FanPost

Carl Peterson Will Be Picking His Successor

So much for wishing the owner would say more about the state of the team. 

Per the Red Zone, Clark Hunt told other owners at the NFL's fall meeting this week that Carl Peterson will be selecting his own successor.

"He and I had the discussion when he signed the contract that at the end we would need a succession plan," Hunt said. "It’s not a subject we’ve revisited but logically we would revisit after the season. Carl heads both the business side and the football side of the organization, which is a little bit unusual for the league. We need to think through carefully where we’re going with regard to both aspects of the operation and who the right people are for those roles."

Hmmm, this sounds suspiciously like what Jason Whitlock said a week ago that Carl Peterson was angling for...keeping the CEO job so he could move his current assistant Bill Kuharich into the GM role, thereby allowing him to maintain control of the franchise and direct decisions through his proxies.

Asked whether that meant he had made the decision to eventually split Peterson's duties into two and hire different people to run them, Hunt said, "No. Two people is much more typical but that’s not to say if we found the right person who had both skill sets, I wouldn't be open to that.

"It’s worked for us for 20 years so I don’t want to preclude that but it’s more likely that we’ll end up with two people filling the roles."

So, in 20 years this team has won three playoff games (none in the last 14 years) and gone to zero Super Bowls, and the owner thinks things have been working out?  The only way that you could describe a record like that as "working out" is if ownership cares less about whether the football team is competitive and more about whether the stadium is full every Sunday.  Which would indicate that the Chiefs' management's mindset is exactly what Arrowhead Pride commenter TouchdownKansasCity suggested it was in an earlier discussion...only mildly interested in building a championship caliber team.  Here are his thoughts:

Chief fans, I most certainly enjoy exploring the endless possibilities of players, coaches, and strategies that will turn this dark season into a less painless season. But, I submit to you that we should also focus some of our distain of this season upon the Kansas City Chief organization itself.

In 2003, this organization was the 19th most profitable franchise in the NFL with a net worth of $601 million. Our won/loss record that year was 12-4. I believe that many fans would find it interesting that in 2007 this organization was the 13th most profitable franchise in the NFL with a net worth of $960 million. Our won/loss record last year was 4-12. As an added note, that was a 7% increase in net worth as compared to 2006 9-7 playoff season. I was amazed to learn that gate receipts, including club box seats, were $46 million in 2007. The capacity of Arrowhead stadium is 79,451 with an average ticket price of $67. In 2007, that average attendance was over 68,000 fans.

When we say organization, let us be realistic and say Clark Hunt and Carl Peterson. These two gentlemen have invoked an age old sports business technique know has "Rebuilding". This technique is only profitable in markets where a strong fan base exists. I offer the Pittsburg Pirates as an example of the opposite of this technique. This is most certainly a young (in NFL experience) team, but this is not a young talented team. We most certainly can question the level of talent in the "experienced" coaching staff. This team was assembled not to be a contending team with a successful won/loss record, but merely to be a profitable team.

Some would say they are simply making room for future higher salary players to improve the talent level of this team. I answer that with this simple question: When was the last appearance by this organization in the Super Bowl?

I have no doubt that when the 2008 numbers are compiled, Clark Hunt and Carl Peterson will have realized and achieved their goal for this season. Unfortunately, it will not equate in our goal of seeing a successful contending team in 2008.

I'd like to be able to say he's wrong, but based off of Clark Hunt's actions and comments I don't think that he is.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.