KC Star: This could be Peterson’s last stand with Chiefs

[BigRock]

This is a must-read piece for any number of reasons. Mainly for the fact that it clearly explains the Herm vs. Carl division in the organization, which some people here still don't think actually exists.

But there's also some great quotes, like Dick Vermeil saying Carl would get another GM job within a week if the Chiefs fired him. And Pat Bolen of all people on Earth talking about heads rolling, like he'd know anything about that.

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/761067.html

This could be Peterson’s last stand with Chiefs
BY BILL REITER | THE KANSAS CITY STAR

RIVER FALLS, Wis. | Standing in the heat, his eyes hidden behind thick, dark sunglasses, one of the most embattled men in the Chiefs organization suddenly changed the subject.

Carl Peterson didn’t want to talk about his future with the Chiefs or the speculation he may not be with the team next year. He wanted to tell a story.

“How about that circus over there in Green Bay?” he started. “I was talking to the commissioner and we chatted for just a few minutes and he said, ‘Look, what do you think?’ I said …”

This was Peterson’s response when asked about reports that another 4-12 season could end his 20-year run atop an NFL franchise: A story about Brett Favre and Roger Goodell that led, inevitably, back to 1993 and Joe Montana.

In their less flattering interpretations, many who know Peterson say the stories he tells often circle back to the man telling them: Stories about Carl’s relationship with late founder Lamar Hunt, Carl’s dual role as head of football and business operations, Carl turning around a franchise, Carl and his winning seasons, Carl and 1993, Carl, Carl, Carl.

So it went this time.

“I think it’s been difficult for (Favre) to make that decision (to retire),” Peterson was saying. “I went through this with Joe Montana and Marcus Allen …

“Joe said, ‘Well, I’ve had a lot of concussions and I really want to be able to play catch with my boys when they grow up.’ I said, ‘Joe, I think you’ve already told me … you’ve retired …’

“And the same thing with Marcus (Allen). … it was difficult, but it comes for everyone we’ve got. Because you can’t play the game forever. You just physically can’t do it … (The end) comes for everyone.”

Everyone? Including general managers?

Peterson laughed.

• • •

For the first time in his career, Peterson enters a season in which the prevailing wisdom at Arrowhead Stadium is this: How the team performs will determine whether he keeps his job.

Peterson insists he’s never heard so much as a whisper that he’s a general manager whose legacy — and tenure — could come to a close after this season.

“You want to know the truth? No. I haven’t heard this talk,” he said. “Only from you guys. Only from you guys.

“I’ve never had anybody come up and say, ‘Boy, you’re on the hot seat and you’re going to get fired this year if you guys don’t win four games or five or six games.’ Nobody’s said it to me. Including Clark Hunt.”

If that’s true, he’s one of the few who hasn’t.

Sources say Arrowhead is so rife with speculation that Peterson is on the hot seat that people discuss the end of his career over lunches, at the coffee pot and in hushed tones in hallways and meeting rooms. That talk has spilled into the NFL at large, from people in rival front offices to agents and even other players.

In response, many within the organization have chosen sides between the “Herm camp” and the “Carl camp.”

That division, sources say, stems from several factors: An initial reluctance on the part of the “old guard,” led by Peterson, to commit to building the team through the draft — the preference of coach Herm Edwards — rather than free agency; the survival instincts of those who believe that Peterson does not have owner Clark Hunt’s full support; and a feeling that Peterson, even if he does live out the contract that takes him through the 2009 season, is the past rather than the future.

“People have tried to figure out what side they need to be on,” a former Chiefs official told The Star under condition of anonymity. “Am I with Herm or am I with Carl? And it’s not that they don’t get along with Carl. It’s, ‘If Carl leaves, will Herm stick around? If Herm leaves, will Carl stick around?’ People are looking out for their own backs. There’s some fear in the building surrounding, ‘What if Clark comes in and chooses one or the other?’ People are trying to make sure they’re aligned with the right person.”

Most are banking on this: The right person is Edwards. The wrong one is Peterson.

That view is buttressed by a sense that Hunt does not retain the same level of unconditional loyalty that his father had for Peterson, a view Hunt himself reinforced.

“My father and I are clearly very different people, and I would like to think that I have some of his loyalty and I would like to think I have some of his patience,” Hunt said. “To some degree, I think patience is a real virtue when running a professional sports team. On the other hand, I’m sure I’m not as loyal as my father. And probably not as patient.”

