Chiefs Add Veteran Center

The Chiefs announced on Thursday the signing of unrestricted free agent center Eric Ghiaciuc.

For the past three years, Ghiaciuc was the starting center for the Cincinnati Bengals, who drafted him in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL Draft out of Central Michigan. He started 13 of 15 games during the 2006 season, all 12 of the games he played in 2007 and the entire 16-game schedule in the Bengals 2008 season. Neck, thumb and foot problems cost him four games during the ’06 season.

Ghiaciuc is 6-4, 303 pounds and will be 28 years old at the end of this month. The ’09 season will be his fifth in the NFL.

The Michigan native attended Oxford High School where he was all-state in football and also won a state wrestling championship. He also participated in track and field.

His last name is pronounced “GUY-check.”

Bottom of the Bird Cage 4/30

We are living day No. 120 of the year.

On April 30, 1945, Adolph Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker. Ono this day in 1789, George Washington took the oath of office as the first elected President of the United States.

And on April 30, 1803 the United States completed with France the Louisiana Purchase, buying the so-called Louisana Territory. This area as over 828,000 square miles and included the entire states of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa and Nebraska, as well as parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Louisiana.

The cost: $15 million. That’s right, the biggest part of the lower 48 was purchased 206 years ago today for about the same amount of money the Chiefs will pay QB Matt Cassel this season.

Amazing.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Football fans who subscribe to Comcast Corp.’s extra-cost sports package seem likely to lose one of their favorite viewing choices at 11:59 tonight – the 24-hour NFL Network. The two organizations, which have battled publicly and in court, have not reached a new carriage agreement, and the old one expires.

Comcast has asked the National Football League to continue the carriage under terms of the current contract. The NFL has refused and would like Comcast to place the channel on a general-interest tier that does not require viewers to pay the extra $7 a month. About two million people get Comcast’s sports package.

Comcast relocated the NFL Network to the sports package in 2007, the Philadelphia cable giant said, when the NFL more than tripled subscription fees. The move saved the cable-TV company an estimated $50 million a year in programming costs. The NFL Network’s core programming is eight live NFL games.

…Read More!

Thursday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

We are about to move into the month of May and who would have bet four months ago that Larry Johnson’s name would still be on the Chiefs roster?

The NFL Draft passed without Johnson being dealt away. There was little chance of that happening anyway, because there is no market for Johnson when it comes to a trade. There’s just too much baggage for teams to seriously consider making a deal for him, even for something as low as a seventh-round choice.

There’s his contract, which is significant even if Johnson lost the grievance hearing that lifted the guarantee from those dollars this season. There’s the possibility of further sanctions from the NFL for his off-field problems, especially after he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge in a plea bargain with those two assault charges. And, there’s the fact he’ll be 30 years old in November.

Right now, Johnson is handling the situation better than just about anything he’s gone through in the last two or three years. He’s working hard in the off-season strength and conditioning program and he’s keeping his mouth shut. Both of those are smart moves.

Whether it’s new agent Peter Schaeffer or the realization of his situation, maybe both, but right now L.J. has to hope that his future is in Kansas City.

That’s right, Kansas City, the same place he wanted to escape from so badly back in January now holds what amounts to his best hope of playing and making the type of money that’s called for in his contract. …Read More!

More Moves at Arrowhead

The purge of the Chiefs personnel department continued as V.P. of Player Personnel Bill Kuharich was released Wednesday morning.

Kuharich joined the organization in 2000 as director of pro personnel.  He was named to his current position in 2006 and worked closely with then head coach Herm Edwards in the drafts of 2006 through 2008.  He has 26 years of experience in pro football personnel.

Reports out of Detroit had the Lions interested in hiring Kuharich back in January, but the Chiefs refused to grant the Lions permission to speak with him at that time.

He’s the seventh person in the team’s personnel department that has been sent out the door this week by new GM Scott Pioli.

Bottom of the Bird Cage 4/29

It’s the 119th day of the year

On April 29, 1967 Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight championship belt a day after he refused induction into the U.S. Army. On this day in 1986, Roger Clemens struck out a major-league record 20 Seattle Mariners.

Born on April 29, 1947 in Wichita was Jim Ryun and four years later the late Dale Earnhardt Sr. was born in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Born on April 29, 1954 was comedian Jerry Seinfield.

And born on April 29, 1918 in Detroit was legendary football coach and philosopher George Allen (left). He began his coaching career at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa in 1948 and finished it up at the age of 72, when he took over the program at Long Beach State for one season. In between he coached 21 years in the NFL and two years in the USFL.

Here are some of the best George Allenisms from his coaching career:

• People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit.
• Leisure time is that five or six hours when you sleep at night
• Winning is the science of being totally prepared.
• If you want to catch more fish, use more hooks.
• Every time you win, you’re reborn; when you lose, you die a little.
• The street to obscurity is paved with athletes who can perform great feats before friendly crowds.

