With recent reports indicating that Clark Hunt was unwilling to pay Marcus Peters beyond this season, Chiefs fans should wonder about the extent of Clark Hunt’s influence on football decisions.
Clark Hunt has claimed that he’ll leave matters of players and personnel to Andy Reid and his general manager, but reports from Ian Rapoport and Jason La Canfora indicate that Hunt may have played a very active role in the Chiefs’ trade of Marcus Peters.
Rapoport said that Peters “was not someone that owner Clark Hunt was going to pay on a long-term extension.” La Canfora said the same, adding, “I’m not sure he was going to pay his fifth-year option either.”
This paints a more involved picture of Clark Hunt than we’ve gotten at any point in the Andy Reid era, and the idea that Hunt would withhold the checkbook from Peters for any non-football reason is deeply troubling.
To avoid the immediate devolving of the comments section, here is an apparently necessary moment to point out the obvious: this doesn’t have to be about Peters’ posture during the National Anthem, and no single issue will explain all of the troubles that came with the Chiefs’ trade of Peters. Any from-the-top decree is problematic for the organization.
Does Clark Hunt have day-to-day football influence, or just some sort of veto power? Will Hunt willingly veto a move that hurts the Chiefs as a team but helps the Chiefs as a marketable brand? It’s safe to assume that all owners would rather have a quiet All-Pro cornerback in favor of a polarizing one, but what happens when your only All-Pro cornerback is that kind of polarizing? Perhaps we just saw the answer.
Again, this is based on speculation and conjecture, creating some well-educated guesses with reporting to support it. (Welcome to the offseason.) This is an incomplete puzzle. But disclaimers aside, as the puzzle comes together, it’s beginning to look like the largest missing piece is Clark Hunt-shaped.
For more discussion, disclaimers and detective work, listen to today’s show, embedded above, or search for Roughing the Kicker wherever you get your podcasts.
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