Tony G speaks to the media
 

From Blob Gretz

Tony G. Speaks About No-Trade

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr valign="top" align="left"><th>October 15, 2008 - Bob Gretz | </th><th> </th><th>
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From the Truman Sports Complex
Tony Gonzalez was back in familiar surroundings on Wednesday, practicing with the Chiefs in their indoor facility and then holding court for the media horde after practice.

Gonzalez spoke to his teammates at their morning meeting, with no coaches in the room at his request.

“I told them the situation, how it occurred what my thought process was behind everything, why I wanted to go and how I thought maybe it could help the team,” Gonzalez said of what he told his teammates. “But now it’s over. So, it’s done with. I’m a Chief now for these next 11 games. I’m concentrating on going out there and trying to be the best player that I can be and help this team win.
“I wanted to make sure; I think most of them know me, the guys that have been around for awhile know what I’m all about. But I wanted to make sure those young guys know that this is about winning football games, about being the best football player you can be. No matter what the situation is, whether you are frustrated or you are extremely happy, you have to go out there and bust your tail every day and try to get better and help this team win.”

He also had plenty to say on various subjects:

-On what the day was like on Tuesday waiting for a trade to be made: “It was a high stress situation. It was a sad situation. It was confusing … it was pretty stressful for myself and my family. I felt this was it. What was told to me, a deal was going to get struck if a team was willing to give up what I thought was necessary for me to get out of here. When it came and when I was somewhat shocked that it didn’t go down.”

-On the status of his relationship now with Carl Peterson: “Who knows. I’m disappointed. In the end it doesn’t matter what our relationship is any more. I’m a Chief and I’m here and I’m here to play.”

-On what was offered for him and whether it sounded like a reasonable deal: “From what I understood, a third round was offered and it didn’t go down that way. If you are going to trade me, that’s what you can expect to get. You are not going to get anything higher. I’m 32 years old. A second-round pick you are not going to get that. Everybody knows that … if they were serious about trading me, I think they would have taken that third-round pick. But that’s just my opinion.”

-On whether the Chiefs were serious about trading him: “A part of me thinks maybe they were just trying to appease me. I don’t know if they were serious. In the end, the way it all went down from what I understand, it didn’t sound like it … if they weren’t serious from the beginning, I wish they would have told me that, because in that case none of this would have even gone down. Just sit there and tell me it’s not going to happen this year.”

-Did he request a trade before the season: “No … I wanted to see how it worked out. Obviously Brodie (Croyle) going down, I think that hurt us definitely. We’ve been snakebit this year too. At that point (before the season) I didn’t see the need too.”

-On what it says about the Chiefs that he wanted out: “I’m not saying anything bad about these guys. I think this team is going in the right direction, I really feel that way. They’ve got some great young talent on this team and they are rebuilding, there’s no doubt about that. These g uys are going to be good in thef uture and we can be good this year, but it takes guys about three years to really get in that groove. That’s how long it took me, so knowing that and knowing I’m not going to be around here in three years … that’s the reason I said if it can help the Chiefs with them going out there and getting a pretty good draft choice for me, and it would help me going out there and playing for a contender this year, that was the whole reason behind it. It’s not that I don’t believe in Herm, or I don’t believe in Carl. They’ve done a good job in my opinion. It’s getting down to the end of the road for me and I had to take that shot.”

-On the ceremony planned to honor him before this Sunday’s game: “That’s probably something I would like to wait until the end of the year. It’s up to them … I think it would be akward in light of what went down this week. Let’s just wait on it. We’ll see what they want to do.”

-Will he ask to be traded again after this season is over: “We’ll see. I can’t answer that question honestly.”

Yes, we can trade him during the draft for a conditional 6th rounder from the giants, that could go up to a 5th!11111111111

This is just a miserable situation for the player, the team and the fans.

So much for the idea that Tony posts here.

Obviously, the FO doesn't give a damn one way or the other.

I said earlier, the biggest contribution Tony could've made to this team and its future, was the 3rd round pick Carl pissed away.

"I’m a Chief now for these next 11 games."


gee i'm glad carl didn't trade him for a 3rd....since we're not rebuilding it makes perfect sense to hold on to a 32 yr old player who has no intention of playing for us next year...

brilliant

:hmmm:

Pretty much.

Par for the course.

Carl has pissed off so many big-time contributors to this franchise.
Allen, Green, Gonzalez, Johnson... Clark please...

