“I’ve got to find that next Len Dawson, doggone it.”
Andy Reid, on his search to fix the Chiefs’ quarterback problem, 810 AM
GH: How incredibly sad and revealing is this simple statement from Reid? Len Dawson is a former AFL MVP whose list of contemporaries include Joe Namath, Daryle Lamonica, George Blanda and Jack Kemp. Trent Green had a decent run with the Chiefs but couldn’t win a playoff game. The Chiefs choose Elvis Grbac over Rich Gannon – how different would Marty’s end have been here if he had not made that error in judgment? The bare truth is that a franchise quarterback is simply the most important piece to any NFL team. How Andy Reid solves that riddle will determine his reign here in Kansas City.
“One thing that really concerns me about this – I’m not so sure he’s going to take a quarterback number one. I’m really not.”
Jack Harry, KSHB 41
GH: Is drafting a quarterback with the Chiefs number-one overall pick a necessity? Jack Harry and Kevin Kietzman believe it is. They are almost alone in that line of thinking. Read on.
“I don’t think there is anybody to discuss. I don’t see anybody in this year’s draft that’s going to force them up to the first pick in the draft.”
Charley Casserly, of the NFL Network, when asked about the chance that the Chiefs might take a quarterback with their first pick, 610 AM
“I don’t think the Chiefs will force it with that first pick. I think they’ll wait till later and get it done then.”
Adam Teicher, on the Chiefs drafting a quarterback with their first pick, 810 AM
“I think he’ll pass and take a chance to find somebody a little later on.”
Soren Petro, on Reid drafting a quarterback, 810 AM
“I think [Reid] is going to sign a veteran [QB] and have to trade down.”
Jeff Chadiha, 810 AM
“I think this is a different situation. I don’t think you can necessarily translate what [Reid] did in Philadelphia to what he will do here. I think this guy has his own ideas. I don’t think you’ll be able to stereotype his draft.”
Adam Teicher, 810 AM
“They’ll take some center from Claremont Mud.”
Jayice Pearson, voicing his lack of confidence in the Chiefs’ ability to draft, 610 AM
“I think one of these quarterbacks [in the upcoming draft] is going to be a Hall of Fame type player. I don’t know which one but…”
Kevin Kietzman, while he interviewed Clark Hunt, 810 AM
GH: Kietzman hasn’t been more adamant and defiant over a topic since he had Missouri joining the Big 10. KK doesn’t want to even entertain any thoughts of the Chiefs NOT drafting a quarterback with their top pick. He thinks there is a HOF quarterback in this draft and the Chiefs’ should have the scouts to identify that player. I wish it were that simple. The past 40 years of this franchise’s history tells us it is not.
“I’ve been standing on the table for [AJ] McCarron all year & took him off my board when he said he was returning. Top QB in 2013 if he declares.”
Shawn Zobel, @ShawnZobel_DHQ, Twitter
GH: McCarron played a game for the ages against Notre Dame Monday night. He looked poised, unbelievably accurate and again demonstrated he is a winner. His arm is just average, though. He rarely has been pressured in the pocket in his three years at Alabama because of the Tide’s NFL-in-waiting offensive line. Is he the next Joe Willie or the next Brodie Croyle? I think he’s more Brodie than Broadway.
“What if AJ McCarron decides to come out? Does that change the dynamic of the quarterback position [in the draft]? I think it does.”
Adam Teicher, 810 AM
GH: McCarron stated in December he is returning to Alabama for his senior season but he could change his mind. He has until Tuesday to declare for the 2013 NFL draft. He may never be in a better situation than now to enter a draft with as many question marks at the quarterback position. I bet he goes.
“[McCarron] definitely has a chance to go in the top 10. If he wants to play in the NFL, there’s no better time for him to come out then now.”
Shawn Zobel, 610 AM
GH: The question on every NFL fan’s mind? Will Katherine Webb be coming with him? Read on.
“You quarterbacks, you get all the good looking women. What a beautiful woman.”
Brent Musburger, as the ESPN camera focused on Katherine Webb, the former Miss Alabama and current girlfriend of AJ McCarron, ESPN
GH: Musburger is far from my favorite play-by-play guy or even person. But the heat he has received for these innocent if odd comments is ridiculous. The ESPN camera shows Webb in the stands and she looks like a Maxim cover girl amidst a sea of uh, well, Alabama fans. What was Musburger supposed to do? Ignore Daisy Mae? Talk about her IQ? This is a former Miss Alabama who obviously understands her talents are camera friendly. Read on.
“Have been asked on focus on @_KatherineWebb in BCS: We always try to capture interesting storylines and the relationship between an Auburn grad who is Miss Alabama and the current Alabama quarterback certainly met that test. However, we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far and Brent understands that.”
