The Chiefs Ugly Stepchild Legacy

What is it? What is it that’s so unappealing? I love Kansas City and can’t see why anyone else wouldn’t. Beyond that, I certainly can’t imagine why a top notch coach or premiere player wouldn’t want to raise their family in the heart of the heartland, KCMO.

Yesterday, Arrowhead Addict’s own Patrick Allen confirmed that Philadelphia Eagles ex-head coach Andy Reid will most likely be headed to Arizona. Allen goes on to say that Reid is one on a short list of “big fish” coaches available on the market right now.

We’ve seen this pattern before. The most famous snub of all came last spring from Peyton Every-Ball-He-Touches-Turns-To-Gold Manning.

Now that Romeo Crennel is moving out of town and out of the head coaches office, I’m already anticipating the Chiefs missing out on one high profile coach after another.

So, when did this all begin? Is there really a global perception that KC is no-wheres-ville? Or is it just that size (of the city) does matter after all? Since when does a city have to be big, to be sexy?

Yesterday, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com rated the Chiefs last out of all current possible locations for coaches to land. Rapoport ranked Chicago, San Diego, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Cleveland — all better locations for coaches to take over.

"“(Lovie) Smith was on the unemployment line Monday, along with six other NFL coaches. A respected leader, Smith was let go with one year on his contract, leaving players crushed by his departure. Smith also left the best roster for anyone to inherit, as well as a spot with one of the NFL’s power franchises in a major city with strong ownership. Oh, and he left a quarterback for the new coach to utilize.”"

Major city? Un-check.

Strong ownership? Un-check.

Quarterback? Un-check.

You know… I can agreed with him about the quarterback… and I understand the weak ownership suggestion even though he likely doesn’t understand the way the Hunt family deals with organizational issues (and I probably don’t really understand that myself)… but, when he starts downgrading the city of Kansas City — our home town– that irks me to say the least.

On the other hand, most of us are aware of multiple times in the past ten years that major free agents have passed the Chiefs by, without even a courtesy visit. Which, raises the question… is Kansas City one of the NFL’s ugly stepchildren? Is this an unwanted location to play, coach or serve as GM?

Arrowhead has traditionally been viewed as one of the most difficult places for opposing players to visit and the only other location that comes to mind, that is as loud, is in Seattle. So, you’d think players would want to play here.

Which raises more questions because the Seahawks have done fairly well at drawing free agents to their, rather remote, locale. However, success is a magnet and the Chiefs haven’t had much of that in recent years. So, is this “ugly stepchild” perception solely related to the lack of winning?

That’s a bit of a catch-22 isn’t it: you can’t start drawing notable free agents until you are winning and you can start winning until you draw some notable free agents. Anyway, that’ the general idea.

Earlier this year when Peyton Manning sidestepped, even a visit, to KC, the Chiefs had supposedly put together one of the best rosters in the NFL. However, in Peyton’s case this may not have ever been a possibility because of the Scott Pioli-Tom Brady connection and Manning may have thought he was consorting with the enemy by coming here.

So, what do you think Addicts? Does Kansas City have a perception problem for coaches, free agents or GMs? Or, are we about to witness a deluge of coaches attempting to knock Clark Hunt’s door down?