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Three Returning Award Winners and Three New Honorees Selected as Recipients of NFL 101 Awards for 2009 Season - For individual tickets and sponsor packages, call 913/681-6224

CHIEFS THIN AT OUTSIDE LINEBACKER
February 9th – 3:56 PM

If the Chiefs lined up to play football today, Tamba Hali and Andy Studebaker would be lined up as the club’s outside linebackers with Pierre Walters backing both men up. That’s not exactly a deep group.

Finding help at outside linebacker is obviously a key as the team enters NFL Combine evaluation and the beginning of free agency in the coming weeks.

The need for a few good men on the defensive edge is no knock on the trio of players listed above, but outside of Hali, the duo of Studebaker and Walters paired for just 178 defensive snaps in 2009. In total, 168 (94.3%) of those snaps came over the three weeks that the Chiefs were missing Mike Vrabel from the lineup (November 15-29).

Are either one of these young, developmental players ready for a more consistent role in 2010?

Possibly so, but these are the things that those charged with the Chiefs personnel decisions will have to make. And even if the belief is a resounding “yes,” don’t think that those roles won’t come without any competition.

The release of Rogers carries no weight in the above outside linebacking scenario. Even if the team kept Rogers, his numbers wouldn’t have made a difference in those numbers considering that he played in just one game with the team in 2009. His release, however, does bring to light the fact that Kansas City only has one outside linebacker under contract with considerable playing experience among the entire position group. Even that player is only boasts one year on the job at that position.

With Mike Vrabel becoming an unrestricted free agent the Chiefs will decide to either pursue the veteran for another contract or look elsewhere for help amongst a thin position group. Heck, both could occur.

Both Hali and Vrabel played essentially every defensive snap for Kansas City in 2009, when healthy.

VOTE: TELLY PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS
February 9th – 11:00 AM

CHIEFS FANS: We need your help…Two of our viral internet videos are up for public voting on YouTube for the 2010 Telly People’s Choice Awards. Go VOTE!
 
http://tinyurl.com/votechiefs1
 
http://tinyurl.com/votechiefs2

AT LEAST ONE MORE STAFF ADDITION AWAITS
February 9th – 9:54 AM

When the coaching trio of Emmitt Thomas, Bernie Parmele and Otis Smith officially joined the Kansas City Chiefs early last week, head coach Todd Haley announced that the 2010 coaching staff had been finalized. The three hires officially closed the door on “Phase I” of the Chiefs 2010 offseason, at the time.

The “grey area” on NFL coaching staffs are the strength and conditioning aspect of things. Though technically part of the coaching staff, the strength department doesn’t perform any on-field coaching past calisthenics and stretching. The brunt of strength work comes off the field outside of practice time.

With that said, the Chiefs technically have one more coaching spot to fill as head strength and conditioning coach Cedric Smith has joined the Houston Texans in the same capacity. Smith has deep ties to the Denver Broncos organization, which intertwines with Texans head coach Gary Kubiak and general manager Rick Smith. Although Smith had been in the building a bit earlier, the Texans officially announced the move last night.

Smith’s contract had expired in Kansas City. He said that things began moving with Houston over the past week.

Here’s the official story courtesy houstontexans.com

http://www.houstontexans.com/news/Story.asp?story_id=6055

Smith, a former NFL fullback, was originally hired by Herm Edwards in 2007 from the Denver Broncos. Chiefs have likely heard of the “rehab zone” - a circuit of weight training and cardio for injured Chiefs to the side of the practice fields. Smith spearheaded the Chiefs efforts of leading injured players through rehab exercises during practice time.

PATH OF CHAMPIONS
February 9th – 5:48 AM

Two castoff quarterbacks met at mid-field following Super Bowl XLIV.

Separated in age by 34 years, the elder was inducted into the Pro Foootball Hall of Fame the same year that the younger was born. Both men took different, yet eerily similar paths to champion status. Each was offered NFL survival and took full advantage, eventually finding one another crowned Super Bowl MVPs some 40 years apart.

Football’s fate would have the pair sharing the same stage Sunday night.

Chiefs Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson began the walk down football’s red carpet by hoisting the Lombardi Trophy into the air; it was in a similar fashion to which he did the same thing 40 years prior.

Same trophy, new model.

The smile on Dawson’s face was the same as it was four decades ago as well. He began the walk to mid-field with relative ease, the center of attention on a protected path to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Goodell, along with Saints owner Tom Benson and the rest of the 153.4 million television viewers, watched Dawson as he made his way towards the Super Bowl’s on-field post-game podium.

Saints RB Mike Bell was the first to find a way around the red-jacketed stadium security team. Dawson had traveled just 17 steps before Bell appeared on the quarterback’s left. With a running camcorder in his right hand, Bell reached out with his left and rubbed the shining football atop the trophy.

Bell was the first Saint to touch football’s Holy Grail. He became a franchise pioneer. Within seconds, the path was no longer clear. Celebration ensued.