Mike Soltys, ESPN
GH: ESPN must have felt the need to apologize for Musburger due to the public outcry on Twitter and elsewhere. Here’s a news blast to anyone under the age of 50 – women do not become less attractive to old eyes. They just become less attainable. Musburger wasn’t publicly leering, he was simply applauding.
“I laughed hysterically. I was flattered … and slightly embarrassed … but I thought it was the funniest thing ever. I never expected that. I’ve been reading on Twitter that Musburger had backlash that he’s ‘Creepy’ … if I were to see him I would say, ‘I don’t think you’re creepy at all!’ ”
Katherine Webb, TMZ.com
“On one hand, you can look at it as being kind of like the dirty old man, but I’m used to this and I think if you really look into what that he was trying to say, he was trying to be complimentary, and I think they need to give Brent a break.”
Alan Webb, father of Katherine, FoxNews.com
GH: Here’s another newsflash – every old man is a dirty old man. A line from the movie Liberal Arts fits well here. A retired college professor is counseling his now mid-30s former student about the former student’s decision to date a 19-year-old coed. “Since I was 19,” the old prof tells his smitten friend. “I’ve never felt like I was not 19.” It is merely conscience, character and commonsense that allows the old men to hide their Musburger.
GregHall24@yahoo.com and Twitter / greghall24
So ESPN is forced to make an apology for this, but doesn’t say a word about Steven A. Smith dropping an N-bomb on TV
I knew the minute that Musburger came all over himself while talking about McCarron’s GF, there would be a backlash. I laughed and didn’t think it was a big deal, but I knew for SURE there would be plenty of people freak out about the whole thing. That’s media/society today.
I could have sworn I heard the hand pump on Musburger’s Jergens bottle under heavy used every time the camera flashed to Miss Alabama during the BCS championship broadcast.
If that was all Musberger said, you might have a point. But he didn’t just let it go at that. He was talking about how Alabama QBs get all the beautiful women and he even verbally leered at McCarron’s mother. You could just tell all he wanted to be was the meat in a “Women of AJ McCarron” sandwich. Telling all those boys in Alabama to play good football so they could get a girl like AJ.
It went on much longer than it needed to or was appropriate. You make it seem as if Musberger’s only choice was to compliment her looks or her IQ or to say nothing at all. How about, as so many other announcers do all the time, he just said “And there’s a shot of AJ’s girlfriend and mother. She is Miss Alabama and AJ McCarron is a fortunate y oung man” and let it go at that?
I’m sure a certain segment will say that this is just all PC blather and that Musberger is allowed to talk about wanting to feed Webb a cockmeat sandwich all he wants and maybe they have a point. Was anyone harmed by this? No, probably not. But don’t make it seem as if what he did was somehow “normal.” Lots of guys want to bang hot chicks. But maybe letting the world know that on a national broadcast is beyond normal propriety?
BTW, Musberger’s leering at Webb makes a lot more sense when you consider the fact that he went to Northwestern.
Musburger merely identified Dee Dee Bonner as McCarron’s mother. The overreaction to his comments is comical.
That is not true. He felt okay about commenting on her looks too. Was he slobbering and fawning like he was with Webb? No. But what the fuck difference does it make if McCarron’s mom is attractive or is a tundra pig? If she were ugly and Musburger had said “Yeesh. Herbie, I’ve met DeeDee Bonner and she has a great personality, as I’m sure you can see from this shot of her nextto the beautiful Katherine Webb,” would that have been okay?
I’ll agree with you that too much is being made of this, but I won’t agree that Musburger handled himself appropriately. Just point out the people in the stands and move on. If it doesn’t improve the broadcast of the game, it probably doesn’t require that much of the play-by-play guy’s time and attention.
This is similar to checking out a woman’s cleavage vs. staring. A quick glance is ok and most women are used to it and don’t mind. Staring for long periods of time makes you a weirdo. Musberger was gawking at the woman which is a little creepy.
He made a similar statement about Jenn Sterger during a Florida State game a few years ago that was a long the same lines but more appropriate.
.Cleavage-bearing shirts are a purposeful wardrobe choice and not appropriately reacting to them with a stare would be simply rude.
My son wants to go to Northwestern, but I wouldn’t want him going to a place that endorses and teaches boorish behavior. Please elaborate on your final comment. Thanks in advance.
Having attended Northwestern, I can assure you that boorish behavior is neither taught nor endorsed. Gavin was taking a playful jab at the reputation of our female students for brains over beauty. As a matter of fact, two or three have both.
Gavin, McCarron’s GF was last seen walking on a runway in a bikini with high heels and waiting for the judges to give her a score. Come on. Can we admit that IQ, personality and likability doesn’t factor into the score? The gal is going to make ALOT of money by doing nothing more than being amazingly beautiful. Commenting on her looks is out of bounds or inappropriate? What is the difference between this and the 40-something and 50-something moms getting all creamy over the guys in the Twilight movies?
