Post by MizzouTiger on Jan 19, 2008 12:32:46 GMT -5
www.kansascity.com/sports/chiefs/story/449861.html
Clark Hunt elevates Herm, weakens Peterson
By JASON WHITLOCK
When a dictator perpetuus (for life) is rumored to have been assassinated, it is always best to request a viewing of the body.
So it is with great trepidation that I characterize Clark Hunt’s all-day media blitz Thursday as a funeral for King Carl Peterson. Without a body and a full autopsy, I’m left to speculate.
Yes, it certainly sounds as if the King is dead, and Hunt spent all day meeting with local media representatives putting a new face atop the Chiefs’ franchise. Clark Hunt doesn’t want the job, but he sure would like Herm Edwards to ascend to it, and, more important, Hunt is willing to weaken Peterson for Herm to climb the ladder.
By the time I met with Hunt at 3 p.m. in his apartment inside Arrowhead Stadium, he’d already chatted one-on-one with Adam Teicher, Doug Tucker, Soren Petro, Roger Twibell, Jack Harry and a half-dozen other reporters, talk-show hosts and broadcasters at 20- to 30-minute intervals. He started at 7:30 a.m. with an interview on 610 AM and ended with yours truly.
“I think it’s important that Chiefs fans understand my thoughts about 2007 and where I see the organization going forward,” Hunt explained when asked what he hoped to accomplish on Thursday.
Why a one-on-one-interview approach? Why not have a group news conference?
“I wanted to make sure I gave everybody ample time,” Hunt said. “And I find that a press-conference format, if you do well, you get to ask two questions. And there’s no flow to it. You’re talking about one subject over here and then it jumps over here. I think in terms of having a dialogue that is understandable, this is probably a better format.”
He’s right, of course. Sitting down and holding a conversation with Lamar Hunt’s successor was far more enlightening than shouting relevant questions between radio reporter Rhonda Moss’ grandstanding barbs/queries and TV football expert Karen Kornacki’s syrupy attempts at playing news-conference kissyface.
The interviews felt personal, sincere and forthright. They created a feeling of starting over, which is exactly what the Chiefs are doing … I think.
“There’s been a big shift in the last 18 months,” Hunt said. “The Chiefs used to be part of my responsibility. But clearly with my dad passing, things just had to change. And it’s now the majority of my time, and it will continue to grow over the next two years.
“For my family certainly it’s the most visible asset, but it’s also the most important asset from an emotional standpoint. I have a passion to compete. I like competing. And I like being successful. I don’t want to be associated with the organization if we’re not running it in a way that gives us a chance at really winning a Super Bowl.”
Wow. When was the last time we’ve heard that from ownership of the Chiefs or the Royals? Not since Ewing Kauffman passed.
I didn’t spend a bunch of time badgering Hunt about his retention of Peterson. He’d answered those questions pretty thoroughly earlier in the day. I did want to flush out his reasoning as it related to retaining Peterson.
Would it be fair to say that the main reason to hold on to Carl is because, in your opinion, that’s the best way to support Herm Edwards?
“I do believe that,” Hunt responded. “Carl is the guy that hired Herm. The two of them work well together. To have the best chance of success in 2008, having Carl here makes a lot of sense.”
Is that because if you change general managers, one of the first things a new GM would want to do is hire his own coach?
“That’s exactly right,” Hunt said.
Did you and Carl ever discuss the possibility of Carl stepping down?
“The conversation was always about him staying,” Hunt said. “Both he and I agreed quickly that bringing Herm back was the right decision, which then made it a very easy decision for me in terms of bringing Carl back.”
And finally I asked Hunt to describe his working relationship with Peterson.
“Obviously, over the large part of the last 19 years the team has been very successful,” Hunt said. “In 2007 that was not the case. It was a great disappointment for me and my entire family, and Carl bears the responsibility for that as GM. No doubt about it.
“I mentioned earlier today that our drafts from 2001 to 2005 in the way that coach (thingy) Vermeil went about building those football teams really laid the foundation for what happened this year,” Hunt continued. “We got to this year, and what you would hope to have when a bunch of veteran guys start retiring is you hope you have young guys sitting on the bench who are in the prime of their careers. Well, those are the players we should’ve drafted from ’01 to ’05. Either we didn’t draft or we didn’t develop them if we did draft.
“So the net result is we had four or five starters from those draft classes, and you really need double that to have a chance to be successful. So (Carl) shares responsibility for that, no doubt about it.”
Was the Vermeil era a mistake?
“If you have a coach like thingy Vermeil at the point in his career where he was at,” Hunt explained, “you have to focus on winning in that time frame. He had just done it in St. Louis two years before, so there was a fair amount of optimism that we could do it. What killed us is while that was going on, we still could’ve drafted well. And maybe our cupboard wouldn’t be as full as we would like, because he was not going to focus on developing those guys, but we could’ve had more players who could’ve helped.”
Hunt said he wouldn’t be heavily involved in day-to-day football decisions. He did, however, indicate that the franchise would adopt a different strategy in pursuing sustained on-field success.
“In my view, if we ever want to have a chance, a real chance of competing in the Super Bowl, we have to develop our own franchise quarterback,” Hunt declared. “Doesn’t mean we have to draft him; we can get him in a trade. But he needs to be young and still in a phase where we’re developing him. When you look at the teams that are playing last weekend, this weekend, they have franchise quarterbacks. … We have to do that. I hope it’s Brodie (Croyle), and we’re going to find that out over the next year. That really has to be one of our focuses. And we have a head coach who is willing to do that, and that’s a risky proposition, because he knows we’re going to take some arrows doing that.”
