Football Potpourri … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

The Fourth of July weekend is just ahead and were it not for the legal representatives of the owners and players meeting in Minneapolis, pro football would be off the radar screen right now.

But there are plenty of stories floating around in the NFL ether and here are a few that we found interesting for your summer perusal. Enjoy.

THESE UNIFORMS SHOULD BE BURNED

Chiefs fans should thank their lucky stars that the late Lamar Hunt was in charge of the team for almost four decades and was concerned about the way his team looked on the field.

Thus, the Chiefs have seldom had any changes to their uniforms over 52 seasons. Other than a stripe added here and there, or removed here and there, the uniform worn by the Dallas Texans in 1960 are not that different than the duds they’ll wear on the field in the 2011 season.

That’s not the case around the league. The throwback idea is driven by merchandising and the hope of teams and the league to sell more clothing. Thus, teams like the Broncos ended up wearing the hideous uniform you see on QB Kyle Orton (right). The players of the early 1960s became so sick of those vertically striped socks that they burned them in mass in an old oil drum. The Denver duds clearly are the uniforms that should never been seen again.

Here’s a link to a story from NFL.com, providing a look at some of the worst examples of pro football fashion. We can only hope that the Hunt children maintain the same outlook on the uniform as their father. …Read More!

A Man Who Should Never Be Forgotten

Wednesday marks 28 years since Joe Delaney drowned in a construction pond at an amusement park in Monroe, Louisiana. His 24 years were far too short. Still his talents and spirit were so memorable and endearing. I got a chance to visit him in his tiny hometown in Louisiana 28 years ago and there’s no question how hard it was for him to reach pro football. Last year, I wrote the following post which I repeat here in case you missed it then.

June 29, 2010 – Look at that smile. So vivid, so endearing, even now 27 years after he’s gone, it still provides a shot of life. It’s hard not to smile back.

Joe Delaney had one of the best smiles that ever walked through a Chiefs locker room. Shy and quiet by nature, he was always ready to push back his lips and show his pearly whites. For two years his teammates all remember one thing about him – no matter what time they walked into the locker room at Arrowhead Stadium, Joe was already there, sitting in front of his locker, sipping from a cup of coffee and ready to flash that smile to everyone.

It was on June 29, 1983 in Monroe, Louisiana that Joe Delaney drowned while trying to save three boys who were under water in a construction pond next to an amusement park. He was 24 years old.

Some three generations of Chiefs fans never got the chance to see him play. They know the story of his selfless act of heroism. They’ve heard of his tragic death. His most remarkable rookie season of 1981 is in the history books – his Pro Bowl trip where he was the only rookie starter, his Chiefs MVP award, the AFC Rookie of the Year, the All-Rookie teams and even a spot on a first-unit All-Pro team.

But they never got the chance to see him flying out of the backfield, headed for the corner of the defense and shifting into high gear. Oh my, it was something special. A crack in the defense was all he needed. He would explode out his stance so fast at the snap of the ball that quarterbacks Bill Kenney and Steve Fuller took awhile to adjust to handing off to him.

  …Read More!

The Twitter League … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

It has become part of the NFL world. In 140 characters or less, NFL players, coaches, administrators and even owners are communicating via Twitter.

By definition from Webster’s Dictionary, twitter means a short burst of inconsequential information and chirps from a group of birds. That’s exactly what Twitter has become – a maximum of 140 characters about information that’s 99.9 percent inconsequential. When an event happens, no matter how big or small, the increase in Twitter traffic is like a flock of birds sitting in a tree chattering at each other.

It’s part of the so-called social media. Twitter began in July 2006 and in five years has now reached an estimated 200 million users that generate 190 million tweets per day. The Harvard Business School has studied the Twitter craze and concluded that there is a hardcore group of active users, with 10 percent of the Twitter account holders creating 86 percent of the activity.

That’s certainly true within the Chiefs family. A few players are very active users, guys like DL Shaun Smith (10,625 tweets) and S Eric Berry (8,540 tweets). Others are sometimes tweeting like RB Jamaal Charles (2,762 tweets) and CB Brandon Flowers (2,762 tweets). More than a handful of players are not on Twitter at all, like QB Matt Cassel, LB Mike Vrabel, G Brian Waters and RB Thomas Jones. …Read More!

Comparing Draft Pick $ … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

        

The No. 1 draft choices in the four major sports in 2010 – QB Sam Bradford, OF Bryce Harper, PG John Wall and LW Taylor Hall. Each began their pro careers in different fashions because of how the leagues handle their draft selections.

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As the NFL and its players continue the process of trying to put together a labor agreement, one of the issues involves draft picks and their compensation. It was a big subject of the conversation between the parties in suburban Boston last week.

