March 28, 2025 • 49 mins
Voice of the Chiefs, Mitch Holthus and senior team reporter, Matt McMullen honor the life and legacy of Chiefs Radio Network executive producer, Dan Israel. Plus, the latest offseason update from Kansas City!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you've ever listened to a Chiefs game over the
past thirty five years. That's where we'll start this Defending
the Kingdom podcast as we remember Spartacus aka Dan Israel
or Dan Israel aka Spartacus that and we'll update Free Agency.
Remember we're doing the Green, Red, Black thing. So it's
GRB two point zero and a tribute to Spartacus. And
(00:21):
of course, like every Defending the Kingdom episode, it's brought
to you by your friends at Ticketmaster. They become your
twelve month place to go for your favorite events. Let's
keep it on an RPO.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
At the five.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It's a lead plot, take us out of the hands
on this side, touch down Chunzas City. However you won
I Mitch hold his voice of the Chiefs along with
senior team reporter Matt McMullen, and we're going to start, well,
let's go around the world before we start our tribute.
But we will start this podcast with a tribute to
Dan Israel, who passed on March the twentieth after a
(00:55):
ten year bout with cancer.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And Dan's the absolute best. Look forward to talking about him.
It's been a hard week, hard couple of days, and
we'll get into it here in a minute. I do
have four around the world's right, beginning with a pretty
cool one.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So I heard from Ross Rashie Rice coming back.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I cannot wait to finally see Rashie Rice Xavier Worthy
in Hollywood Brown on the field. At the same time,
this is something that in the dorms in Saint Joe
a year ago, we were talking about how awesome that
trio was going to be. We never saw it. It
never happened. Well it's happening this year. Four.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It was like a light on them being like the
Holy Grail, like when they're walking down the hill in
Saint Joseph and you and I are just stunned. We're like, wow,
look at the five to one four area code and
then eight. Never happened, but.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Turn it into the one area code.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
But we can't wait. We'll get it next year.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So four for Rashie Rice heard from Ross in Ayrshire,
which is in southwest Scotland. Yeah you ever been there?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Have not? Want two? Yeah for sure?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I mean I googled it. It looked absolutely amazing, like
the most beautiful place ever. So got to go there
and Ross was curious if anyone listening is from Ayrshire
or nearby, or from Scotland in general. Trying to find
some Chiefs fans up there. So if you are in
that area, want to hang out with Ross let me know.
We heard from a listener in Portland, Oregon. I've been
(02:14):
a fan since nineteen sixty three. Originally grew up though
in Bellfree, Montana. Becky is checking in from South Oletha.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Well, let's back up. Nineteen sixty three would have been
the first year of the Kansas City Chiefs. They had
sixty sixty one and sixty two as the Dallas Texans
and made the move, so there must be some story there.
Although she's from Montana, but that would have been the
first year of the Chiefs were here in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
They also wanted you to guess who the high school
mascot and Belfree was, but I forgot to look up
what it was, So do you have any guesses? I
guess I could look it up right now.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
It's got to be cool though, if it's in Bellfree, Montana.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I'm going to google this so you can think of
I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I love Eagles, but don't be the Eagles. You've got
to be something, Okay, I mean Montana States, the Bobcats
University of Montana. It's the Grizzlies, but Bellfree Montana.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Stick with me. Wow, Google's doing its thing, is it? Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
This is pretty good?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
This is pretty Is it a good one? So it's alliterative,
it's all.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And it doesn't deal with the nineteen twenty three trilogy, right,
it doesn't deal with right, the famous trilogy on Paramount.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
No, it doesn't. Okay, for a second, I was like
dutnt r the Dutton ran. No, it does not have
to do with Yellowstone.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Okay, yellows about thinking Yellowstone nineteen twenty three, eighteen eighty
three or nine whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
It is not quite This is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Binge. I'm so in a binge on that every episode
all at once, and just have doritos. Do you have
a guess? Uh, let me guess. Is it an animal?
It is? Yeah, then I'm gonna go with the beavers.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Okay, it's a great guess. You are incorrect. It's the
Belfrey Bats.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
The bats. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty good way to go,
Belfree Bats.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Bellfree Bats. So there we go. We learned something today.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
A grade on that one.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I love it. So Becky is chicking in from South Aleatha.
