C-Mac
06-07-2005, 10:17 PM
Good read.
DAWES: WE REMEMBER RICH GANNON
Jun 07, 2005, 4:48:26 PM by Media Watch by Rufus Dawes
The nation’s sports press was out in force last week waiting for the other shoe to drop for some aging highly paid NFL veterans who had become expendable. It was a short list but to tell you the truth June 1 ain’t what it used to be for a voracious media hungering for some news to fill their notebooks this time of year. June 1 is just a starting date when teams can expel players without having the contract acceleration count toward this year’s salary cap.
One name missing from the list was veteran quarterback Rich Gannon, who it is expected will retire at some undetermined date prior to the opening of the season. When or where it is announced – and don’t expect the automatons in Oakland to reveal the news just for spite – it’ll likely be marked with accolades, which is a far cry from how he entered the league back in 1987.
Gannon best exemplified the journeyman signal caller, a fact that some media in the Bay Area made clear when they ordained his leaving Oakland, a team he had played for over the past six years. All totaled, he played 17 seasons for four teams, and one columnist went so far as to suggest that if the Raiders should one day construct a Hall of Fame Gannon should be in it.
Neil Hayes, writing on the San Jose Mercury News web site, noted, however, that despite his success Gannon “never stirred the passions of some of the NFL’s most passionate fans.” (April 26, 2005) He was talking about the Raiders fans and it got me thinking how passionate Chiefs fans were for Gannon when he played here and how heartbroken some were when he left, passed over, as it appeared, for Elvis Grbac, who fans never really took to in any meaningful way.
Rich Gannon was a quarterback at the University of Delaware but when he was drafted by the New England Patriots the team wanted him to play defensive back, something he never accepted, and he was traded to the Minnesota Vikings and eventually became the team’s starting quarterback until Denny Green took over as coach and traded him to Washington.
His started for the Redskins for a season but the following year he was out of the game and it was widely believed his career was over.
Although no one’s said it, his career and ultimately his reputation were revived by the Kansas City Chiefs personnel office, primarily Terry Bradway and Carl Peterson, who knew Gannon from their days in Philadelphia, Gannon’s hometown, and by Paul Hackett, who taught him the West Coast offense which eventually helped land him in Oakland. playing for Jon Gruden who had been a Hackett disciple. For all that has been written about Gannon since that time, a review of past news articles shows his arrival in Kansas City attracted almost no attention.
As a runaround, athletic quarterback he seemed the perfect fit for a backup role to Steve Bono. He eventually supplanted Bono in that horrible 10-7 playoff loss to Indianapolis almost bringing the team back to victory; two years later he took the reins when Grbac got hurt and helped the team achieve a 13-3 season. When the Chiefs lost to Denver in the 1997 playoffs, some went so far as to suggest that had Gannon been the starter and not Grbac, who was just returning from injury, the team may have won and been on its way to its first Super Bowl in 27 years.
As we look back on it now, Gannon was just what the team and its fans needed.
He burst into an atmosphere laden with uncertainty and doubt, genial, swaggering, confident, the precise figure of reassurance for a troubled town that had a habit of criticizing its quarterbacks. By temperament and character, Gannon was suited to emergencies: players reacted to him in the locker room and on the field. He could make things happen. Moreover, his persona was just the antidote to the aloof Bono and the stoic Grbac.
There are some things that have great value but no glitter. That was Gannon. Consistent, long-suffering, patient, industrious, good-humored, loyal, he made an enormous contribution to the well-being of the team. When he left, there was an outcry from many fans especially after the eventual disappointment of Grbac. Gannon’s rise to league MVP and trips to four consecutive Pro Bowls and one Super Bowl only sought to make his loss to Kansas City hurt even more.
Writing about Gannon and the effect he had on the always contentious Raiders, Hayes believed:
“Gannon was largely responsible for setting the standard that elevated the team to the top of the AFC. He had been the one holding this fractured group together. It wasn’t until he was injured and missed the season that everything came apart. He deserves to be mentioned among the franchise’s all-time greats.”
Hayes went on to say that for Oakland “he may not have been everything fans wanted him to be,” which probably sounds odd when those of us in Kansas City hear it said. He was everything we wanted in a quarterback and only someone as accomplished and team-oriented as Trent Green can make his loss easier to bear now.