The league wants to put the draft picks – especially the first rounders – on a pay schedule similar to what the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League have done with their early draft selections. They want to limit the money the rookies receive when joining the league. The players’ side understands the desire of the owners, because it matches what many of the league’s most veteran players believe – that that type of money should go to players who have achieved in the league.

But the contracts signed by the early draft choices do more than make the youngsters rich. It drives spending on veteran players. While it obviously does not make sense for a team to pay strictly on potential – which is what the NFL does with first-round draft choices – it does create a tide that tends to lift all boats across the board.

As the owners and players get together this week in Minneapolis for more negotiations, the wage scale for rookie draft choices continues to be a major element to be discussed and either implemented or forgotten.

Football, basketball, hockey and baseball all have different ways of operating when it comes to the draft. In the NFL and NBA, players tend to participate immediately after they are drafted, especially those picks that got big money contracts at the top of the first round. Hockey and baseball have the most extensive professional pipelines in the form of minor leagues in this country, Canada and even Europe that feed their teams with talent.

Each of the four leagues has different rules and regulations with their drafts. Some contracts are guaranteed upon signing, while others have only a portion that will go to the player no matter what happens. The NFL owners have always been unhappy with training camp holdouts by high draft choices, something that doesn’t happen in the other three leagues.   …Read More!

A Hero’s Tale Continues … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Chiefs TE Leonard Pope and six-year old Bryson Ross got a chance to meet again on Sunday in Americus, Georgia. It was two weeks ago that Pope dove into a swimming pool and saved Ross from drowning. Sunday was a thank you moment planned by Bryson and his mother. (Photo from the Albany Herald.)

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It’s the gift that keeps on giving. At a time and place where the world of the NFL is full of the talk of greed as the owners and players try to pluck their golden goose without killing it, Leonard Pope has provided an escape.

Back on June 11, the Chiefs tight end saved the life of six-year old Brayson Ross, diving into a swimming pool and pulling the youngster off the bottom. It all happened in Pope’s hometown of Americus, Georgia.

The heroics have made Pope a national figure, as he’s told his story on national television and to reporters in all four corners of the country.

But there was one more person that wanted to talk with him. That was Brayson Ross. So on Sunday in Americus, Pope met with Bryson and his mother Anne Moore.

…Read More!

Player Profile – OT Bobby Greenwood

 As the lockout continues, we are trying to provide a very personal look at some of the little known players on the roster that might be able to step up and provide help on the field during the 2011 season. Last, we featured LB Micah Johnson and WR Jerheme Urban. Today, we look at OT Bobby Greenwood.

When the Chiefs got together for their players lock-out mini-camp just last week there was a surprising left tackle working with the offensive line. Branden Albert and Barry Richardson were not there, but Bobby Greenwood was and he was holding down the left side. A year ago Greenwood was playing on the defensive line. But last August during training camp, the Chiefs had a shortage of bodies along the offensive line and the Alabama-product was moved there. And, that’s where he’s stayed and he’s drawn the attention of head coach Todd Haley and the offensive staff. Greenwood will have to assert himself in the 2011 training camp and pre-season, but after two years on the practice squad, he’s ready to play, rather than watch.

PERSONAL FILE

• Robert Lindsay Greenwood Jr.
• Born – March 2, 1987, in St. Petersburg, Florida.
• Family – Parents are Pamela and Robert L. Greenwood Sr. Dad works for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Younger brother Sean (by three years) played football recently (2009) at the University of South Alabama where he played on both the offensive and defensive lines.
• Grew up – He spent the first 11 years of his life in St. Petersburg, Florida. Then, in 1998 the Greenwoods moved to Prattville, a city of 32,000 people that’s just north of Montgomery in central Alabama. Prattville is known as The Fountain City because of the abundance of artesian wells in the area. Famous natives of Prattville include NFL players Roman Harper and Kevin Turner and musical great, the late Wilson Pickett. It’s also the home of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Capitol Hill, one of the 11 courses that make up the RTJ Golf Trail through the state of Alabama.

…Read More!

Joplin & Camp Time … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Before getting started we must tip our cap to the 135 or so folks in the Kansas City Chiefs organization that spent Thursday in Joplin helping that tornado ravaged city, contributing their muscles, their money and their time.

Some 10 players joined front office staff, coaches and others on the trip, including first-round draft choice Jonathan Baldwin (right). He was joined by several other draft choices and veterans like Matt Cassel and Andy Studebaker. GM Scott Pioli made the trip as well, as did several members of the coaching staff, including offensive coordinator Bill Muir.

