Chiefs Place 4 ON All-Decade Team

From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

The Chiefs may have been shut out of the Pro Bowl, but they were well represented on the NFL’s All-Decade teams for the 2000s that was announced Sunday evening here in south Florida.

TE Tony Gonzalez, OT Willie Roaf, G Will Shields and Retuner Dante Hall were all named to the 53-man team that was voted on by the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Selectors.

Hall was the big winner, as he was selected as a kick returner and punt returner, the only player to be selected for two different positions.

Here’s how impressive the Chiefs four picks were – no other team in the league had more. Several others also had four players, teams like New  England, Indianapolis and Baltimore. All of those teams won a Super Bowl in the decade; the Chiefs did win a single game in the playoffs.

Joining Gonzalez as an All-Decade tight end was San Diego’s Antonio Gates. Joining Shields among the guards were Larry Allen of Dallas, Alan Faneca of Pittsburgh/N.Y. Jets and Steve Hutchinson of Seattle/Minnesota.

The other OTs with Roaf were Walter Jones of Seattle, Jonathan Ogden of Baltimore and Orlando Pace of St.  Louis/Chicago.

Joining Hall as a kick returner was Cleveland’s Joshua Cribbs, and joining him as a punt returner was Devin Hester. Read More..

Representing The Kansas City Chiefs …

From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

When the ball is teed up and kicked off Sunday night for the Pro Bowl, there will not be anybody wearing the red helmet with the arrowhead of the Kansas City Chiefs. For the first time in 31 seasons, there are now Chiefs players participating in the game.

But that does not mean there was no part of the organization taking part in Pro Bowl week. The only Kansas City representative here in south Florida in the run up to the game was …

KC WOLF!

Congratulations to the man in the fur, Dan Meers for getting the Chiefs on the Pro Bowl scoreboard in some fashion. KC Wolf took part in various events during the week that featured some NFL mascots. He was captured below in this picture at a beach party in Ft. Lauderdale.

A Not So Pro Bowl … Sunday Cup 1-31

From Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

The Pro Bowl was so important to Minnesota Vikings OT Bryant McKinnie that he failed to show up for practice on Friday … and Thursday … and Wednesday.

McKinnie’s absences finally got him sent home, kicked off the team by NFC Coach Wade Phillips, with help from the NFL office. He will not receive any sort of paycheck for his time spent here in south Florida, where he missed three of the four practices and did not attend any meetings.

It’s just another black mark on the Pro Bowl ledger for this year, and there’s little doubt in the mind of most around pro football that the idea of moving the all-star game to the site of the Super Bowl and then playing it a week ahead of time was a mistake.

Everyone save NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

“What we’re seeing is a lot more attention on the Pro Bowl than we’ve ever had before,” Goodell said this week, “and that in and of itself is a success.”

The change in location – south Florida rather than Hawaii – and timing – coming before the Super Bowl rather than after – were meant to look at two things: whether more excitement could be created with the Pro Bowl being the first event of Super Bowl week, and whether it would have an impact on TV ratings. Read More..

Chip Hilton Lives … Saturday Cup O’Chiefs

My first sports hero was a guy named Chip Hilton.

Now, Hilton was not a real person. He was the hero in a series of 24 novels written by Hall of Fame basketball coach Clair Bee. Chip was an outstanding schoolboy athlete, who played football, baseball and basketball. He faced all sorts of trials and tribulations in each book, but in the end Chip always came out of the competition with dignity and victory.

The NFL’s current version of Chip Hilton retired on Friday. After a dozen seasons in the league, Kurt Warner said he’s done playing football. With his wife and seven children by his side, he told the Arizona Cardinals that after going through a dozen years of trials and tribulations, and coming out of those with dignity many victories, it was time for the final chapter.

“It’s been an amazing ride,” Warner said. “I don’t think I could have dreamt it would have played out the way it has. But I’ve been humbled everyday that I’ve woke up the last 12 years.”

Warner led the St. Louis Rams to a victory in Super Bowl XXXIV, and started Super Bowl XXXVI for the Rams and XLIII for the Cardinals. He was named the NFL’s MVP in 1999 & 2001. His career completion rate of 65.4 percent is the second highest in league history. In the regular season and playoffs, he threw for a combined 36,296 yards and 239 TD passes. Read More..

More Parcells Blood … Friday Cup O’Chiefs

The Parcells transfusion to the Kansas City Chiefs continues.