…Read More!

Wednesday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

I’ve got a note sitting on my desk reminding me to write something about the NFL’s need for a rookie pay scale.

I wrote the note to myself about two weeks ago and there are little notations on the paper about arguments for the idea that rookies shouldn’t be able to come in and push the NFL pay scale higher without having played a down.

Yes, I was going to be all indignant and push for those dollars to go to the veteran players in the league.

Then the Detroit Lions went out and caved in on contract negotiations with No. 1 draft choice Matt Stafford.

Tom Condon proved once again that he’s just about the best agent that ever came down the pike. At a time and economy where it seemed improbable, no make that impossible for the price of the first draft pick to increase, Condon got the Detroit Lions to pay Stafford $72 million over six years. But the key number is $41.7 million in guaranteed money.

Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL owners want a rookie-salary scale, but when it came time for them to put the brakes on that first-round money, the Lions stepped on the gas instead. How they let that happen is beyond understanding and eliminates any sympathy I have for teams who have to pay the big money at the top of the draft.

The Lions had all the leverage in this deal. Reportedly they already had a contract worked out with Wake Forest LB Aaron Curry for something less than what No. 1 choice Jake Long got last year from Miami ($30 million in guaranteed dollars.) Curry even said publicly he would take less if he were the first choice by the Lions.

Coming off a 0-16 season it’s not like Detroit is a quarterback away from the playoffs. They need help at every position on the field. Sure Stafford’s got potential, but there were other quarterbacks in the draft and there will be better prospects next year, maybe the year after. Stafford was not that once in a lifetime quarterback, if there really is such an animal. …Read More!

The Legend of Crash

The date on the yellowed clipping is torn, but it was from sometime in October of 1986. It’s a story I wrote for the Kansas City Star about then Chiefs special teams coach Frank Gansz.

Frank allowed me to sit in on a special teams meeting during the early part of that season. I got the chance to see what so many players had talked about over the years. There was nothing quite like going to a meeting where Crash Gansz had the floor.

In the dark of that meeting room, tape of a football game played on a large television screen. One team was kicking off, the other returning. The teams would meet in a series of violent collisions, replayed over and over with no sound.

No sound that is until the voice of Frank Gansz voice pierced the quiet.

“Men, look at this team cover this kick,” Gansz told the kick coverage team. “That’s mediocre coverage by that team. No one is taking risks. No one is trying to force the action. Napoleon once said if the art of war consisted of not taking risks, then the glory and winning would be in the hands of mediocre talent.

“Gentlemen, we do not want to be mediocre. We do not want to limit ourselves. Don’t put limits on me. I hate it. I don’t want somebody to call me mediocre.”

No one would ever call Frank Gansz mediocre. Some would look at his 8-22-1 record as the head coach of the Chiefs in 1987-88 and call him a bad coach. He was anything but, sabotaged in his one chance to be an NFL head coach by a players strike, injuries and some very poor personnel decisions by the front office.

Frank passed away on Monday in Dallas. He came out of retirement to coach the kicking game for June Jones at SMU last year and was preparing for year two with the Mustangs.

Let me get this on the record right now: I have a hard time being objective about Gansz. The happenstance of his career and my career pulled us together on and off the field and I got to know more about him than just about any coach that has ever crossed my path in over 30 years in the business. …Read More!

Tony G. Says Good Bye In KC

Tony Gonzalez returned to Kansas City on Tuesday, something he plans to do plenty of in the coming years.

The new Atlanta Falcons tight end took the time to meet with the K.C. media and pass along his thanks to Chiefs fans that have supported him so well for the last dozen years.

“Being able to play for some of the best fans, the best people,” said Gonzalez in a press conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. “The people who have stopped me and said congratulations, we are going to miss you. The fans have been incredible.

“I’m still going to be around. Kansas City is my second home and I will be here quite often. I have businesses set up here. My foundation, Shadow Buddies, is here. That’s where it’s going to get hard, the friends and the friendships

“Change is good. I’m looking forward to it. I think it’s a positive situation.”

Former Chiefs President-GM Carl Peterson was in the house at Skies Restaurant, as was former Chiefs FB Tony Richardson, in town during a break from off-season workouts with the New York Jets.

“I’m sad, I’m anxious, a little scared, a little weird saying I’m an Atlanta Falcon,” Gonzalez said. “But change is good, it’s like being drafted all over again, and gives me a chance to go out there and prove myself.”

Gonzalez said he met twice with new GM Scott Pioli and head coach Todd Haley, but he did not request a trade.

“I didn’t ask for a trade and they didn’t come to me and ask if I wanted a trade,” Gonzalez said.