Many of the people on the four buses that traveled to Joplin have had their paychecks cut by ownership due to the lockout. They easily could have withheld their commitment to anything scheduled by the club. But showing their class, the little guys in the building went to Joplin and provided a great example of love thy neighbor. What a wonderful effort by the folks at the Chiefs.

Now on to the subject of camping . . .

Around the country it’s camping time for NFL players. I speak not of training camp, which hopefully will go off as scheduled at the end of July. And, I am not talking about players pitching tents in the woods and enjoying the great outdoors.

This camping involves afternoons on green fields around the country, providing guidance, expertise and encouragement for young football players from five to 20 years old.

Generally, this is the time of year when players have about a month off before heading to training camp. That makes it the time when a lot of players schedule their own camps, or agree to participate in camps run by other players, schools and charities. …Read More!

Chiefs In Joplin En Masse

Members of the Chiefs organization are in Joplin on Thursday helping with the post-tornado clean-up operations. Pictured above are some of the players that made the trip along with members of the franchise’s front office and staff. The NFL provided special dispensation to the organization for this one-day event.

A Bit of Everything … Morning Cup of Chiefs

The question comes all the time from people outside the circle of pro football – how can I get into the NFL?

It comes from people trying to find a spot in the front office, or from marginal college athletes who think it’s only a matter of time before some team recognizes their skills. It comes from folks trying to get into the personnel department as a scout, or on the coaching staff.

All I can do is repeat bromides that are as old as the hills – “It’s all about who you know” or “right place at the right time” and “be willing to start at ground level.”

Nick Sirianni (pictured right with QB Matt Cassel) followed all of those avenues as a young college coach looking to move up. He will begin his third season as the Chiefs offensive assistant whenever the NFL gets around to lifting its lockout of the players and signs on a new labor agreement.

Sirianni is from western New York, went to college as a wide receiver at Division III powerhouse Mt. Union College in Alliance, Ohio – hometown of Len Dawson – and until he was hired by Todd Haley in 2009, the highest level his coaching career reached was with Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), where he was wide receivers coach.

He had five years as a small college coach, so how did a 28-year old Sirianni end up in the NFL? …Read More!

If Old Rules Apply … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Brandon Carr (39), Tamba Hali (91), Wallace Gilberry (92) and Barry Richardson (67) are all without contracts for the 2011 season and the Chiefs need to re-sign all four.

Word out of the NFL meeting in Chicago on Tuesday is that a new labor agreement with the players would include a free agency system that matches what the league used from 1993 through 2009. This would cast aside the changes made last year in the season without a salary cap.

All of this matters to the Chiefs because among NFL teams they have a large number of players without contracts for the 2011 season.

Scott Pioli and his negotiating minions have not been able to get anything done because of the NFL lockout that went down 99 days ago. If the optimism that a deal between owners and players is not a question of if, but when, then at some point the 2011 league year will begin with free agency.

If rumors are correct that the rules will return to normal, then unrestricted free agency would be available after four seasons in the league. A player with three years experience would be a restricted free agent and players with less than three years would be exclusive rights free agents. Reportedly the franchise player designation will be continued and supposedly there are new rules out there that are being negotiated involving the free agency process.

When the NFL went to the lockout, the Chiefs had 24 players in their orbit without deals for the coming season. Under the old rules, here’s how they would break down:   …Read More!

Owners Hear The Deal

The NFL owners met on Tuesday in Chicago and it appears on first blush that there was not vociferous pushback against the details of a new labor agreement with the players.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners bargaining committee – including Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt – presented reports on the negotiations with the players, where progress has been made and what direction they think the talks are headed for in the coming days.

“The ownership has a better idea of the framework (of an agreement),” Goodell told the media on Tuesday afternoon. “It was a good day in that we had a full discussion of the issues.” 

Negotiations between the league and players will resume on Wednesday in Boston, where they will talk for two days.

There was no vote taken by the owners and there’s a very good chance to when some of them return home and start crunching the numbers they will find reasons to be unhappy. But from media reports coming out of Chicago and the meeting, these are some of the details of the new deal between the league and its players:

• NFL players would receive 48 percent of the total revenue generated by the league and its teams. The old agreement provided the players with anywhere from 53 to 60 percent of certain revenues, after a cut was taken off the top by the owners. Now, it’s all revenue and there’s no money pre-assigned total coming off the top each year.
• There would be occasions when the owners could get more than 52 percent of the revenue in any year based on helping teams fund stadiums and the like. The players’ percentage would never go lower than 46.5 percent of the full revenues.
• The agreement would include a salary cap and a salary floor, as teams would have to spend 90 percent of the cap figure in cash dollars, not cap dollars.
• A rookie wage scale would be put in place and it would follow the likes of that in the NBA; details remained to be worked out.
• Free agency would return to the rules prior to last year’s uncapped season, with unrestricted free agency available to a player after four years in the league. Players with three years would be restricted free agents.
• The franchise player designation will continue.
• A new 16-game Thursday night schedule will create more television revenue.
• The season will remain 16 games, and a possible 18-game schedule would have to be negotiated with the players and could not be imposed unilaterally by the owners.