I love how our front office ****s everything up. Trent Green, Now not meeting Gonzalez's trade demands even if we could've gotten a solid pick, it keeps going and going

And our owner doesn't care

I really wish he'd just said "Carl's a ****ing douchebag, and he lied to me, and I'm here to announce my retirement. Call me when him and that reerun Edwards are gone so we can do that whole Ring of Fame thing."

"I’m a Chief now for these next 11 games. "
"Just sit there and tell me it’s not going to happen this year"
"“Who knows. I’m disappointed. In the end it doesn’t matter what our relationship is any more."
"“That’s probably something I would like to wait until the end of the year. "

Reading between the lines on all of these comments does not make for a good situation. It doesn't sound like he wants to return next year. He no longer has trust in Carl, and he doesn't even care if he is honored by the team because he feels the team has screwed him over in recent weeks.

Those big name free agents are going to come flocking to KC next year!

That's as good as can be expected from Tony in this tough situation. I think he did a very good job.

I'd die if tony had the nuts during his celebration sunday to say "this is my last game"

Hopefully the 10 fans will give him a nice cheer

He was surprisingly diplomatic in the interview.

I'll give you Green, Gonzo and LJ, though the argument can be made for Carl in each of those instances, considering 2 of those players were trying to dictate EXACTLY where they were going to be dealt.

But Allen?

If Jared Allen was pissed off by being called "a young man at risk," which he is, then tough shit.

Carl's made a TON of mistakes over the last 20 years, but the way he handled Jared Allen's immature ass isn't one of them, IMO.

He should find a way to make Gonzo happy to stay with K.C. That's what you do for hall of famers.

If that's impossible, you get best value. Best value was available yesterday. He'll never be worth more.

Carl Peterson may be the most overpaid man in the world, except for those idiots who drove down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Agreed and we got what we could...

Yep. Such is life withe Carl and Herm. I honestly feel that it wouldn't be THIS bad if Herm wasn't the HC. There's absolutely no light at the end of the with Herm. Tony knows it.

.. no pass rush.

Yep, those three sacks would be making all the difference right now.

Actually, those two sacks, unless we could have arranged for Cutler to run out of the back of the endzone...

If people can't see that he was just playing for a payday now...

Playing next to two of the best DT's in the league, and the best you can do for $70M is 3 goddamn sacks? And you didn't even have to touch the QB on one of them?

Carl's done a TON of stupid shit, but managing to get 3 draft picks, including a mid-first for an alcoholic with 2 strikes against him isn't on the list.

Having alot of sacks is nice, but what we really need is pressure on the QB. We have absolutely none. Not even close. Their QB's have all day to find the receiver they want. Allen would have at least put pressure on the QB and hopefully force him into a bad throw. That shit just doesn't happen right now with our pathetic dline.

He's had tons of pressures and would still be the best player on the Chiefs if he were around.

Carl is such an arrogant prick that it is getting harder and harder to root for this team. All of his "success" came because Marty was here, yet he has an ego as big as Jerry Jones's.

That's wishful thinking, considering he's not getting much pressure in Minnesota, with two studs helping him out by giving him the one-on-one matchup.

I've tried to watch as much of the Vikings as my schedule allows, and he looks like a completely different player.

Check the Vikes boards. He's getting barbecued.

I'm sure he hasn't gotten pressure on the QB aside from those 3 sacks.
:rolleyes:

And he doesn't play well against the run, right?
Hali wouldn't be getting sacks from a more natural position either, right?

Allen should be leading the league in sacks with Minnesota's DL

I can't argue against that except it doesn't appear they had a plan in place to replace Allen. Did they think Boone was a suitable DE? That was just stupid.

Seriously, wtf do people want? Allen got PAID and he'll be a hugh douglas with an alcohol problem...its possible and Minn already is up his ass about not performing as well as he should be

We had 1 draft, doesn't mean they won't replace him, atleast the new regime

Well let's hope Carls handling of the situation is one more nail in the coffin so maybe all hope is not lost.

Way to go Tony. You just devalued yourself for next year by saying a 3rd is all you are worth. Now we won't get offered anymore that a 4th or 5th. Good job dumbass.

We had 1 draft with 12 picks and the entire Free Agency period.

I hope you are right

That isn't Tony's fault Carl is the dumbass that ****ed this whole thing up.

Why does he need to be replaced immediately?

We used one of those picks to draft our LTOTF.

Which is a hell of a lot more important to this team right now.

