Let's start with coaching:
Frank "Crash" Gansz
A really good special teams
coach, a really suck head coach. Record for 1987-1988: 8-22-1.
After the Chiefs lost their 1986 playoff game to the Jets (they'd
been out of the playoffs for 15 years) a bunch of players headed
up by Nick Lowery,went to Chiefs
management to get John "Sleepy" Mackovic fired. The
players said "Crash should be head coach. We want Crash!
Our special teams are good, and he tells the best
stories!" At least "Crash" drafted Christian
Okoye and Neil Smith under his
watch. He also picked pitiful Paul Palmer
as a first rounder in 1987. Crash was famous for hyping players
up with his riveting "War Stories" about being a blood n guts fighter
pilot in the war. Turned out he only flew cargo
planes. If he could have kept the press from exposing his
"embellishments," he might be head coach at Notre
Dame now! His son, "Baby Gansz," is Dick Vermeil's
special teams coach. Wonder if Baby Gansz is going to entertain
the Chiefs special teamers with stories on how he helped win the
Gulf War?
John "Sleepy" Mackovic
The first narcoleptic NFL head
coach, slept through the 1983-1986 seasons. "Sleepy"
replaced future Hall of Fame Coach Marv Levy in 1983, because
clueless executives Jack "Worlds of
Chiefs" Steadman and Jim "The Pinhead" Schaaf
held Marv responsible for the 1982
NFL Players Strike. Marv was fired for going 3 - 6 in a strike
year. Sleepy's record as Chief's head coach: 30-34. When Sleepy
went 10 - 6 in 1986 and got the Chiefs into their first playoff
game in 15 years, he was rewarded by being fired and replaced
with "Crash" Gansz. Sleepy's legacy as Chiefs Coach
was his very first draft pick in 1983, the famous "Class
of 1983" for quarterbacks. The only guy he didn't have a
shot at was John Elway. He could have had two future Hall of Famers,
Jim Kelly or Dan
Marino. Before the draft, Sleepy worked out Marino at Arrowhead.
Marino swore at the Chiefs receivers when they dropped a pass.
Goodness, we can't have that! So with the 7th overall pick in
the draft, the Chiefs passed up Kelly and Marino and picked Penn
State's God Squader TODD
BLACKLEDGE! Todd was a nice boy. Very proper, reverent,
a dream to coach, and wanted to win, gosh darnit. But while Marino,
Kelly and Elway were leading their AFC teams to the Super Bowl,
Todd couldn't unseat incumbent Chiefs starting QB Ms. Bill Kenney;
the biggest wuss QB in Chiefs history! Sleepy's blunder cost the
Chiefs for the next 15 years. Other brilliant first round picks
included Ethan Horton and Brian
Jozwiak. Horton was a running back from North Carolina. He
stunk it up, and later becme a fairly good tight end for the evil
Raiders. Jozwiak had arthritic knees and hips, but the Chiefs
drafted him anyway. He only lasted three years, most of the time
on the disabled list. Sleepy eventually went back to NCAA coaching and finished
off
his
coaching career by annoying Arizona Wildcat fans.
Mike "SUCK"
Stock
Arguably the worst assistant
coach in Chiefs history. SUCK started with the Chiefs in 1995,
taking over Chiefs special teams from Marty's kid brother Kurt, who got promoted to coaching the
defensive backs. When Marty left, Gunther Cunningham kept SUCK
on staff as special teams coach, despite the Chiefs chronic holding
and clipping penalties. SUCK also coached putrid kickers like
Lin Elliott and punter Daniel Pope. SUCK's shining moment came
in the final game of the 1999 season. The Chiefs had a home game
with the evil Raiders. A Chiefs win would make them 10-6 and AFC West Champions.
A Raider win would make Oakland 8-8, and cook the Chiefs chances at post season
play, as Seattle would then win the AFC West. Place kicker Pete Stoyanovich
was nursing a sore leg, so SUCK brought in a reject from the CFL
named Jon Baker. Baker's only job for
the Raider game was to kickoff, kick it deep and down the middle.The
Chiefs got out to a 17-0 lead, until SUCK's special teams gave
up a blocked punt which the Raiders turned into a demoralizing
touchdown. The Raiders then ran off 21 unanswered points to take
the lead. In the mean time, twice during the game after the Chiefs
regained the lead, kickoff specialist Baker kicked the ball out
of bounds, giving the Raiders the ball on the Raiders' 40 to start
a drive. With time winding down, SUCK allowed Stoyanovich to try
a 45 yard game winning field goal, which he (of course) missed.
When the Raiders won the toss to begin overtime, they wanted the
football. Despite kicking off out of bounds twice in regulation,
SUCK sent Baker back out to kickoff the sudden death overtime
period. Guess what happened? Baker kicked off... OUT OF BOUNDS
for a THIRD TIME! The Raiders got the ball on their 40 yard line.
Rich Gannon passed the ball right down the field into Chiefs territory
for a quick game ending 33-yard field goal. Result: Raiders win
41-38 at Arrowhead, the Chiefs were bounced from
the playoff hunt, Seattle goes to the playoffs as the only AFC West representative. Cunningham said
after the game "It's probably the most frustrating football
game I've ever gone though.You kick the ball out of bounds one
time, but you don't do it three times in a game like that. It's
been something that's been a problem all year, and we're going
to have to correct it. We're going to have to find a kicker who
can do those things." Rarely in NFL history has a bonehead
special teams coach been allowed to cost a team a division championship,
and then be BROUGHT BACK the next season! But that's exactly what
happened. SUCK's contract finally expired with the Chiefs after
the 2000 season, and in 2001 after being drummed out of KC by
Dick Vermeil, SUCK took his act to Washington
to coach special teams for Marty. In his debut return to KC during
the exhibition season, SUCK's Redskins special teams gave up a
punt return for a Chiefs touchdown. The Chiefs never broke another
kick return for a TD the rest of the year. Suck was hired in 2004
as St. Louis Ram's Special Teams coach by their unbelievably psychotic
head coach Mike "Wiley Coyote"
Martz.
