Ducks don’t get much lamer than Herm Edwards, fired yesterday after 3 seasons as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, the inevitable axe falling an entire ten days after the club brought in the Hooded Casanova’s son-in-law, Scott Pioli, to rebuild the organization. While the K.C. Star’s Jayson Whitlock sees the logic in allowing Mr. Play-To-Win-The-Game to twist in the wind over the past two weeks (“there™s nothing wrong with a cautious pace as long as little is lost and the end result is appropriate…had Pioli canned Edwards right away, a lot of valuable information would™ve walked out the door with Edwards and his assistants”), his colleague Joe Posnaski finds the Chiefs’ handling of the situation just a little distasteful, declaring “put it this way: Scott Pioli better win fast. He isn™t winning anyone over with his class.”
I™m not sure why it took 10 days for Pioli to pull the trigger. I™m not sure why he left Herm dangling out there for those 10 days while his assistant coaches fled like high school kids on graduation day. I™m not sure why the Chiefs would throw Herm overboard late on a Friday afternoon with a news release and a couple of pointless statements. I™m not sure what it says about an organization that it would treat a loyal man like that. Actually, I™m precisely sure what it says about the Chiefs.
In the end, I suspect, most people in town won™t care how Scott Pioli fired Herm Edwards, because most people just wanted Herm Edwards fired. Sports is a hard business and a cold game. People forget fast. Just one day earlier, Gunther Cunningham bolted for Detroit, where he gets to coach the one team that had a defense worse than his own. And he did not feel like he could leave without first shifting blame for his defense to Herm.
œI™ve gone through three years of playing zone defenses because I was loyal to Herm Edwards, Cunningham said. œThat™s what he wanted. People here in town knew that I was different than that. My idea is to put a lot of pressure on the quarterback ” always has been, always will be.
Key phrase in that statement: œwas loyal.
And how true was the statement anyway? In 2006, when Herm Edwards became head coach, he kept Gunther Cunningham on as his defensive coordinator.
This was despite the fact that the two years before Herm arrived, Cunningham™s defenses finished 31st and 25th in total defense. They weren™t playing zone then ” the head coach was Dick Vermeil. and he would let his defensive coordinators do whatever the heck they wanted. Half the time, Vermeil didn™t even know the Chiefs had a defense (and half the time, he was right).