ChiefsCountry
12-16-2008, 12:18 AM
http://www.kansascity.com/180/story/938738.html
Clark Hunt is very careful. This is one thing we have come to know about him. He is careful with his words, and he is conservative by nature, and he sounds patient all the time, and he likes to say positive things. What do we really know about him? He does not seem the type of guy who would throw a beer can at the television set, but it’s hard to tell. He does not seem the type of guy who would scream at an official who blows a call, but nobody knows for sure.
Truth is, I’m not sure that before Monday Clark Hunt had given us any sense at all of what’s going on in his mind. Hot dog or hamburger? Ginger or Mary Ann? Gates or Bryant’s? Pearl Jam or Nirvana? I don’t think any of us could really tell.
Monday, though, some of that changed. Monday, Clark Hunt announced that Carl Peterson had resigned as president, general manager and CEO of the Kansas City Chiefs. Yes, that’s what the honking horns and fireworks were all about. Yes, that’s why you saw complete strangers kissing on every street corner.
It’s a shame that it ends this way for Peterson, who will finish off his era in two weeks, closing out 20 years. As you might imagine, I was designated as the person to say something nice about Carl, and I will point to the first nine years. They were pretty great. The Chiefs went to the playoffs seven times, and they reached the AFC championship game once, and fans poured into Arrowhead Stadium. Carl changed the landscape of this city. He hired Marty Schottenheimer as coach, he opened up the parking lot for the best tailgate scene in professional sports, he got Joe Montana and Marcus Allen, and he drafted Derrick Thomas and Will Shields and Tony Gonzalez. And that’s a lot of good.
Of course, the last 11 years have not been so good — two playoff appearances, six losing seasons, four head coaches, perpetually awful defenses, zero playoff victories, shaky drafts — and that’s why in many ways Monday was not really about Carl Peterson. His time was running out. No, Monday was about Clark Hunt.
Monday, Hunt showed the sort of passion that, frankly, we did not know he had — could not know he had. When we last heard from Hunt, he was telling us that Peterson and Chiefs coach Herm Edwards were doing a good job and that he could see many promising signs. Those were probably the right things for an owner to say, the politically correct things, but they didn’t sound too good to fans looking for change and hope.
Hunt had said before that he’s extremely competitive, and he hates to lose, and he is probably not quite as patient as his Joblike father Lamar — but frankly, those just sounded like empty words when he talked about how things were going well while the Chiefs played dreadful football.
Sunday, though, something changed. There was a different look on Clark Hunt’s face after the Chiefs blew the game against San Diego in the final minutes. Several people mentioned it: “Man, Clark looked mad, didn’t he?” It was pretty unmistakable.
Of course, Hunt made it plain that Sunday’s loss had nothing at all to do with Monday’s resignation — Hunt said that he had been talking with Peterson about resigning for a while now — and I’m sure that’s technically true. But something definitely changed. Hunt spoke as carefully as ever on Monday, but behind his cautious words, you could hear a little bit of emotion and get a little bit better sense of the man who owns the Chiefs:
1. Hunt felt as if it was time to move on, and he made a bold move. I don’t doubt that Peterson stepped down for the good of the organization; Peterson has always been very loyal to the Hunt family. But I have even less doubt that Hunt made this move happen. There were those who wondered — heck, I wondered — whether Hunt would really push Peterson out with only one year left on his contract. Clark Hunt did. I don’t think Lamar Hunt would have.
2. Hunt will be aggressive and go outside the organization for the next GM. Again, I think many fans were worried that even if Peterson left, Hunt would simply replace him with one of the Chiefs’ in-house candidates, sort of a Carl Jr. Hunt said no, his plan is to go outside the organization to get a “fresh set of eyes.” It seems to be exactly what the Chiefs need after 20 years with one general manager.
3. Hunt would not give coach Herm Edwards a vote of confidence. There is no question that Hunt likes Edwards a lot, likes his philosophy of playing a lot of energetic young players and developing the team that way.