That’s a fair point, Jim. And there’s no denying that she’s hot. One more reason it’s great to be AJ McCarron, undoubtedly. But there’s a difference between you and me talking about how hot she is on a blog that probably isn’t read all that much outside Kansas City and the guy who is presumably ESPN’s number one play-by-play guy lasciviously tripping over his beagle-sized erection while sprinkling his appraisal of her with “Whoa, what a woman!”
Was she offended? No, apparently not. For the record, I wasn’t offended either. But, while I don’t think it was offensive, I do think it was funny. It was clear, to me at least, that Musberger was going beyond simply remarking on McCarron’s good fortune and was in the realm of using coded language for “I’d really like to see if she likes old man cock, if you know what I mean. And I think that you do. I mean sex.” It was obvious, a little bit pathetic and his commentary about her (unlike the shots of her) added nothing to the game.”
Clay Travis got it right: http://outkickthecoverage.com/big-ten-feminist-in-bill-cosby-sweater-offended-by-brent-musburger.php
Webb should be sending Musberger a thank you card for the career boost. She goes from training people how to fry chicken at the local Chick-Fil-A, to national story. She goes from hundreds of tweeter friends, to tens of thousands. Maxim, Playboy, etc have probably already started calling her. What Darnell Dockett did was much worse than what Musberger did and that got very little play in the media.
McCarron is a fine player, but as Greg points out, has the benefit of playing behind Alabama’s line. He looked great on Monday night though. And man, did Bama put an ass whipping on the Irish. I was waiting for the Pope to run onto the field and excommunicate the whole ND team.
What was Musberger supposed to do at that turd of a game? I’m sure he was as bored as the rest of us as the immediately and terminally over-matched Irish flailed from the get-go. Without the money shots of Webb, there was no reason for non-Alabama eyeballs to keep watching. And certainly nothing else to take even Musberger’s attention away from the eye candy.
count me as one that hopes the chiefs do not take a qb in round 1- my rationale is one that i dont hear talked about: how it will affect the team’s decisions in future drafts.
if you take a qb #1 overall, you are going to commit to him for at least 3-4 years if not more. by “commit” i mean that you will not be drafting another quarterback in those 3-4 years, and thus likely missing out on some better qb’s in future drafts.
if you wait until round 2, maybe you strike gold and find your franchise qb. but if you don’t, you are more willing to go back to the well to find a new qb a year or two later. you aren’t committed to this 2nd rd draft pick for years to come because, well, sometimes 2nd rd picks just dont work out.
but people lose their jobs over failed #1 picks. thus, you are more likely to irrationally commit to a #1 qb pick long after it was abundantly clear he is not leading you to a super bowl.
i fear that if we take a qb at #1 overall, we will be blindly committed to him for the foreseeable future, merely b/c he was a #1 draft pick. admittedly, my fear is likely influenced by a guy named luke hochevar that plays across the street.
Perfectly stated. The best part of a new regime is they can pick something other than a QB and give their honest reason for the pick. Like, “This (insert position here) is the best player in the draft and we took him because he was higher on our draft board.” Having a great player with the first pick is more important than a mediocre QB.
“I’ve got to find that next Len Dawson, doggone it.”
Andy Reid, on his search to fix the Chiefs’ quarterback problem, 810 AM
Ah, yes, and the pandering to Chiefs’ fans begins right away….
Fake boobs = meh.
Brett, you hit the nail on the head. The Chefs should absolutely take a QB but no one in this years drafts warrants the #1 pick. They may warrant it down the line after playing a few years but why use that pick on a QB if you don’t need to? There will be good guys available in the 2nd or 3rd round.
Will Katherine Webb be coming with him? I would think so. Oh, you mean to the Chiefs…………..
She looks like she’s made entirely of molded plastic.
Nice call on Liberal Arts, Greg. A surprisingly good movie!
“I think one of these quarterbacks [in the upcoming draft] is going to be a Hall of Fame type player. I don’t know which one but…”
Kevin Kietzman, while he interviewed Clark Hunt, 810 AM
Seriously KK? A Hall of Famer but I don’t know which one. If you know the first you have to know the second.
There’s a hell of a lot of QB busts that were drafted #1, let alone in the first round. I’d love to see the number of HOF QBs that were first round picks versus the field (second round to free agent). I’d bet it’s a pretty close race. Montana and Brady both were not first rounders.
It was a dumb, dumb comment. You’re right, though, if he “knows” there’s a Hall of Fame QB in the draft, he’d better know which one it is. Otherwise it’s pure speculation that ignores the fact that plenty of draft classes come and go without producing a Hall of Fame QB.