Not surprisingly, details on many parts of the deal remained sketchy and will be part of continued negotiations. There was talk involving the football people of the league about how to deal with things like free agency, training camp and the 2011 pre-season based on potential resolution dates of the dispute.

What Is Clark’s Role? … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

With his presence for probably 75 to 80 percent of the negotiating sessions between the NFL owners and players, Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt has been right in the middle of the labor action this spring and summer.

However, when the league meets on Tuesday in Chicago for a special session to review the status of the negotiations on a new agreement with the players, Hunt does not figure to be much of a factor in the discussions beyond explaining portions of the negotiations.

At 46, Hunt will be the second youngest owner in the room. There are owners with socks that are older than Lamar Hunt’s progeny. While he’s been going to these types of meetings for years with his father and everybody in the room knows him and his family, Hunt does not represent any particular constituency in the league.

There are some that want to paint Hunt as some sort of representative of small market teams, but that’s not really a factor in NFL economics. It’s not small market vs. big market. If that was the case then Green Bay, New Orleans and Pittsburgh would not have won the last three Super Bowls.

Its big revenue teams vs. clubs with even bigger revenue streams. The Packers are the smallest market in population in professional sports, but they make millions of dollars that are particular to Green Bay thanks to Lambeau Field and the aura of the Pack.

In the last three years, business has dropped off a bit for the Chiefs, especially in the 2009-10 seasons. But before that, when they were under the direction of President-GM Carl Peterson, Kansas City ranked among the higher revenue generating franchises in the league despite having a small population market.

In fact, they were high enough on the revenue side that they had to pay money into a fund within the league that provided extra monies to teams that made less revenue. In fact, it was a point of contention with Peterson and the Hunt family that their success in producing revenue put money in the pocket of Al Davis and the Raiders, who ranked among the lower revenue clubs. …Read More!

A Brief History of the National Football League

The National Football League (NFL) consists of thirty-two teams, and remains the highest level of American football within the United States today. However, its history can be seen to date back as far as the nineteenth century.

Back in 1892, the Allegheny Athletic Association paid William Heffelfinger $500 to play in a specific game – making him the first professional football player. This was to spark the need for a league. However, before the NFL came into place, American football games were predominately presided over by the American Professional Football Association, which was formed in 1920.

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The American Professional Football Association was comprised of just ten teams, from four different states. However, this organization was reorganized just two years later – out of which came the NFL. During subsequent years, this league became more formal, and more teams acquired membership.

Although the first championship game was held in 1933, further expansion was somewhat put on hold during the time of the second world war. After the war, a series of changes to league rules were implemented, most notable the inclusion of black players within NFL teams. By the late 1950s, the NFL has managed to build its reputation amongst both players and fans, and was widely considered to be one of the most popular sports leagues in the States.

However, it was also around this time that the American Football League was founded as a rival league. Due to the success of this league, the NFL later agreed to a merger deal, resulting in a much larger league, as well as the creation of the world-renowned Super Bowl event.

Player Profile – WR Jerheme Urban

As the lockout continues, we are trying to provide a very personal look at some of the little known players on the roster that might be able to step up and provide help on the field during the 2011 season. Last week we featured LB Micah Johnson. Today, we look at Jerheme Urban.

Jerheme Urban is all Texas. He grew up on a working cattle ranch, won awards for animals that he raised. And he played football, played it quite well on the high school and small college levels. On the NFL level, injuries have held him back including a finger tendon injury last year that saw him spent the entire 2010 Chiefs season on the injured-reserve list.

PERSONAL FILE

• Jerheme Wayne Urban.
• Position – Wide receiver.
• College – Trinity University.
• Born – November 26, 1980 in Victoria, Texas.
• Grew Up – Victoria, Texas. A city of approximately 120,000 people in a three-county metro area, Victoria sits in south-central Texas and is two hours away from Corpus Christi, Houston, San Antonio and Austin. It’s 30 to 50 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
• Family – Parents are Wayne Urban and Rhonda Hooper. Stepfather is Jon Hooper. Younger brother is Caleb, who also played wide receiver at Trinity University. Wife – Married Emily Goodwin in ’06. They have a one-year old daughter Liesl. Emily competed in track at Trinity University.   …Read More!

