Mellinger | Ex-GM Peterson ‘saddened’ by Chiefs’ situation
 

Sam Mellinger | Ex-GM Peterson ‘saddened’ by Chiefs’ situation
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
Carl Peterson knows exactly why I called. He knows why some Chiefs fans want to hear from him. In some real ways, this conversation is a beach ball of schadenfreude placed on a tee for the man who effectively ran all things Chiefs for nearly 20 years, then was fired four years ago with his reputation in Kansas City at least frayed.

Peterson knows all of this. He won’t take his biggest swing.

But he will make solid contact.

“I guess like every Chiefs fan, I’m disappointed and I’m saddened by what’s transpired there,” he says. “I think I know and made a real point to learn who the Chiefs fans were and what they wanted. I feel for them, because I’ve always felt the Kansas City Chiefs were, should be, and could be a great franchise.”

There’s more.

“I was very, very fortunate to work for Lamar Hunt for 18 of my 20 years there. He’s the guy who made the difference for me. They’ve fallen on hard times. That’s for sure.”

The point here is not just for Peterson to dance on the Chiefs’ rubble. There is some perspective in remembering what he and Lamar Hunt made together. They built the Chiefs’ brand in the 1990s. Through much of the 1980s, the team was a local afterthought. If they won, cool. If they lost, whatever. Nobody much noticed.

That began to change when Hunt hired Peterson, and Peterson hired coach Marty Schottenheimer and the whole thing just took off, with seven playoff appearances in the first eight years of the 1990s.

The Chiefs’ parking lot became the biggest party in Kansas City. Arrowhead Stadium became one of the toughest places to play in the NFL. Peterson, who lives in New York now, is one of the strongest connections we have to that time.

“We had fun at it,” he says. “We made it a fun thing. We made it a family thing. Lamar believed very much in that, and I did, too. He was a wonderful owner. He’d say, ‘How can I help?’ I’d say, ‘Lamar, I need you to do a contest in the parking lot to judge buses and vans that fans have painted,’ and he loved that.”

Now, of course, that is all different. Lamar’s son Clark fired Peterson two years after taking over, and Peterson says the two never communicate.

The Chiefs made massive personnel changes after Peterson was fired, often dropping thinly veiled shots along the way. Peterson hasn’t been back to Arrowhead since, and remains touchy about not being invited to Schottenheimer’s induction to the team’s Ring of Honor.

It is a vastly different franchise now, and when Scott Pioli took over for Peterson after a 2-14 disaster in 2008, that was part of the point. The Chiefs were broken and needed fixing. A youth movement that started under Peterson — Brandon Flowers, Tamba Hali, Jamaal Charles, Derrick Johnson and other key players who predate Pioli — needed structure, and until this season, there was reason for optimism.

Now, the big story out of the parking lot before Sunday’s loss to the Bengals was the team stopping the mass distribution of flyers listing some unflattering facts about the Chiefs on one side and “FIRE PIOLI” on the other.

The Chiefs have never had a disconnect with their fans like this. That was always a priority with Peterson, sometimes to the point of being criticism. The common knock on the Chiefs was that they cared more about filling the stadium than advancing in the playoffs.

Now, team and town would settle for a fun atmosphere and competitive team. The last man to oversee a run like that watches from a distance.

“I do come back to Kansas City,” he says. “I still have a home there. People on the street, they’re very disappointed. Some of them are angry at what’s transpired. I’m sorry to see that. It’s no longer my watch, so I can have my personal feelings about it, but it’s not my responsibility anymore.”

POPCORN!

Kudos to Carl for being classy. In a way I'm thankful that Pioli's ineptness and assholism has made Carl's tenure here look like Camelot.

Wonder if he's looking for a gig...






Excuse me. I have to vomit.

Wow.

Not like Carl was a good GM Folks.

Words.....there are none.

Pioli is an unmittigated disaster when Carl freaking Peterson blasts you like that.

:cuss:

Why didn't Mellinger ask him why he passed on Aaron Rodgers? Fluffball column....

He was the best GM to ever GM compared to the clown car driver we have now.

Yeah, it's nice and nostalgic that Peterson and Lamar cared about the fans so much.

Really can't say this makes me pine for him in spite of Pioli's shit hole he's constructed.

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He definitely didn't sound impressed with Clark either...