Hand after hand landed on the hardware as Dawson kept walking. He was physically stopped for a brief moment by 272-pound defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove. The two hoisted the trophy in the air together for all to see once more. Even more celebration.

A few more steps and the trophy was being carried at chest-level once more. Dawson somehow managed to keep a solid grip on football’s most coveted prize, while more than a dozen Saints kissed, rubbed, grabbed and screamed in delight at their city’s first glimpse of Lombardi’s legend.

Eventually Dawson reached the podium, handed off the trophy to Goodell and the CBS cameras zoomed in on what was about to be the next stage in a historic moment of New Orleans’ history. In the background, Saints MVP QB Drew Brees shook Lenny’s hand, gave the Hall of Famer a hug and whispered something into his ear.

Same quarterback, new model?

The similarities shared between Brees and Dawson begin at their most basic level and come full circle to the pair sharing that moment on the Sun Life Stadium stage Sunday night. Besides the fact that both players were collegiate quarterbacks at Purdue and played at similar sizes (six feet tall and around 200 pounds), Dawson and Brees share more than just location and looks.

Forty years ago Dawson accepted football’s greatest achievement in a similar setting at Super Bowl IV. Ironically, the Chiefs first and only world championship win took place in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dawson was cast away by two NFL teams (Pittsburgh and Cleveland), before ultimately arriving in the lesser-regarded AFL to quarterback Hank Stram’s Dallas Texans squad. The Texans may not have been the most desirable team for a free agent quarterback to sign with, but Dawson had few other options. At the end of the day, however, Dawson could rest assured that he was truly wanted by Stram to lead that franchise.

Brees joined this year’s Super Bowl champion as a cast away as well. Despite throwing for over 12,000 yards, 80 TDs and posting an 84.9 QB rating over five seasons in San Diego (2001-05), the Chargers decided that Brees’ services weren’t exactly in high demand. With a young quarterback in tow and Brees coming off shoulder surgery, the Chargers low-balled Brees a new contract offer that showed little commitment for Brees’ future in southern California.

Like Dawson, Brees found himself on the street, an expendable commodity. But also like Dawson, there was a professional coach who believed in that quarterback’s ability to guide a franchise.

The coach who believed in Brees the most, however, also happened to coach in the NFL’s worst-case scenario at the time. Pro Bowl quarterbacks weren’t exactly lining up to quarterback New Orleans.

Sean Payton had just been hired two months prior to guide the lowly Saints, a team coming off a 3-13 record with no Super Bowl appearances and only one postseason trip over the past 13 seasons. In addition, the team had no permanent home and 85% of the city was under water following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Still, Brees had found a home.

“Four years ago, who ever thought this would happen?” Brees said on Sunday night, doing a great job of keeping the tears from flowing.

Although the circumstances were different in 1962 when Dawson joined the Texans, he had to be thinking the same thing eight years later during Kansas City’s Super Bowl IV victory party of 1970. Dawson had been re-born as a professional quarterback with a franchise that embraced him and a head coach who believed in him.

The mutual fit saw Dawson throw more touchdown passes than any other professional quarterback from 1962-69, eventually culminating in a Super Bowl MVP award, a world championship and a post-football resting place in Canton, Ohio.

Lenny was wearing that golden Pro Football Hall of Fame jacket on Sunday night. As he carried the Lombardi Trophy through the gauntlet of Saints players, that jacket blended in with the gold and black of the Saints uniforms. The emotions of Dawson and the Saints players seemed to blend together as well.

Saints players celebrated in front of, behind and to the side of Dawson as Lenny carried the Lombardi Trophy with a smile that couldn’t have been any smaller than the one he displayed 40 years prior in New Orleans. Once again, Dawson looked the part of a Super Bowl champion.

If you were a casual follower of football, there is no question that you would have thought that Dawson and the Saints were well acquainted. Dawson, a virtual stranger to many of these men in their mid-20s, paired in the celebration just like an old friend. He looked the part of a champion once again at the age of 74.

There were no strangers on the path to mid-field Sunday night. That’s the glory of this game and the emotions that likely came back to Lenny shortly after he passed Mike Bell just 17 steps into this Super Bowl XLIV journey.

The similar NFL journeys of Dawson and Brees came full-circle on that center stage Sunday night. He’s still got some work to do, but maybe one day Brees can return the favor by wearing his own golden jacket and presenting that same trophy to a Chiefs quarterback.

Same trophy, new model.

CHIEFS RELEASE TWO PLAYERS
February 8th – 5:20 PM

NFL free agency doesn’t officially begin until March 4th at 11:00 PM (CST), but the day after the Super Bowl is the first of which teams can begin releasing players. The Chiefs parted way with two players from 2009 this evening.

LB Weston Dacus
LB Justin Rogers

Dacus spent all of 2009 on injured reserve after suffering an undisclosed injury during training camp. He originally joined the team as a rookie free agent in 2008, playing in eight games and logging five tackles.

Rogers joined the Chiefs as a free agent on two separate occasions in 2009, most recently on November 11th. He played in one game for the Chiefs prior to landing on injured reserve with a thigh injury December 26th.