In Clark Hunt’s letter to season ticket holders notifying them of his decision to fire John Dorsey, the Chiefs owner said this:
“I notified John that we would not be extending his contract beyond the 2017 season and, after some consideration, both John and I felt it was in his best interests and the best interests of the team to part ways now.”
The best interests of the Chiefs may have been to keep Dorsey on for the 2017 season even if it was a lame duck year. They are not likely to find a better GM than Dorsey for the 2017 season, especially not in June or July.
I view Clark Hunt’s job as keeping the harmony among the Chiefs leadership. Hold everyone accountable and keep them happy if they’re doing a good job and push the team forward. From that perspective, Clark failed.
Was the Dorsey split over money?
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“My hunch, guys, is I think it was money,” the KC Star’s Terez Paylor said.
He had one of the top GMs in football reporting to him - I see you picking away at the reasons why Dorsey wasn’t so great but it’s a stretch - and he failed to keep him. I don’t know the details and neither do you but from my 30,000 foot view this one looks to be on Clark. He had a terrific coach-GM setup and failed to keep that together. There will be no sympathy from me if this came down to money because the Chiefs (likely) won’t be finding a better evaluator than Dorsey.
The mechanics of all this kinda baffles me. How do you let a guy make such a franchise-defining move as giving up first round picks for your quarterback of the future and then fire him a couple months later? From the outside looking in that looks like a failure in leadership not to see this coming.
What also looks like bad leadership is the lack of explanation from the Chiefs. Clark sent a letter to season ticket holders but gave no hint as to the reason for Dorsey’s firing. Chiefs fans are still left wondering why the guy who helped turn the Chiefs into the type of team Clark has been talking about for years has been let go. The Chiefs didn’t even use the word “fire” even though by all accounts that’s what they did. This is the NFL and this is what NFL teams do. I get it. They know you’re coming back.
More details will be coming out but one day into this thing and I view this as a failure on Clark, who over the next few weeks will be hiring the fourth Chiefs GM in the last decade.