Star rips Carl and Herm over Sims

[Hammock Parties]

Rippin' Carl! Rippin' Herm!

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/chi...ry/590987.html

He dropped himself onto a chair in a crowded sports bar in Atlanta. He was surrounded by the hopeful, mostly family and friends. His father sat to his right, his agent to his left. A cell phone was on the table in front of him.

Ryan Sims wore a black suit with pinstripes on that April morning, when the group gathered to watch the 2002 NFL draft. Sims was a defensive tackle from the University of North Carolina. He was confident that morning he would be a top-10 draft pick. But Sims’ father, Ronnie, had heard bad things about some teams. There were a handful of franchises Ronnie Sims would just as soon pass on his son — even if they had a high pick.


“There are certain teams that you’re hoping don’t draft your kid,” Ronnie Sims says now. “And Kansas City was one of them.”


Ryan Sims’ phone rang. He flipped it open and pressed it to his right ear. One of the teams Ronnie Sims had heard about was on the other line.


Ryan Sims slid on a Chiefs hat and smiled anyway.


•••

The Chiefs need a sure thing. Six years have passed since the Chiefs traded up to grab Sims with the No. 6 overall pick, a mistake that cost the franchise and Sims for years. It is a mistake the Chiefs cannot afford to repeat when this year’s draft starts Saturday.


Whether they like it or not, reminders of Sims — and the pitfalls of repeating such a mistake — will be all around them.


They have the No. 5 overall pick, their highest since taking Sims. But now, the stakes are higher. They have two first-round picks and 13 choices overall. Coach Herm Edwards wants at least five starters out of this year’s crop, and he implied this week that some coaches and executives might not be around to patch the holes if they don’t get it right this time.


The Chiefs drafted Sims in 2002 because they thought he would be a starter for five, maybe 10 years. Instead, the player they thought was the sure thing wound up taking up space on the roster for five seasons. The Chiefs dumped him last year, trading Sims for a seventh-round pick.


“We thought we solved the problems for many years ahead,” says Dick Vermeil, the Chiefs coach in 2002.


The decision produced a residual effect that still reverberates at Arrowhead Stadium and beyond. The Chiefs still have questions at defensive tackle. The selection elicited criticism of Chiefs president/general manager Carl Peterson’s player evaluation skills. After Sims was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year, the Chiefs were responsible for $1 million of Sims’ signing bonus, money spent paying for nothing but a mistake.


Vermeil thought Sims was a “can’t miss.” Now he’s a 27-year-old backup lineman who might have already peaked. He hasn’t started a game since 2005 and has missed 28 games in six seasons because of injuries. It started that day in April 2002, when the wrong team drafted the wrong player.

“It stunted his growth tremendously,” says Ronnie Sims, himself a former pro athlete. “Ryan was glad to be up out of there. He was like, ‘I don’t care what they give me; they can give me a jersey.’ He was just glad he got out of Kansas City.”


•••

A year after they selected Sims, the Chiefs drafted another defensive tackle. A year later, they chose another one. And another in 2007.
In three of five drafts since 2002, the Chiefs have spent at least one selection trying to make up for the Ryan Sims mistake. Peterson says the financial burdens are stiff for a draft-day bust, but the worst residual effect of drafting Sims was that the Chiefs paid him $9.75 million in guarantees and received no certainty or longevity at defensive tackle.


“If I could have gone back and taken that pick back and done someone else, I’ve got to say, ‘Absolutely, yes,’ ” Peterson says. “You’ve got to be able to live with that decision for some time.”


Drafting Sims came down to hearsay and a scouting breakdown. Sims played alongside Julius Peppers at North Carolina and was strong and quick — with 11 sacks his final two years. John Bunting, Sims’ college coach, sold Vermeil that Sims, not Peppers, was the star of the Tar Heels’ line. Some said Sims would be the next Warren Sapp.


“I don’t think there’s any flaws,” Vermeil said of Sims at the time.
The Chiefs had the No. 8 overall pick in 2002. It wasn’t high enough to get their man. Kansas City traded two draft picks to the Dallas Cowboys to move up two spots after Chiefs executives heard the Minnesota Vikings, sitting at No. 7, were going to draft Sims.


By picking Sims, the Chiefs passed on tackles John Henderson (No. 9 overall) and Albert Haynesworth (No. 15), who have combined to play in three Pro Bowls.


Peterson admits it was a mistake to draft Sims — “It was probably a reach,” he says — but says he does not regret passing on Henderson and Haynesworth, who carried character concerns before the 2002 draft.


But Vermeil says it might have been worth taking a chance on one of them. How could it have turned out worse for the Chiefs?


“If there was a mistake made,” Vermeil says, “we’re the ones who made it.”


