Thursday Morning Cup O’Chiefs
From River Falls, Wisconsin
The Jared Allen circus rolls into the Falls this afternoon for tonight’s practice under the lights against the Vikings. Chiefs are very interested in seeing how some of their young players fare against the purple people. Sounds like Allen may be a very limited participant in what happens.  That will probably be the case as well for players like Tony Gonzalez and Brian Waters.
As for Allen, here’s a Minnesota take on his return to Chiefs camp.Â
HALL OF FAME EMMITT
The clock is ticking on the start of this year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. We will be in Canton starting on Friday and we’ll give you the behind the scenes picture of what’s going on at the Hall with all the ceremonies and events.
If you don’t know much about Emmitt Thomas, here’s another good general round up story, this one from the newspaper in Canton. It’s worth a read.
BROADCASTING NOTE
SIRIUS listeners will soon be able to talk football with former Chiefs head coach Marty Schottenheimer. If you are a Sirius subscriber, you’ll hear him starting this coming Monday at 2 p.m. CDT.
He will also host a shot on Sirius every Monday from 9 a.m. to Noon and then he’ll be on every Thursday from noon to 2 p.m.
NFL Radio is on every day at Channel 124.
COUNTDOWN
It’s 7 days now from the Chiefs pre-season opener against the Bears in Chicago. It’s 38 days to the regular season opener in Foxboro against the Patriots and it’s 45 days until the Chiefs return to Arrowhead Stadium for their regular season home opener against the Oakland Raiders.
CHIEFS HISTORY
It was called the College All-Star Game and for 33 years this game was played at Chicago’s Soldier Field in the first week of pre-season action. It always pitted the NFL champion against a team of College All-Stars. On July 31, 1970, the Super Bowl champion Chiefs beat the All-Stars 24-3.Â
Among those playing for the All-Stars (and the NFL team they played for) were Charlie Waters (Dallas), Doug Wilkerson (San Diego), Ron Shanklin (PIttsburgh), Al Cowlings (Buffalo and O.J.’s driver in the white Bronco), Mike Reid (Cincinnati), Raymond Chester (Oakland), Mel Blount (Pittsburgh) and Duane Thomas (Dallas). Otto Graham was the head coach.
Chiefs got touchdowns from WR Frank Pitts, on a 36-yard pass from QB Len Dawson, a 3-yard run by RB Warren McVea and a 65-yard interception return by S Jim Kearney. The Chiefs also had interceptions from Willie Lanier and Jim Marsalis. Dawson was 17 of 21 for 153 yards.
The last time this game was played was in 1976, when the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the All-Stars 24-0.
 AROUND THE LEAGUE
Here’s the latest wrap up from ChesseLand on the Favre situation and the Packers reportedly considering the unthinkable: trading him to a team in their own division.
Former Chiefs quarterback Rich Gannon has an interesting take on the whole Favre to the Minnesota Vikings story. Gannon thinks the Vikes should stick with Travaris Jackson.
The Chargers have welcomed back one of the own Hall of Famers and former Chiefs assistant coach Charlie Joiner.
It appears that John Lynch’s days in Denver are over. The veteran safety left the team on Wednesday and as this story says, the Broncos are expected to release him on Thursday.
The Broncos are hoping recently acquired defensive tackle Dewayne Robertson can live up to his status as a top five NFL draft pick. He hasn’t so far.
The Raiders are trying to find the guy who will block Robertson and Glenn Dorsey and right now Jake Grove has the lead.
Bob,
I love you daily Cup o’ Chiefs. They are just the thing to kick off my day. I know that it is too early to tell anything, but could you give us an early prediction on how well you think the Chiefs will do this season? I and probably most of your readers here want to know what Bob Gretz thinks.
Mr. Gretz,
You’re doing a bang up job during training camp. You are the most prolific writer on the Chiefs out there.
Your hard work is feeding our addictions!
I was hearing that Byron Leftwich was trying out for the Titans….I was wondering why the Chiefs don’t bring him in to compete for a roster spot?
Croyle is our starter…and Thigpen is promising. But Leftwich is only about 27 or 28 and if Croyle and Thigpen end up being terrible, I would think Leftwich would be a nice young option to look at near the end of the season…
I just don’t want to start the QB carousel. If Croyle and Thigpen don’t work…it makes sense to have another young option…And Huard is not that. Leftwich seems to fit the mold perfectly and he looks content backing up Vince Young and Kerry Collins…I would think he would jump to backup Croyle and Thigpen…much better odds for him
What do you think Bob?
To Drew-
Really? He’s injured every weekend! Even though he’s only 28, Broken ankle 2005, Ankle Injury 2006, Ankle Sprain 2007…..
He gets injured like clockwork, and you can’t bet your future on someone like him. I think you let Croyle or Thigpen go the distance. They will either bite the big one, and we’ll be terrible again and get a great draft pick next year (Maybe Tebow if we’re that bad…), or one of them pans out, and we do decent. I’m happy with decent. 6-10 win range is possible and acceptable for me.
Do you know the extent of Johnson’s shoulder injury?
While I realize he isn’t the next Allen, he seems to have potential and we desperately need help at DE.
Any time a rookie misses is crucial.
Thanks for any info, and thanks for your coverage. This is good stuff for junkies.
No to Leftwich. His windup is sooo huge, every defender falling back into coverage knows when and where he is going to throw. Leftwich has not corrected his throwing motion at any time in his nfl career– what does that tell you?
Thanks for the blogging, BG. It’s great stuff. I off to read the Emmitt Thomas article you recommended.
A slow time, so a chance to answer some questions.
Brian Johnston’s shoulder injury is not serious from what I understand. He may work tonight against the Vikes.
As for Byron Leftwich, if the Chiefs brought him in and played him with the kind of protection they provided last year, they would be charged with manslaughter.
Leftwich is a stationary target in the pocket and that’s not going to work with this team and this time.
Chiefs are not actively looking for another QB. They’ll take the three they have and they’ll give Croyle every opportunity to make his mistakes and grow. Should somebody get injured, they might start looking for a more veteran and more mobile guy to join the roster.
Thanks for finding the site.
BG