One running belief within the organization is that Hunt kept Peterson on after last season because he wanted to ensure Edwards will be judged on his 2009 season rather than this year.

“After last season, Clark did a whole circuit of interviews,” the former Chiefs official said. “And the main question was, ‘Why are you bringing Carl back?’ His answers were fairly consistent: for continuity of the team, this is the best move right now and gives Herm the best chance to succeed.

“What a lot of people there in Kansas City read between the lines was, ‘I like Herm and I’m not sure about Carl. And if I fire Carl and hire a new GM, that new GM might fire Herm and bring his own person in.’ They didn’t see that as a vote of confidence in Carl.”

Even those close to Peterson acknowledge that the political ground has shifted under his feet. The subject came up earlier this summer when Denny Thum, the Chiefs’ executive vice president/chief operating officer, was golfing with an old friend.

“The problem for Carl is that Clark isn’t his dad,” said Rick Knapp, who has known Thum for years.

“He’s loyal and he’s a great person — but is he loyal to Carl?” Knapp shrugged and shook his head. “He’s not his dad. He’s his own person — his own owner.”

Hunt, who said he and Peterson have a wonderful relationship, declined to say whether Peterson will be back next year if the Chiefs again struggle on the field.

“That’s something that at this time of year that we don’t really comment on,” Hunt said. “Carl’s under contract until the end of next year, and all discussion on personnel issues would take place after this year.”

But Hunt has set the bar high, saying Peterson and the team will be judged on four factors — developing the team’s younger players, improving the offense, ensuring the team improves as the season progresses and, most striking, making certain that the Chiefs are in the playoff hunt at the end of this season.

“I have a very high opinion of his ability,” said Pat Bowlen, owner of the Denver Broncos. “But if things go real sour someone’s head is going to roll, and it might be Carl’s.”

When pressed about the speculation on his future, Peterson said, “What’s amazing to me is that you all haven’t figured out that maybe there’s a plan for succession here. Does that make any sense? I’m not going to say any more. You talk to Clark. Because that’s where this idea, this thought process, whatever it is, (comes from).”

Succession plan?

“I don’t know that there’s a specific succession plan, but it goes back to my earlier comment where I mentioned there’s several factors I’ll be looking at,” Hunt said. “So I think it’s logical in the next year or so that he and I will sit down and figure out the future of leadership for this organization.

“The truth is Carl gets the credit for the direction the team’s heading now. When you’re the general manager and things go poorly the blame gets pointed at you, and rightly so … Carl really should get the credit for the direction the team is heading, and he should get the credit for the direction it’s going. And I’m on record for the direction it should be going.”

Hunt’s direction: the Chiefs in playoff contention this season.

The translation: Just win, Carl. Or else.

• • •

This can’t be how Peterson envisioned his story ending when he took charge of the Chiefs in December 1988: the lack of a Super Bowl trophy, the talk of his demise, the intense pressure to take a young, inexperienced team and get them to playoff form very, very quickly.

Back then, the franchise was a mess. The seats were empty. The level of play on the field was downright awful.

“I was here when he came, and the situation was in bad shape,” said Chiefs Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson. “And he turned things around — to the point where Arrowhead became what Arrowhead is. Not just the players, but all the things. Filling the seats in that stadium and getting that atmosphere to what it is. Now they’ve had sellouts for how many straight ballgames, and it’s unbelievable.”

It’s a point supporters are quick to make: Despite no playoff wins since 1993, Peterson boasts an impressive resume.

Thirteen of 19 winning seasons as general manager. An eye-popping 141 straight sellouts. Helping the Chiefs become just one of seven teams in NFL history to win at least 100 games in a decade. And fashioning a reputation throughout the league as one of the people who redefined how to run a professional football team.

“First of all, of utmost importance, he brought the team back to prominence after a decade or a decade and a half where the performance on the field was not what any of us wanted,” Clark Hunt said. “At one point in the recent past he had the highest winning percentage of any general manager over a 15-year period.

“Behind that are a number of other positives that aren’t all apparent to the fans,” Hunt said. “He turned the franchise into a model franchise in the league. For a number of years, we had a lot of teams ask to send their staffs to Arrowhead to see what we were doing from a football and a business standpoint.”

It’s an incredible legacy. But it’s still a legacy without a ring, without a Super Bowl appearance and without a playoff win since Brodie Croyle was 10 years old. What it does include is a playoff record of 3-9.

