Missing the occasional extra point is going to happen. A bad snap, a bobbled hold, and loose turf can all cause an extra point to be missed; not to mention the chance that it can be blocked by the opposition. But six in one season? By a Hall of Famer? His final extra point stats that year read as 33 attempted and 27 made for a completion percentage of 81.8%… that is close to missing one out of every five attempted. That had to have driven the head coach crazy, especially in the last game of the year. Stenefud missed an extra point that would’ve given the Chiefs a 17-14 lead over the Broncos, instead they were only ahead 16-14 when Denver drove for a fourth quarter field goal that would give them the 17-16 win over the Chiefs.

Tweet This Post

Quite a few players have played in the NFL at the height of 6 feet 9 inches tall including Hall of Famer Bob St. Clair of the San Francisco 49ers, offensive lineman Jonathan Ogden of the Baltimore Ravens, defensive tackle Ernie Ladd from the old AFL, and Ed “Too Tall” Jones of the Dallas Cowboys.

Only one player has played in the NFL at the height of 6 feet 10 inches tall though. Playing tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs from 1969 through 1974 was Morris Stroud who came to the team out of Clark College in Georgia. Over the course of his career, Stroud caught 54 passes for 977 yards and 7 touchdowns.

Though he didn’t technically play in the NFL, there was one player even taller than Marcus Stroud. For just 8 games in 1967, the Oakland Raiders of the then American Football League (AFL) had a rookie defensive tackle out of North Carolina Central named Richard Sligh. Sligh stood an amazing, for a football player, 7 feet tall and weighed 300 pounds.

Tweet This Post

Marcus Allen, the Pro Football Hall of Fame running back, is still the record holder for most career rushing touchdowns against the San Diego Chargers. He was a great running back, but he also played his entire career with the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs, meaning he was in the same division as the Chargers from 1982 to 1997.

Over the course of that time, Marcus Allen racked up 23 career rushing touchdowns against San Diego.

The second most rushing touchdowns against the Chargers is 8 and is held by four players: Pete Banaszak of the Raiders, Floyd Little of the Denver Broncos, and Curt Warner and Chris Warren of the Seattle Seahawks.

Tweet This Post

-The oldest player to rush for 100 yards or more in an NFL game is MacArthur Lane who ran for 144 yards on 17 attempts (8.47 yard average!) at the age of 36 in 1978 while playing for the Kansas City Chiefs. The truly amazing thing is that though he gained 144 yards on the ground that day, he would finish the season with just 277 total yards rushing. The second, third, and fourth spots on the list of oldest running backs to have 100 yard games all belong to Washington Redskins great, and Pro Football Hall of Fame member, John Riggins. Riggins had three 100 yard games at the age of 36 in 1985. Rounding out the top five is Marcus Allen who had a 100 yard game at the age of 35 for the Kansas City Chiefs against his old team the Oakland Raiders in 1995.

-The oldest player to rush for 1,000 or more yards in a season is John Henry Johnson of the Pittsburgh Steelers who was 35 years old in 1964 when he had his last 1,000 yard season. Second and third place on the list belong to John Riggins who accomplished the feat at 35 and 34 years of age. Franco Harris, another great Pittsburgh running back, ran for 1,000 yards at the age of 33 in 1983 and is listed in fourth place. Rounding out the top five is the same man that leads the category, John Henry Johnson who was 33 in 1962 when he rushed for 1,141 yards.

Tweet This Post

In 2003, Dante Hall returned 57 kicks for 1,478 yards, an average of 25.9 yards per return. He also scored two touchdowns on kick returns that year. If that wasn’t enough, that same year he returned 29 punts for a total of 472 yards, a league leading average of 16.3 yards per punt return. Not to be outdone by himself, he also scored two touchdowns that year on punt returns. Also notable was the fact that his 100 yard kick return for a touchdown tied two others as the longest of the season, and his 93 yard punt return for a touchdown was the longest punt return of the year.

What a year!

Tweet This Post

-Mike Garrett led the Chiefs in rushing three times, from 1966 to 1967, and then again in 1969.

-Five players have led the Chiefs in rushing four times: Abner Haynes (1960-62, 1964), Christian Okoye (1987-89, 1991), Marcus Allen (1993-96), Priest Holmes (2001-04), and Larry Johnson (2005-08).