Then we have a listener in Tucson.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Did she go to Aalitha South? Is she a falcon?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I don't know, let us know, need more information. Listener
in Tucson listened to last week's episode, agreed with the
Arizona State hate sports down.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So she's U of a right. Don't fear the fork.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I should have worn my Arizona State shirt that will
probably never be worn ever again.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Two sons of magnificent city though. I love it so beautiful, interesting,
a lot of great memories there. You know, we were
just in Arizona with the family, but we were in
of course the Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe area. But it is
a sneaky place to go vacation, to go to Tucson.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I've never been. I lived in Scottsdale for a year,
but never went to Tucson.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
You'll love it, different feel to a different vibe. I
should go in a great vibe.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
He also mentioned bear down.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
You have a bear down.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
He said bear down in his message, and he also said.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Hashtag bear down, referring to a.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Couple of weeks ago when I talked about the Kapi
bar that I met in Wichita, He said there was
a lost capy bara wandering around his neighborhood in Tucson.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Last week, So that would have been so cool.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I mean if I walked outside and just saw a
copy bar walking down the road, I'm not sure the
emotions that I'd feel. What do you do? Do you
just call animal control?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I guess, or you know that will there's rescue dogs?
Yeah and Pip, Yeah, you rescued Pip. Sure Tips turn
into the greatest dog in the Chiefs kingdom, giving us
the power to get to Are there rescue kapy bars?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I'm sure there are. There have to be right.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Is it legal to have one and domesticated?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I think it depends on the state, So maybe Arizona
they can. I don't know what plays to kape bar.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
There's a place called the Western Law Paloma. This person
would know where it's at kind of the northern hills
of Tucson. It's magnificent. It's got a huge tennis facility there,
but they do a great job of talking about the
It's basically like a botanical garden kind of thing. It's
a museum of like desert plants. It's it's really really good.
(05:58):
Tucson Okay, throw it out there.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You know, it's March twenty fifth, when we're shooting this,
when we're just having the most random conversation ever, and
I'm here to extend the randomness. This is kind of
an around the world thing.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Is it from Tucson.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's not from Tucson. So this envelope here, for those watching,
is from my wife's uncle, which is at my uncle
in law. I don't know. I'm not sure how how
that worked.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I'd stay with wife's uncle.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah. Shout out to Glenn Davis. He is a Bronco fan.
But when he was younger, I guess, just wanted to
get stuff from all the different teams. And in nineteen
seventy eight he sent the chiefs of Letter I'm guessing,
and asked for just some general stuff, and they sent
him back this envelope full of stuff. We're going to
open this, Okay, Okay, Mitch has not seen the stuff
(06:44):
in here. It's pretty cool though.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I love the font though. Look at this fund old
school like case. Yeah yeah, it's the old yeah lower case.
And then I love the old computerized label yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, from nineteen seventy eight. This is all preserved, really, well, okay,
So here's the first look at this letter says, dear
Kansas City Chiefs fan, thank you for your recent request
for information regarding the Kansas City Chiefs. Your continuous and
outstanding support is truly appreciated. And then they go on
to say, we receive a lot of mail, but we
hope you enjoy this stuff. So yeah, kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Did they know that Glenn though, was just represented? No,
you misrepresented, dear Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Chief So I'm saying they are confused.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
This is a scandal the goodness.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Of their hearts. So here we go. Here's a nineteen
seventy eight roster. Love's print it out. Gary Spaney's on there.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, in a rookie, I think, uh huh. And it's
like it's old like typewriter, yeah, ribbon.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And it's like a little bit like off to the side.
It's not perfectly even. Here's the best thing. This is
a nineteen seventy eight Chief souvenir price list. Look at
some of these prices on here. You can get a
a pennant for one dollar to brgain. You can get
a bobblehead chief stall for two dollars. Postcards are twenty cents.
(07:55):
You have to include fifty cents per order for handling
and postage though.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So I had to order a twenty cent postcard. Anyway,
I have to add fifty cents more than the card.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Okay, here's your nineteen seventy eight pocket schedule if you
need that.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, so it was not a good team. Just let's
just throw that out there. Four preseason games. I got it, yep.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And here's some football cards. So there's Gary Spanney, Art Still,
Mike Bell, uh, Carlos Carson, Tom Condon, famous agent, Lloyd Burris, Yeah,
Tom Connor, famous agent, Nick Lowry, Gary Green. There's some
pretty good players on here.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Really good players. They just just didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
For the any Joe Delaney card. Oh it's kind of cool.