“This business is pressure from the day you start to the day you finish, but unfortunately we haven’t accomplished the goal that I set out to do, which is winning the Super Bowl,” Peterson said. “But I’m not going to apologize for 13 out of 19 winning seasons, for the best home record in the National Football League, for the best attendance in the AFC, and in the market that we’re in.

“Sometimes things work out terrific and you go to the AFC championship game and then it doesn’t work out and Joe Montana bangs his head and you don’t get to the Super Bowl,” he said. “Or you’re 13-3 three times and you’ve got home-field advantage, and you get a bye week and you can’t get past the first game. There’s a lot of reasons for what happens.”

But if it ended tomorrow — if this was all he had — would Peterson be happy with his legacy?

“You know,” Peterson said, pausing, letting out a long sigh and then continuing: “It’s difficult to speak about one’s legacy, because I’m really not sure what that is. Would I be satisfied with my 20 seasons with the Chiefs? To some degree, yes. But did we get to the ultimate goal? No.

“If you don’t win the national championship, you can’t say you’ve gotten to your ultimate goal. There’s two parts — the business/entertainment end, and the playing end. Have we been able to create excitement and have people paid to come and see us see and left saying that was fun and exciting? On that aspect, I think we’ve accomplished a lot.

“It’s a two-headed deal here. If I’m going to sit back and look, I have to look at both. And bringing back the pride of the Kansas City Chiefs to their city — that’s a big part of it too.”

• • •

Peterson wants to tell another story.

He’s standing on the practice field, watching his players, so close to the action that at times you can barely hear him above the banging of bodies and the chatter punctuating each play.

“Now when Dick Vermeil went through St. Louis …”

You’ve heard this one before. The aged football man they said was past his prime. The all-too familiar losing season — two seasons, in this case: five wins in 1997 and only four in 1998.

Another bad season, they were saying, and Vermeil was finished.

“So we went over to watch that preseason game,” Peterson’s saying. “And the safety from San Diego comes over the top and hits Trent Green in the knee and you knew it right then. Oh, God! The whole place evaporated.”

Peterson is getting happy, animated and full of hope. Yep, this is a good story and he sure loves telling it.

“Well I’m in the locker room after that game and Dick stands up there. I’m at the back of the room, and he says, ‘Men, the bad news is we’ve lost Trent Green and it looks like it’s a season-ending injury.’

“And the guys are like, ‘Awwww…’ ” Peterson says. “And he was like 28 of 31 and three touchdowns or whatever, just having a fabulous preseason. And Dick was like, ‘But listen, we’ve got Kurt here. Kurt, stand up here. Kurt Warner’s going to lead us where we want to go.’ And I tell you what — everybody in that locker room was like, ‘Kurt Warner? Kurt Warner? He was out of a job, he played in the Arena Football League…’ ”

Yes, you’ve heard this story before, but Peterson wants you to hear it again: How Warner went from nobody to a NFL MVP in one season, how he did lead that team exactly where they wanted to go, how Vermeil, that old-timer they said was on his way out, showed them all by bringing home the big one.

“So,” Peterson is finishing up, “never say never.”

Those close to Peterson believe this story offers insight into an ambition that burns as bright today as it did 20 years ago — only, unlike then, the time to make good on it is no longer guaranteed.

Like Vermeil, who kept his coaching career alive and went on to become the Chiefs head coach for five seasons, Peterson’s supporters believe he may want to stay on after his contract expires — or move elsewhere.

“If it does happen (that he leaves), he’ll have the equal job in a week,” Vermeil said. “There aren’t any other Carl Petersons out there.”

Added longtime friend Jim Mora, who won two USFL championships as Peterson’s coach in the 1980s, “I think it would be a big mistake to fire Carl. There are other teams that may want to hire him.”

Peterson also hinted at possibly staying on with the Chiefs after his contract expires.

“My thought was, when I signed this last contract that takes me through the ’09 season (was) that I would be stepping away from the Chiefs at that season,” he said. “Now, can it happen sooner? Anything can happen sooner. Can it happen later? That’s always something that’s a consideration.”

Maybe. And maybe not. His boss seems to see things differently.

“When he and I signed the contract he’s under right now, which was 2 1/2 years ago, he said at the time he (would be stepping down after ’09),” Hunt said. “We’ve not had any follow-up conversations to that, but that would by my expectations — that in a year and a half he’ll want to retire.”