•••

Two weeks before the 2002 draft, Ronnie Sims began hearing whispers. Agents were calling to warn Ryan Sims that three teams had reputations. The Cincinnati Bengals were cheap, Ronnie Sims was told. The Seattle Seahawks would be a bad fit. The warnings about the Chiefs were simple, Ronnie Sims says: Kansas City’s general manager was Carl Peterson.

Ronnie Sims says he heard Peterson was an unfair negotiator and that he tried to sign high draft picks for less than their value.


But then Ryan Sims’ cell phone rang, and he sat in that sports bar and smiled wide because he was going to play for the Chiefs.


“At the time,” Ronnie Sims says, “the kid was just happy to be drafted.”


Months later, though, the sides reached a financial impasse. Training camp began, and Ryan Sims wasn’t there. Then the preseason games started, and Sims still wasn’t there. More than a month after the preseason began, Sims signed a five-year contract with the Chiefs. What happened between draft day and signing day remains up for debate, and some hard feelings remain.


Peterson says Sims’ agent, Hadley Engelhard, made unrealistic contract demands and was “foolish” to hold Sims out of camp. Peterson says he reminded Engelhard that the longer a player holds out, the more likely he is to be injured when the regular season begins.


“Without question,” Peterson says, “his agent was extremely difficult.”


Ronnie Sims says Peterson was unreasonable and refused to discuss what the Sims side thought was an appropriate deal.

“He was trying to offer No. 8 or 9 pick money,” Ronnie Sims says. “If I’ve got stock worth $20, you’re not going to give me $10 for it.”


Sims signed on Aug. 28, 2002, more than five months after the Chiefs made him their top pick. Sims was overweight, and Vermeil told reporters Sims was unfit to play because he was “fat and out of shape.”

Sims started two games before he dislocated an elbow and missed the rest of the season. Six months after they drafted Sims, the Chiefs already had regrets.

“It’s just like buying a Mercedes with a bad rear end; it doesn’t run real good,” Vermeil says now. “But you’ve spent a lot of money on it.”


The elbow was the first of many injuries to Sims, who Peterson maintains might have avoided such a fate if he had reported to training camp on time. Regardless, Sims’ elbow injury started a chain reaction that led to more injuries, which led to a label that he was unsuited to playing regularly in the NFL.


When Vermeil left the Chiefs after the 2005 season, Herm Edwards took over. Ronnie Sims says Edwards misled Ryan Sims and lied to him about his future in Kansas City. When the topic of Sims was brought up to Edwards last week, the Chiefs coach rolled his eyes and said he would not comment on the former first-round pick.

“I’ll leave that one alone,” Edwards says.


But Ronnie Sims is outspoken about his son’s time here. He says Ryan Sims received substandard coaching, and executives blamed Sims for not being the team’s salvation. Once Ryan Sims was traded, his father says, his play and attitude improved. It took five years, Ronnie Sims says, for his son to settle in at a place and feel wanted — and that place was not Kansas City.

“They would tell you one thing, and then they would go behind your back and tell you something else,” Ronnie Sims says. “I don’t operate like that.

“Trust me, there’s a reason why people want out of Kansas City. It’s got to be Carl, I guess. It’s got to be something. Every guy I know who left Kansas City and was on another team, they’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m glad I got out of Kansas City.’ ”


•••

Peterson sits behind his desk at Arrowhead Stadium and stares at a paper that contains some of Ryan Sims’ statistics.


Peterson leans back and reads aloud the number of starts Sims made for the Chiefs.


“Thirty-six of fifty-nine games,” Peterson says, dropping the paper back on his desk.


He shakes his head and doesn’t say anything for a long time. Then he looks up.


“I can blame it on player personnel,” he says. “I can blame it on coaches. I can blame it on myself.”


Six years after one of the worst draft picks in Chiefs history, there remain as many questions toward future drafts as there is blame for the 2002 draft. As a result of what happened the last time the Chiefs had a top-10 pick, some fans distrust Peterson and the Chiefs’ scouting department.


Peterson hasn’t forgotten what missing on Sims did to the franchise. Few will let him forget it. So all he can do now is sit behind a desk and shake his head at a decision Peterson admits was far from a one-year mistake.

Ronnie Sims says he had his concerns the Chiefs were a bad fit. Looking back, he says, both sides would have been wise to avoid each other.

“What Ryan knows now,” Ronnie Sims says, “he wishes Kansas City hadn’t drafted him. And I’m sure they wish they hadn’t drafted him, too.”

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by arc

Close, Mr. Dyslexia - it was 21.

At least I got the digits right.

[Rain Man]

Remember that Sims' defensive coordinator was Greg Robinson. He did indeed have horrible coaching. Robinson played a defensive scheme where linemen were not allowed to penetrate. They were supposed to wait and let the runners and blockers come to them. Sims did get his first career interception under the Spinner defense, though.

In my opinion, the blame goes first to Greg Robinson and next to Carl Peterson. They shouldn't have been investing high draft picks on guys whose jobs were to stand there and try not to get run over.

God almighty, I hate Greg Robinson.