Here is sound from the Tony Gonzalez press conference:

Bottom of the Bird Cage 4/28

We are in Day No. 118 of the year.

On April 28, 1945 Benito Mussolini and his mistress were executed by a firing squad of the Italian resistance movement. And talk about juxtaposition: born on this day in 1908 was Oskar Schindler, the Austrian businessman who saved more than a thousand Jews from the Nazi death camps. And born on this day in 1937 was Saddam Hussien, who killed many thousands of people during his time as dictator of Iraq.

And on this day in 1993, Jim Valvano died of bone cancer. He was 47 years old. Less t han two months before he passed, Valvano spoke at the ESPY Awards where he received the Arthur Ashe For Courage. Jimmy V loved to talk, but his speech that night will always be his most remembered words, especially this passage:

“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week you’re going to have something special.”

Here’s a link to the whole 10-minute speech back in March of 1993. It’s worth the time.

Jim Valvano was something special.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer: The Eagles’ first-round draft pick arrived at the NovaCare Complex for the first time yesterday with a father who didn’t look anything like him and, in fact, didn’t even know him for the first eight years of his often turbulent life. Jeremy Maclin, a star wide receiver during his two seasons at Missouri, met Jeff Parres when he joined a peewee football team in Kirkwood, Mo., at the age of 9. “I’ve coached little league football for 20 years,” Parres said. “It’s my passion and I was coaching my older son’s team. Jeremy joined the team when he was nine.”

Parres, a urologist, said it was evident early that Maclin had special athletic talent. “We play in the city of St. Louis, and it’s a pretty competitive league,” Parres said. “You could see Jeremy was good. He was one of the two or three better athletes in his age group.”

In time, something else besides Maclin’s immense talent on a football field became obvious to Parres and his eldest son, Tyler. “On weeknights, we’d take him home after practice and there were times when there was no one at home and the doors would be locked, and he’d have to climb through the windows to get in,” Parres said. “And then he wouldn’t have any dinner sometimes. Those were the tough times.”

…Read More!

Tuesday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

I’ve searched for the best way to explain why a bunch of talented people were shown the door on Monday at the Chiefs offices.

There was no public announcement but new GM Scott Pioli has begun the process of purging the team’s personnel department. Now that the ’09 NFL Draft is over, Pioli is going to hire his own people to handle the scouting process.

None of this comes as a surprise to any of those people who lost their jobs on Monday. As I said, there’s no official announcement, but the word inside the building was that all but two of the team’s seven scouts had been fired. Also left go was long-time director of college scouting Chuck Cook. He’s the guy in the white hat, far left in the photo. Chuck has been part of the Chiefs organization for 25 years. The guy next to him, holding up a yellow stopwatch is scouting coordinator Bruce Lemmerman, who was one of the scouts released.

Eventually, if it hasn’t happened already, that group of dismissed employees will include V.P. of Player Personnel Bill Kuharich.

Only a handful of people in the personnel department will survive and it’s unlikely any of them will be in a position of power or leadership once the dust settles.

How best to explain what’s going on inside the Chiefs? That’s what I’ve struggled with trying to explain. Here goes. …Read More!

RIP Frank Gansz

Late Monday afternoon in the same Dallas hospital where Lamar Hunt passed away two-plus years ago, one-time Chiefs head coach Frank Gansz died. He was 70 years old.

“Heaven became even a better place today … God Bless Frank Gansz,” posted SMU head coach June Jones to his Twitter page Monday evening.

Last Wednesday, Gansz had knee replacement surgery and at some point in the process or just afterwards, his heart stopped beating. He had been on a respirator in Presbyterian Hospital since then, with his family around him. Gansz had come out of retirement last year to work with Jones and the Mustangs program. It was his 38th year in coaching on the college and NFL levels.

Gansz was head coach of the Chiefs in 1987-88, replacing John Mackovic who was fired in January 1987. The Chiefs went 8-22-1 under Gansz. He was fired in January 1989 by Carl Peterson and replaced by Marty Schottenheimer.

He was special teams coach with the team in 1981-82 and then again in 1986 when he also carried the title assistant head coach. It was the special teams that got the Chiefs into the playoffs that year, beating Pittsburgh 24-19 in the final game of the ’86 regular season with every Kansas City point scored from the kicking game. It was one of the greatest special teams performances in league history.

June Jones is right, heaven is a better place. It’s also a bit more organized with Crash Gansz in the house. More motivated as well.

We will have more on the Frank Gansz and his time in Kansas City on Tuesday.

Monday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

There’s a lot to cover in the hangover haze of the 2009 NFL Draft, especially if you rode the pony from Matt Stafford at No. 1 to Ryan Succop at No. 256.

