Gunther With Something To Say

It’s been almost a whole season and very little has come out of Motown featuring former Chiefs head coach and defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham.

That finally ended on Thursday, when the Detroit Free Press sat down to talk with Gun about offenses in the NFL.

And he had plenty to say, some of it very familiar to Chiefs fans who will remember the first game of Cunningham’s two years as head coach, back in September of 1999. The opponent that day was the Bears and they had a new offense in place, one that Gun called “frisbee football.”

A decade later, his thoughts haven’t changed.

“The sad thing is the NFL’s going towards the college game, and I hate it,” Cunningham told the Free Press. “I don’t care what people say about me for making a comment like that. But it’s taken five years for the NFL to change to this five wide receivers and Wildcat stuff. I remember when Jim Brown was running the ball. That’s what football is to me.”

There’s more, as Gun got wound up talking about NFL offenses.

“The offensive guys are really cute,” Cunningham said.

 ”They really are. I admire them. They must sit in the office 24 hours a day trying to figure out how they can screw up the defenses. And with the way the rules are, they’ve got it going. They’ve got all the guys on the competition committee and they come up with all these formations. …

“Now, I know how to line up against it. Do I like it? No. Somewhere along the line the quarterbacks are going to start going down. Then I’ll be able to say I told you so, because when the Run and Shoot came in, I said that. I said I’ll give it four years, and it’ll be over. And it was – dead, in the water. All the quarterbacks were

“It’s really interesting. I enjoyed getting ready for it, but they about killed me. It takes a lot of hard work to finally understand what they’re doing.”

Cunningham’s defense will try to find a way to beat the Bengals offense, including one Larry Johnson at running back.

No matter what the Bengals do on offense, Gun is telling his guys to not be fooled.

“I said, ‘You know, I went to Oregon, and I learned to count to 11. I didn’t go to Harvard. I don’t need to know trigonometry to know how to line up’, ” he said. “The problem is, the players get nervous when they see a 70 number as a tight end or a 23 as a tackle, and you have to tell them, ‘Numbers don’t matter. It’s how you look at the formation.’


15 Responses to “Gunther With Something To Say”

  • December 4, 2009  - Chet says:

    The Lions are the worst defensive team in the league.


  • December 4, 2009  - Devil Dog 1976 says:

    I am glad that “Gunn” took his ,Rock, papaer sicciors defense to Detroit. I do not nmiss him here.


  • December 4, 2009  - MenInRed says:

    His “OLD SCHOOL” mentality and ways are showing again in this piece, I think the game has passed him by. Good luck Gun, just glad yr not here anymore.


  • December 4, 2009  - OldManChief says:

    I miss you Gunn. I just wish you had been able to run our defense the way YOU wanted to and not the way you were told to run it.


  • December 4, 2009  - Stiv says:

    OMC makes a valid point. During his last stint with the Chiefs Gun had Herm meddling with things and it was pretty obvious the two styles of D didn’t mesh well. Add to that the lousy drafts and it’s small wonder our defense was terrible.

    Good luck to you Gunther.

    Goooooo Chiefs!


  • December 4, 2009  - Alexthe"GREAT" says:

    Gun sucked, all ways has and always will…..we r tired of your excuses 2 why u cant stop NFL teams. First it was not the right personnel,then it was Herm,now its college style offense….LMAO just quit and start enjoying your ladder years!


  • December 4, 2009  - alex k says:

    I will say this…Ive been around a lot of great NFL Coaches…And the way Gunther sounds right now, is the way most of them do right before they are done….he will be golfing very soon, I heard a similar thing back when that run and shoot was being put in. Bobby Hebert had just thrown 6 INT’s against the Saints, and after telling us he would go fishing, he basically blamed the new system, changing times….

    its all the signs of a guy that is done.


  • December 4, 2009  - alex k says:

    Hey, respect him for what he was able to do back in what he calls his time, and realize people get old, and flushed out of their job…happens all the time, here it will happen again as Gunther is just behind the times…thats not good…


  • December 4, 2009  - gorillafan says:

    I agree with alex k totally


  • December 4, 2009  - Dan says:

    Dial up the blitz. Turn people loose on the quarterback its as simple as that. We don’t have the safeties to do that yet but we do have the DB’s, we just need some one special who has a nose for that angle. You can do some special things with schemes guys but you have to have some people to execute them as well.


  • December 4, 2009  - findthedr says:

    who does gunther have to blame for this yrs Detroit defense abomination?


  • December 4, 2009  - Shoe says:

    Gun’s problem in Detroit is the same problem he had here last season:

    Not enough guys in the defense who belong in the NFL.


  • December 4, 2009  - Wulfert says:

    Gun was great back with Marty in the 90’s. He remains today…one tough customer. His best days may be behind him, but he brought some good football to KC. If Vermeil and Edwards had drafted better players he would have been a factor during that time. Hat’s off Gun, thanks for the good times. You are a no BS kind of guy.


  • December 5, 2009  - brainsmasher says:

    You can only blow smoke for so long. Gunther is like a lot of coaches who can win if they have more good players than the other guy; but if they don’t they cannot come up with a scheme that can beat the other guy.


  • December 5, 2009  - ED says:

    Gunther is whinning because he’s washed up. If he ever was any good anyhow. Dick Lebeau has learn how to adapt with all the new things offensive coaches doing on offense. And some of you Chiefs fans stop making excuses for this guy you all sound foolish. I hear some of you say well Herm brought him down wrong. Prior to Herm’s arrival when he was with Vermeil the defense was horrible. He was one of the guys that wanted Ryan Sims had did that work out so I don’t want to hear he didn’t have the players. As for when Herm got here in 06 and 07 season the defense ranked in the top 18. So actually Herm help improve the defense with his arrival.

    I heard some one mention personel. Gunther was one of the coaches who wanted us to go after Kendrell Bell how did that work out. So bottom line he’s a garbage coordinator that got too much credit for Marty’s success here. He showed his true colors after Marty left. He sucked in KC and is sucking in Detroit. HE’ll be fired or will resign there soon.


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