As Todd Haley remakes his coaching staff for the 2000 season, there appears to be one requirement for a job: the new coach must have been part of the New York Jets in 1999.

Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, Richie Anderson, Anthony Pleasant and Bernie Parmalee (left) all have been hired to full-time coaching jobs with the 2010 Chiefs and they share only one obvious trait: they were all working in some capacity for Parcells with the Jets in that ‘99 season. So was Haley, who was in his first year as a position coach, handling the wide receivers. The offensive line coach of the Jets that season was Bill Muir, now the Chiefs O-Line coach.

Weis was the team’s offensive coordinator, Crennel was the defensive line coach and Anderson, Pleasant and Parmalee were all on the Jets roster. Anderson and Parmalee were running backs, working with Weis. Pleasant was the starting right defensive end and Crennel was his position coach.

The coaching moves the Chiefs announced on Thursday were evidence of Haley working towards creating a staff that has the same foundation and values of his personality and constitution as head coach.

He did not have that last year. Read More..

Coaching Staff Shuffle Continues

Todd Haley’s 2010 Chiefs coaching staff remains very fluid right now, as the team made annoucements on Thursday on some staff moves.

In are a pair of coaches who were with the team last year, but not in defined roles; Richie Anderson will be the new wide receivers coach, while Anthony Pleasant will hold the title of defensive assistant.

Former Dolphins-Jets RB Bernie Parmalee has been hired as tight ends coach.

Going out the door are last season’s defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast, tight ends coach Bob Bicknell and former wide receiver coach Dedric Ward.  As we reported on Wednesday, Bicknell has been added to Chan Gailey’s coaching staff with the Buffalo Bills. Ward was relieved of his duties as wide receivers coach during the ‘09 season, and Anderson took over the position.

Pendergast lost his job as defensive coordinator when Romeo Crennel was hired. Haley indicated that he wanted Pendergast to continue with the team, but that apparently did not work out.

The team also annouced that defensive quality control coach Pat Perles was moved to assistant offensive line coach.

Parmalee comes to the Chiefs after spending the past five seasons as tight ends coach for Charlie Weis at Notre Dame. He previously spent two seasons coaching special teams and tight ends with the Miami Dolphins (2002-04). He played nine seasons in the NFL with the Dolphins and Jets.

All the additions – Anderson, Pleasant and Parmalee – are former NFL players.

Right now, Haley’s staff does not yet have publicly designated coaches for the defensive line, secondary and defensive quality control.

Senior Bowl Circus … Thursday Cup O’Chiefs

It’s not so much an all-star game as it is a convention for the National Football League.

Senior Bowl week each January in Mobile, Alabama is one of the few opportunities for the grunts of the NFL to get together and share some fellowship in the form of a few adult beverages, maybe a quick trip to one of the casinos about an hour away in Biloxi and information.

That’s a lot of information. There are close to 100 potential draft choices working out in Mobile this week in preparation for Saturday’s 61st Senior Bowl. For every one of those players, there are four or five NFL coaches, scouts and front-office types there to watch and chart every move. The Chiefs have a pretty full contingent there, including new offensive coordinator Charlie Weis (right).

And there’s probably another one thousand or so media, agents, along with scouts and coaches looking for work, lingering around the practices of the two teams and the hotel’s that are sold out for this week every year.

There are a lot of observations, a lot of questions asked and a lot of judgments made in the cool winter air of Alabama. But is that time and energy really meaningful? Just how important is the Senior Bowl in the evaluation process?

Here’s what one NFL personnel director said Wednesday night on his way to a late supper: Read More..

Another Change To Chiefs Staff

Former Chiefs offensive coordinator Chan Gailey has added some familiar faces to his coaching staff in Buffalo, including Chiefs tight end coach Bob Bicknell.

After the ‘09 Chiefs season was over, head coach Todd Haley did not renew the contracts of defensive line coach Tim Krumrie and assistant offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris. That appeared to be the only deletions the head coach wanted to make on his staff.

But the Bills announced the hiring of Bicknell as their tight end coach on Wednesday, the same position he held last season with the Chiefs. Bicknell came to the Chiefs in 2007 as assistant offensive line coach, then took over the offensive l ine in 2008 and moved to tight ends in 2009.

Joining Gailey’s staff with Bicknell are D’Alessandris, former Chiefs RB coach Curtis Modkins and offensive assistant Kevin Patullo, who was with the Chiefs staff in 2007-08 as offensive quality control. That’s the same position he’ll  have in Buffalo. Modkins has been given the title of offensive coordinator/RB coach; he was the RB coach last year with Arizona.