How many likely Hall of Fame QBs even play in the NFL currently? Brady, P. Manning, Drew Brees, E. Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, and Aaron Rodgers? Sure, there are a handful that could be Hall of Famers eventually, but it’s far too early to know that, such as A. Luck, RGIII, or Cam Newton. Regardless, without any top shelf QB talent available in the 2013 draft, it’s far more likely that there isn’t a Hall of Fame QB in this draft class.
KK is just indulging in his usual masturbatory “out of the box” thinking. The guy thinks he’s smarter than everyone else so he has to come up with these weird takes to show how his way of thinking is so superior to the conventional wisdom. In reality it’s ridiculous to think that any organization could be so ironclad in their scouting that they could identify a guy who is not only a surefire winning NFL QB, but also a guy who no one else thinks is good enough to take with the #1 pick. Because if there was a consensus #1 worthy QB pick in this draft, we’d damn well know who he is by now. It’s not like no else is looking for that guy. KK is such a dope.
Now emerging from my self-imposed gag order about commenting on the Chiefs until they fired the GM and coach, I have a thought I’d like to hear others’ take on when it comes to all this draft-a-quarterback chat.
It may be for only 3-4 more years, but in order to win the division, the Chiefs are likely going to have to beat Peyton Manning at least once each season. Though keeping the Bronco’s offense off the field is best done with a good quarterback-running back combination, the challenge to win the division might be having a DC and on-field crew who can deal with Manning’s game. I’m not convinced that we have the horses.
I agree that a real NFL quarterback is critical for the long-term success of this franchise. But, unless we’re simply hoping for a wild-card berth each season, is anyone out there talking about how to solve the Manning enigma for the next 3-4 years? If the Chiefs draft a bring-along-slowly quarterback, it doesn’t solve the challenge to be successful now, which is measured not in an improved record, but whether they make the playoffs or not. If we don’t also plan to deal with Manning, aren’t we gonna be in this same position come January 2017, no matter how high are “wait till next year” quarterback hopes are?
With the 2012 season under their belt, Manning and the Bronco receiving corps will only be that much more in synch come next fall. Projecting forward … even if the Chiefs have two more possessions than the Broncos each game, my money is on Manning given our current defensive talent. Personally, I’m not interested in a 9-7 team that misses the playoffs.
You have to beat the Broncos in order to go to the playoffs. Maybe we shouldn’t lose sight of this fact.
Good point but not entirely true – plenty of teams don’t win their division, yet make a run in the playoffs (see Green Bay Packers, 2010) for reference. And this season, the Packers won the NFC North, but the Vikings also made the playoffs and with a 10-6 record, the Bears really should have as well so there could have been three out of four teams from one division all in the playoffs.
Dealing with Manning is a very real concern though, and if there was a talent like Clowney available at the top of this year’s draft, the Chiefs would probably consider it very seriously. If John Dorsey is the pick for GM, he’s going to come with a “best player available” philosophy.
The next Lenny Dawson? Are you fucking kidding me Andy? You need to be looking for the next Tom Brady or RGIII. Fucking idiot! Even if we could put Lenny in a time machine and bring him back he’d get skull fucked during warm ups. Like I said before, this guy is an AMC Pacer. Now if he had said Lemmy, then he might get my attention. Lemmy would be a great QB
How come AJ McCarron’s mom’s last name isn’t McCarron? Can’t anybody stay married any more. Dee Dee Bonner? Sounds close to the old porn star name DD Boner? His girlfriend is hot but she ain’t no Kate Upton or Gisele Bundchen. Either she was a fast runner or had no older brothers to have not had kids yet.
AJ is Matt Leinart in waiting. Kinda like Greg McElroy is Mark Sanchez in waiting. For AJ
McCarron NFL does mean Not For Long.
Kyle: I’m not so sure you didn’t make my point for me by highlighting the 2010 Packers. I’m not ready to say there are playoff hopes because the Packers made it without winning their division — these two franchises are apples and oranges at this point.
The fact that Len Dawson is a HOF QB says much more about the football HOF than it does about Dawson’s playing career. There were several years during Dawson’s career that the backup QB was the most popular player on the team. Dawson sat on the bench for 5 years in Pittsburgh, didn’t have a strong arm, and couldn’t run much at all. Let’s hope the next Chief’s QB is much, much better than Len Dawson.
You have to be kidding. Dawson was the MVP of the Super Bowl and led the league in touchdown passes four times and in passer rating six times. He made first team all pro twice, played in seven pro bowls, and at the time of his retirement had the highest career passer rating in history.
If the current Chiefs had a QB who could come close to those career achievements, he’d be an icon in this area.
I sincerely hope that you have no input into the Chiefs scouting efforts.
Watching Musburger reminded me of Uncle Ed. I’d hide my sheep if Brent was in town.
B’aaaaaad Joke! But Funny