So anyway, I thought you might enjoy this, get a
kick out of it.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Heck yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
In nineteen seventy eight, it's been sitting somewhere, very well
preserved in his house, and he mailed it to me,
and here we go. Does he want you to keep
it now or is he going to Glenn once? On
all this back, I'm allowed to keep it. Yeah, I'm
not sure what I'll do with it. But it'll live
up in the office somewhere. Those that have been in
my office know that I have a bunch of a
random Chiefs memorabilia. So oh, there's also this it's like
a little breakdown of the team, some pictures in the front.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So Marv Levy he'd be sick.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
And it's got the nineteen eighty one schedule, So well,
that doesn't make any sense, does it.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Eighty one eighty one was the uh? I mean that
team had that team had a shot, and that was
Delaney and those guys, and they they just didn't quite
get it done. But that which Marv Levy. If they
just stayed with Marv Levy, things could have.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So if we have stuff from seventy eight and eighty one,
do you think maybe this was like an eighty three
and they just send him a whole bunch of random stuff.
I think it was might have been. Oh well they get.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
In turn going just clear off the desk over there,
what do you have over that?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Stuff'd be like fifty years later, we're talking about it
on our podcast What's a Podcast?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
It'd be ten years, ten years later going to your office,
which actually I think is cool. All the stuff you've
got and going, hey, just send them some stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Like okay, just dig it out of my drawer.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Oh golly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
But anyway, that's your Off the Rails around the World
segment for today.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah. I love it. Thanks to the levity because it
has been a tough ten days, two weeks. Dan Israel
was an amazing man and I worked with him for
thirty one years. He was different roles of the Chiefs
Radio Network, but he started in thirty five seasons ago,
(10:20):
and if you think about it, the team started in
nineteen sixty, so he was over halfway of the entire
organizational history. But way more to Dan than just being
the executive producer of the Chiefs Radio Network. And I
don't want to give away what I'm going to present
in his eulogy on Thursday and his memorial service at
the Church of the Resurrection here in Kansas City, but
(10:44):
he touched so many lives. He was a genius of
sound and music, and he could take music and words,
which seems like this kind of collision of consonants and vowels,
and as I'll say in the eulogy, he could take
a twig and drop it and it would turn into
(11:05):
this bouquet of flowers. That's the way. Dan was so
incredibly creative, a master of sound, and his expertise went
far beyond the Chiefs Kingdom because he was a consultant
for the major networks. He was a consultant for the
Olympic Games, the National Football League. National outlets like Westwood
(11:26):
One or Serious all knew who Dan was because he
was either consultant or directly involved with them. But he
had a ten year struggle with cancer. I remember when
he was first diagnosed in twenty fourteen, as with stage
four colon cancer, which in most cases is a death
wish that doesn't, you know, last very long, and so
(11:47):
we thought maybe he could go for a year. I
remember his first miss was twenty fifteen. We played Minnesota
in the University of Minnesota's old stadium because they were
working on the old stadium, but the stadium on campus
at the u of M because they were no more
metrodome and they were getting us bank ready. So I
(12:07):
remember that distinctly because we played at the Gopher Stadium
and Dan wasn't there and we're thinking, who, well, what
a void. And the fact that he lived for almost
ten more years and went through just treacherous and brutal chemotherapy,
but it kept him alive, but it finally just wore
him down that and the cancer would spread throughat his body.
(12:30):
Just a courageous dude, so talented, touched so much of
the Chief Kingdom, more than people even realize. But anyway,
I don't want to ramble, but yeah, it's been difficult,
but a tribute. We called him Spartacus. He was our
Spartacus and just an amazing dude.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
So I've had the privilege of being in the radio
booth with you on the road over the last several
years spotting for you, and what that means is I
had a front row seat to see Dan Israel producing
and really conducting the whole operation. And being with you
in the radio booth is amazing because you're somehow taking
information from like nine different inputs and you're turning it
(13:12):
into an incredible broadcast. And Dan was the one who
was basically in charge of the whole thing. He's helping
manage all those inputs. He produced the whole broadcast, so
it's not just what you hear on the air when
the game is going on, but it's in and out
of breaks, the music. He would choose just the entire operation.