But this season has been a huge disappointment. Huge. And Hunt says he wants his new general manager to play a big role in deciding who should coach the team in 2009. I think that, if given a choice, Hunt would like to bring Herm back for another season and let this rebuilding plan play out. But I also think that if his GM of choice has strong feelings about starting over with a new coach, Hunt will not stand in the way.
4. He refused to make excuses. The best thing I thought Hunt said all day was when he talked about how the Chiefs could have won three or four more games this year — and it’s true, the Chiefs should have won the Chargers game on Sunday, and they could have won the game at San Diego when they failed on the final two-point conversion. They definitely should have beaten Tampa Bay, and they might have beaten the Jets on another day.
But here’s the point: Hunt mentioned that the Chiefs could have won those games, but then he quickly stopped and said that in the NFL, none of that matters. “We are what our record says we are,” he said, and in the end, that’s precisely right. It’s good to face reality when you are running a team.
5. Hunt said that he will begin looking for a new general manager immediately — that’s why he wanted to make the announcement before the season ended, so that he could get started before the season was over. That shows an aggressive side that, again, I’m not sure we knew about. We obviously will have to wait and see who Hunt actually hires as GM.
Maybe he goes for a bright, young and unproven guy like Indianapolis’ Chris Polian. Maybe he goes after a former big-name coach to run the organization like the Miami Dolphins did with Bill Parcells (Bill Cowher, anyone?). Maybe he goes for someone who has experience building a championship team. Maybe he goes in a whole other direction. He won’t say, and frankly, I don’t think he knows yet.
But the point is that sense of urgency is good to see. Everyone was trying to guess what it meant that Carl Peterson was not available for comment on Monday. It might have meant that he simply did not want to answer questions so soon after the announcement. It might have meant that he felt bitter about things. It might have meant that he finally had a good excuse to not deal with the media, and he took that chance. I couldn’t blame him.
But I think it was something else: Carl Peterson had 20 years to do the job. He did a lot of good, and he made a lot of mistakes, and he brought a lot of joy, and he ticked off a lot of fans, and in the end, he did not get to where everyone wanted to go. It’s all over now. Kansas City won’t have Carl Peterson to kick around anymore. It’s Clark Hunt’s stage now.
Clark Hunt is very careful. This is one thing we have come to know about him. He is careful with his words, and he is conservative by nature, and he sounds patient all the time, and he likes to say positive things. What do we really know about him? He does not seem the type of guy who would throw a beer can at the television set, but it’s hard to tell. He does not seem the type of guy who would scream at an official who blows a call, but nobody knows for sure.
Truth is, I’m not sure that before Monday Clark Hunt had given us any sense at all of what’s going on in his mind. Hot dog or hamburger? Ginger or Mary Ann? Gates or Bryant’s? Pearl Jam or Nirvana? I don’t think any of us could really tell.
Monday, though, some of that changed. Monday, Clark Hunt announced that Carl Peterson had resigned as president, general manager and CEO of the Kansas City Chiefs. Yes, that’s what the honking horns and fireworks were all about. Yes, that’s why you saw complete strangers kissing on every street corner.
It’s a shame that it ends this way for Peterson, who will finish off his era in two weeks, closing out 20 years. As you might imagine, I was designated as the person to say something nice about Carl, and I will point to the first nine years. They were pretty great. The Chiefs went to the playoffs seven times, and they reached the AFC championship game once, and fans poured into Arrowhead Stadium. Carl changed the landscape of this city. He hired Marty Schottenheimer as coach, he opened up the parking lot for the best tailgate scene in professional sports, he got Joe Montana and Marcus Allen, and he drafted Derrick Thomas and Will Shields and Tony Gonzalez. And that’s a lot of good.
Of course, the last 11 years have not been so good — two playoff appearances, six losing seasons, four head coaches, perpetually awful defenses, zero playoff victories, shaky drafts — and that’s why in many ways Monday was not really about Carl Peterson. His time was running out. No, Monday was about Clark Hunt.
Monday, Hunt showed the sort of passion that, frankly, we did not know he had — could not know he had. When we last heard from Hunt, he was telling us that Peterson and Chiefs coach Herm Edwards were doing a good job and that he could see many promising signs. Those were probably the right things for an owner to say, the politically correct things, but they didn’t sound too good to fans looking for change and hope.