Goodell Must Be Good … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Will NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell be smiling or grim faced this week as league owners meet to discuss negotiations with the players?

Back on March 10, Roger Goodell earned approximately $10 million a year as Commissioner of the National Football League. Bonuses were extra.

When the owners’ locked out the players on March 11, Goodell’s salary dropped to $1, with no bonus plan.

Whether the Commish and his skills are worth that $10 million paycheck, or one buck will be seen in the next 48 to 72 hours as the league owners head to Chicago for a meeting tomorrow that will have a big effect on whether we have NFL football in July, August, September, or not at all.

Pete Rozelle, Paul Tagliabue, Roger Goodell, all the men who held the position as NFL Commissioner over the last 50 years have tried to sell the fact that they are the representative for the entire game. Of course, they are not – they are an employee of the NFL owners. They are the men who decide who they’ll hire, how much he’s paid and how much power he actually has.

Since he took over from Tagliabue in 2006, Goodell has shown that he appears to have both hands on the NFL wheel. His willingness to go after the off-field behavior of players has drawn some criticism – the concept of innocent until proven guilty comes to mind – but the owners have loved the moves. It has been a PR victory and owners like those sorts of things. They pay off in big measure in many different areas of the business, plus it takes the pressure off the individual teams to always handle discipline for players.

But the success of a commissioner – any commissioner – really depends on only three factors: …Read More!

The Ring Is The Thing

On Thursday evening in Green Bay, the Super Bowl champion Packers received their championship rings during a gala ceremony at Lambeau Field.

Take a look at that monster above. That’s what they are all playing for, what they are training for, why they practice and prepare. It’s not that they can’t afford to buy a big ring like this one; they aren’t for sale. They have to be earned.

“They wanted big and they wanted bling,” Packers team president Mark Murphy told the media Thursday night. “We were successful in that.”

Here’s a description from the Packers on the new bobble:

“The crest of the ring features the Green Bay “G” logo crest in 18-karat yellow gold placed on a green stone tablet. Thirteen diamonds are embedded in the logo, each one representing the team’s NFL-record 13 championships. The iconic logo is illuminated by round, brilliant-cut diamonds and four marquis-cut diamonds representing the Packers’ four Super Bowl triumphs. Surrounding the crest are 92 diamonds which recognize the 92-year history of Green Bay Packers football.”

The ring is made of platinum, with 18 karat gold and has 3.35 carats worth of diamonds. It weighs 116 grams.

Cost? Nobody’s talking around the Packers. The NFL provides $750,000 to the winning team to pay for up to 150 rings. Anything more must be paid for by the winning team.

Make Work … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Matt Cassel’s words were firm and loud.

“Take it easy out here guys,” Cassel told a new group of defensive backs who were coming out to get into the huddle. “Take it easy.”

Cassel’s words and their intent – don’t get hurt – makes it hard to know what will come out of the three-day players’ mini-camp that ended on Thursday morning with a third practice session at Bishop Miege High School.

What went down in the 90-minute session looked much like any other football practice in its framework. There were individual position periods, there was time for the offensive and defensive units to get together and there was a competitive period where the two sides went against each other. There was even interview time – that’s S Jon McGraw above talking through the fence, a perfect sort of lockout picture.

I must say this – it’s the third instance where because of a labor dispute I watched NFL players work on their own. Practices during the 1982 and 1987 strikes were jokes compared to what the players were doing in this practice during the current/2011 lockout. In those previous seasons, players walked off the field at various points and simply sat in the shade. Both of those strikes came during the regular season, so the players initially viewed the downtime as an unexpected vacation. Any motivation to work during the strike quickly disappeared and sessions continued for only a short time.

That wasn’t the case with this 2011 players’ mini-camp. …Read More!

Watching A Lockout Practice

There were 45 men on the field Thursday morning when the Chiefs held the last of three practices that amounted to a players’ created mini-camp in this lockout summer.

It all went down at Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park, the home of the Stags and their head football coach, former Chiefs center Tim Grunhard.

The players worked for 90 minutes and showed good timing as they were off the field just as it began to show lightning and the rain started. Just like the real workouts, the media was around to ask questions afterwards.

The players were in shorts and t-shirts and obviously there was extremely limited physical contact, with no tackling or anything close to that. As ILB Derrick Johnson said, it was a more mental practice than physical.

Here are some of the highlights:   …Read More!

League Still Locked … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Negotiators for the NFL and its players have broken off their no longer so secret-secret negotiations on a new labor agreement.

After spending three days enjoying the charms of suburban Chicago, and then two days on Long Island last week, negotiators for the NFL owners and players wrapped up a sojourn to Maryland’s Eastern Shore on Wednesday.

