WEIS DISMISSES 10, QB'S ON THE MOVE, COACHING GO-ROUND & SOME OF YOUR REACTIONS TO "ARROWGATE"
Charlie Weis held a news conference yesterday & he made it quite clear he wasn't going to permit any academic shortcomings or disobeying team rules from any of his players. Weis dismissed 10 players from the Jayhawk football program. He said they had been put on notice a few weeks ago & hadn't "taken care of business." One of those kicked off the team was starting QB Jordan Webb. RB Darrian Miller & safety Keeston Terry, both starters from Blue Springs High were released as was freshman QB Brock Berglund, who hadn't played yet for the Jayhawks because of personal legal issues. Three walk-ons were released. Weis said "I don't care who they are, I don't care if they were all-stars, there's a right & a wrong way of doing things. In every player's case, it was clear cut, but I was fighting to give them opportunities to return, but in each case, they decided not to take advantage of the opportunities." There's a new sheriff in town & his name is Charlie Weis.
I told you a couple of weeks ago, the nations #1 high school quarterback prospect, Gunner Kiel had de-committed from Indiana & given Les Miles at LSU a verbal commitment. That apparently is worth exactly as much as the commitment Kiel gave IU. Word in the Hoosier State is he will change his mind again, this time for another in-state school, Notre Dame.
Nick Montana will transfer out of the Washington Huskie program where he played some as a true freshman, starting once. But the monster game put up by sophomore QB Keith Price in the Alamo Bowl convinced Montana he has no shot to be the Huskie starter short of another injury to Price. Montana will transfer to Blinn Jr. College in Texas. Blinn produced another famous transfer three years ago, Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton, who played at Blinn for just one season.
Mike Martz has decided to retire, at least until someone comes calling. After being pushed aside by the Bears, Martz didn't receive any phone calls requesting as much as an interview, so he retired. He was very interested in the Arizona State job but never got the call to come to Tempe for a sit-down. Martz has burned a lot of bridges in the NFL & he's not particularly popular with pro quarterbacks, two black marks for future employment. I doubt we've seen the last of Mike Martz, because the NFL is so cyclical, they'll come back to him in a year or two.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers intend to interview a few other head coaching candidates. Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer from the Bengals & Packer quarterback coach Tom Clements will be brought in for a look-see. This will be the 6th & 7th candidates I know of for Tampa.
Oakland is talking to a number of candidates as well. Both Denver coordinators, Dennis Allen(D) & Mike McCoy(O) will get an interview. New Orleans offensive coordinator Peter Carmichael will also trek out to the left coast for a sit-down. I also expect Packers defensive coach Winston Moss to talk to new Raider GM Reggie McKenzie, who was formerly with Green Bay.
Gregg Williams has agreed to join Jeff Fisher's new staff in St. Louis as defensive coordinator. Fisher will interview former Raiders head coach Hue Jackson today for the vacant offensive coordinator job.
I talked yesterday about the decline in television ratings for the bowl season, especially for four of the five BCS games. It isn't football people are turning off, it's crummy matchups & bowls that should never be. The NFL is crowing today after their weekend TV ratings were released by the networks. Both Saturday games broke all-time ratings records for Saturday playoff games. The Giants-Packers game drew 45.1 million viewers on Sunday. The Steelers-Broncos game the previous Sunday was the highest rated television program since the Super Bowl was played last February. This is why the networks pay the NFL billions for their rights. They consistently top the ratings & that means money to the networks.
Not surprisingly, I received a number of emails from Chiefs fans regarding the Kent Babb piece in Sunday's Kansas City Star regarding the level of paranoia out at Arrowhead Stadium. I voided out a few comments on the website that were either too profane or simply ridiculous. For the most part the emails made good points while a few reverted to calling me an idiot or similar names. To the name callers I say, I didn't write this piece, I didn't agree with this post because I wasn't able to interview the same people Babb did. All I can go from his personal conversations with a former Arrowhead insider who was kicked to the curb two years ago by the Pioli regime.
The remark I made about Clark Hunt believing in fear as a management tool comes from someone who has had dealings with the Chiefs hierarchy. Do I think Hunt is mean-spirited? I don't know, but what I do know is under his stewardship, this franchise has had 3 of the worst 5 seasons in the 54-year history of the franchise. He seems to be more concerned with his public image than his football team. Another asked if I thought his beauty queen wife was more interested in the Dallas social scene than being the wife of an NFL owner? How the hell do I know? I think Clark Hunt is nowhere as driven to lead this team as his father was. Keeping the fans happy & being honest with them was important to Lamar Hunt. I don't think Clark feels the same way.
Too bad Hunt doesn't take after Jerry Jones a
little. No one wants to win more than Jones.
As I said yesterday, I do believe a lot of what Babb had to say about Pioli, the fact that he refused to be interviewed by Babb tells me there's arrogance, paranoia or both. Ignoring the local press isn't a way to do business when you have no track record of success with this franchise. That goes for Clark Hunt as well. There are literally hundreds of thousands of loyal Chiefs fans in the Midwest, but very quickly this regime has alienated a large portion of them, attendance figures back that conclusion. The Royals are coming on strong, does Hunt want to return to the days of being a distant #2 in Kansas City like they were from 1975 to 1990? They had a handy scapegoat, Todd Haley & threw him under the bus. Truth be told Haley helped them throw him under the bus with some of his decisions & "innovations."
I'll be interested to see if the league contacts Haley & he comes forward with some evidence of his suspicions about "bugging & tampering." If the league gets involved, you better believe there's truth to much of what Babb wrote about, it isn't all from sour ex-employees. My gripe is about their roster, poor drafting, refusal to spend cap money on anything including their own players(Bowe-Carr) & a condescending attitude toward anyone who questions them about all of the above. Win a playoff game & then we'll accept a certain amount of your aloof attitude, but until that happens knock off the C.I.A. act, it's football, not national security.
