The Kansas City Chiefs have a lot to do this offseason to get ready for the 2011 season, however unless a labor agreement is reached between the NFL and the players, the Chiefs may be stuck in limbo.
If you are confused about the labor situation then you absolutely must read this article by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Clark Hunt is even mentioned.
Some hope that Steelers chairman Dan Rooney, currently the U.S. ambassador to Ireland, will become more involved in the process. (That said, there’s also a sense that the Rooneys have lost some of the influence over other owners that they previously enjoyed.) There’s also a vague notion/hope that Chiefs owner Clark Hunt could rise up and follow in the league-first leadership that his late father, Lamar, provided to the sport for decades.
From profootballtalk.nbcsports.com (share this quote)
More after the jump.
It would be great if Clark stepped up and took the reins to end this thing. I know it would make Lamar proud.
The important thing to remember here is that if the lockout does happen, there will be no free agency until an agreement is reached. That NFL Draft, however, would still happen. That would flip things around on the strategy side of things for Scott Pioli. Normally teams try to fill whatever holes they can in free agency and then proceed with narrowing down their targets for the draft. Unfortunately, if there is a lockout, the Chiefs will be gambling a bit with their draft picks because they can’t guarantee they will be able to snag all their free agent targets.
Again, you have to read the article by Florio. It is the clearest explanation of the situation that I have seen to date.