Yep. Insert the names of Marty, Cowher, and any other former coach/personnel person that has ever worked here in the past.

We need to move FORWARD, not cling to the glory years. Make NEW glory years.

Pioli has been blown out 20 times in 59 games.

Anyone care to research Carl's record of losses by 14 or more?

I vote for you.
Posted via Mobile Device

Carl Peterson is a piece of ****.

With what Carl was able to get done as far as fan relations go, its kinda surprising that he hasn't gotten a gig similar to what Mark Donovan does for us nowadays.

Just keep him far away from player signings and the draft and all is well.

Thanks for Dustin Colquit (punter in the third round) and Derrick Johnson (that we passed on Aaron Rodgers for), though.

Much props for Bowe and Hali, though.

Brief search turns up 42 from Profootballreference.

42 times in 20 years vs 20 in 4 years. LMAO

lol that is pathetic

I think if you were to narrow it down to Carls years after Marty, the ratio would be very similar.

Its like the Hunt family lost some bet after the Blacklege pick and CANT draft a quarterback. Lets hope it was a 30 year bet. Wasn't it a coin toss or something that forced the Texans to move to KC and be named the Chiefs?

FFS, when will this team learn that if you want to avoid embarrassment, just follow the path of successful teams and draft a first round QB.

Its really not that hard. These guys are trying to win chess matches without a queen or either rook.

God damn, that's insane.

most of those probably in his last couple of years

I imagine that the home record would be a more striking statistic. We've probably won fewer home games in the last 4 years than we lost in the previous 20.

FAX

If Peterson would've drafted Rodgers, we'd be sitting on potentially 2 Super Bowls at this point. That makes me absolutely sick.

The takeaway seems to be that the Chiefs suck, have always sucked, and will always suck.

I guess I'm thankful that I don't have to share turkey with Roleo tomorrow.

FAX

I'm sure Peterson is thrilled with Pioli's fail because it takes the spot light off of Carl's lack of success. Yeah, the 90s were fun, but Carl always did just enough to keep the seats full, never drafted a top quarterback and I'm not forgetting why we were so happy when he was canned.

Pioli sucking doesn't change that for me.

Screw Carl....Sodomize Pioli.

I'm guessing we get blown out 10 times this year. We already have 6 and counting.

Carl does deserve some credit, but in 20 years he didn't deliver a championship or a 1st round QB to that end. He could have been GM for another 20 years and that would still be true.

that's what i thought...


i love the idea of pioli reading this

Yes, actually he was. He was a really ****ing good GM, but he should have been fired after the '98 season.

Pioli isn't worthy of drying the sweat from '93 Peterson's nut sack.

The article touched base on many of the issues I've brought up before about Carl. Carl had some good and some bad as we all know. Carl WAS actually a darn good GM for quite a long time but he stayed to long in the end and things came crashing down. The franchise was NEVER in as bad of shape as it is now under Carl. We at least still had the Chiefs atmosphere!

One thing we can't take away from him is the fact he made Arrowhead and the Chiefs in general a lot of fun for the players, the fan base and community. The atmosphere around the Chiefs were one of togetherness. With the players being out in the forefront with charity events, Carl on the radio, players having radio shows, the charcters (fans) the Chiefs allowed to blossom inside Arrowhead, the Red Coats, the openess to the media, etc.

Now none of that exsist (outside of the Red Coats)! The players are brought out as gladitors and not people anymore. It is hard to have favorite players as the people don't know the players as a human being. Everything is gloom and doom with the franchise on lock down. There is absolutely nothing fun or exciting about this franchise anymore. That all starts and ends with Scott Pioli. He has driven this franchise so far into the ground it isn't even funny. Like him or not, Carl at least made the Chiefs the talk of the town and region!

No GM can be known as "really ****ing good" without drafting a first round quarterback in 20 years.

Sorry.

Calling Peterson's 2-14 year a disaster is pretty unfair, too, since there was a full-fledged youth movement in effect, unlike the bullshit of '12.

Carl Peterson was fired 2008 for orchestrating this train wreck. What QB did he get for ya? Ya. Nobody x 1000

Yeah, well this is wrong.

Peterson built Arrowhead, drafted a few HOFers, and turned the Chiefs into one of the best franchises of the 90s; he was really ****ing good at his job, but he needed to leave after '98.