In 2006, Suck turned in another lackluster special teams
coaching
performance
for one of the NFL's most mediocre teams, the Green Bay Packers.
Greg "Dr. Evil" Robinson
Here's another qualified candidate
for the all-time worst assistant coach in Chiefs history. Mix
in a spoonful of Bob Boone, a dash of
Mike Martz, toss in two questionably-earned
Super Bowl rings and dump in an extra big ol' serving of Austin
Power's nemesis, shake well and you get....Greg
Robinson! In 2001 when KC's defensive-minded head coach Gunther Cunningham's termination was announced
over the internet (before Gun even knew it was a done deal), new
head coach "Grandpa Dick"
Vermeil admitted he was primarily an offensive-minded guy. Grandpa
Dick wanted to turn the defensive reins over to one highly qualified
man, delegate the defensive duties to that man and stay out of
the way. His choice was Dr. Evil, who had been fired after the
2000 season by Denver's Mike Shanahan.
Dr. Evil flashed two Super Bowl rings courtesy of John
Elway, and "The Scheme." Yep, "The
Scheme." That's how the defensive players all described
it, although none of them could ever explain exactly what "The
Scheme" was. The general explanation was to call it a read
and react defense based primarily on cover two or cover three
protections with a variety of zone blitzes and coverage packages
intermingled. The object was to confuse the enemy with complexity.
In reality, the only confusion was created in the minds of Chiefs
defenders. "The Scheme" was your basic Chinese
fire drill. Defensive players were shuttled on and off the
field like chorus girls in a Broadway
show. Players were often confused
about who went where and why. Bizarre stunts were employed. Speed
rushing defensive ends dropped back in pass coverage; and nobody
ever seemed to know who was responsible for what gap. The result?
In 2001 it was awful pass coverage by Toasty
Warfied and Crispy Bartee resulting in a defense ranked 23rd
in the NFL. In 2002, a horrendous "32 defense" was concocted
that sucked like a hoover in all phases; giving up an average
of 390 offensive yards per game. Dr. Evil then convinced Grandpa
Dick that the loss of Jerome Woods and Ryan Sims to injury
was the main defensive problem. Getting Woods and Sims back healthy
and plugging in a few defensive free agents would fix the mix.
So after suffering with a defensive unit ranked dead last in the
NFL, the 2003 Chiefs drafted a running back in the first round,
pulled in free agents Vonnie Holiday, Dexter McCleon and Shawn
Barber and retained the services of Dr. Evil to mastermind the
defense for another season. The result? The Chiefs ranked 29th
in the NFL in total defense and were 30th against the rush giving
up 146 ground yards per game. Ugly regular season performances
against Denver and Minnesota were only a preview of the disaster
that was to come: the home playoff game against the Colts. The
Chiefs with a first round playoff bye had two weeks to prepare.
The Colts had endured a hard hitting Wild Card game with Denver
the week before. The KC weather was perfect for January, a cloudless sky and low 50's temperatures.
More than 79-thousand rabid Chiefs fans
provided a deafening roar and a sea of red, anxious to exorcise
the demons of first round home playoff losses to Denver in 1997
and to these same Colts in 1995. The Colts won the toss. The Chiefs
never stopped them. The Colts had eight possessions; scored on
six. They never punted. Not once. They ran out the clock at the
end of the first half and end of the game. The one time the Chiefs
actually stopped Peyton Manning on third
down, they were penalized for having 13 guys on the field. Manning
was 22 of 30 for 304 yards, three TDs and no picks. The Chiefs
forced no turnovers. In a game that became a wild offensive shootout,
the Colts won 38-31 and moved on to New England for the AFC Championship
game. The loss set an NFL record as no team had ever before managed
to lose three consecutive home playoff games following a bye week.
No NFL team since 1975 had started the season 9-0 and lost their
first playoff game. Dr. Evil had made history. He scurried off
the field following the debacle shielded by five security guards,
then hid from the press in the locker room until he was spotted
by reporters trying to sneak out the back door. Three days later,
in a tear-soaked hug fest press conference, Grandpa Dick accepted
Dr. Evil's "resignation,"
which was totally unnecessary because Dr. Evil's three year contract
had expired. He was technically no longer employed by the Chiefs.
Grandpa Dick wailed and gnashed teeth
over the departure, and questioned the manhood
of the local antagonistic reporters on hand for the press
conference. He challenged the reporters to measure up to the shining
example of dignity and grace exhibited that day by the esteemed
Dr. Evil. Grandpa Dick said few
people have the "balls" of Dr. Evil to resign in such
a public forum. At least Grandpa Dick didn't have the "balls"
to saddle Chiefs fans and players with another year of "The
Scheme." Robinson took "The Scheme" to the University
of Texas as their defensive coordinator in 2004, and in 2005 he was Head Coach
at Syracuse!
On
To The Awful Players!
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Up For Another Kickoff