Like when you listen to a Chiefs game and you
(13:33):
listen to Mitch how the whole thing is so seamless. Well,
Dan created the whole thing. And it was so cool
the four years I guess now that I've spotted for
you to see him do his thing, because it was
like effortless. It was like the hardest job in the world,
but it was effortless and it was a real honor
to see him do all that. But more than anything,
I'll always just remember Dan's kindness to me. Dan was
(13:56):
kind to me when I first got hired here in
twenty seventeen and I was writing articles for the website
just on community events. Well, he would seek me out
and be interested in my football opinions and wanted to
talk to me and hear about my background. And he
didn't have.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
To do that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I wouldn't have blamed him if he didn't do that.
And I just will never forget that that he took
an interest in me and was always kind to me,
and you know, spotting for you in the booth. If
I missed something, he wouldn't lay into me like he
just was the best. And for those that don't know Dan,
but have been seeing all the outpouring on social media
and everything, I think you're kind of getting the idea
(14:32):
of what kind of guy. He was an incredible professional,
but and even better, just human being and game day
and just being here at work will not be the same.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And Dan was so much more outside of the chiefs realm.
He and his brother had Short Circuit Electronics, a multi
multi million dollar company that worked with some of the
biggest companies in our nation and even globally, and big
defense contracts. I mean, Dan was an incredible entrepreneur. I
(15:03):
mentioned so creative. He was also a composer, and he
had the best production studio in Kansas City in his
house downstairs. And I remember the first time I saw it.
At this incredible, huge grand piano was over in the
corner with a light shining on it, and where Dan would,
(15:24):
you know, sit down, and like any composer, would just
start to play and start to you know, imagine in
his mind and then would write music and then his
production studio and his editing equipment. It was just like
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I said, I
feel like I'm in la or in Nashville, and he goes, well,
(15:44):
you say that, and then he goes over like Pops's
secret door open. And he had worked with national recording artists,
including the famous Christian singer from Nashville, Michael W. Smith
early in his years. And so I just like, who
am I talking to here? And uh, just he was.
He was incredible. There was a lot of depth to Dan.
(16:06):
And I'm really trying to remember him properly for a
uh the eulogy that I'll give on Thursday, and just
to be a proxy for his children met Into and
uh Lauren, and then for his brother David and his mom.
So anyway, we start this uh defending the Kingdom with
(16:26):
a tribute to Spartacus, who courageous. He was a courageous dude. Man.
He this this chemo and he took different kinds. And
he would go to M. D Anderson in Houston. You
know when you when you going to M. D Anderson,
you know it's intense, right, You've had friends that have
gone there and it would be like an a gap
blitz and I you know, an unblocked guy just smashing
(16:50):
the quarterback and knocking the wind out of you. And
he said it would just destroy me, and then he goes. Eventually,
like the couple of weeks, I'd be like the quarterback
trying to get back up, and then he'd feel good
and get ready to snap the ball again, and it
would just keep repeating that sequence for months and months
and years and years kept him alive, but eventually all
(17:11):
of that cut up with him in on March the twentieth.
He passed at four to twenty in the morning. But
we remember Spartacus. He cannot be replaced. He will not
be replaced. We got to figure out a way to
move on without him, but we remember him. And so
I love the way he welcomed you to end of
the booth like you'd been there every day.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Like every day, like I was part of the family.
It just meant a lot to me. His legacy will
live on forever because he changed his place for the better.
It means a lot if when you pass on, the
chiefs are immediately putting out a statement from Clark Hunt,
from Mark Donovan, from Coach Reid. I mean, that's the
impact he left that the people that are in charge
(17:50):
of this whole thing. The day that he passes, they're like,
we need to say something because of the legacy that
he left. Also, you mentioned how he was a composer.
I didn't know that until he told me today. But
I'm not surprised because again, what he does in the
booth was kind of like composing the whole broadcast. And
one thing that sticks in my mind is when he
(18:12):
was timing you out of breaks, he would do it
with such rhythm, you know what I'm talking about, Like
it'ld be like like five like that, Like it was
such rhythm to it. So I'm not surprised that that
he was a composer, but just an amazing guy and
we could talk about him forever. Also, never complained, never
complained about anything, because if you think about it, the
entire time that I knew him, he was undergoing this treatment,
(18:34):
and I would have never known unless you had told me.