Clark Hunt elevates Herm, weakens Peterson
By JASON WHITLOCK
When a dictator perpetuus (for life) is rumored to have been assassinated, it is always best to request a viewing of the body.
So it is with great trepidation that I characterize Clark Hunt’s all-day media blitz Thursday as a funeral for King Carl Peterson. Without a body and a full autopsy, I’m left to speculate.
Yes, it certainly sounds as if the King is dead, and Hunt spent all day meeting with local media representatives putting a new face atop the Chiefs’ franchise. Clark Hunt doesn’t want the job, but he sure would like Herm Edwards to ascend to it, and, more important, Hunt is willing to weaken Peterson for Herm to climb the ladder.
By the time I met with Hunt at 3 p.m. in his apartment inside Arrowhead Stadium, he’d already chatted one-on-one with Adam Teicher, Doug Tucker, Soren Petro, Roger Twibell, Jack Harry and a half-dozen other reporters, talk-show hosts and broadcasters at 20- to 30-minute intervals. He started at 7:30 a.m. with an interview on 610 AM and ended with yours truly.
“I think it’s important that Chiefs fans understand my thoughts about 2007 and where I see the organization going forward,” Hunt explained when asked what he hoped to accomplish on Thursday.
Why a one-on-one-interview approach? Why not have a group news conference?
“I wanted to make sure I gave everybody ample time,” Hunt said. “And I find that a press-conference format, if you do well, you get to ask two questions. And there’s no flow to it. You’re talking about one subject over here and then it jumps over here. I think in terms of having a dialogue that is understandable, this is probably a better format.”
He’s right, of course. Sitting down and holding a conversation with Lamar Hunt’s successor was far more enlightening than shouting relevant questions between radio reporter Rhonda Moss’ grandstanding barbs/queries and TV football expert Karen Kornacki’s syrupy attempts at playing news-conference kissyface.
The interviews felt personal, sincere and forthright. They created a feeling of starting over, which is exactly what the Chiefs are doing … I think.
“There’s been a big shift in the last 18 months,” Hunt said. “The Chiefs used to be part of my responsibility. But clearly with my dad passing, things just had to change. And it’s now the majority of my time, and it will continue to grow over the next two years.
“For my family certainly it’s the most visible asset, but it’s also the most important asset from an emotional standpoint. I have a passion to compete. I like competing. And I like being successful. I don’t want to be associated with the organization if we’re not running it in a way that gives us a chance at really winning a Super Bowl.”
Wow. When was the last time we’ve heard that from ownership of the Chiefs or the Royals? Not since Ewing Kauffman passed.
I didn’t spend a bunch of time badgering Hunt about his retention of Peterson. He’d answered those questions pretty thoroughly earlier in the day. I did want to flush out his reasoning as it related to retaining Peterson.
Would it be fair to say that the main reason to hold on to Carl is because, in your opinion, that’s the best way to support Herm Edwards?
“I do believe that,” Hunt responded. “Carl is the guy that hired Herm. The two of them work well together. To have the best chance of success in 2008, having Carl here makes a lot of sense.”
Is that because if you change general managers, one of the first things a new GM would want to do is hire his own coach?
“That’s exactly right,” Hunt said.
Did you and Carl ever discuss the possibility of Carl stepping down?
“The conversation was always about him staying,” Hunt said. “Both he and I agreed quickly that bringing Herm back was the right decision, which then made it a very easy decision for me in terms of bringing Carl back.”
And finally I asked Hunt to describe his working relationship with Peterson.
“Obviously, over the large part of the last 19 years the team has been very successful,” Hunt said. “In 2007 that was not the case. It was a great disappointment for me and my entire family, and Carl bears the responsibility for that as GM. No doubt about it.
“I mentioned earlier today that our drafts from 2001 to 2005 in the way that coach (thingy) Vermeil went about building those football teams really laid the foundation for what happened this year,” Hunt continued. “We got to this year, and what you would hope to have when a bunch of veteran guys start retiring is you hope you have young guys sitting on the bench who are in the prime of their careers. Well, those are the players we should’ve drafted from ’01 to ’05. Either we didn’t draft or we didn’t develop them if we did draft.
“So the net result is we had four or five starters from those draft classes, and you really need double that to have a chance to be successful. So (Carl) shares responsibility for that, no doubt about it.”
Was the Vermeil era a mistake?
“If you have a coach like thingy Vermeil at the point in his career where he was at,” Hunt explained, “you have to focus on winning in that time frame. He had just done it in St. Louis two years before, so there was a fair amount of optimism that we could do it. What killed us is while that was going on, we still could’ve drafted well. And maybe our cupboard wouldn’t be as full as we would like, because he was not going to focus on developing those guys, but we could’ve had more players who could’ve helped.”
Hunt said he wouldn’t be heavily involved in day-to-day football decisions. He did, however, indicate that the franchise would adopt a different strategy in pursuing sustained on-field success.
“In my view, if we ever want to have a chance, a real chance of competing in the Super Bowl, we have to develop our own franchise quarterback,” Hunt declared. “Doesn’t mean we have to draft him; we can get him in a trade. But he needs to be young and still in a phase where we’re developing him. When you look at the teams that are playing last weekend, this weekend, they have franchise quarterbacks. … We have to do that. I hope it’s Brodie (Croyle), and we’re going to find that out over the next year. That really has to be one of our focuses. And we have a head coach who is willing to do that, and that’s a risky proposition, because he knows we’re going to take some arrows doing that.”