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11-21-2012, 06:07 PM | |
The Boom Boom Room
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Mellinger | Ex-GM Peterson ‘saddened’ by Chiefs’ situation
Sam Mellinger | Ex-GM Peterson ‘saddened’ by Chiefs’ situation
By SAM MELLINGER The Kansas City Star Carl Peterson knows exactly why I called. He knows why some Chiefs fans want to hear from him. In some real ways, this conversation is a beach ball of schadenfreude placed on a tee for the man who effectively ran all things Chiefs for nearly 20 years, then was fired four years ago with his reputation in Kansas City at least frayed. Peterson knows all of this. He won’t take his biggest swing. But he will make solid contact. “I guess like every Chiefs fan, I’m disappointed and I’m saddened by what’s transpired there,” he says. “I think I know and made a real point to learn who the Chiefs fans were and what they wanted. I feel for them, because I’ve always felt the Kansas City Chiefs were, should be, and could be a great franchise.” There’s more. “I was very, very fortunate to work for Lamar Hunt for 18 of my 20 years there. He’s the guy who made the difference for me. They’ve fallen on hard times. That’s for sure.” The point here is not just for Peterson to dance on the Chiefs’ rubble. There is some perspective in remembering what he and Lamar Hunt made together. They built the Chiefs’ brand in the 1990s. Through much of the 1980s, the team was a local afterthought. If they won, cool. If they lost, whatever. Nobody much noticed. That began to change when Hunt hired Peterson, and Peterson hired coach Marty Schottenheimer and the whole thing just took off, with seven playoff appearances in the first eight years of the 1990s. The Chiefs’ parking lot became the biggest party in Kansas City. Arrowhead Stadium became one of the toughest places to play in the NFL. Peterson, who lives in New York now, is one of the strongest connections we have to that time. “We had fun at it,” he says. “We made it a fun thing. We made it a family thing. Lamar believed very much in that, and I did, too. He was a wonderful owner. He’d say, ‘How can I help?’ I’d say, ‘Lamar, I need you to do a contest in the parking lot to judge buses and vans that fans have painted,’ and he loved that.” Now, of course, that is all different. Lamar’s son Clark fired Peterson two years after taking over, and Peterson says the two never communicate. The Chiefs made massive personnel changes after Peterson was fired, often dropping thinly veiled shots along the way. Peterson hasn’t been back to Arrowhead since, and remains touchy about not being invited to Schottenheimer’s induction to the team’s Ring of Honor. It is a vastly different franchise now, and when Scott Pioli took over for Peterson after a 2-14 disaster in 2008, that was part of the point. The Chiefs were broken and needed fixing. A youth movement that started under Peterson — Brandon Flowers, Tamba Hali, Jamaal Charles, Derrick Johnson and other key players who predate Pioli — needed structure, and until this season, there was reason for optimism. Now, the big story out of the parking lot before Sunday’s loss to the Bengals was the team stopping the mass distribution of flyers listing some unflattering facts about the Chiefs on one side and “FIRE PIOLI” on the other. The Chiefs have never had a disconnect with their fans like this. That was always a priority with Peterson, sometimes to the point of being criticism. The common knock on the Chiefs was that they cared more about filling the stadium than advancing in the playoffs. Now, team and town would settle for a fun atmosphere and competitive team. The last man to oversee a run like that watches from a distance. “I do come back to Kansas City,” he says. “I still have a home there. People on the street, they’re very disappointed. Some of them are angry at what’s transpired. I’m sorry to see that. It’s no longer my watch, so I can have my personal feelings about it, but it’s not my responsibility anymore.” |
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11-21-2012, 07:25 PM | #46 |
Scott Pioli
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Peterson should have uppercut that mother ****er Pioli.
Pioli and his henchmen made it a point to rip basically everything this organization had when he took over. "Players are too slow" "I could win 2 games with 22 guys off the street". Clark Hunt has turned into a piece of shit like Pioli. Peterson should have been invited to that ceremony. I hated CP from 2000-2008 but the ****er is the reason this team likely wasn't relocated somewhere else. The Chiefs have seriously just turned into a miserable bag of **** mixed with piles of shit. They ****ing suck on the field, they treat fans like they are garbage, and they make former players and staff feel unwanted.
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11-21-2012, 07:25 PM | #47 |
First Overall
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11-21-2012, 07:25 PM | #48 |
That's Right
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agreed.
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11-21-2012, 07:27 PM | #49 | |
Scott Pioli
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It took an impressive man to basically waste that young talent.
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11-21-2012, 07:29 PM | #50 |
Scott Pioli
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There's absolutely no reason for a team to alienate past players, coaches and FO execs. It just speaks to Pioli's level of insecurity.
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11-21-2012, 07:35 PM | #51 |
PermaBanned
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TBG and Guardian with a host of solid posts.
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11-21-2012, 07:41 PM | #52 | |
sorta mod-ish
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11-21-2012, 07:43 PM | #53 |
I'll be back.
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I don't think Carl got fat and happy. He was trying to win a Super Bowl with Vermeil as fast as possible before Lamar died.
After 2005 everything went south. Was he fat and happy? No, he just made two horrible choices in Herm and Croyle.
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11-21-2012, 07:45 PM | #54 | |
SuperBowl or bust
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Credit given where due. Calling him a great GM for that isnt true when he only won 3 playoff games in 20 years and never drafted a franchise quarterback the whole time. Agree to disagree. |
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11-21-2012, 07:46 PM | #55 | |
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the thing is not just that pioli is a bad gm - he is - but that he is genuinely a shitty human and that is destroying the Chiefs brand and reservoir of good will (with Clark's implicit permission), and it takes longer to restore these things than it does to destroy them making the fans hate the franchise is actually really hard to do...and he has done it...Clark seems not to realize this yet, imo, which is strange
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11-21-2012, 07:49 PM | #56 |
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The one thing all of us can agree upon is that Carl was head and shoulders above the Patriot Wunderkid Executive of the Decade, and it isn't even close.
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11-21-2012, 07:50 PM | #57 | |
SuperBowl or bust
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Bowe Hali DJ (passed on Rodgers) Colquit (drafted in third round) He was relieved of draft power for the 2008 draft in which the team got as much talent in that draft as the previous 5 that Carl ran. Carl was propped up by a really good coach that couldnt ever win the big game. Marty turned teams around everywhere he has been. |
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11-21-2012, 07:54 PM | #58 | |
Diablo Negro
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11-21-2012, 07:56 PM | #59 | |
The Master
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I still don't get the prohibition against having contact with former players. You'd think they would want guys like Willie Lanier to meet the current crop of players, even if most won't even remember him playing.
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11-21-2012, 07:57 PM | #60 |
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We didn't win those games because we didn't have a QB and other teams did.
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