Sunday Morning Cup O’Chiefs

An e-mailer who identified himself simply as “Sammy from Back East” had an interesting question on Saturday:

“How come I never remember the NFL having problems with hurricanes back in the day,” Sammy wrote.  “You don’t read or hear anything about them getting games cancelled back in the 40s and 50s.”

Sammy’s comment came because of the cancellation of the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans game at Reliant Stadium due to Hurricane Ike.  The game was set for today, but was moved to Monday night and then on Saturday pushed back to November 9th after the stadium suffered roof damage from the hurricane winds.

What the NFL has done is move the Texans-Bengals game set for Nov. 9 to October 26th, which was sceduled to be the bye week for each team.  The Ravens bye week was Nov. 9, so that became the date for their visit to Houston.

Beyond the expected damage and electricity outages that come with a story like Hurricane Ike, the damage to the stadium itself made the site unplayable.  Officials won’t know until they get a good look at the roof whether it can be ready for the Texans next home game, on October 5th.

It’s just another example of hurricane weather effecting the NFL.  In 2005 it was Hurricane Katrina forcing the New Orleans Saints to spend the season as vagabonds.  Remember also in 2005, the expected weekend arrival of Hurricane Wilma, forced the Chiefs-Dolphins game to be moved to Friday night.  The Chiefs flew down the day of the game and flew back with a very unusual 30-20 victory.  The year before, the Dolphins season opener was moved up a day because of the threat of Hurricane Ivan and the kickoff time of another game is moved from afternoon to evening because of the effects of Hurricane Jeanne.

And back in 1992, the Dolphins opener against New England was re-scheduled from September 6th to October 18th because of the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.

That’s recent history.  What Sammy forgets with his question is that pro football wasn’t part of the south in any fashion until 1960, when Lamar Hunt began the American Football League.  Before that year, there were no teams south of Washington D.C. and other than Los Angeles and San Francisco, there were no teams west of Chicago.   Hurricanes tend to land along the Gulf coast or the Atlantic coast from Florida to the Carolinas.  In the 40s and 50s there were no teams there.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t ramifications on football because of the rains that come with a hurricane, but I’ve got a lot of football history books and there is no record of games being cancelled or postponed because of hurricanes.

FROM THE PAGES OF CHIEFS HISTORY

On September 14, 1969, the Chiefs opened the season with a victory over the Chargers at Balboa Stadium I n San Diego 27-9.  The Chiefs defense led the charge, allowing just 45 yards rushing and forcing five turnovers, including four interceptions of QB John Hadl.  S Johnny Robinson had two, and CB Emmitt Thomas and LB Willie Lanier had the other INTS.  WR Otis Taylor caught a pair of TD passes from QB Len Dawson, from 55 and nine yards.  RB Wendell Hayes scored on a 1-yard run and Jan Stenerud had a pair of field goals.

On September 14, 2003 the Chiefs beat the Pittsburgh 41-20 at Arrowhead Stadium.  The Chiefs fell behind 10-0 in the first quarter, but after that scored 41 of the next 51 points, with Dante Hall getting it all started with a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.  The Steelers scored again, as WR Plaxico Burress caught a 33-yard TD pass from QB Tommy Maddox.  But from that point it was all Chiefs. RB Priest Holmes scored on runs of 3, 4 and 31 yards, while TE Jason Dunn caught a three-yard TD pass from QB Trent Green and S Jerome Woods returned an INT 46 yards for a score.

OPPONENT NEXT/THE RAIDERS

Out in the Bay Area, they are already talking about Sunday’s game being a must win situation for the embattled coach of the Raiders, Lane Kiffin.

This Bay Area columnist predicts if the Raiders don’t beat the Chiefs, Kiffin will be fired on Monday or Tuesday.

Update on notes and quotes from the silver and black, led off by a few comments by Chiefs DT Glenn Dorsey on being by-passed by the Raiders in the first round of the April NFL Draft.

More on LT Mario Henderson making his first NFL start at Arrowhead on Sunday.

An interesting look at one game-day in the Raiders Nation.

AROUND THE AFC WEST/NON-RAIDERS

Out in San Diego, they are talking about the Chargers run defense needing to improve if they have a chance to win on the road Sunday in Denver.

Defense, defense, defense is what the folks in the moutains are talking about with the Broncos hosting the Chargers high powered offense on Sunday.