Bootlegged
03-23-2005, 09:41 AM
Posted on Wed, Mar. 23, 2005
Vermeil eager for next season to kick off
By PAUL DOMOWITCH
pdomo@aol.com
KAPALUA, Hawaii - A man just isn't supposed to look as good as Dick Vermeil does after 68-plus years on this earth.
He arrived at yesterday morning's AFC coaches breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton resort looking tan and fit and 15 years younger than he is, and seemingly capable of licking any of the other AFC head coaches in attendance. Well, OK. He might be a decided underdog against the Steelers' Bill Cowher. But that's about it.
"Physically, I feel fine, I feel great," said Vermeil, the Kansas City Chiefs' coach. "I mean, we all have aging problems. Prostate problems and all of that kind of stuff. But otherwise, I've never felt better."
The heartburn and indigestion caused by a disappointing seven-win season have subsided. Invigorated by the perfect Hawaiian weather and the recent free-agent signings of safety Sammy Knight and linebacker Kendrell Bell, who he hopes will improve a defense that gave up the fourth most points in the league last year, Vermeil is eager for the 2005 season to arrive.
"The future is now," he said. "I'm going to be 69 years old coming into this season. The future is definitely now."
Vermeil, who was coaxed out of retirement by Chiefs president and close friend Carl Peterson in 2001, is in the final year of his contract, which doesn't really mean much. Both Peterson and club owner Lamar Hunt have told Vermeil that he can coach the team as long as he wants. That might be 1 more year or it might be longer, depending on how the Chiefs play next season.
"When Carl brought me back, I said I'd come back for 3 years," Vermeil said. "I was on the last year of my contract in '03, and we won [13 games]. I said to myself, 'We've gotten the program this far. Why leave now?' So I signed for 2 more years. This will be the last year.
"Now, if at the end of this year, it's not going real well, then I feel I owe it to Lamar and to Carl to go home and let somebody else do it better than I'm doing it. If it's going real well, then I'll have to make a decision whether to go home or to stay. I vacillate back and forth. But it won't be an impulsive decision.
"I made an impulsive mistake when I left the Rams [after winning the Super Bowl after the 1999 season]. I'm just not going to do that again."
There was nothing impulsive about his decision to leave the Eagles in 1982. He was physically and emotionally spent. His decision to retire back then was basically a matter of survival.
He left the Rams because it seemed like a good idea at the time. His kids wanted him back home in Philadelphia. His 11 grandkids wanted him back. He had just won a Super Bowl. Why not ride off into the sunset?
"My attitude at the time was, I achieved something I always dreamed of doing," he said. "We got it done. My kids and my grandkids wanted me back home. So I said, 'You know, why not just go out a winner?'
"In this profession, it's something very few guys get to do. From the Tom Landrys to the Bud Grants, guys that are in the Hall of Fame, very few of them went out on that kind of a high note. I said, 'Well, this is my opportunity.' So I did it."
He did it and he regretted it before he even got off the plane in Philly. Spent a year making motivational speeches and admiring his Super Bowl ring and wishing he still were coaching. When Peterson called and offered him the Chiefs job, he couldn't accept fast enough.
After winning 13 games in 2003, Vermeil went into last season with visions of another Super Bowl title dancing in his brain.
"I've never gone into a season more optimistic as a head coach than I was last year," Vermeil said. "But we just never got going. Everything that went well for us in 2003 didn't last year. We were tied or ahead in the fourth quarter of 14 of our 16 games and only won seven of them.
"What we have to do is come up with those things that make a difference in those tight games in the fourth quarter, and most important, don't give up as many points."
The additions of Knight and Bell should help. Vermeil also is hoping to add a veteran cornerback before the draft. They are interested in free agent Ty Law and also have talked to the agent for the Dolphins' Patrick Surtain. The Dolphins have given Surtain permission to talk to clubs about a trade.
"We need two or three guys to step up as leaders on defense," Vermeil said. "[Guys who can] inspire the team and make them go. Help them shake off a bad series and go back out and play well.
"Our defense has suffered so much over the last 2 years [that] when they come out after a bad series, you look at those guys on the sideline and can almost see them saying, 'Oh bleep, here we go again.' "
If Vermeil ends up calling it quits after next season, one thing is certain.
His wife Carol won't have influenced his decision. She wasn't particularly happy when he came out of retirement and took the Rams job in '97. But she has enjoyed Kansas City.
"She's deeply involved in a program called 'Operation Breakthrough,' " Vermeil said.
"It brings in about 400 kids out of the streets, out of the slums, out of miserable life situations, and feeds them three meals a day. I mean, she is passionate about this program. If I went home [to Philly], she might stay. So that's added a whole new dimension, a whole new meaning to her life.
"And she just loves my players. She's deeply involved with them. Knows them. She helps with them. Our kids are all raised. The grandkids are almost all raised. [The Chiefs players] have sort of become our kids."