Now, we don’t know just where these talks went down, but we do know that there’s no better time of the year to be in the Delmarva than June. Possibly they were in St. Michaels, where they ordered in from the Crab Claw restaurant and checked out the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. They might have gone down Highway 50 a few more miles to a chez classy Hyatt resort in Cambridge. I can see NFL Commish Roger Goodell and players head DeMaurice Smith hitting the oysters and clams at Jimmie & Sooks Raw Bar and Grill for some team building time.

Maybe they went even further into the peninsula to Salisbury where they could score great sea food at the Market Street Inn. Maybe they went all the way to Assateague Island to see the wild horses and then over to Ocean City for some great seafood at the Phillips Crab House and then some salt water taffy from Dolle’s on the boardwalk.

More than likely they did not leave whatever hotel they shacked up in. There was work to be done and the clock is ticking.

…Read More!

Players Mini-Camp Starts

Locked out by their owner Clark Hunt and the rest of the NFL owners, the Chiefs players are staging their own mini-camp this week in Kansas City.

Word on the player grapevine has anywhere from 30 to 40 players taking part in Tuesday’s first practice. They will go again on Wednesday and Thursday. A lot of the players who have come in from out of town apparently are staying for practice sessions planned for next week as well.

Identifying their attendance via their Twitter accounts were S Eric Berry, CB Brandon Flowers, S Kendrick Lewis, CB Maurice Leggett, WR Dwayne Bowe, DE Wallace Gilberry, first-round draft choice WR Jonathan Baldwin, third-round pick Justin Houston, DTs Shaun Smith and Anthony Toribio and DE Glenn Dorsey.

The players say they will open their Thursday workout to the media, but they’ve asked that the location of the sessions be kept quiet because they can’t allow fans to attend for insurance reasons.

Coaches and administrators from the Chiefs are not allowed to watch the workouts or attend based on rules established for the lockout by the NFL.

Optimism continued throughout the NFL on Tuesday that a new labor agreement was going to happen sooner rather than later. Quiet negotiations between the league and players have been happening this week at the Maryland shore, not far from Washington, D.C.

The Winning Ability … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

I’ve been thinking about Todd Haley over the last 24 hours or so, at least since the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA Championship on Sunday night.

That Mavs victory over the Miami Heat is one of those teachable moments that I’m sure will not go without comment when the Chiefs head coach gets a chance to speak to his team once again.

The Dallas victory is a perfect example of what Haley preaches 24/7 to his crew – there has to be more than talent involved for a team to win a title. It’s a basic truth in athletic competition and essential when teams fight for supremacy. Talent and talent alone do not guarantee victory. It never has. It never will.

Down in Miami, they were convinced that the pairing of LeBron James and Chris Bosh with Dwayne Wade was the start of a giant victory parade down Collins Avenue every June. Any knowing person would have James and Wade on their All-NBA first team.

But it’s so easy to be seduced by physical ability – the guys who can jump the highest, run the fastest, lift the most weight and scores the most points, yards, rebounds, home runs, strikeouts, etc. Pull enough of them together, and a team will be unbeatable. Owners, general managers and coaches have been blinded by that pursuit for decades.   …Read More!

Weekend Leftovers … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Monday is the 95th day that pro football has been locked out by the NFL.

Monday is also 88 days away from what is supposed to be the opening weekend of the 2011 NFL season.

Hopefully, Monday will also be the day when we continue to hear the labor situation is moving in the right direction and more folks around the league are talking about a full season, with a complete training camp. Optimism is high.

We can only hope.

But even as we wait for the battle over $9 billion-plus per year to end, there is professional football going on, albeit at price tags far lower than the NFL. The Arena Football League is in the midst of its 2011 season. The Canadian Football League teams are in training camp and getting ready to start a pre-season schedule. The United Football League will open training camps a month from now, with games set to begin in mid-August.

There are familiar names to Chiefs fans in all three of those leagues right now. In fact, there are six Chiefs draft choices that are currently listed on rosters in those three leagues. Check it out:   …Read More!

A Football Assortment … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Take a look at the tattooed arm above. It’s amazing at this point what that garish tat and others that were given in Columbus, Ohio have done to bring down one of college football’s most successful coaches and one of the best players in Ohio State history.

That human canvas belongs to Terrelle Pryor, former Ohio State quarterback, a guy who traded Buckeyes memorabilia for tattoos, and various other items. The QB who led OSU to plenty of major victories, including three straight against State’s most hated rival Michigan.

This week, Pryor announced that his time in Columbus was finished. It became clear almost immediately that he did not have plans to transfer to another program, even a Division 1-AA program where he would not have to sit out a transfer season. Pro football was on the horizon.