Going into this past draft, if you gave me the choice between a franchise LT or a franchise DE, I'm taking the LT every single time.

See OTWP's response

1 season, we couldve gotten another Tambi in this past draft

Dear lord. :rolleyes:

Didn't Carl say as much when he decided to "trade" him? Carl forked this up from the get go; just like he telegraphed the Brady Quinn "we'll draft him if he's there" comment. fuck, Carl and fuck, Herm

Reading is fundamental.


Do you really want to go down this path much further?

$70M and all you're asking for is some pressure?

:doh!:

Carl is at fault for not taking the 3rd rounder offer. What I am saying though is that Tony devalued himself by saying that is all he was worth. By doing that we will get an undervalued offer next year. I would have expected him to still be worth a 3 at the end of the season but because the other teams now have him on record they will offer 4-5 at the highest. The only reason you trade him now is to just cut your losses. Carl hurt the team and TG hurt the team in this situation. They are both at fault.

My overall point from the outset was that Carl is pissing off player after player in this organization. That shouldn't sit well with the owner of the team.

Carl said it would take a 3rd to get the deal done before TG even opened his mouth. Carl set the price. Now the Chiefs are forked and at the end of the season Tony will possibly retire or request a trade, so teams interested in TG offer much less.

And your overall point was correct.

But you were dead wrong in including Allen in that argument.

So far it looks like our owner has no balls, and is quiet and conservative. We all know nothing will be said till the season is over.

It is indeed.
Good thing for both of us... I happened to go back and re-read your post.

Yep, those three sacks would be making all the difference right now.

Actually, those two sacks, unless we could have arranged for Cutler to run out of the back of the endzone...

If people can't see that he was just playing for a payday now...

Playing next to two of the best DT's in the league, and the best you can do for $70M is 3 goddamn sacks? And you didn't even have to touch the QB on one of them?

Carl's done a TON of stupid shit, but managing to get 3 draft picks, including a mid-first for an alcoholic with 2 strikes against him isn't on the list.


Where you said nothing about how having him here benefits Hali, our run support, or ability to pressure the QB.

Good job.
:bravo:

Are any of those things, added to a half-assed effort, worth $70M?

Didn't think so.

We can agree to disagree.
Remember... Allen was agreeable to a new contract with terms that protected the Chiefs from any further violations of the league's substance-abuse policy.

If you want to argue that he half-assed we can do so.
Don't pretend that I didn't read your post though. I did.
And you diminished Allen's value to this team.
We can argue whether or not it was the right decision all day, but let's not pretend that we wouldn't be in a MUCH better place if he were still here.

Hell, I've taken the two strikes out of the equation all together. And FWIW, Allen MAY have been agreeable to those terms. The player's union and the NFL would not have.

He's not worth $70M to this franchise.

He's showing he's not worth $70M to his CURRENT franchise.

Forget about the other two picks - Branden Albert means more to the future of this team, by merely playing the most important position on the TEAM other than QB - than Jared Allen EVER would have.

When you add two more players to the mix, a $70M paycheck and that 3rd strike looming over his head, it's not even close.

Albert and Dorsey wouldnt have happend as well as Flowers i believe without Allen going, a 4th round pick getting paid big time and now isnt doing much, 2 REAL sacks.

He gets that 3rd strike the chiefs are ****ed

No, we wouldn't.

Unless you live in a fantasy world where DE's are more important than LT's.

And how am I diminishing his value?

He's doing that all on his own in Minnesota.

His play, with 10X the supporting cast, isn't worth HALF of what he was paid.

What makes you think he would be producing here, with a much less talented supporting cast?

Wishful thinking.

We might have the replacement in the system already being brian johnston. He seems like hes of the same mold as allen was, the tall lean pass rusher type from a smaller school. Plus allen took a few years to really come on, although he showed some spurts of greatness along the way. from the limited action ive seen im not dissapointed in johnston.

Are we certain that the Chiefs couldn't have protected themselves financially in the event of another indiscretion on the part of Allen? I'm not trying to be disagreeable here (I really don't know), but I've never seen concrete evidence that such verbiage in a contract violates NFLPA policy.

He may prove to be. Thus far, we don't know how he'll fare in the NFL.

You said "forget about the other two picks".

Defensive Ends of his caliber are certainly worth $70M.

yeah but you can't put a DT at DE and expect any results. It was a stupid decision and Herm is now bitching because they have no pass rush.

WELL DUHH...