I'd like to remind you to keep your comments semi-clean & I'll publish them. Comments or emails that are directed at my family or my dog are immature & really pathetic. If you have an opinion, email me at rich@richsfootballreport.com I'm interested in what you have to say. Don't be a Pioli, let's talk about football.
I told you a couple of weeks ago, the nations #1 high school quarterback prospect, Gunner Kiel had de-committed from Indiana & given Les Miles at LSU a verbal commitment. That apparently is worth exactly as much as the commitment Kiel gave IU. Word in the Hoosier State is he will change his mind again, this time for another in-state school, Notre Dame.
Nick Montana will transfer out of the Washington Huskie program where he played some as a true freshman, starting once. But the monster game put up by sophomore QB Keith Price in the Alamo Bowl convinced Montana he has no shot to be the Huskie starter short of another injury to Price. Montana will transfer to Blinn Jr. College in Texas. Blinn produced another famous transfer three years ago, Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton, who played at Blinn for just one season.
Mike Martz has decided to retire, at least until someone comes calling. After being pushed aside by the Bears, Martz didn't receive any phone calls requesting as much as an interview, so he retired. He was very interested in the Arizona State job but never got the call to come to Tempe for a sit-down. Martz has burned a lot of bridges in the NFL & he's not particularly popular with pro quarterbacks, two black marks for future employment. I doubt we've seen the last of Mike Martz, because the NFL is so cyclical, they'll come back to him in a year or two.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers intend to interview a few other head coaching candidates. Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer from the Bengals & Packer quarterback coach Tom Clements will be brought in for a look-see. This will be the 6th & 7th candidates I know of for Tampa.
Oakland is talking to a number of candidates as well. Both Denver coordinators, Dennis Allen(D) & Mike McCoy(O) will get an interview. New Orleans offensive coordinator Peter Carmichael will also trek out to the left coast for a sit-down. I also expect Packers defensive coach Winston Moss to talk to new Raider GM Reggie McKenzie, who was formerly with Green Bay.
Gregg Williams has agreed to join Jeff Fisher's new staff in St. Louis as defensive coordinator. Fisher will interview former Raiders head coach Hue Jackson today for the vacant offensive coordinator job.
I talked yesterday about the decline in television ratings for the bowl season, especially for four of the five BCS games. It isn't football people are turning off, it's crummy matchups & bowls that should never be. The NFL is crowing today after their weekend TV ratings were released by the networks. Both Saturday games broke all-time ratings records for Saturday playoff games. The Giants-Packers game drew 45.1 million viewers on Sunday. The Steelers-Broncos game the previous Sunday was the highest rated television program since the Super Bowl was played last February. This is why the networks pay the NFL billions for their rights. They consistently top the ratings & that means money to the networks.
Not surprisingly, I received a number of emails from Chiefs fans regarding the Kent Babb piece in Sunday's Kansas City Star regarding the level of paranoia out at Arrowhead Stadium. I voided out a few comments on the website that were either too profane or simply ridiculous. For the most part the emails made good points while a few reverted to calling me an idiot or similar names. To the name callers I say, I didn't write this piece, I didn't agree with this post because I wasn't able to interview the same people Babb did. All I can go from his personal conversations with a former Arrowhead insider who was kicked to the curb two years ago by the Pioli regime.
The remark I made about Clark Hunt believing in fear as a management tool comes from someone who has had dealings with the Chiefs hierarchy. Do I think Hunt is mean-spirited? I don't know, but what I do know is under his stewardship, this franchise has had 3 of the worst 5 seasons in the 54-year history of the franchise. He seems to be more concerned with his public image than his football team. Another asked if I thought his beauty queen wife was more interested in the Dallas social scene than being the wife of an NFL owner? How the hell do I know? I think Clark Hunt is nowhere as driven to lead this team as his father was. Keeping the fans happy & being honest with them was important to Lamar Hunt. I don't think Clark feels the same way.
Too bad Hunt doesn't take after Jerry Jones a
little. No one wants to win more than Jones.
As I said yesterday, I do believe a lot of what Babb had to say about Pioli, the fact that he refused to be interviewed by Babb tells me there's arrogance, paranoia or both. Ignoring the local press isn't a way to do business when you have no track record of success with this franchise. That goes for Clark Hunt as well. There are literally hundreds of thousands of loyal Chiefs fans in the Midwest, but very quickly this regime has alienated a large portion of them, attendance figures back that conclusion. The Royals are coming on strong, does Hunt want to return to the days of being a distant #2 in Kansas City like they were from 1975 to 1990? They had a handy scapegoat, Todd Haley & threw him under the bus. Truth be told Haley helped them throw him under the bus with some of his decisions & "innovations."
I'll be interested to see if the league contacts Haley & he comes forward with some evidence of his suspicions about "bugging & tampering." If the league gets involved, you better believe there's truth to much of what Babb wrote about, it isn't all from sour ex-employees. My gripe is about their roster, poor drafting, refusal to spend cap money on anything including their own players(Bowe-Carr) & a condescending attitude toward anyone who questions them about all of the above. Win a playoff game & then we'll accept a certain amount of your aloof attitude, but until that happens knock off the C.I.A. act, it's football, not national security.
I'd like to remind you to keep your comments semi-clean & I'll publish them. Comments or emails that are directed at my family or my dog are immature & really pathetic. If you have an opinion, email me at rich@richsfootballreport.com I'm interested in what you have to say. Don't be a Pioli, let's talk about football.
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