Vermeil eager for next season to kick off
By PAUL DOMOWITCH
pdomo@aol.com
KAPALUA, Hawaii - A man just isn't supposed to look as good as Dick Vermeil does after 68-plus years on this earth.
He arrived at yesterday morning's AFC coaches breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton resort looking tan and fit and 15 years younger than he is, and seemingly capable of licking any of the other AFC head coaches in attendance. Well, OK. He might be a decided underdog against the Steelers' Bill Cowher. But that's about it.
"Physically, I feel fine, I feel great," said Vermeil, the Kansas City Chiefs' coach. "I mean, we all have aging problems. Prostate problems and all of that kind of stuff. But otherwise, I've never felt better."
The heartburn and indigestion caused by a disappointing seven-win season have subsided. Invigorated by the perfect Hawaiian weather and the recent free-agent signings of safety Sammy Knight and linebacker Kendrell Bell, who he hopes will improve a defense that gave up the fourth most points in the league last year, Vermeil is eager for the 2005 season to arrive.
"The future is now," he said. "I'm going to be 69 years old coming into this season. The future is definitely now."
Vermeil, who was coaxed out of retirement by Chiefs president and close friend Carl Peterson in 2001, is in the final year of his contract, which doesn't really mean much. Both Peterson and club owner Lamar Hunt have told Vermeil that he can coach the team as long as he wants. That might be 1 more year or it might be longer, depending on how the Chiefs play next season.
"When Carl brought me back, I said I'd come back for 3 years," Vermeil said. "I was on the last year of my contract in '03, and we won [13 games]. I said to myself, 'We've gotten the program this far. Why leave now?' So I signed for 2 more years. This will be the last year.
"Now, if at the end of this year, it's not going real well, then I feel I owe it to Lamar and to Carl to go home and let somebody else do it better than I'm doing it. If it's going real well, then I'll have to make a decision whether to go home or to stay. I vacillate back and forth. But it won't be an impulsive decision.
"I made an impulsive mistake when I left the Rams [after winning the Super Bowl after the 1999 season]. I'm just not going to do that again."
There was nothing impulsive about his decision to leave the Eagles in 1982. He was physically and emotionally spent. His decision to retire back then was basically a matter of survival.
He left the Rams because it seemed like a good idea at the time. His kids wanted him back home in Philadelphia. His 11 grandkids wanted him back. He had just won a Super Bowl. Why not ride off into the sunset?
"My attitude at the time was, I achieved something I always dreamed of doing," he said. "We got it done. My kids and my grandkids wanted me back home. So I said, 'You know, why not just go out a winner?'
"In this profession, it's something very few guys get to do. From the Tom Landrys to the Bud Grants, guys that are in the Hall of Fame, very few of them went out on that kind of a high note. I said, 'Well, this is my opportunity.' So I did it."
He did it and he regretted it before he even got off the plane in Philly. Spent a year making motivational speeches and admiring his Super Bowl ring and wishing he still were coaching. When Peterson called and offered him the Chiefs job, he couldn't accept fast enough.
After winning 13 games in 2003, Vermeil went into last season with visions of another Super Bowl title dancing in his brain.
"I've never gone into a season more optimistic as a head coach than I was last year," Vermeil said. "But we just never got going. Everything that went well for us in 2003 didn't last year. We were tied or ahead in the fourth quarter of 14 of our 16 games and only won seven of them.
"What we have to do is come up with those things that make a difference in those tight games in the fourth quarter, and most important, don't give up as many points."
The additions of Knight and Bell should help. Vermeil also is hoping to add a veteran cornerback before the draft. They are interested in free agent Ty Law and also have talked to the agent for the Dolphins' Patrick Surtain. The Dolphins have given Surtain permission to talk to clubs about a trade.
"We need two or three guys to step up as leaders on defense," Vermeil said. "[Guys who can] inspire the team and make them go. Help them shake off a bad series and go back out and play well.
"Our defense has suffered so much over the last 2 years [that] when they come out after a bad series, you look at those guys on the sideline and can almost see them saying, 'Oh bleep, here we go again.' "
If Vermeil ends up calling it quits after next season, one thing is certain.
His wife Carol won't have influenced his decision. She wasn't particularly happy when he came out of retirement and took the Rams job in '97. But she has enjoyed Kansas City.
"She's deeply involved in a program called 'Operation Breakthrough,' " Vermeil said.
"It brings in about 400 kids out of the streets, out of the slums, out of miserable life situations, and feeds them three meals a day. I mean, she is passionate about this program. If I went home [to Philly], she might stay. So that's added a whole new dimension, a whole new meaning to her life.
"And she just loves my players. She's deeply involved with them. Knows them. She helps with them. Our kids are all raised. The grandkids are almost all raised. [The Chiefs players] have sort of become our kids."