-The player though who has led the Chiefs in rushing the most times is Ed Podolak, who did so from 1970 to 1973, and accomplished it again in 1977.

Tweet This Post

It was just announced that there has been an addition to last night’s trade of Mike Vrabel to the Kansas City Chiefs. Now included in the deal is quarterback Matt Cassel. In exchange for these two players, it looks like the Kansas City Chiefs are giving up a second round draft pick, the 34th pick overall.

There has been a lot of talk around the internet that the Chiefs stole Cassel from the New England Patriots because they didn’t have to give up a whole lot for him. Truthfully though, we’re looking at a quarterback who had a very good year but it was his only year as a starter. Remember, Cassel hasn’t been a starter in the pros before… or in college. The other thing to remember about Cassel is that he currently isn’t signed beyond this year, and because of him being franchised by the Patriots, his one year deal for this season will be in the neighborhood of fourteen million dollars. So, in effect the Chiefs are trading for a player with only one year of experience and who is signed for very close to the maximum price of any quarterback in the NFL. Giving up a second round pick for that is probably not too bad.

Looks like a good trade for both teams. The addition of Vrabel to the Chiefs defense is a definite plus, not only for his ability, but also for his leadership value.

In fact, I think the only person that really has a gripe in this whole deal is Herman Edwards. He inherited an injured and at-the-end-of-his-career Trent Green at quarterback for one season and then after he moved on to the Dolphins was left with the combination of Damon Huard, Tyler Thigpen, and Brodie Croyle to deal with for two years. The minute Herman Edwards is fired, then they make a trade for one of the better available quarterbacks on the market?

Yeah, Edwards deserves to gripe about this one.

Tweet This Post

The 1978 NFL Draft was rather unique in terms of how Bill Kenney performed compared to the other quarterbacks drafted ahead of him. Being taken in the 12th round with the next to last pick in the draft, Kenney was the last quarterback taken that year in the draft. Thirteen quarterbacks were selected ahead of him, but none finished their career with more passing yards, completions, or touchdowns than Bill Kenney.

The quarterbacks drafted ahead of Bill Kenney in the 1978 NFL Draft:

-Pat Ryan was taken out of Tennessee in the 11th round and had a longer career than Kenney, but was mostly a backup quarterback with the Jets.

-John Hurley had quarterbacked the University of Santa Clara and was drafted in the ninth round by the Redskins in 1978, he would not appear in an NFL game.

-Keith Myers was taken by Green Bay in the 9th round out of Utah State and would also never make an appearance in an NFL game.

-In the previous round, the 8th, Green Bay had first taken another quarterback, Arizona State’s Dennis Sproul. Sproul would play in just six games during his entire NFL career.

-The New Orleans Saints had selected Mike Rieker out of Lehigh University in the 6th round that year and he would never play in an NFL game.

-In the 5th round, the Cincinnati Bengals chose USC Trojans quarterback Rob Hertel who would only appear in three games during his NFL career.

-University of Maryland quarterback Mark Manges was chosen by the Los Angeles Rams in the 4th round of the 1978 NFL Draft, he would only see action in one game during his NFL career.

-Also selected in the 4th round of the draft that year was University of Missouri quarterback Pete Woods who was taken by the Chiefs. Woods would also never play a game in the NFL.

-In the 3rd round of the draft that year, the Houston Oilers would choose BYU star quarterback Gifford Nielsen. Nielsen would have a six year career and see action in 55 games during his career.

-The Cleveland Browns picked Bowling Green quarterback Mark Miller in the third round of the 1978 NFL Draft, his career would last just two seasons.

-Guy Benjamin was a good quarterback prospect out of Stanford University and the Dolphins selected him in the 2nd round of the 1978 draft. Benjamin would spend six seasons in the NFL, seeing action in 19 games.

-In the second round of the draft that season, the New England Patriots would take former University of Pittsburgh quarterback Matt Cavanaugh. He would have a long career, playing in the league from 1978 to 1991, though primarily as a backup.

-The first round of the 1978 NFL Draft saw only one quarterback taken, the young Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked Grambling State’s Doug Williams with the 17th overall selection of the first round that year. Williams had a very successful career both in the NFL and in the USFL as well. He would also win a Super Bowl ring with the Washington Redskins and also be named the Super Bowl XXII MVP. In terms of wins and losses, Williams is easily the most successful quarterback from the 1978 NFL Draft, but in career numbers Kenney still tops him.

