Tony Richardson is underrated. I was looking into his career not too long ago and he blocked for Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson here, went to Minnesota where he blocked for a 1,000+ yard back (can’t think of his name) in 2006 then Adrian Peterson in 2007, then went to New York where he blocked for Thomas Jones with the Jets (1,300 yards in 2008 then 1,400 yards in 2009).

There was nearly a solid decade where he was paving the way for 1,000 yard backs every single year.

Agreed. It’s funny now, but he was actually the starting back in 2001 for the first few games before Vermeil knew what he had.

Priest is probably THE reason I'm a Chiefs fan today.

I find it really sad that all anyone has to say about him is he was "the guy behind the greatest O-Line ever assembled". Dude was special.

Yep, I remember those days. We had a run of some very mediocre backs in the late 90s, early 00s. Greg Hill, Kimble Anders, Donnell Bennet, Bam Morris, etc.

I'd also argue, and this might seem off base but ill say it anyway, that after DT passed away, the Chiefs didn't really have an iconic player to follow until Priest came along. After that it was probably Jamaal during the really dark days.

Priest was an important part of Chiefs history that the next generation of fans looked up to.

I may be mixing up Tony Richardson and Kimble Anders, but didn't Tony get a start at the end of a season and run for 150 yards or something, and on the sidelines Carl Peterson told him he was going to be the starter at running back next year? And then next year came and he never got a chance? (In fairness to Carl, maybe that was when Priest arrived.)

I think that was Tony who didn't get the chance. I think Kimble had a similar story, but he actually was named the starter as the feature back and then blew out an achilles in his first game.

Can anyone confirm or refute my memory on this?

Put Jamaal behind that online and he breaks the single season rushing record. He'd be a no doubt HOFer. Probably would have gotten 2 more healthy years out of him, because he'd never be touched.

**** I hate that Jamaal couldn't have been just a few years younger. Imagine if he was a rookie with Mahomes. We would be unstoppable.

He was absolutely incredible.

The timelines blur for me over the years. I always think of Tony G and DT being in the same era, but they only played together for a handful of seasons. But somewhere in there, I might think that Tony was our iconic player.

Richardson had a 156 yard game in week 16 against Denver in 2000. He def was not the starter the next year.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm remembering.

But didn't Kimble Anders have a very similar story arc, but with a tragic ending the next season?

I think Kimble Anders had a big game and tore his Achilles at the same time? That was 98 or 99 era I think?

Yeah, it's possible that he was named the starter at the very end of the season and then tore his achilles in that first game. I just remember him playing well in a surprise feature role and being named the starter, and then he had a tragic non-contact injury immediately afterwards.

Or I guess it could have been at the end of his breakout game, too. I just remember it happening immediately after I thought he could be a successful feature back for us.

There was a documentary in the mid 2ks maybe 2k5 called beyond the glory Priest homes. It was ****ing badass.

That sounds right. TG was probably our most fun player until we had assembled the 02-03 team.