Hunt had said before that he’s extremely competitive, and he hates to lose, and he is probably not quite as patient as his Joblike father Lamar — but frankly, those just sounded like empty words when he talked about how things were going well while the Chiefs played dreadful football.
Sunday, though, something changed. There was a different look on Clark Hunt’s face after the Chiefs blew the game against San Diego in the final minutes. Several people mentioned it: “Man, Clark looked mad, didn’t he?” It was pretty unmistakable.
Of course, Hunt made it plain that Sunday’s loss had nothing at all to do with Monday’s resignation — Hunt said that he had been talking with Peterson about resigning for a while now — and I’m sure that’s technically true. But something definitely changed. Hunt spoke as carefully as ever on Monday, but behind his cautious words, you could hear a little bit of emotion and get a little bit better sense of the man who owns the Chiefs:
1. Hunt felt as if it was time to move on, and he made a bold move. I don’t doubt that Peterson stepped down for the good of the organization; Peterson has always been very loyal to the Hunt family. But I have even less doubt that Hunt made this move happen. There were those who wondered — heck, I wondered — whether Hunt would really push Peterson out with only one year left on his contract. Clark Hunt did. I don’t think Lamar Hunt would have.
2. Hunt will be aggressive and go outside the organization for the next GM. Again, I think many fans were worried that even if Peterson left, Hunt would simply replace him with one of the Chiefs’ in-house candidates, sort of a Carl Jr. Hunt said no, his plan is to go outside the organization to get a “fresh set of eyes.” It seems to be exactly what the Chiefs need after 20 years with one general manager.
3. Hunt would not give coach Herm Edwards a vote of confidence. There is no question that Hunt likes Edwards a lot, likes his philosophy of playing a lot of energetic young players and developing the team that way.
But this season has been a huge disappointment. Huge. And Hunt says he wants his new general manager to play a big role in deciding who should coach the team in 2009. I think that, if given a choice, Hunt would like to bring Herm back for another season and let this rebuilding plan play out. But I also think that if his GM of choice has strong feelings about starting over with a new coach, Hunt will not stand in the way.
4. He refused to make excuses. The best thing I thought Hunt said all day was when he talked about how the Chiefs could have won three or four more games this year — and it’s true, the Chiefs should have won the Chargers game on Sunday, and they could have won the game at San Diego when they failed on the final two-point conversion. They definitely should have beaten Tampa Bay, and they might have beaten the Jets on another day.
But here’s the point: Hunt mentioned that the Chiefs could have won those games, but then he quickly stopped and said that in the NFL, none of that matters. “We are what our record says we are,” he said, and in the end, that’s precisely right. It’s good to face reality when you are running a team.
5. Hunt said that he will begin looking for a new general manager immediately — that’s why he wanted to make the announcement before the season ended, so that he could get started before the season was over. That shows an aggressive side that, again, I’m not sure we knew about. We obviously will have to wait and see who Hunt actually hires as GM.
Maybe he goes for a bright, young and unproven guy like Indianapolis’ Chris Polian. Maybe he goes after a former big-name coach to run the organization like the Miami Dolphins did with Bill Parcells (Bill Cowher, anyone?). Maybe he goes for someone who has experience building a championship team. Maybe he goes in a whole other direction. He won’t say, and frankly, I don’t think he knows yet.
But the point is that sense of urgency is good to see. Everyone was trying to guess what it meant that Carl Peterson was not available for comment on Monday. It might have meant that he simply did not want to answer questions so soon after the announcement. It might have meant that he felt bitter about things. It might have meant that he finally had a good excuse to not deal with the media, and he took that chance. I couldn’t blame him.
But I think it was something else: Carl Peterson had 20 years to do the job. He did a lot of good, and he made a lot of mistakes, and he brought a lot of joy, and he ticked off a lot of fans, and in the end, he did not get to where everyone wanted to go. It’s all over now. Kansas City won’t have Carl Peterson to kick around anymore. It’s Clark Hunt’s stage now.