NFL’s Team Of The Decade … Wednesday Cup O’Chiefs

Sometime in the next few days the National Football League is going to release the league’s all-decade team for the 2000s.

To put together this all-star team of the decade, the league asked the Pro Football Hall of Fame Board of Selectors to come up with the team. Voting was held last month, with the league asking for multiple selections at each position.

In the last three decades, the Chiefs had five players selected to an all-decade team:

• 1990s – LB Derrick Thomas and DE Neil Smith.
• 1980s – FS Deron Cherry.
• 1970s – LB Bobby Bell and P Jerrel Wilson.

There was also an all-time AFL team, which was essentially also an all-decade team since Lamar Hunt’s league began play in 1960 and ended play as a separate entity with the 1969 season. That group included Wilson, TE Fred Arbanas, LT Jim Tyrer, LG Ed Budde, DE Jerry Mays, LB Bobby Bell and S Johnny Robinson.

What Chiefs players have a chance to be part of the team of the past decade? TE Tony Gonzalez, G Will Shields, FB Tony Richardson, PR Dante Hall and LB Donnie Edwards have a chance. Gonzalez and Shields have the best odds of gaining that coveted declaration. Hall would be next.

I have not yet seen the final results for the 2000s; those will be released down in south Florida as part of the Pro Bowl festivities.

But, here are the players that were on my ballot for the All-Decade Team. The number in parenthesis is the total from each position that the NFL asked for in the voting: Read More..

Aint’s No More … Tuesday Cup O’Chiefs

For years, the New Orleans Saints wandered in the NFL jungle. They were one of those bumbling franchises that always seemed t o shoot themselves in the foot.

They began play as an expansion team in 1967 and went 3-11. They would play 11 more seasons with losing record until they went 8-8 in 1979. It would be 21 seasons of play before the Saints had a winning record. Now, after 43 seasons of action, they’ve had nine winning records and four division titles.

But now the Aints aint no more. They are headed to the Super Bowl for the first time after winning their first NFC Championship on Sunday with an overtime victory against the Minnesota Vikings.

So how did the Saints finally get things headed in the right direction? It appears to be the combination of head coach Sean Payton and GM Mickey Loomis. They’ve built a squad that has found performers and contributors on almost every avenue on the league’s personnel highway. Draft picks, unrestricted free agents, trades, street free agents, college free agents – they are all part of the Saints equation. About the only resource the Saints haven’t tapped is the waiver wire.

Payton is a branch off the Bill Parcells tree, while Loomis’ roots are from the Seahawks going back to the 1980s. They have a strong personnel group, led by Rick Reiprish, who began his NFL team scouting career with the Chiefs back in the early 1980s.

Here’s how the Saints numbers break down compared to the Colts and Chiefs: Read More..

Next Stop Miami … Monday Cup O’Championships

They were the two best teams in either conference of the National Football League during the 2009 regular season. Ordinarily, that does not mean those clubs are immediately passed through to the Super Bowl.

But the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints are headed for south Florida and Super Bowl 44 in 13 days. It’s the first time that the top seed in each conference have both advanced since 1993 when Buffalo and Dallas got it done. In the recently completed decade of championship games, half of the winners were No. 1 seeds. There have been more in the NFC, with six out of 10. The AFC had four out of 10.

The game is rife with storylines and plot twists that will be inflamed and fleshed out over the next two weeks. There’s the great story of the Saints and their survival in New Orleans after the destruction brought by Hurricane Katrina. Peyton Manning gets to play for another championship against the team he rooted for as a youth. There’s Indy’s rookie head coach Jim Caldwell, and with the Saints there’s the Reggie Bush story to be told.

We will let all that play itself out in the coming days. Here on the day after, let’s take a look at how these two football teams were built, and specifically how the Chiefs compare to what these teams have gotten done and experienced success. Is there a path to be learned by the Chiefs in how the Colts and Saints were built? Absolutely, although it’s not a new method or game plan that these teams have uncovered to find success.

It’s always the same: it’s find good players and it’s the process of developing good players. That’s what these teams have done, although it has happened in different ways. Read More..

Brian Waters Finalist For Man of the Year

Chiefs G Brian Waters is one of three finalists to receive the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.

The winner will be announced on Super Bowl Sunday, just before kickoff.  The other finalists are Washington LB London Fletcher and Cleveland WR Mike Furrey.

