Bowl construction vs. self destruction

Sporting News, The, Sept 7, 1998 by Joe Posnanski

Tired of playoff losses and bolstered by the success of Rison, the Chiefs have assembled a of talent capable of rocking the AFC--or crumbling under its own weight

Two days after his latest playoff failure, dramatic, last-minute home loss to Denver in January, Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer felt lost. Schottenheimer does not often delve into himself. He's not a philosopher. He's a football coach. For more than half his life he has been a deep believer in the coach's creed: Blocking, tackling, hard work and, mainly, never looking back.

But this loss hurt. This loss crushed him like none of the other 10 playoff losses. Schottenheimer felt sure he had learned all the lessons from his inventory of playoff failures. He had not tightened up. He had told all his coaches to let loose, play to win, He kept his players relaxed. He had the game plan. He had the home crowd. Heck, he had the wind.

Still, the Chiefs lost when a comeback drive crumbled in the final seconds. Schottenheimer was despondent. For the first time anyone could remember, he wondered aloud if maybe the talk-show callers did have a point, if maybe his critics were right, if maybe, just maybe, there was something missing inside. He asked himself all the hard questions. He asked his friends. Did he work his players too hard? Were they tired come playoff time? Did he want to win so badly that he over-coached rather than let his players play? Was that 5-11 playoff record more than just a statistical fluke? Was there something about winning that he simply did not know?

He thought over those questions for a long time.

Then, he and Chiefs president/general manager Carl Peterson put together the angriest, wildest, cockiest football team in recent memory.

"I'm realistically looking at 16-0," defensive leader Derrick Thomas says.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we shut out half our opponents," new defensive tackle Chester McGlockton says.

"We have a chance," says a renewed Schottenheimer, "to be very special."

Certainly, they have that chance. The Chiefs have what Thomas calls an all-star team on defense. They have an offense with more weapons-especially in the passing game--than any Schottenheimer team ever They also have a fascinating mesh of talented players who have had their problems on other teams, players who, right or wrong, have developed reputations as quitters or complainers or loners. More than one NFL general manager says if the Chiefs start losing, they could crash. But then, the Chiefs don't expect to start losing

Always, they point to Andre Rison. He is the great success story. Rison came to Kansas City last season for a new start. For eight [years, Rison seemed to spend most of his time locating and establishing new starts. He was America's No. 1 distributor of new starts. He bounced from Indianapolis to Atlanta to Cleveland to Jacksonville to Green Bay, bad vibes chasing him always.

He came to Kansas City, away from his troubles, and shortly after announced he was no longer "Bad Moon," as he had been nicknamed. He was now "Spider-Man?' Why? He didn't explain that part. But after every catch, he would stretch out his hands, as if he were unleashing his web, and the Spider-Man theme song Blared at Arrowhead, and everybody believed.

"I love the people here." Rison says. "They see me for me, you know?"

Rison wasn't the first troubled athlete to find sanctuary in Kansas City. But he probably is the best. He would catch 72 passes and make it to the Pro Bowl, the first Kansas City receiver in a decade to be chosen. He became a hero in the second game, when he caught a touchdown pass to beat Oakland in the final seconds on a Monday night. About four weeks after that play, the Chiefs traded for linebacker Wayne Simmons, another temperamental player with a somewhat troubled past.

"He's coming here with a clean slate, it's a new opportunity," Peterson said of Simmons. "We think he will do an Andre Rison and look at this as a fresh start, and he will want to stay."

Always, they point to Rison.

Within three games, Simmons was starting. By that point, the defense was beginning to dominate. For 10 straight weeks (Games 6-15), it did not allow a second-half touchdown. "Wayne Simmons made us meaner," defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham says. "He was the one that sort of turned on the switch in the defense, gave us that edge."

Since the Rison and Simmons successes, the Chiefs have stockpiled all sorts of talented enigmas. McGlockton can single-handedly disrupt ma offense with his power and speed, but many people believe he simply stopped trying with the Raiders a year ago. Defensive end Leslie O'Neal is one of the great sackers in NFL history, but he has a reputation for being surly and lackadaisical. Derrick Alexander had more than 1,000 yards receiving each of the past two seasons for Baltimore but was benched for constantly being late for meetings.

Offensive lineman Victor Riley, the Chiefs' first-round pick, is a massive and talented player, but he was kicked off the Auburn team for a while before his senior season and was benched at the start of a couple of games because his position coach questioned his desire and focus.