I mean, he went about his business like he was
grateful for every day and every day was a gift,
and he was excited to attack the day. I mean,
to still travel with the team, and because it's a
grind and to you know, be doing everything that he
was doing. Never complained, never wanted to people to feel
(18:55):
sorry for him. He just attacked every single day and
really led by example. So again we could talk about
Dan forever, but just an amazing guy who left an
immense legacy.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Well close this segment is with this Coach loved him.
Coach Reid loved him and respected Dan Israel. He knew
that he was dirty, tough, as coach would say, and
wicked smart another one of coach's phrases. But Dan was
the first person to talk to coach after games, after
the inner circle. Coach always meets with the inner circle, right,
(19:27):
and then there's a brief conversation, then they disperse and
then Dan walks in and that's you know, close to
the fire. Yeah, and it was this year. I think
it was the Carolina game. We didn't play particularly well,
thirty three thirty one victory and pull it out on
Pat scramble and one of our was that stake off
field goals. He was Strader and now is a cult.
(19:49):
But anyway, Strader gets the win. He's so excited he
turns his hamstring up running when he came back here,
I was like, what anyway, I got it. So on
Monday we have the Chiefs Kingdom Show. One of the
great features of that show is a fireside chat with
coach Reid. It's different than his normal pressers. It's a
(20:09):
time where he's somewhat relaxed even after a loss, where
he's got time, he's backed up and thought about things,
and he's just so wise and entertaining. It's awesome, best
part of the week in many ways. But when there's
a short week like Carolina to the Raiders was a
six day week, coach will not do that live. He
needs that fifteen minutes to utilize to get ready for
(20:32):
the next week. So Dan and I would collaborate, and
I just reminded, hey, we got to get some more
questions from coach. If you can think about it, two
more questions and get the get some impact, so we
can make a segment for Monday, because he's not going
to do the live segment with us. Well, you remember
that was not a great game. Yeah, and his comments were, hey,
(20:54):
we won this game because the feeling after the game
is like a losing locker room in many ways. Remember
that feeling was strange.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, because it felt like we kind of let them
hang around. Yeah, and it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Was and coaches going Okay, hey, we can play a
lot better. We're going to fix this. I always say
but he not great. Well, he sees Dan and I'm
see Dan on the plane we're coming home, and I go, so,
how was it? Did you get any sound we can use?
He goes, not a lot, but he goes, the first
thing Coach asked me was about me. It wasn't about
(21:26):
the game. Coach completely switch gears Dan, how are you?
How's things going? He could tell he could see Dan
and know that he was coming off a tough chemo hit,
and uh, that's what coach is about. But he and
Dan had a special relationship. Coach reading Dan. So anyway, Spartacus, well,
Mischa and you are replaceable. Now we're going to finish
(21:50):
this episode by updating free agency. We talked about it
as GRB basically, and you know, like to categorize guys green,
the guy you gain, read, the guys you lose, and
then black or the guys you keep. And of course
all three categories are full, not only for the Chiefs
but for the other thirty one teams the National Football League.
(22:13):
It's always active this time of year. Well, we thought
we'd update you with guys that the Chiefs have gained.
And we'll start here with Jerry Tillery. You and I
love to get into the draft, we go through it,
and I remember when Jerry Tillery was coming out of
Notre Dame. He was a top prospect. He was a
first round pick. Yeah, the Chargers picked him late in
the first round and it just had The career is
(22:36):
not flourished for him like we thought it would. But
I remember how highly regarded Jerry Tillery was coming out
of Notre Dame.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And he while he hasn't been like a superstar, he's
been a good player. I mean he's played in seventeen
games last year for the Vikings eleven starts, and of
course had a bunch of experience with the Chargers, like
over fifty games played I think, and also the Raiders
over the last handful of years. I think I like
most about him to go with that experience is his size.
(23:03):
So he's six foot six, two hundred and ninety five pounds.
He has the inside outside of flexibility, so he's primarily
like an inside defensive tackle, but he can also play
on the edge if needed, which De Spadnolo of course
loves those kind of players. But this signing is another
example of what we talked about on our last episode
where Brett Viach has done a great job of positioning us.
I think to attack the draft and truly take the
(23:25):
best players available, and you lose a guy like Trashaan Wharton,
who was so good for this team for so many years.