KooHairIck and Herm were actually building something; Pioli turned everything to shit with his reverse Midas touch.

Midass Touch.

We can slam Carl for the QB failure when it comes to drafting (he did give us Montana/Green) but he did a LOT of good though but just stayed to long.

You're the smartest guy in the forum.

Glad you're here.

I won't argue with this. Pioli did what he said he would do, partially anyway -- "they may not be the best players..." ya, the early rounders haven't been real impressive.

Need Sizzle, Fire Pioli-Save...

Personally, I think there are two Carl's.

The Carl that got here, and really did want to win championships.

Then the super rich, fat n happy Carl that was content with a full Arrowhead and going 9-7.

Often times, success is the biggest obstacle in attaining more success. I think that's what happened there. Carl didn't want to take the big chances LATER that would have possibly put us over the hump.

Peterson should have uppercut that mother ****er Pioli.

Pioli and his henchmen made it a point to rip basically everything this organization had when he took over. "Players are too slow" "I could win 2 games with 22 guys off the street".

Clark Hunt has turned into a piece of shit like Pioli. Peterson should have been invited to that ceremony. I hated CP from 2000-2008 but the ****er is the reason this team likely wasn't relocated somewhere else.

The Chiefs have seriously just turned into a miserable bag of **** mixed with piles of shit. They ****ing suck on the field, they treat fans like they are garbage, and they make former players and staff feel unwanted.

agreed.

He actually built the foundation of the team before he left.

It took an impressive man to basically waste that young talent.

There's absolutely no reason for a team to alienate past players, coaches and FO execs. It just speaks to Pioli's level of insecurity.

TBG and Guardian with a host of solid posts.

This is probably pretty close to reality.

I don't think Carl got fat and happy. He was trying to win a Super Bowl with Vermeil as fast as possible before Lamar died.

After 2005 everything went south. Was he fat and happy? No, he just made two horrible choices in Herm and Croyle.

He hired Marty and drafted DT...4 years later, he drafted a HOF guard...4 years later he traded up from 18th to 13th overall to draft a HOF TE.

Credit given where due.

Calling him a great GM for that isnt true when he only won 3 playoff games in 20 years and never drafted a franchise quarterback the whole time.

Agree to disagree.

yeah...you have to be a real dick, plus it is just a waste of time and a waste of good will that should be easy to leverage in a football town

the thing is not just that pioli is a bad gm - he is - but that he is genuinely a shitty human and that is destroying the Chiefs brand and reservoir of good will (with Clark's implicit permission), and it takes longer to restore these things than it does to destroy them

making the fans hate the franchise is actually really hard to do...and he has done it...Clark seems not to realize this yet, imo, which is strange

The one thing all of us can agree upon is that Carl was head and shoulders above the Patriot Wunderkid Executive of the Decade, and it isn't even close.

Carl Peterson built what?

Bowe
Hali
DJ (passed on Rodgers)
Colquit (drafted in third round)

He was relieved of draft power for the 2008 draft in which the team got as much talent in that draft as the previous 5 that Carl ran.

Carl was propped up by a really good coach that couldnt ever win the big game. Marty turned teams around everywhere he has been.

I doubt many would say we didn't win more playoff games or even a SB due to talent so you cant blame it all on CP.

I still don't get the prohibition against having contact with former players. You'd think they would want guys like Willie Lanier to meet the current crop of players, even if most won't even remember him playing.

We didn't win those games because we didn't have a QB and other teams did.

Not really. A few of them yea. Not the 93' AFCCG, not the 97' PO game (Grbac didn't lose that nor did Elway win it) not the 2003 PO game.

this

He does. There was an article from the Star about it.

yeah, i've read the propaganda too...

if he can't smell the stench in pioli in his own building, talking to fans is pointless...

he's done and said nothing as pioli has spent the last 4 years burning every bridge there was to burn...

Personally I believe he's already stripped Pioli of a lot of power this year, hence Routt being released, Cassel benched, etc.

Clark is going to do the right thing.

I ain't got the words, Carl. Wanna buy a leather overcoat?

He wasn't relieved of all draft power. He collaborated a lot more with the head coach than he did in the past and Kuharick, but Peterson was still heavily involved. This isn't from me, this is from a guy who I used to talk to that was involved in the FO.

