Blob Gretz: Herm deserves 2nd chance

[dirk digler]

http://www.bobgretz.com/

So what about Herm?

Early Wednesday evening the Chiefs will introduce new GM Scott Pioli during a press conference at the team’s facilities. Pioli’s hiring was officially announced Tuesday evening by the club, as he steps into the football role held for the previous 20 years by Carl Peterson.

One of the first questions that will be fired at Clark Hunt and Pioli will be the status of head coach Herm Edwards. Throughout Tuesday evening, that was the new No. 1 question floating through the NFL grapevine now that Pioli is on board.

Assumptions have been made by national media types that the hiring of Pioli means that Edwards is out and a new head coach will be coming to Arrowhead. Some have speculated that New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo is now the No. 1 candidate to join Pioli. Others believe the new head coach could be Pioli’s good friend, University of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz.

No GM should have a head coach handcuffed to him, and it’s doubtful that Hunt will do that Pioli. But there’s also little doubt that Edwards was part of the discussions with Pioli leading up to an agreement between the two parties. Remember, when Hunt announced the resignation of Peterson, he said he would decide on Edwards’ future, with input from his new GM.

Hunt has said he supports Edwards and the job he undertook in trying to rebuild the team. The Chiefs also made it clear in their annoucement Tuesday evening that Pioli “will have final say over all football operations … “ Obviously, the head coach is part of football operations.

Edwards deserves a chance to keep his job. Many of his decisions in the last year were based on the support he was receiving from Hunt. It’s safe to say that if the head coach had known he was going to be on shaky ground in the rebuilding process, he would have approached things in a different manner. Every move that Edwards made came with the belief that Hunt was in his corner.

And here’s a tidbit that a lot of people don’t know. One of the people in the league that pumped up Edwards during the long ‘08 season was New England head coach Bill Belichick. He encouraged Edwards in a pre-game meeting before the season opener between the teams. When the holiday season rolled around, Edwards received a Christmas card from Belichick, who expressed support for the manner in which he was rebuilding the Chiefs with a hand written inscription.

Remember, this was from Bill Belichick, who is not one of pro football’s happy-go-lucky, chatty, back slapping guys. That he twice took the time to encourage Edwards, who has no connection to him, is revealing. It’s a good bet that at some point in time, he and Pioli had discussions on what was happening in Kansas City.

And this might be stretching the point, but remember this as well: when he was coaching the New York Jets, Edwards knew the Patriots were filming the Jets sideline during the game. In fact, at one point Edwards waved at the cameraman. But unlike the coach who replaced him with the Jets, former Belichick protégé Eric Mangini, Edwards did not turn the Patriots in to league security.

Life is not always fair and no place is that more true than professional sports. It seems a long shot that Pioli will give Edwards the chance to finish the job. That will be unfair, because after suffering the pain of the ‘08 season, Edwards should get the opportunity to enjoy possible success in the coming season.

No matter what the decision, it figures to come quickly. If a change is going to be made, then Pioli needs to interview and lineup potential replacements. Next week is the Senior Bowl, what amounts to an annual NFL job fair. If a change is made, the Chiefs will be looking to fill a coaching staff. Should Edwards survive, expect changes in his coaching staff and he’ll need to find some new bodies.
This needs to be settled before everybody heads to Mobile.

It sounds like one Chiefs assistant coach may already be gone. Secondary coach David Gibbs has been in Houston talking with the Texans about moving there. His father, former Chiefs assistant coach Alex Gibbs is now coaching on Gary Kubiak’s staff.

What a lot of people don’t know is that when Gibbs joined the Chiefs in 2006 – leaving Auburn where he was defensive coordinator – he was offered the coordinator’s job by Kubiak. He could have gone to the Texans then, but Gibbs decided to honor his commitment to Edwards and Chiefs defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham.

[Dylan]

Originally Posted by DeezNutz

I'm shocked. Shocked.

And Gretz deserves the shocker.

I have a feeling, that Bob Gretz is circling the drain next to his good pal Herm Edwards.

[RedThat]

Originally Posted by milkman

I believe what Gretz mean't to say was the Herman ****ing Edwards was a subject in the discussions between Clark Hunt and Scott Pioli.

I believe that portion of the discussion went something like this:

Clark, "So what are your thoughts on our current coach in KC?"

SP, "What was Carl on when he traded a draft pick for that dumbass?".

Meth?

[Dylan]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

Just to let you know I added the rest of the article. His site is extremely slow today and I kept getting database errors.

i was wondering who hacked his site --

[Boris The Great]

Originally Posted by RedBull

A majority of people see Herm is a bad coach. A majority of people see Herm doesnt deserve a 2nd chance.

So why do these sports writers like Gretz, Dawes always write opposite stuff that we fans don\'t agree on? They do it time after time. They represent the very defination of what an a**hole is.

I would say the definition of an asshole is expecting other people to do their jobs by catering to whatever it is you want to hear.

[Zouk]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Wow. I sure hope Denver hires Mike Priefer.


Seriously, do teams even watch film of some of these coaches? Priefer's special teams were absolutely horrid. After Herm, Priefer is tops on my list to be shown the door. And other teams are actually interviewing him? I don't understand how the world works sometimes.

This blows my mind. You really can't do worse than Priefer did here. And he did not have the same relative talent deficit as the offense and defense did. This doesn't speak well for Josh McDaniels who I already suspected will be out of his element as a head coach. Mike Nolan stinks too.

[warrior]

We lost a 4th round draft pick, Herm had his chances he gave us 6 w's 26 L's time to move on.

[crazycoffey]

Originally Posted by warrior

We lost a 4th round draft pick, Herm had his chances he gave us 6 w's 26 L's time to move on.

I just can't completely agree with the win / loss total being the only thing to evalute him with. Sorry, I see that he brought good to KC. More good than bad in fact. Is he gone? probably, but scott has my vote right now, let's see what he does.