Q&A's With Cp and Herm 7-27

[booger]

Q&A with CARL PETERSON - 7/27
Jul 27, 2006, 6:09:27 PM

TRAINING CAMP

CARL PETERSON: “We’re happy to have both Tamba (Hali) and Brodie Croyle and it was pretty well acknowledged that they wanted to be here. They were in Kansas City waiting for the go-ahead. It was a five-year deal with Tamba, the 20th pick of the first round, and a four-deal with Brodie Croyle.”



Q: Were you at all nervous that you weren’t going to get it done in time for camp?

PETERSON: “I was always cautiously optimistic. Again, I want to give a lot of credit again to (Chief Operating Officer) Denny Thum and (Mgr. of Player Compensation)Woody Dixon who do such a great job with our cap and contract. They stayed at it last night and again this morning. With the number of first round draft picks signing around us, which was 19th and 21st picks done, it was pretty obvious where Tamba fit in. I know that he’s very excited about being here and both he and Brodie were not going to miss this.

“Let me say this: we have 91 players. We have 88 with us right now; three are excused. That’s Ty Law, Willie Roaf and Priest Holmes. They’re excused for personal reasons and we’ll update you on that later. Everybody else is here that should be here and all are under contract.

“Tomorrow before practice we will announce who will be on PUP (physically unable to perform). Frankly, we have a fair number in comparison to past years. It’s simply a precautionary category for players so that they can start slowly at camp. It’s usually players coming off post-season surgery or some type of injury. They may be activated within a day or a week or a month. We’ll give that list to you tomorrow.”

Q: Where do you stand with Eddie Kennison right now?

PETERSON: “I stand just fine with Eddie. Eddie’s under contract; Eddie’s on the plane and Eddie’s going to get himself ready to play another year with the Kansas City Chiefs.”

Q: Does it concern you at all that he might leave camp?

PETERSON: “No concern at all. If a player wants to leave it’s his choice. It’s $14,000 a day (NFL fine) and after five days you can send a letter that eliminates a player’s participation for the (coming) year. I would be very surprised and very disappointed with that.”

Q: He says he’s disappointed with his contract. Is trying to resolve this dispu a priority for you?

PETERSON: “We have a lot of people who are unhappy with their contracts. It’s amazing. Every player would like to make more money and I appreciate that, but there is only so much cap and cash. I have had that conversation with Eddie and he knows exactly where the Kansas City Chiefs on this matter. He’s here and he’s going to practice and, frankly, I don’t care to talk about it any more.”

Q: Why is Willie Roaf not here?

PETERSON: “Personal reasons, like Priest Holmes. We do expect him. Herm and I have talked with his agent and the same thing with Priest. These are veteran guys and they don’t have to be here the very first days. They have some personal things to take care of as does Ty Law. We respect that but we do expect Ty very shortly.”

Q: Is it about Willie’s contract?

PETERSON: “No, not at all.”

Q: When do you expect these three?

PETERSON: “Well, we expect Ty pretty soon and the other two we haven’t set a date yet. We’re going to continue to give them some time.”

Q: With Priest’s health is there any way to tell at this point if he will play or not?

PETERSON: “It’s very difficult to tell at this point Like we said, tomorrow we’ll announce the players on PUP and anticipate very much that he will be one of those players.”