With 14 quarterbacks taken in the draft, one would think it must’ve been a good year for quarterbacks, but statistically speaking the best numbers would be put up by the last of those quarterbacks taken.

Tweet This Post

The 1960s
Cotton Davidson was the original starting quarterback for the Dallas Texans when they took the field as part of the AFL in 1960. Davidson had been a first round draft pick of the Baltimore Colts in 1954, but had not lived up to his promise and only saw any real action at the position of punter while with the team. As a matter of fact, while playing the position of quarterback with the Texans, he would also serve as the team’s punter, and would even kick a few extra points too. After a little over two seasons with the team, Davidson would move on to become one of the early quarterbacks of the Oakland Raiders. In the third season of the team’s existence, they would welcome a new starting quarterback into the fold. Len Dawson had been drafted in the first round of the 1957 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers and after spending three seasons as the backup to future hall of famer Bobby Layne, he moved on to Cleveland where he would also see significant time as the second string quarterback. He was brought into lead the Texans in 1962 and immediately paid dividends as the team would win the AFL Championship that season. On an individual level, Dawson would lead the AFL in completion percentage, touchdowns, yards per passing attempt, and quarterback rating that year. The next season saw the Texans become the Kansas City Chiefs and though the team struggled, Dawson would again lead the league in touchdown passes. In fact, Len Dawson led the AFL in touchdown passes in four of his first five seasons in the league (1962, 63, 65, and 66). Dawson would quarterback the team through the rest of the decade, culminating with the Chiefs winning the 1969 Super Bowl. That final season of the 1960s would see quarterback Mike Livingston see significant playing time and actually compile a better win-loss record than Dawson.

The 1970s
The new decade would start out looking largely the same for the Chiefs with reliable Len Dawson starting at the position of quarterback. Though he wouldn’t achieve the same success after the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, Dawson was still one of the better quarterbacks in the league. The 1973 season saw Dawson and Livingston splitting time at the position of starting quarterback and this would continue through for three years until the retirement of Dawson following the 1975 season. In his first four seasons as the backup to Len Dawson, Mike Livingston had gone 9-0 in games he was called on to start, including 6-0 in the 1969 Super Bowl season. Now it was 1976 and the position of starting quarterback was all his. Success would not stay with Livingston as he compiled win-loss records of 5-9, 1-10, and 4-10 as the starting quarterback for the Chiefs in the late 1970s. 1979, his last season in the league would show Livingston going 1-3 as a starter, with the team essentially turned over to rookie quarterback Steve Fuller.

The 1980s
1980 would see Steve Fuller go 6-7 in his second and final year as the primary starter for the Chiefs. The starting quarterback position would be turned over to young Bill Kenney in 1981 and by 1982 Fuller would have moved on to the Chicago Bears. Kenney was the primary starting quarterback of the Chiefs through the rest of the 1980s, although for a time in the middle of the decade he shared the duties with Todd Blackledge. Other quarterbacks who started games for the Chiefs in the 1980s included Matt Stevens, Frank Seurer, and Steve DeBerg. 1988 would see Kenney go 0-5 as the starter and the team would essentially be turned over to DeBerg as Bill Kenney would retire following at season’s end. 1989 would see the Chiefs head coaching duties turned over to Marty Schottenheimer and although both Steve Pelluer and Ron Jaworski would start games at quarterback, DeBerg would remain the primary quarterback with ten starts that season.