I don't want to say a player can replace another,
but Tillery, in terms of his body of work and
his body type, can kind of slide into that role,
I think. And you can attack the draft now where
if you want to take a defensive tackle high, you can,
but you don't necessarily have to because if you had
(23:46):
to roll out there on Day one against whoever we
play in the first week of the season with Jerry
Tillery next to Chris Jones, that's pretty good. So I
like the signing a lot. We're going to see what
he has in training camp. But he's still a young
player with a lot of experience and versatility.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
And we have seen this so many times, whether it's
our players are throughout the NFL having the right coach,
particularly at this time in his career. He started in
twenty nineteen, that's when he was a number one draft pick,
or not a first round draft pick, but the right coach,
right scheme, right circumstance, guy's career can take off. Mike
Panell is a great examplest. We're going to talk about
(24:22):
Mike in a second. Mike's career was redefined when he
became a Kansas City chief, and we're hoping the same
with Tillery. Now. Tillery's had productivity. First of all, he's
been available. It's the best abilities availability. Ninety six games.
When you look at what he's done in six years,
that's a good thing. And his twenty eight quarterback hits
in the twenty and twenty one season show you that
there is potential there. So Jerry Tillery, who's making his
(24:45):
way around the AFC West yp It's four teams. You're
going to stay here. You don't want to go to
the Broncos. I want you to flourish here. So great
to see Jerry now a common well much discussed name
also joins the Chiefs. We didn't talk about name and
his gardner Minshew, the mustachioed one who became famous running
Jacksonville and everybody wearing Minshew mustaches. This is really an
(25:09):
intriguing person. I cannot wait to talk to him, have
yet to talk to him. Okay, are you excited him?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I'm excited for the preseason because I do the preseason
sideline stuff and Gardner Minshew is going to make the
preseason electric. I think I love like kind of his
makeup as a person. So he has a lot of experience,
which is great for your backup quarterback. But I kind
of dove into who he is as a dude when
I learned that we had signed him, which ironically our
(25:35):
last episode when we filmed it, we were joking around
that we're totally going to sign someone later today now,
and we did. It was Gardner Man. But anyway, his
first game ever was against the Chiefs, remember that, and
he was like amazing. He started like fifteen or fifteen
or something because.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Twenty two to twenty five for the game.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Who was I knew who he was.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
I'm coming to college. Yeah, we'll get to that in
a second, but the dude was he was killing us. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Nick Foles gets hurt and he comes in and we
can't force an incompletion. And he made the most of
his time in Jacksonville. He's pretty good there. Then went
to Philadelphia and was there backup. But one of my
favorite kind of things I learned about Minshew. Have you
seen the hug he shared with his dad after he
led the Eagles to a win a handful of years ago.
(26:19):
It's the most like genuine authentic thing ever where if
you told me it was outside of like a high
school stadium and Gardner was like a high school senior
and led like his team to a big win. His
dad was proud of him. It was like the same thing.
And I don't know, I still like that, Like in
the world of professional sports where there's so much money
and sponsors and everything, like, it's so cool to see
just an authentic moment. I think he plays the game
(26:42):
for the right reasons. In his opening pressor, he seems
so excited to be here and just to learn and
to help in any way that he can. So as
many people that like that that you can get around
you the better, So I'm all for it.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, And that becomes the story because I'm gonna well
and he's so interesting because of his travels. You know.
He makes Last Chance You, the original year of Last
Chance You as a villain because he beats the he's
the antagonist by beating the team that was being featured
on Netflix, you know, and then he goes on to
(27:14):
win the Juco Championship and that becomes a deal. Then
he's going to go to Troy. That didn't work out,
so he goes to East Carolina. That didn't work out
kind of. Then he goes to Washington State because he's
going to be a part of the air raid offense
Mike Leach and put up crazy numbers at Wazoo. So
then that leads to his time in the National Football League.
But boiled down two things. One, he has started forty
(27:37):
six games, one seventeen of them. And the definition of
a backup quarterback in the NFL is can you win
a game? Can you win a game on your own?
Pat can't play? Can you win a game? Matt Moore
did it? Remember against the Vikings back in the twenty
nineteen season, and we saw what chand heading did heroic
And I'm gonna throw Bailey Zappion here because he's that's
(27:59):
the quarterback room now. Still Chris Oladokins in there as well.
I mean there's but that room. It's got to be
the room. So Gardner Minshew's value here for Patrick Mahomes
and Matt Nagy and the rest of the offensive step,
but especially that room. