Good morning. Today's Kansas City Chiefs news covers the Senior Bowl, Tecmo, and the kicker we all thought of when the Ravens missed their field goal. Enjoy.
This is where the Senior Bowl makes its mark. In addition to seeing a player's practice habits and physical attributes, coaches and personnel men go beyond the years of tape they've already broken down on a prospect.
It's the one-on-one time that brings a different form of evaluation.
"This was a week last year where
Ricky Stanzi had a tough week and a lot of people were very critical of Ricky," Chiefs General Manager Scott Pioli recalled. "Ricky's season had ended and he had done some work with (Tom Martinez). He was in the process of changing his mechanics and it wasn't the best week for him. "But spending time with Ricky, when you could actually follow-up and get to know him more, that time spent is really helpful down here."
Senior Bowl Practices Represent A Minor Piece Of The Overall Evaluation Process from The Mothership
If you were to examine a tale of two rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs and Oakland Raiders took two completely divergent paths this off-season. Both teams needed a head coach after firing Todd Haley and Hue Jackson respectively for failing to win the AFC West title even though both were favored before the season. Instead, it was the upstart Denver Broncos who upset everyone and won the division.
Yet as both teams went in search of a new head coach, the two rivals could not have looked any different. Consider just how opposite the team's approaches were:
Raiders And Chiefs Take Divergent Paths This Off-Season With Dennis Allen And Romeo Crennel from SB Nation Kansas City
Cundiff's kick - a chip shot by NFL standards - brought back memories of that day in January 1995 when Lin Elliott missed three field goals - including a 42-yarder in the closing seconds - as the Kansas City Chiefs were upset in the opening round of the playoffs by an Indianapolis Colts team that had no right being on the same field.
The 10-7 setback cast Kansas City into a dark place.
Fortunately, it was a pre-Twitter place where the only doom to be found was on the talk-radio circuits. Oh, there was that post-game scene in the Chiefs' locker room, where Elliott answered every question in stand-up fashion as his teammates turned on him.
Lunkheads Take Sports Too Seriously from The Hutchinson News
Kansas City: The Chiefs took Ricky Stanzi in the fifth round last season. So, I don't see Kansas City taking another developmental quarterback this year.
Rookie QBs Coming To AFC West? from ESPN
Manning is a bright, and surely knows the situation. There isn't a warm and fuzzy reception from the Colts' front office because their future most likely doesn't include their former QB - Hall of Famer or not.
And that brings us to the Chiefs.
Assuming the Colts do not exercise that option and Manning becomes a free agent, this is general manager Scott Pioli's chance to make a upgrade of galactic proportions at quarterback.
Candid Cameron: Go Get Peyton! from Fox Sports Kansas City
So far, tournament organizer Matt Knobbe has found about 20 like-minded gamers to register for the second-annual event. He's looking to put together a field of 32 by Saturday.
"It's a really fun way to do something competitive, like shooting pool or throwing darts," he said.
Knobbe also runs TecmoBowl.org, one of the few corners of the Internet where you can find the words "Christian" and "Okoye" listed prominently among the commonly used search terms.
Break Out The Nostalgia For The Second Tecmo Super Bowl Tourney Saturday from The Lincoln Journal Star
The NFL doesn't have baseball's rich history and endless statistics, but it has plenty of facts that have become obscure over time. Historians will say there have been 45 Super Bowls, for example, but technically it's 42. The first three were called the World Championship Game and were retroactively named the Super Bowl.
Even passing football fans could tell you Max McGee and Elijah Pitts scored two touchdowns apiece and Bart Starr was named Most Valuable Player in leading Green Bay to a 35-10 victory over Kansas City in what was later known as Super Bowl I. But who scored the lone TD for the Chiefs?
A Super Bowl Quiz For The Soul from The Buffalo News