FanHouse ClarkHunt

Fresh off an epic fourth quarter collapse against the San Diego Chargers on Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs are plodding along at a steady 2-12 pace, staring another top-five draft pick right in the face. The man making that draft pick, normally, would be general manager Carl Peterson, who has been running the ship out in Kansas City since the 1989 season.

After this season, that will no longer be the case.

Peterson announced today that he is stepping down from his position, effective once this season ends. Here's a statement from Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt, courtesy of Adam Teicher of the Kansas City Star:

"On behalf of my family and the entire Kansas City Chiefs organization, I want to thank Carl for his two decades of service to the Chiefs," Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt said. "Both Carl and I agreed that immediately initiating the search for the next Chiefs general manager would be the best thing for the future of the organization, and he will be resigning following the 2008 season.''

NFL owners tabled the Kansas City Chiefs' proposal to ban NFL players from wearing their hair long enough to cover their names on their jerseys at this week's league meeting. But the Chiefs say they won't give up the fight.

Chiefs owner Clark Hunt tells the Kansas City Star that requiring all NFL players to keep their hair tucked under their helmets is something his father, Pro Football Hall of Famer and Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, would have supported:

"He was always very much a stickler for players' names to be legible on the backs of jerseys," Hunt said. "He felt it was a positive from a marketing standpoint for the team, the league and the player."

Although Hunt says Commissioner Roger Goodell "has been supportive of it," all indications are that this rule has almost no chance of passing. The owners might take it up again at the May meeting, but if they do they'll vote it down. You have to pick your battles, and this battle just isn't important enough to fight with the players.

Previously on FanHouse:
NFL's Deal With Union Says 'No Player Will Be Disciplined Because of Hair Length'
NFL Could Ban Hair Flowing Out of Helmets
Herm Edwards on NFL Hair Proposal: 'Is It a Cultural Thing? No. It's a Uniform Thing'
Just So You Know, NFL: Troy Polamalu Is Not Cutting His Hair for Anybody

I wanted to respond to a particular reader question that I thought was pretty terrific:

"Jon: What we in KC are feeling towards the Chiefs is the result of year after year after year of bad choices, bad coaching, bad players and bad teams. There are four elements that comprise an NFL team 1) ownership 2) General Manager 3) Coaches 4) Players" - Nasty M

Mike, I think everyone is responsible for the problems in Kansas City. Let me first say that I like Carl Peterson. I think he is a very good General Manager. Although many claim that he is only concerned with filling seats, anybody who has ever met the man knows that the man really wants the Chiefs to win.

That being said, Carl Peterson is also flawed and the worst part is, there is nobody above him to correct those flaws. Peterson's biggest flaw for sure is that he is loyal to a fault. That seeps from the top down, from Clark Hunt to Herm Edwards. The Chiefs hold onto players longer than they should and, more importantly, don't get rid of key coaches and front office guys that clearly deserve the boot. The most obvious example is how long the Chiefs held onto Lynn Stiles in their front office. He was the big cheese in the draft room and largely responsible for a lot of the Chiefs' first-day draft goof-ups. He was known to be a dinosaur in the drafting game, relying on words of advice rather than actual scouting tape. Still, it took years for him to be kicked out of Peterson's "cigar club." Is it any coincidence that in 2005, the Chiefs' first year without Stiles as the lead draft guy, the Chiefs enjoyed one of their most successful drafts in recent memory?