The Payton Award is presented each year to honor an NFL player for his community service. Begun in 1970 as the NFL Man of the Year, it was renamed the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award in 1999, after the death of the Bears running back.

Waters is trying to become the fifth Chiefs player to receive the honor, joining MLB Willie Lanier (1972), QB Len Dawson (1973), LB Derrick Thomas (1993) and G Will Shields (2003). Waters was also a finalist for the award two years ago.

Senior Bowl Players Set

The Senior Bowl week begins Monday with the first practices of the week. Almost all of the NFL will be there by Tuesday, from GMs, to head coaches and all the personnel folks.

The quality of the people watching practice will exceed those that they watch. While there may be several last minute additions and/or deletions, the players in Mobile, Alabama this week does not include the names that will be taken early in the first round. The top quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight end, offensive and defensive linemen, linebackers and defensive backs. It’s doubtful the Chiefs choice at the No. 5 pick will be playing in this game.

There are only two of the top 20 or 25 players taking part: OT Trent Williams from Oklahoma and CB Patrick Robinson of Florida State. Most of the players on both rosters are considered good enough to be selected in April’s NFL Draft.

In the last five drafts, the Chiefs selected 43 players. A dozen of those players participated in the Senior Bowl: 2009-Alex Magee, 2008-Brad Cottam and Barry Richardson, 2007-Dwayne Bowe, Tank Tyler and Kolby Smith, 2006-Tamba Hali and Brodie Croyle, 2005-Dustin Colquitt, Craphonso Thorpe, Alphonso Hodge and Jeremy Parquet.

Here is the list of invitees by position that will work with the coaching staffs of the Detroit Lions and Miami Dolphins: Read More..

Championship Sunday … Cup O’Chiefs

Tickets to the Super Bowl are ready to be punched on Sunday as the AFC and NFC Championship. The games will go down in Indianapolis and New Orleans, with the home teams both favored to win.

Some of the best players in the game today are ready to play for a chance to become the 44th winner of the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

NEW YORK JETS @ INDIANAPOLIS, LUCAS OIL STADIUM, 2 P.M.

The Indianapolis Colts/AFC South champion/15-2

There have been a lot of changes around Indianapolis in the last year.

But the fact the Colts are in their third AFC Championship Game this decade speaks to the one factor that doesn’t change: Peyton Manning.

The NFL’s 2009 MVP knows there are a lot of teammates like him that have been in this situation before, and that there are a lot of teammates who are getting their first taste of championship football.

“I have always felt that experience is your best teacher, as long as you use the knowledge that you gained from the experience,” Manning said this week. “I think that is important. We have a lot of young players, a lot of rookies that are playing prominent roles for us this year; I know they will be excited. But I think all the veteran players, guys that have been in this game before, will be equally as excited. It’s just a great opportunity.”

The ‘09 season was very different for the Colts. Tony Dungy was out and Jim Caldwell was in as head coach. Marvin Harrison was gone at wide receiver and guys like Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon got their opportunities, as did rookie RB Donald Brown.

“There certainly was a lot of unknown to start the season,” said Manning. “Certain guys looked good in practice, but you just don’t know how certain players will respond once you get into game situations. It is one thing to look good in training camp, but do you look as efficient once the lights turn on? We had a number of young guys that really stepped up. The game never seemed too big for them. Guys like Pierre Garcon, Donald Brown, and Austin Collie. I think that was critical when those guys were called on to make plays for us and to fulfill some critical roles. Read More..

Stats Roundup: A Decade Of Rushing

The 2000s was the most successful decade in franchise history for the Chiefs when it came to running the football. That was thanks to the strong legs and ability of Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson.

Among the league’s 32 teams, the Chiefs finished ninth in rushing yards over the decade, averaging 122.4 yards per game. That was just less than 12 yards per game behind the rushing leader over the 2000s, the Denver Broncos.

Of the team’s 19,581 rushing yards from 2000 through 2009, Holmes and Johnson accounted for 62 percent of those yards.

The Chiefs finished No. 1 in rushing touchdowns during the decade, with 183 scores. Holmes and Johnson had 131 of those touchdown runs. That was 72 percent of the team’s rushing scores.

Over the last 10 seasons, the Chiefs had six different seasons where a running back ran for 1,000 yards or more (missing only in 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2008.) That was done by three different backs – Holmes, Johnson and Jamaal Charles. Those three and FB Tony Richardson were the Chiefs backs that put up more than 1,000 yards over the decade.

Here’s the top 10 Chiefs rushers over the last 10 seasons: Read More..