The Godfather Gil Brandt spoke to BJ Kissel of Chiefs.com from Radio Row this week and had some good advice for Eric Berry’s impending free agency (or franchise tag).
“I talked to [Eric] Berry’s father today,” Brandt, who once signed Berry’s father, James, to a contract after he finished up his playing career at Tennessee, explained. “I told him, ‘I want you to know one thing. The best deal is not always the best deal.’ I think Kansas City is the type of town, and you can go to Bobby Bell and Len Dawson that have lived there all their life and are held in such high esteem and ask them, I think Kansas City is a great place to go. It’s not what you get today, it’s what you get for the next 30 or 35 years that counts.”
I call this good advice because we’re a Chiefs blog, you see. This advice is suggesting to him that he can get more out of staying in Kansas City over the long term rather than signing with another team for more money in the short-term.
There’s something to this. I’m not sure how you quantify it but Brandt used Len Dawson as an example. Lenny has been a mainstay in the city for the last 50 years from the local news to calling Chiefs games. Of course, Berry’s era and Lenny’s era isn’t exactly the same. Players are richer and more visible these days. They don’t need the local news station to give them a job.
Not every team is going to put your name on the ring of honor and remember you for life. The Chiefs probably would though.