Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt met with the media today and had a lot to say about Qb Alex Smith and Chiefs training camp in general.
On Alex Smith:
“I’ve had a chance to spend some time with Alex. He and I went to dinner back a few months ago, so I got a chance to get to know him. Everything I’ve heard about him, he’s a great individual, strong leader, very intelligent, that all came through in that dinner. Watching him out on the field, he has a definite command of the offense. I think every guy out there respects him, and he is just a tremendous addition to the football team.”
On tackling to the ground in practice:
“Well I think it gets you ready to play football. Here in a couple weeks they’ll be playing preseason games, and they’re going to tackle to the ground. I think from a condition standpoint it’s valuable. I think from an execution standpoint, it’s probably also valuable. I will say there are a few times out there where you hold your breath and you hope that the back or the receiver or whoever got tackled, you hope they pop up. Today, it looked like we got through the practice fine without any additional injuries. Our trainer pointed out to me that a lot of the time, injuries occurs when one guy is going full and the other guy is going half. When you have 11-on-11 tackling, everybody’s going full speed, and it played out that way today. Hopefully it will turn out that way the rest of camp.”
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On his comfort with this year’s team:
“Well, I feel great about the football team. There’s a lot of excitement about the team, about Andy, about Alex Smith. We had a lot of our season ticket holders out this morning, and it was great talking to them and hearing their enthusiasm about the season. I feel confident like everybody. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. There’s a lot of opportunity for improvement. That will take place over the next three or four weeks, and hopefully by the time we get to Jacksonville, we’ll be ready to go.”
On if training camp will stay in St. Joseph:
“Well, it’s been a great experience here for us in St. Joseph and this is the fourth year of a five-year agreement. We wanted to give the new coaching staff a chance to experience it. I will say that everything that I’ve heard from Andy about being here at the university has been extremely positive both in terms of its facilities and how accommodating the university has been for us. I think he has a very positive feel for it. It’s something that we will address at the end of the year as we go into the last year of the contract next year.”