I value an elite DE right behind a franchise QB and LT.
And I think we know now that Herb Taylor would've been a suitable successor for McIntosh.
Besides... It's not like there were no other Left Tackles drafted after the First Round.

I'm guessing the 15.5 sacks that he amassed with a less talented supporting cast last year?
:shrug:

Not sure if you know, but Allen had 9 sacks in his rookie season.
Johnston hasn't seen much of the field.

Could he be his replacement? Sure. He COULD be.
I wouldn't depend on him to develop into that kind of player though.

Of his caliber?

16 tackles, 3 sacks, in 6 games. And one of those sacks was the biggest gift since Strahan/Favre.

He's on pace for 42 tackles and less than 8 sacks.

Show me the next guy that's going to be paid $70M with that stat line.

Oh, that's right. LAST year.

BEFORE he got PAID.

You're right.
I made the mistake of thinking he had produced BEFORE last year.

He hasn't gotten paid yet. The Vikings built in safeguards should strike 3 occur. He only received about 15 mil guaranteed at the start. KC could have easily fit him into the cap.

They didn't and now they will have to burn an early draft pick to replace him.

Does he get a special award for last year? The year before?

He got paid, and now his production has fallen off, though his surroundings suggest his production should be increasing.

Sounds like a guy I'd like to give $70M

:rolleyes:

Or, they could do the smart thing, and use picks to improve that HORRIBLE offensive line we have.

Why is replacing Jared Allen a goddamn necessity when this team has holes EVERYWHERE?

I'm not a KC fan but as an NFL fan I think it's a bummer that Peterson didn't make the trade happen. Would've been cool for TG to get a chance to go to the playoffs with a different team this year. Plus, there's already some good young talent on the Chiefs, a 3rd could've netted another future starter a key position such as OL.

Edited: Poster above me made the same point about o-line with that pick, good call.

Do those safeguards protect the Vikings from him underperforming?

Didn't think so.

If he stays clean he's going to be paid better than anyone at his position, even when he turns in a 7-8 sack season.

That's only $8.75 - $10M per sack...

What a bargain.

I agree 100 percent. We need to revamp the line first thing IMO(excluding albert and possibly herb) and find a replacement for Waters eventually. Maybe richardson steps up so we wont need to draft someone there, who knows. Jury is still out on niswanger i think

Good post, n00b, and great call on Waters.

Hopefully the next regime won't wait until it's too late to replace him, like Vermeil did with the majority of his team.

They need to draft a guy THIS year, IMO, and plan on him being the guy in a few years (or less) when Waters hangs up his cleats.

So tony is innocent in all of this. Got it.:shake:

Innocent? No.

I'm not even sure what role innocence would play in this situation.

Excellent at his job? Yes. He's the only one involved who could claim that.

Poor Tony...he could have gone to the Bills but that was just too far away!

QFT

I love Tony and what he has done for the Chiefs. He deserves a shot at his SB ring. However, he has ticked me off these last two years because of the me first attitude.

He was an established player on the Chiefs. But hey, if you don't think the Chiefs need a pass rusher I'm sure you are correct. Hali and McBride will be the second coming of Strahan and Osi in the 2nd half of the season.

Way to not answer the question, and completely derail the conversation.

You're quickly becoming the King of the False Dilemma, with a nice side of Strawman.

He's played 6 games as a Viking. What do you say that we wait until the end of the year before we jump to conclusions eh?

We've already invested a #1 in one of our new Offensive Linemen.
Niswanger will get at least another year at the Center spot.
Waters isn't going anywhere.
Taylor has shown himself to be a fairly solid player on the Left Side.
We've drafted Barry Richardson at Right Tackle.

The only position I can see them going after, as starters go, would be Guard.
Certainly we could use a bit more depth though.

Do you not see how having zero pass rush is killing this defense?

What's killing the defense is ridiculously poor LB play.

The rookie DB's are playing better than anyone we had at the position last year WITH pressure on the QB.

Would I like to have more pass rush? Absolutely.

Is that the sole reason the defense is underperforming?

Not even close.

We may have the pieces in place offensively but we seriously need to start moving the ball. I hate it how the commentators on tv keep saying "well with 3 minutes left in the half, the chiefs have yet to get a first down." Ok, maybe an exaggeration in some respects, but you get the point. Luckily, we still have the rest of the year to play out to see if Croyle is worth his weight in dirt at the QB position. If Richardson doesnt claim that RT spot by the end of the year then I do think we should go ahead and draft a guy. I wouldnt say first pick, but definately in the top half.