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TENNESSEE CONFERENCE CALL

Q: Has going back to Kansas City been what you expected it would be, from a personal standpoint?



GUNTHER CUNNINGHAM: “There’s no question from a personal standpoint it has been. I miss Nashville; every once in awhile I’ll put that country music on. I’ve got that satellite radio, so that helps.”

Q: Do you follow the guys back in Tennessee still? Do you feel sorry for the guys who have been hurt this year?

CUNNINGHAM: “You guys all know me. It’s killing me to watch what’s happened there and going through our thing. I had such a great time watching the first half last week. Jeff (Fisher)’s my wife’s hero. She said every time she got ready for special teams in Nashville, she was standing there in anticipation that something was going to happen, then last week he pulls the three onside kicks. I guess he faked a punt, too. I try to stay in touch. I’ve talked to Keith (Bulluck) several times. One of the great things in my career that’s happened, Keith Bulluck called me on Thanksgiving morning. He had some time between his meetings, and I don’t take phone calls, but our secretary said, ‘You have to take this one.’ It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It was so rewarding all the effort he and I put in together down there. Our friendship will never go away. And that goes the same for everybody down there.”

Q: What did he say in that phone call?

CUNNINGHAM: “He just said, ‘I wanted to call you on this day and just hope you have a good Thanksgiving.’ We talked about the players and the injuries and what he’s going through. It was all real positive, though. He’s a warrior. I came out of my office last night and James Saxon, our running backs coach, said, ‘Your guy.’ I said, ‘Who, Keith?’ ‘Yeah, he doesn’t miss much. He doesn’t miss tackles.’ He’s a good athlete. I’d like to see him match up with (TE) Tony Gonzalez in the game. While I’ll worry about Jeff (Fisher), Mike Heimerdinger and the offense, I can at least enjoy that match-up.”

Q: When the schedule came out I’m sure you thought this would be a tough match-up between playoff-bound teams. Can you believe the struggles both teams have had?

GUN: “Well, when you play and coach in this league, you never know what’s going to happen. You have great anticipation for success and you know things don’t go your way all the time. I’ve been fortunate. In my last two jobs I’ve worked for the two greatest guys I’ve ever been around. Jeff Fisher, I think he resurrected my career. I can’t thank him enough and respect him enough. I come here and I’ve got the same guy – a little bit older, but… working for Dick (Vermeil) here, he’s been on my side ever since I came back. To be able to coach in the league and have those kind of experiences helps you one the down side, when you’re not winning, when you see people get hurt. Going through the (LB) Peter Sirmon thing; I got the news at 2:30 in the morning at camp. Then I hear (LB) Brad Kassell goes down and (LB) Rocky Calmus goes down. (LB) Rocky Boiman breaks a hand. Thank God Keith Bulluck’s still walking.”

Q: What were your reasons for coming back to Kansas City after your time in Tennessee?

CUNNINGHAM: “I had some great ties here. I was angry when I got fired. Being around Jeff and those players… you know I’m very emotional, every time I reflect back on what happened in Tennessee for those three years, they made me what I was at the beginning of my career. I went back to the days when I coached a Stanford, Cal and knew why I liked coaching. They were the ones that brought that back out in me. I told somebody that the greatest two years I spent coaching were the last two years in Tennessee. I walked into the room every day and it was camaraderie, it was respect. It was people feeling about the game like I feel about it. That was when I felt I could do anything. When all those people called for me to coach for them, I got the call from Kansas City and they asked me if I would talk to (GM) Carl (Peterson) and Dick (Vermeil). I said, ‘Sure I would, just have them dial the number.’ It was difficult at first. You drive around and you feel like you’re in a dream. The worst thing I’ve been through since I’ve been here, there’s this press room where the coaches eat dinner at night and they have all the head coaches’ pictures up there and I’m between Marty (Schottenheimer) and Dick Vermeil and I keep thinking I’m dead every time I see that picture. You’re not supposed to come back and see that picture on the wall. But other than that it’s been great.”

Q: What do you have to do to get the Kansas City defense to the level you want it to be at?

CUNNINGHAM: “We’re making progress in areas. What’s happened here is we make progress in one area and fall back in another. Their (previous) style of play was so different from what I believe in. The players are buying into the thing philosophically, but we make mistakes from time to time. We’ve lost some guys. We lost some of our veteran leadership. (LB) Mike Maslowski never started the year – he was the starting middle linebacker. The two safeties have been in and out all year. So there hasn’t been very much consistency. There have been stretches. We led the NFL in (some categories) of first and second-down defense. Then we also lead the NFL in giving up the big one. You talk about going high and low during games and during the season, it’s driving me crazy. But their effort and their attitude is great. I think the thing I went through my first year at Tennessee (in 2001) was like a nightmare, too. We just kept hammering away, Jim Schwartz, Wash (Jim Washburn), Everett Withers and Chuck Cecil. You go through things like that, but if you experience lows and highs, I think somewhere along the line you figure everything out. We’ve got a bunch of coaches I’ve really never worked with before. Every day it gets a little bit better and we’ve just got to keep hammering away at it.”

Q: When you came in there was the thought by some that you could turn things around single-handedly. Do you think next year you’ll have some new players and maybe some more flexibility in turning things around?

CUNNINGHAM: “That’s up to Carl and the personnel guys here. When I was here in the past, they really involved me in it. It wasn’t like, ‘We’re going to do this; we’re going to do that.’ It’s always a good discussion here and that’s what I like about working with these guys. Dick’s always been great with that and Carl’s been just terrific. We’ve had some discussions through the year, ‘What do you think about different people? Are they making progress?’ We have some young guys. Our linebackers have really never played before. Scott Fujita has, but never played the way we’re playing now. What we have to evaluate is where’s the progress? Where can we go? (DE) Jared Allen’s a young player and I think he’s got 7.0 sacks as a rookie. So we’ve got some players we can really build around and everybody else has got to catch up.”

Q: What are your thoughts on the “46” defense?

CUNNINGHAM: “Why, because we play it once in awhile here? I loved working with those guys in Tennessee. The passion those coaches had. I tell stories about the Titans coaches about every day. To have guys like Jim (Schwartz), Jim (Washburn), Chuck (Cecil) and Everett (Withers), it was a pleasure going to work. That goes the same for that offensive staff. We all had tears in our eyes at the Combine after I left Nashville. Those offensive guys, I respected them just for who they were. To be able to go through everything after being a head coach, you needed a lot of assistance. I’ve read some quotes from Jeff (Fisher) and other people down there about how I helped them, but if you ask my family about who helped whom, maybe some day those hard-headed guys will get it through their heads that they were the ones who helped me.”

Q: Will there be any crying on Monday night?

CUNNINGHAM: “It’s going to be (tough). It took me about 10 hours to say goodbye to all the support staff in Nashville. When you get to be my age and you feel like your whole life is falling apart and you met people like I met down there – and that starts with the head coach – it’s going to be a tough deal for me. We’re going through a tough time and I know they are, too. To be able to coach against Mike Heimerdinger and Mike Munchak and those guys, they’ll know what this is all about.”

Q: Are you confident Dick Vermeil’s going to be there next year in the same role?

CUNNINGHAM: “As far as I know. He never gives any indication of anything else. I’ve been through a few years in this coaching business and I watch him every day. You talk about my energy level, if I’m tired I feel guilty. He is like a Tasmanian Devil. He’s a hard-working guy, coming in around six and leaving at 12:30, one in the morning.”