th.

And he says he’s going to play at least one more season and he thinks the 2010 Atlanta Falcons will be the best team he ever played on.

Here’s Tony Gonzalez from the Super Bowl.

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The Golden Goose May Die … Friday Cup O’ Super Bowl

From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

It was an interesting Thursday afternoon here in Super Bowl Land. The National Football League Players Association held its annual press conference.

I decided to attend the affair with a friend. I’ll call him The Capitalist.

After some 45 minutes of listening to NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith’s saber rattling, talk of an owner lockout in 2011, a season ahead without a salary cap and the plight of retired players, The Capitalist left the room with his blood pressure jacked up and incredulity dripping from every pour.

“These guys are nuts,” The Capitalist said. “They get 60 percent of the NFL revenue and they think that’s their right? Where is their risk? The owners assume all the risk.”

I reminded The Capitalist that the football players more than any other team sport, risk their bodies in playing the game.

“It’s not like they aren’t getting paid,” The Capitalist nearly shouted. “How many 23 or 24-year olds are making two or three million dollars a year? They get paid quite well for their risk.” Read More..

A Look At Chiefs Free Agents

From Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The NFL Players Association released a list of projected 2010 free agents, both restricted and unrestricted.

Because of the decision by the NFL owners to opt out of their deal with the players, the threshhold for unestricted free agency has risen from four seasons in the league to six seasons.  That’s created a very big pool of restricted free agents with four and five years of experience.

The early list has 11 Chiefs as restricted free agents and seven as unrestricted. That group includes seven players who finished the 2009 season as starters.

RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS – G Andy Alleman, RB Jackie Battle, QB Brodie Croyle, QB Matt  Gutierrez, LB Derrick Johnson, LB Corey Mays, OT Ikechuku Ndukwe, C Rudy Niswanger, OT Ryan O’Callaghan, FS Jarrad Page and RB Kolby Smith.

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS – SS Mike Brown, WR Chris Chambers, WR Terrance Copper, TE Sean Ryan, OL Wade Smith, OLB Mike Vrabel and WR Bobby Wade.