And that’s the biggest bone I have to pick with Scott Pioli. The Chiefs GM held that last choice of the draft, Mr. Irrelevant as he’s become known over the years, and he gives us a kicker? Come on! To wait all that time and end the draft with a foot jockey? Listen, I know kickers are part of the game and who knows, this guy may end up being a top-shelf guy. But give us some thick-necked kid from some small college in the middle of nowhere who will grab this opportunity as the greatest moment of his life.

Now we know for sure, we have hard evidence that Pioli is a personnel maniac.

Who trades into the bottom of the seventh round because he just has to have a tight end-fullback type from Miami of Ohio? That’s what the Chiefs GM did, working a swap with the Dolphins and giving up the Chiefs seventh-round pick next year for No. 237 this year. Pioli drafted Jake O’Connell, who near as anyone could find started just three games during a four-year college career. That’s reaching deep into the draft pot!

So how did the Chiefs do in the ’09 Draft? Folks, I’ve got to tell you the only thing more worthless than a mock draft is grading drafts the day after they are done. You won’t find that here, so if you are looking for a B or C or F, the only grade I’m giving the Chiefs is the same one I’ll give the other 31 teams: incomplete. See me in December 2011, as this draft class wraps up its third season in the league.

But here are some off the cuff thoughts on the Chiefs draft picks.

First, there’s no question it’s not a sexy group and I doubt these picks set fire to the ticket buying lines into Arrowhead. That’s OK, because Pioli’s job is to put a winning team on the field; the organization has a lot of other folks to handle the ticket selling. And I can remember this: there was no stampede on the ticket office 20 years ago when the Chiefs used the fourth choice of the draft to take a linebacker out of Alabama named Derrick Thomas. He was as unknown to the average Chiefs fan at that time as Tyson Jackson is to the Chiefs followers of today. …Read More!

Mr. Irrelevant: K Ryan Succop/South Carolina

Ryan Succop/South Carolina/K

• HT: 6-3
• WT: 218 pounds
• Born: September 19, 1986
• High School: Hickory High School, North Carolina

2008 season:20 of 30 on field goals; of his 61 kickoffs, 25 went for touchbacks

2007: 13 of 17 on field goals; averaged 41.6 yards on punts, but had three blocked.

2006: 16 of 20 on field goals; averaged 43.7 on punts.

2005: handled kickoff duties as a true freshman

7th-Round Choice: FB/TE Jake O’Connell/Miami (Oh.)

Jake O’Connell/Miami of Ohio/TE-FB

• HT: 6-3
• WT: 250 pounds
• Born: November 6, 1985
• High School: Gulf Coast High School in Naples, Florida
• Testing: 4.66 seconds in the 40-yard dash, 41-inch vertical jump, 10-foot, 4-inch broad jump, bench pressed 225 pounds 28 times.

2008 season: played in 12 games. He caught 25 passes for 258 yards.

2007: played in 13 games with three starts. He caught 14 passes for 152 yards and two TD catches.

2006: played in 11 games, caught seven passes for 43 yards and two touchdowns.

2005: played in five games.

2004: red-shirt freshman season.

Overall Evaluation: Chiefs dealt their 7th-round choice in 2010 to Miami to pick up pick No. 237 in the ’09 Draft.  O’Connell is viewed as potential tight end, H-Back, fullback .  He’s considered a good special teams player.

7th-Round Choice: RB Javarris Williams/Tenn. State

 

Javarris Williams/Tennessee State/RB

• HT: 5-10
• WT: 223 pounds
• Born: April 8, 1986.
• High School: Foster High School in Richmond, Texas
• Testing: 4.51 seconds in the 40-yard dash, 33.5-inch vertical leap, 9-feet, 8-inch broad jump, bench pressed 225 pounds 25 times.

2008 Season: started 10 games, missing the final two games with a hamstring pull. He was named the Ohio Valley Conference’s offensive player of the year and to the All-OVC first team. He ran for 1,037 yards on 207 carries with 15 TD runs. He caught 19 passes for 245 yards and one TD.

2007: started 11 games. He ran for 1,187 yards on 195 carries, a 6.1-yard per carry average with 12 TD runs. He caught 14 passes for 240 yards.

2006: played in 11 games and started seven. Williams was selected to the second-team All-Ohio Valley Conference team. He ran for 1,233 yards on 245 carries and scored on 11 TD runs. He caught 13 passes for 210 yards and a TD.

2005: played in 11 games and started five. Williams was selected to the second team All-Ohio Valley Conference. He ran for 872 yards on 202 carries with four TD runs. He caught 12 passes for 93 yards.

Overall Analysis: strong, powerful runner, who gained 100 yards or m ore in 20 of the 43 games he played. He’s fifth in all-time rushing in Ohio Valley Conference history. Some scouts have concerns over the number of carries he brings out of college football with 849 carries and 58 catches.