Kansas City king

Joe Posnanski

New Chiefs coach DICK VERMEIL is being hailed by fans as a genius and magician rolled into one, but he faces the daunting challenge of delivering an immediate turnaround

This is something new. You wouldn't think there would be anything new left for Dick Vermeil, who has been around football for more than 40 years, who coached high school and junior college and college and pros, who won a Rose Bowl and lost a Super Bowl and won a Super Bowl at different times in his life, who famously quit coaching for 14 years because he felt burned out.

But this is something completely new.

In Kansas City, they're calling him a savior.

"It alarms me," Vermeil says. "I've never been through anything like this before. People have all been very warm, very supportive, it's been very nice. But I don't want to mislead or disillusion people. I'm not a miracle worker."

Not a miracle worker? Forget that. In Kansas City, they've got Vermeil pegged as some combination of Anne Sullivan, Moses, St. Nicholas and Bill Parcells. Understand, Kansas City is the hungriest football city in America. The Chiefs have led the NFL in attendance five of the past seven seasons. More than 10,000 people linger on the season-ticket waiting list. Yet the Chiefs have not made the playoffs three of the last four years, and they have not reached a Super Bowl in more than 30. A certain desperation surrounds this team and this city. People want a winner.

So the hiring of Dick Vermeil has set off a kind of frenzy. Kansas City folks saw firsthand what Vermeil did four hours to the east on 1-70, in St. Louis, where he built the Rams into Super Bowl champions and a national phenomenon. Envy raged in Kansas City. Michael McCambridge, a St. Louis-based author who grew up in Kansas City, summed up those feelings last year when he wrote: "When you've suffered for a team like I have--for more than 30 years of ups and downs and agonizing near misses--it's a little hard to sit back and politely applaud while a city that is barely on a first-name basis with its football team takes the fast lane straight to the Super Bowl."

Vermeil retired after that Super Bowl win. He expected to ride off happily into the sunset with his family. In this year's Super Bowl program, there was a fascinating article by Vermeil called "I Don't Miss the Headaches." And while people in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium were reading how Vermeil had no intention of ever getting back into coaching, Vermeil himself already had set up shop in Arrowhead Stadium and watched plenty of film of quarterback Elvis Grbac.

Vermeil's return was the work of his old friend, Chiefs president Carl Peterson, who first tried to hire Vermeil to coach the Chiefs back in 1989, just before settling on Marty Schottenheimer. This time, Peterson refused to be denied, first talking Vermeil out of his second retirement ("You are, at your essence, a coach," Peterson told Vermeil on the recruiting visit.), then firing his old coach Gunther Cunningham (whose wife, Rene, says he found out about Vermeil on the Internet), then finally wrestling Vermeil away from the Rams' grasp (by giving up a second-round pick in 2001, a third-round pick in 2002 and $500,000). It was a harsh process that left hurt feelings scattered everywhere, particularly the feelings of Cunningham, who still has not made a public statement.

But Kansas City fans have moved on from all that. They had some great teams that fell short in the 1990s. They have dealt with mediocrity the past two seasons. Forget the draft picks. Forget Cunningham. Forget everything else. They frantically want to see Vermeil work his magic.

"I truly hope people are not buying their Super Bowl tickets and reserving their Super Bowl rooms," Vermeil says.

But they are.

You will get many different views about how Vermeil turned the Rams from perenial losers into world champions. The trendiest view these days is that Vermeil was basically a Mr. Magoo-type character, bumping into walls, stumbling around and walking blindly into good luck. The cynics will tell you he wanted to keep quarterback Tony Banks; instead, of course, he ended up with that grocery-stocker-turned-MVP Kurt Warner. They will say he was reluctant to hire offensive coordinator Mike Martz, who since has assembled one of the highest-scoring offenses in NFL history. Finally, they will throw in that Vermeil thoroughly was opposed to acquiring Marshall Faulk because of rumored poor practice habits by the running back. There's no doubt Vermeil was blessed in St. Louis.

Here's what you find about Vermeil, though. He doesn't care about any of that. "I never wanted the credit, and I never needed the credit," he says plainly.

"Of course," he adds, "those people don't know what the hell they're talking about."

Vermeil says the world champion Rams were built over three years, step by step, practice by practice, and that only a coach could appreciate that. Other coaches and NFL executives tend to agree.

"What people have never appreciated was how coach Vermeil brought that team along," says Herman Edwards, a former player under Vermeil and now the coach of the Jets. "People think that the Rams suddenly exploded on the scene, but it was a slow, steady process. People will never appreciate all that he did those first two years."

Says Peterson: "I talked with him just about every Friday that he was in St. Louis. And he would tell me, `We're getting better. I can feel it.' That didn't show up in wins and losses those first two years, but you could see how much that team had grown that third season."

Vermeil plans to use a similar blueprint in Kansas City. He does believe the Chiefs are further along than the Rams were physically, but even that he says cautiously. He doesn't want to add any fuel to the city's white-hot optimism. Hey, the Chiefs did go 7-9 last season. They have no running back like Faulk and have not had a 1,000-yard rusher since 1991. The defense, minus the late Derrick Thomas, simply stopped making big plays last year. And, perhaps most urgent, the Chiefs are bumping their heads against the ceiling of the salary cap. They could have real trouble re-signing their franchise offensive lineman, guard Will Shields.