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by BigChiefFan

I undertsand the hate on Peterson-he's a butthole, but Ronnie Sims sounds like sour grapes-I'm sure Carl did low-ball them, but Sims did get paid and then he still stunk. Mr. Twinkies needs to -he's a BUST.

Sims got 5 years to prove he was a BUST...

Carl has had 19 to prove his is a bust and still a bust as a GM, yet the lemmings are linning up to fill his pockets every sunday...

Good thing none of them drink and drive after the game.. You know Carl doesnt approve of such activites...

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

God almighty, I hate Greg Robinson.

He was the sole reason KC failed under DV...

The DV built Chiefs were designed for about a 3-4 year serious run at a Superbowl.... GROB took that away from us...

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by stlchiefs

So it doesn't matter that another team hasn't been able to get anything out of the guy either?

In Tampa he's been exactly what you would expect from a 1st round pick that never developed. You develop a guy during his first few years. That opportunity closes as bad habits become ingrained, the body ages, injuries accumulate etc. Under the right circumstances, I think a motivated Sims could have developed.

Circumstances fall on the Chiefs. Lack of motivation is half Sims, half Chiefs.

Here's a Good breakdown of Sim's for you, I'm sure it's similar to what KC came up with:
Strengths: double fisting bearclaws, slurping twinkie filling like a Hoover
Weaknesses: sweets, working out, running, effort
Personality Quirks: has a sweet tooth, loves to eat, hates to work, blames others for his failures, vagina toe

We drafted him. So if that is the breakdown, it is all on KC.

[MTG#10]

Im never one to defend CP, I cant stand the prick but Sims' dad blaming Sims poor play on CP and the Chiefs? He's only 27 so if its our fault he should be hitting his prime and a beast for TB.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by mikey23545

Holy shit, this article makes it plain to see where Ryan Sims' complete lack of backbone and human worth comes from. Ronnie "Entitlement" Sims raised a helluva boy.

yeah, it cleared up some things.

[COchief]

Originally Posted by vailpass

In a recent poll 100 out of 100 NFL players stated they would rather play for Denver than KC under Carl Peterson.

This may be true for Shanny vs Carl, but players have become increasingly vocal in ripping the Rat and his BS tactics in recent years.

I'd put Denver in the top five of the shitlist teams according to what past players have to say. Your organization ain't no New England there buddy.

[PastorMikH]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Closest would be Gonzo [and Percy Snow] at 13. Then there was Tait at 14. Carl wasn't here for Neil Smith at 2.

My bad, I was counting Neil Smith.


Crap!!! Carl's only 50-50!

[PastorMikH]

Originally Posted by vailpass

There are going to be some nervous top draft picks when it comes time for the the KC pick.

Long: "God please don't let my phone ring"
Gholston: "Please, please don't pick me"
Ryan: "If I don't answer the phone will they pick someone else?"

If Sims' old man was that upset the Chiefs picked his kid, can you imagine how upset Howie will be if his kid falls to the Chiefs? Howie was a Raider back when they and the Chiefs still hated each other.

[Friendo]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

yeah, it cleared up some things.

yup--next time, check with the neighbors down da skreet!

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by PastorMikH

If Sims' old man was that upset the Chiefs picked his kid, can you imagine how upset Howie will be if his kid falls to the Chiefs? Howie was a Raider back when they and the Chiefs still hated each other.

Yep. I'd love to see the look on Al Davis' face if KC got Long.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by COchief

This may be true for Shanny vs Carl, but players have become increasingly vocal in ripping the Rat and his BS tactics in recent years.

I'd put Denver in the top five of the shitlist teams according to what past players have to say. Your organization ain't no New England there buddy.

Please show me the quotes of the past players you cite in your post as well as any related data you used arrive at your placement.
Please also explain why 100 NFL players would rather have a rusty nail driven through the tip of their penis than play for Carl.

[COchief]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Please show me the quotes of the past players you cite in your post as well as any related data you used arrive at your placement.
It might also be interesting to see who the other four teams are in the bottom five you cite.

I'm not going to hunt around the internet to dig that up, you know the Rat is wearing out his welcome.

My point was you were over here crowing about our shitstain of a GM when you know damn well your drawers aren't clean either.

[Chief Faithful]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Remember that Sims' defensive coordinator was Greg Robinson. He did indeed have horrible coaching. Robinson played a defensive scheme where linemen were not allowed to penetrate. They were supposed to wait and let the runners and blockers come to them. Sims did get his first career interception under the Spinner defense, though.

In my opinion, the blame goes first to Greg Robinson and next to Carl Peterson. They shouldn't have been investing high draft picks on guys whose jobs were to stand there and try not to get run over.

God almighty, I hate Greg Robinson.

Robinson was the worst, but you can't blame Robinson when Sims reports to camp over weight and out of shape year after year. Sims was worse at being a professional football player than Robinson was at being a coach.