Stepping to the plate first was the Canadian Football League. The north of the border rights belonged to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. In just a few days, they put together an offer for Pryor. He’s not said so publicly, but his attorney said he’s not interested in going to the CFL. …Read More!

Checking In With Marty

Last weekend, former Chiefs head coach Marty Schottenheimer was in Cleveland holding an open tryout camp for his newest team – the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League.

The trip brought back a lot of memories for Marty and his nine seasons spent with the Browns as an assistant coach and then head coach. When he and owner Art Modell agreed to disagree after the 1988 season, he left Cleveland and became head coach of the Chiefs for 10 seasons.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer talked with him and there were several items worthy of passing on from the Q&A session.

What was your best team ever?

“I think the ’93 team of (Joe) Montana and Kansas City. We had arguably one of the finest quarterbacks of all time under center. We had a really good defensive team. . . . We went to Buffalo in the AFC championship game and Joe was injured in the first half, at some point in time, and we couldn’t overcome that. I’m not suggesting we would have won even if he had played the game throughout. To me that was the team.” …Read More!

Optimism In The Air? … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Thursday was scheduled to be the start of the Chiefs 2011 mini-camp. Instead, players and coaches are scattered around the country, stuck in the NFL lockout. That’s a depressing thought right there.

But, for the first time in years – at least the last two since the NFL owners opted out of the most recent collective bargaining agreement – there is optimism in the pro football world of labor relations.

On Wednesday, the league and players wrapped up two days of not-so secret negotiations that were held at a Long Island hotel. Sitting around the table were players and owners. The lawyers were out of the room and not in the conversation first hand. The only lawyer in the room was players association head DeMaurice Smith. He was joined by players Kevin Mawae, Jeff Saturday, Mike Vrabel, Tony Richardson and Dominque Foxworth.

Representing the league was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and owners Clark Hunt, Jerry Richardson (Carolina), Robert Kraft (New England), John Mara (New York Giants), and Dean Spanos (San Diego).

The list of participants is reason alone for an increase in optimism. It’s the second week in a row that the parties have gotten together in quiet circumstances and out of the way places. That the two sides are talking while waiting for court rulings and sessions is a great sign. The list of non-participants (no lawyers) is reason to be optimistic.

But there are other factors involved in the recent conversations that provide hope. So far, public comments coming out of the most recent sessions have been in one voice, speaking for both sides. …Read More!

Player Profile – LB Micah Johnson

As the lockout continues, we are trying to provide a very personal look at some of the unknown players on the roster that might be able to step up and provide some help on the field during the 2011 season. Last week we featured DT Anthony Toribio. This week it’s LB Micah Johnson.

Micah Johnson is an Army brat who was born in Georgia but has lived all over the country as the son of Colonel Skip Johnson. It was in high school in Virginia and Kentucky, and then college at the University of Kentucky where he flashed his remarkable achievements.

PERSONAL FILE

Micah Johnson

Born – June 22, 1988, in Columbus, Georgia.

Family – Parents are Vicki and Nathaniel Johnson II. This is a military family that has lived in Oklahoma, California, Washington, Hawaii, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Kentucky over the last 25 years. They had three sons – Nathaniel Johnson III, Christian and the youngest Micah. Dad played college football at Bishop College in Dallas, the alma mater of Hall of Fame CB Emmitt Thomas of the Chiefs. Nathaniel III played football at Laney College, a two-year junior college in Oakland, California. Christian was an offensive lineman at the University of Kentucky, earning recognition for his play in (2005-07, 2009).

Mom is a clinical social worker, while Dad is Colonel Nathaniel “Skip” Johnson II, who at one time was the commander of the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry regiment, 3rd Brigade combat team of the 101st Airborne Assault, based out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. This group was known as the Iron Rakkasans of the 3rd Battalion and saw some of the toughest and most dangerous action in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was promoted from Lt. Colonel in August of 2009 in ceremonies in Washington, D.C. While serving a one-year tour of duty in Iraq in 2005-06, then Lt. Colonel Johnson missed Micah’s senior season of high school ball.

…Read More!

Caught in the Middle … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

There are innocent victims caught in the middle of the NFL labor dispute between owners and players. There are many groups that have and will be injured if the league’s lockout continues unabated.

It’s the league’s assistant coaches that have felt the impact first. They are caught in what amounts to a football labor no man’s land. The owners of 75 percent of the league’s teams are cutting the salaries of coaches, or forcing them to take unpaid furloughs. Some of the cuts are in excess of 25 percent of their salaries.

Despite that, the owners expect the coaches to be good club employees. That’s why the league’s assistant coaches have been publicly silent when it comes to the lockout. Generally the only voice coming out of the coaching offices belongs to the head coach and very few of them are talking.