Then there's the biggest issue of all: Grbac. He comes off perhaps the best statistical year ever for a Chiefs quarterback, and he is due a $10 million bonus early in March, which the team cannot afford to pay. The team probably will ask Grbac to rework his contract, and he does seem eager to stay in Kansas City, so he is expected to renegotiate.

Still, there are many skeptics in Kansas City who believe Grbac is not a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback, and certainly not the type of quarterback to lead a high-flying, quick-decision, multidimensional offense, like they have in St. Louis.

Vermeil says Grbac has what it takes. "I like Elvis a lot," Vermeil says. "I really do. That's not a phony thing. I'm not just saying that because he's here. I've been a fan of his since college. And I want him back. Definitely."

Despite all those concerns, runaway hopes still bounce around this team. Tony Gonzalez, the Chiefs' All-Pro tight end, echoes what most of the players and fans are thinking when he says: "We have the nucleus to go to the Super Bowl this year. I hope people understand that. We're not rebuilding. We're ready to go."

It's that kind of expectation, that kind of talk, that Vermeil never has faced before. When he came to Philadelphia, the Eagles were a joke, and he was called a "nobody." When he arrived in St. Louis, the Rams were the losingest team in the 1990s, and he was called an old man. He was able to build both of those teams quietly.

There will be nothing quiet about expectations in Kansas City.

"I've not seen anything quite like this since we brought in Joe Montana to be our quarterback," Peterson says. "People are genuinely excited. They're thinking Super Bowl. And I would never want to discourage our fans.... I would hope they would give Dick time to get it done, but let's face it: It is exciting having Dick Vermeil here. He has won everywhere he's been."

No coach has won Super Bowls with two different teams, which seems to tell you how hard it is to re-create magic. Remember Jimmy Johnson in Miami. Now, Mike Holmgren is struggling in Seattle, and George Seifert is finding his way in Carolina. It's such a short fall from coaching genius to talk-radio punching bag. Only four coaches have managed to take different teams to the Super Bowl. One of those, of course, is Vermeil.

Can Vermeil bring his magic to Kansas City? He's certainly going to try. Defensively, the Chiefs figure to look similar to Kansas City teams of the past. Vermeil hired Greg Robinson, the former Broncos defensive coordinator, to help the Chiefs regain their toughness and their knack for the big play.

But make no mistake, Vermeil wants to bring the St. Louis offensive circus to Kansas City, a town that for most of the past 12 years (the Peterson era) has watched some of the most boring offense known to man. Vermeil has brought in Al Saunders, who coached the receivers in St. Louis, to be the Chiefs' offensive coordinator and replicate the Rams' high-flying offensive system. And even though there are many people out there skeptical about trying to operate the Rams' complex system without Martz at the controls--Martz himself might feel that way--well, the Chiefs are going to give it a go anyway.

The Chiefs have just one especially great player right now: Gonzalez. He's a unique talent, big enough to overpower linebackers, fast enough to outrun safeties. He caught 93 passes last season for more than 1,200 yards. How will Gonzalez fit in? The Rams did not use their tight end much as a receiver.

Vermeil says the system will be adjusted.

"With a player like Tony Gonzalez, I'd be just plain stupid not to build an offense around him," Vermeil says. "And I don't think I'm stupid."

That's why Vermeil just might pull this crazy thing off. While other coaches get stuck in their ways--let the game pass them by--Vermeil is constantly adapting. He listens to the people around him. He doesn't let his ego prevent him from seeing the whole story. He doesn't care how he looks as long as the team wins. Was he reluctant to hire Martz? Perhaps, but when he did, he gave Martz full control of the offense. Was he reluctant to play Faulk and other players who didn't practice as hard as he might like? Maybe, but he then cut back the practice schedule and gave his players a little room to breathe.

"Coach Vermeil has always been great at adapting to the situation," Edwards says. "If you work hard for him, he will do anything for you. It's that simple."

People always want to write about how much Vermeil has changed. Well, Vermeil hasn't changed so much. He's still the grouchy taskmaster who won't hesitate to run his players through a practice regimen that will leave them gasping. "I expect some complaints," he says.

Vermeil still believes in hard work and dedication and loyalty and all those old words that seem lost in the days of black-and-white television.

Vermeil still cries 96 times a week, his tears triggered by just about anything ranging from a sudden memory of an old friend to a particularly touching Tom and Jerry episode.

But, yes, there is something different about the man.

"He listens to other people," Peterson says. "It's a rare thing. Here's a man who has done it all. Won it all. And yet, he will say, `What do you think?' And he really listens, whether it's the offensive line coach or the general manager or the team trainer. He listens. That's one of the big secrets to his success."

Peterson was an assistant coach for Vermeil at UCLA some 25 years ago. They went to Philadelphia together. They both know this is their last hurrah--like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau in the Grumpy Old Men years--and they both want to go out with a Super Bowl victory.

Kansas City expects nothing less.

"I'm a positive guy," Vermeil says. "But when someone asks me something, I try to tell them the truth. So when people ask me, `Are you going to the Super Bowl?' I tell them, `How should I know?' I'm no soothsayer. I'm a football coach."

Joe Posnanski is a sports columnist for the Kansas City Star.

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