• • •

Who knows, maybe the moral of the Vermeil story will become the moral of the tale they tell about Peterson when his career does end: That you never know. That sometimes, when you seem most vulnerable, when the chorus of voices calling for your ouster grows loudest, you’ll shock everyone.

If so, Peterson will need to take the famous catchphrase of Raiders owner Al Davis — “Just win, baby” — and bend it to his own end.

“I know Carl wants to add one more chapter in his legacy with the Chiefs,” Hunt said. “And that would be getting the Chiefs back in the playoffs and on the path to hopefully winning a Super Bowl.”

That last chapter starts here, in River Falls, with one of the youngest teams Peterson has ever assembled. It starts with the uncertainty of how they’ll perform during whatever time Peterson remains with the team. It starts with the whims and feelings of his owner.

It starts here, with this year’s preseason camp, with Peterson emerging alone from the stone-and-glass building that the players use for meetings as they prepare for 2008.

He’s wearing the same silver shorts and Chiefs shirt that his coaches wear at practice. No shades this time. No small talk or elaborate stories.

Instead, Peterson climbs quickly onto a matching silver bike and rides slowly up the street. As he pedals away, Herm Edwards and a cluster of players and Chiefs officials emerge from the same door — laughing, joking, giving off the sense the future is bright.

And there’s Peterson, growing smaller, now nearly out of sight, and it’s hard not to wonder: Where, exactly, is he headed?

[Buehler445]

Good article. Thanks BR.

[L.A. Chieffan]

Splooge

[DaneMcCloud]

I didn't read the article but here's the gist:

CP has had success in his 20 year reign over Kansas City but as he's grown older, so have the Chiefs. And as he's grown older, it's become more and more difficult for him to watch the Chiefs lose. So he brought in Herm Edwards to quickly rebuild, though that isn't going so smoothly. He hopes to oversee a resurgeance in the Chiefs and lead to the Super Bowl before he retires.

Am I right or wrong?

Oh yeah. He's also an arrogant prick from time to time.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Oh yeah. He's also an arrogant prick from time to time.

This is the only part thats right.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

This is the only part thats right.

Really? Should I actually read this?

[tk13]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I didn't read the article but here's the gist:

CP has had success in his 20 year reign over Kansas City but as he's grown older, so have the Chiefs. And as he's grown older, it's become more and more difficult for him to watch the Chiefs lose. So he brought in Herm Edwards to quickly rebuild, though that isn't going so smoothly. He hopes to oversee a resurgeance in the Chiefs and lead to the Super Bowl before he retires.

Am I right or wrong?

Oh yeah. He's also an arrogant prick from time to time.

Eh, there's some of that I guess... but I don't think it's what you think it is. Actually I think I'd feel better about the state of the front office is this was the typical Carl fluff article. Reading how divided it seems to be is not a good thing.

But then again, why should I have to do the reading for you. Figure it out yourself.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Really? Should I actually read this?

Its nothing you havent heard or read before.

CP is on his last leg and he denies it or hes in serious denial. Thats the jist of it. As usual he comes off like an arrogant prick.

[Mecca]

If being a playoff contender this season is a deciding factor he should be packing his bags right now.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Mecca

If being a playoff contender this season is a deciding factor he should be packing his bags right now.

I honestly doubt it.

I think the only way to get Clarks attention are a half empty stadium and local blackouts.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

I honestly doubt it.

I think the only way to get Clarks attention are a half empty stadium and local blackouts.

Probably, although if this team is really as bad as it might be, like #1 pick bad it looks horrendous to the fans and every other team in the league to bring everyone back after that.

[Chiefs Pantalones]

Great read.

I can't believe it, but Clark is going to get rid of his ass after this year, because we sure aren't going to the playoffs.

After reading this I feel better about the future of the Chiefs and where Clark is wanting to go with them, because the future doesn't have Carl in it.

[Chiefs Pantalones]

Originally Posted by Mecca

If being a playoff contender this season is a deciding factor he should be packing his bags right now.

Clark is making it a lose-lose situation on purpose for Carl. Clark obviously thinks Carl's time is up, and he's just letting him burn but make a paycheck this last season.

[Chiefs Pantalones]

And another thing, please let that future be a Herm-less future. He's not the answer either. Maybe if it was 1956, but it's not.

[Otter]

If Peterson retired tomorrow it would still be years too late. Instead of marching off into the sunset with Dick Vermeil and leaving behind a good name for himself he's probably going to be run out of town by angry fans with pitchforks and torches.

Deservedly so.