DAWES: WE REMEMBER RICH GANNON
Jun 07, 2005, 4:48:26 PM by Media Watch by Rufus Dawes
The nation’s sports press was out in force last week waiting for the other shoe to drop for some aging highly paid NFL veterans who had become expendable. It was a short list but to tell you the truth June 1 ain’t what it used to be for a voracious media hungering for some news to fill their notebooks this time of year. June 1 is just a starting date when teams can expel players without having the contract acceleration count toward this year’s salary cap.
One name missing from the list was veteran quarterback Rich Gannon, who it is expected will retire at some undetermined date prior to the opening of the season. When or where it is announced – and don’t expect the automatons in Oakland to reveal the news just for spite – it’ll likely be marked with accolades, which is a far cry from how he entered the league back in 1987.
Gannon best exemplified the journeyman signal caller, a fact that some media in the Bay Area made clear when they ordained his leaving Oakland, a team he had played for over the past six years. All totaled, he played 17 seasons for four teams, and one columnist went so far as to suggest that if the Raiders should one day construct a Hall of Fame Gannon should be in it.
Neil Hayes, writing on the San Jose Mercury News web site, noted, however, that despite his success Gannon “never stirred the passions of some of the NFL’s most passionate fans.” (April 26, 2005) He was talking about the Raiders fans and it got me thinking how passionate Chiefs fans were for Gannon when he played here and how heartbroken some were when he left, passed over, as it appeared, for Elvis Grbac, who fans never really took to in any meaningful way.
Rich Gannon was a quarterback at the University of Delaware but when he was drafted by the New England Patriots the team wanted him to play defensive back, something he never accepted, and he was traded to the Minnesota Vikings and eventually became the team’s starting quarterback until Denny Green took over as coach and traded him to Washington.
His started for the Redskins for a season but the following year he was out of the game and it was widely believed his career was over.
Although no one’s said it, his career and ultimately his reputation were revived by the Kansas City Chiefs personnel office, primarily Terry Bradway and Carl Peterson, who knew Gannon from their days in Philadelphia, Gannon’s hometown, and by Paul Hackett, who taught him the West Coast offense which eventually helped land him in Oakland. playing for Jon Gruden who had been a Hackett disciple. For all that has been written about Gannon since that time, a review of past news articles shows his arrival in Kansas City attracted almost no attention.
As a runaround, athletic quarterback he seemed the perfect fit for a backup role to Steve Bono. He eventually supplanted Bono in that horrible 10-7 playoff loss to Indianapolis almost bringing the team back to victory; two years later he took the reins when Grbac got hurt and helped the team achieve a 13-3 season. When the Chiefs lost to Denver in the 1997 playoffs, some went so far as to suggest that had Gannon been the starter and not Grbac, who was just returning from injury, the team may have won and been on its way to its first Super Bowl in 27 years.
As we look back on it now, Gannon was just what the team and its fans needed.
He burst into an atmosphere laden with uncertainty and doubt, genial, swaggering, confident, the precise figure of reassurance for a troubled town that had a habit of criticizing its quarterbacks. By temperament and character, Gannon was suited to emergencies: players reacted to him in the locker room and on the field. He could make things happen. Moreover, his persona was just the antidote to the aloof Bono and the stoic Grbac.
There are some things that have great value but no glitter. That was Gannon. Consistent, long-suffering, patient, industrious, good-humored, loyal, he made an enormous contribution to the well-being of the team. When he left, there was an outcry from many fans especially after the eventual disappointment of Grbac. Gannon’s rise to league MVP and trips to four consecutive Pro Bowls and one Super Bowl only sought to make his loss to Kansas City hurt even more.
Writing about Gannon and the effect he had on the always contentious Raiders, Hayes believed:
“Gannon was largely responsible for setting the standard that elevated the team to the top of the AFC. He had been the one holding this fractured group together. It wasn’t until he was injured and missed the season that everything came apart. He deserves to be mentioned among the franchise’s all-time greats.”
Hayes went on to say that for Oakland “he may not have been everything fans wanted him to be,” which probably sounds odd when those of us in Kansas City hear it said. He was everything we wanted in a quarterback and only someone as accomplished and team-oriented as Trent Green can make his loss easier to bear now.