But the assistants have made some noise in the last couple weeks and it’s been in interesting example of the no-win situation these coaches are in. Here’s a short chronology of what’s gone down:

…Read More!

Weekend Pigskin Potpourri … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

A hot and sticky Midwest weekend brought thoughts of football training camp, with the shimmer of heat rising off the playing field, and players trying to push through another workout in football’s summer oven.

Then, the stark reality of Monday morning hits. As much as the weather turns thoughts to pre-season preparation, the National Football League, the Chiefs and training camp are in limbo.

Give or take a day or two, its 53 days from the time the Chiefs camp would open at Missouri Western in St. Joseph. It’s less than 70 days from the first pre-season game.

As each day passes, it becomes more and more of a “hurry-up and wait” scenario. Neither side has suffered irrevocable damage at this point, not the players, not the league. It’s just the third party, the fans that grows more frustrated, worried and just pissed off as each day gets ripped from the lockout calendar.

What follows are some news, notes and observations from what little action there was floating around the world of pro football over the weekend.   …Read More!

Player Profile … DT Anthony Toribio

As the lockout continues, we are trying to provide a very personal look at some of the unknown players on the roster that might be able to step up and provide some help on the field during the 2011 season. Last week we featured WR Verran Tucker. This week it’s DT Anthony Toribio.

Like his teammates with the Chiefs, DT Anthony Toribio is out there working hard and trying to be ready to go when the 2011 does get started. San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Nick Canepa found a bunch of NFL players working out the other day in Carlsbad, California, at Velocity Sports Performance. One of those players was Toribio.

Wrote Canepa:

“Toribio, all 6-1, 305 pounds of him, is the character in the group. He isn’t from this area, having performed for Carson-Newman in Tennessee. But he’s from Miami, and he likes the sun and loves to skateboard. And treats. On Fridays, he breaks fast and makes a run to the acclaimed Leucadia Donut Shoppe for apple fritters.

“The lockout sucks, but I’ve come out to get in quality work,” he says. “Fridays are great, my cheating days, when I go for donuts and do some skateboarding.

“This is about being a pro. This is going to be a test to show coaches who’s been working out. I look at it as being a professional. You can’t just jump into training camp; it’d be like running without warming up.”

Here’s more on Toribio.  …Read More!

Unappealing Matters … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

The pro football world lands on the eastern edge of the state of Missouri on Friday.

More specifically, it falls in the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse on South 10th Street in downtown St. Louis.

Even more specifically it lands in the En Banc Courtroom on the 28th Floor of the Eagleton Courthouse. The building has 29 floors, so while it’s not quite the Penthouse, but it’s pretty darn close.

At 10 a.m., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit will call to order the hearing on Appeal #11-1898 in the case of Tom Brady, et. al vs. the National Football League, et. al.

Lawyers from the NFL and those representing the players will have 30 minutes each for oral arguments in front of Judges Kermit E. Bye, Steven M. Colloton and W. Duane Benton, of Kansas City. Both sides have already filed lengthy briefs in front of the judges, previewing where they are going to take their presentations.   …Read More!

The Chiefs Best Records … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

Since the Dallas Texans walked on the field for their first game in September 1960, the franchise begun by Lamar Hunt has played 51 seasons, 794 regular season and post-season games and thousands of plays.

A handful of those performances in those plays, games and seasons rank as the most impressive statistical standards in the Chiefs record book.

We’ve picked out the seven most impressive records among the many noted performances in team history. They span nearly the entire 51 years that the Texans-Chiefs have played and cover offense, defense and special teams.

Why seven? That just happened to be the number we ended up with when separating the good from the very good, from the outstanding.

Here they are, ranked in order of their stature in our eyes.

…Read More!

From The Labor Front … Morning Cup O’Chiefs

It’s the next “big week” in the labor battle between the NFL and the players.

On Friday, the appeal of the ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Nelson will be held in front of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. The appeal was filed by the NFL after Judge Nelson granted an injunction against the owners and their lockout of the players.

Since the Court of Appeals stayed the injunction and later upheld that stay, the legal analysts believe the judges will rule in favor of the owners and the legality of their lockout. That would put a huge dent in what the players can get done and would continue to leave the 2011 season in doubt.

In the last few days, there have been a lot of interesting stories floating around the league. They were not about this Friday’s hearing or the strength of either side’s argument. They were about the little people, who have been losing out as the lockout goes to its 11th week.

I had my say last week about the ridiculous situation of Chiefs ownership slashing the salaries of front office employees, even though the lockout has nothing to do with them. Here’s the link.

Here are some other stories on that front. …Read More!