The 1990s
The new decade would begin with Steve DeBerg at the helm for the first two seasons before moving on to Tampa Bay and having longtime Seattle Seahawks quarterback Dave Krieg come in as the starting quarterback in 1992. Krieg would have a successful season that year, leading the team to a 10-6 record and leading the NFL in the category of most yards gained per pass completion (13.5). The Chiefs would lose in the Wildcard round of the playoffs that year and the writing would be on the wall for Dave Krieg as the team would trade for future hall of famer Joe Montana in the off season. In Montana’s first season with the team he would take them all the way to the AFC Championship game where they would lose to Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills by a score of 30-13. The 1994 season would see Montana lead the Chiefs back to the playoffs, this time losing in the Wildcard round to the Miami Dolphins. Montana would retire after the season and Steve Bono would take over the quarterbacking duties. Bono had been originally drafted in 1985 by the Minnesota Vikings, but in his first nine seasons in the league with the Vikings, Steelers, 49ers and Chiefs he had only started eleven games. The 1995 Chiefs were all his and he took the team to a 13-3 record, including being 10-1 at one time. The Chiefs would again lose in the first round of the playoffs and the following year the team would miss the postseason with Bono going 8-5 as their starter. Bono would move on to spend time backing up in Green Bay, St. Louis, and Carolina to finish out the decade while the Chiefs quarterback position would be turned over to Elvis Grbac and Rich Gannon. The combination of Grbac and Gannon would get Kansas City back to the playoffs in 1997, although it was another disappointing first round loss, this time to the Denver Broncos. During that season Grbac would go 8-2 as the starter while Gannon would go 5-1 in games that he started. 1998 would see Gannon go 5-5 as the starter while Grbac went 2-4 and the Chiefs would miss the playoffs. 1999 would see Rich Gannon leave the team to head to the Oakland Raiders where he would experience a good deal of success. With the starting quarterback job all his, Elvis Grbac would lead the team to a 9-7 record and Kansas City would finish out the 1990s by once again missing the playoffs.

The 2000s
The new millennium would start out with Elvis Grbac as the starting quarterback for the Chiefs once again, and he would lead the team to a record of 7-8 in games that he started. Hall of famer Warren Moon would also see time at the starting quarterback position for Kansas City in the year 2000, going 0-1. 2001 would see new head coach Dick Vermeil bring in a new starting quarterback, Trent Green. After a rough first couple of years with the team, Green would lead the Chiefs to a 13-3 record in 2003 though they would once again lose in the first round of the playoffs. 2005 would be Vermeil’s last season coaching the Chiefs and he and Green would lead the team to a very respectable 10-6 record though they would still miss the playoffs. The 2006 season would see Trent Green start half of the Chiefs games, going 4-4, while Damon Huard started the other half, going 5-3. This would be Trent Green’s last season in Kansas City as he moved on to the Miami Dolphins during the off season. The 2007 Chiefs were a disappointment with Huard going 4-6 as the starter and rookie Brodie Croyle going 0-6.

The Kansas City Chiefs have experienced many ups and downs throughout their history, and will most assuredly be back on top one day soon. The stability of the Chiefs quarterback position during their first decade of professional football resulted in them being one of the better teams at the time. During the next three decades, the team would spend many seasons without having a primary starting quarterback who would consistently start every game of the season year after year. This instability at the quarterback position is what most people attribute the Chiefs’ more difficult seasons to. The Chiefs are definitely one of the more fascinating teams in the National Football League and following their quarterback lineage in the future will be very interesting indeed.

Tweet This Post

Longtime Kansas City Chiefs’ kicker Jan Stenerud has had an interesting career path filled with tons of accomplishments that ended him up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Stenerud came to America from Norway on a ski jumping scholarship to Montana State University. While at MSU, Stenerud went out for the football team and with his “soccer style” way of kicking that was not yet popular in football, he promptly broke the record for longest field goal ever kicked when he booted a 59 yarder against the Bobcats big rival the University of Montana Grizzlies.

Stenefud played his first three seasons in pro football in the AFL until the Chiefs team he was on was included in the merger with the NFL. During his three seasons in the AFL he made 70% of his attempted field goals compared with all other listed kickers in both the AFL and NFL who averaged approximately 53%. Stenerud kicked three field goals in the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl IV victory over the Baltimore Colts. Stenerud would kick for the Chiefs through the 1979 season before joining the Green Bay Packers for three seasons, and then spending his last two seasons kicking for the Minnesota Vikings. When Stenerud retired following the 1985 season he was the last former AFL player still playing in the NFL. He would enter the Hall-of-Fame in 1991.

Some Jan Stenerud career highlights:

Six time Pro Bowl selection: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1975, and 1994
Ten time All Pro selection: 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1981, and 1984
Pro Bowl MVP: 1972
There are two other kickers in the Hall-of-Fame (George Blanda and Lou Groza), but Stenerud is the only full time kicker who didn’t play another position in the Hall-of-Fame.

A young man travels from Norway to the USA on a ski jumping scholarship and ends up in the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame!

Tweet This Post