Actually, Herm's first draft, was the same way with Tamba. A lot was made that Carl stepped down from that 08 draft, but that's just not true. He gave more responsibility to others, but he was involved heavily.

In the 93 AFCCG Montana was injured when the game was tied and it just went downhill from there with Krieg I believe it was.

No. This is as bad as the push to have Marty come back.

We need to remember there were days when we all were calling for their heads just as much as we are Pioli and RAC now. Short memories. :doh!:

You are probably too young to remember but before Carl arrived, Kansas City didn't give two shits about the Chiefs, let alone football in general.

They were blacked out for years on end. No one went to the stadium. They went 17 years between playoff appearance, then fired the coach that got them there. They were a national and local joke.

Peterson immediately gave creditability to the Chiefs, not only nationally but more importantly, locally. He hired Marty Schottenheimer, drafted Thomas and began not only building a very good team but within a year, made Arrowhead THE Kansas City destination.

All of the sudden, the Chiefs had a weekly TV show. Radio shows popped up all over town. The Chiefs re-energized the city.

It was an extremely exciting time. People lived and died with the Chiefs. If they won, everyone was happy and ecstatic on Mondays. If they loss, there was an air of depression that could be felt citywide.

No one ever discussed Carl being a failure in Year Four.

No one that I knew of was calling for Marty's head, even after the 1998 season.

Cue the first four years comparison between CP and SP... nao.

Finally, Somebody who agrees!

Every time the new HC thread comes up and all these people want Marty, Cowher, ect. Why don't we dig up Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry?

There are other "Tomlin's and "McCarthy's" out there. We just need an owner or GM smart enough to find one, for us for a change!

LMAO. No shit. People weren't flying banners over Arrowhead after the Chiefs advanced to the AFC Championship Game?

Carl and Marty literally built the Arrowhead experience, and it's amazing the amount of revisionist history that has vilified every aspect of Peterson's tenure. Yes, the end was really bad. But that's generally how long-term relationships end.

The beginning, though, was nothing short of fantastic, and it's exactly what the organization and city needed.

I was, I could see he was just too stubborn to get over the hump.

And that would be the QB hump. Up till 98 I was on board though

To me, it was unthinkable. I remember listening to press conference in my office at Paramount on computer speakers thinking "What the **** now?".

Unfortunately, the "now" was Gunther Cunningham.

Saying that he should have left in '98 is speaking in hindsight, no question. But the Gunther hiring and firing was pathetic, and Vermeil + Carl were incredibly toxic and destructive.

If '98 wasn't the year, it sure as hell was when Gun was fired, but that would have required proactive ownership.

I remember the very first thing he said was along the lines of "There is no problem in my marriage with my wife". Probably shouldn't have led with that. That's akin to vailpass saying "I'm not a racist, BUT...."

I've voiced my displeasure and disgust over the Vemeil years, so there's no reason for me to go there. But with that said, I understand why he stayed after Marty left. He'd only hired one coach during his tenure to that point, so I'm sure he felt he could keep it going.

I also understand why he fired Gunther when Vermeil, his best friend and mentor, decided he wanted to coach again. But the bottom line, to me, is that Carl should have left when Vermeil called it quits.

He seriously tarnished his reputation by not leaving and hiring Herm. If he had left after the 2005, I'm sure his tenure would be looked upon far more favorably.

I was barely young enough to latch on during the last couple years before Carl got there and the team was on the back of Okoye...but I was only around 10 years old at the time. I totally agree that the first 5 or 6 years of Carl were really good, but IMO he always valued the quick fix over the long term one and that left the team always on the cusp, but never able to get over the hump.

I also think that the majority of the credit for those years should go to Marty, too. Look at what happened to the team once he left town...
If Carl would have gotten Marty a franchise level quarterback, the team could have won championships IMO. Look at what happened in the flicker of time we had Joe and Allen.

Like I said earlier though, Carl deserves all the credit for getting a legit coach like Marty just like he deserves the grief for his failures.

You guys know this better than I do, who was the shot caller on the whole Grbac/Gannon deal?

IMO that team would have won some really big games if we had went with Gannon at that point in time and from my recollection it was Carl that made that call because of the money he paid to Elvis.

Sound familiar?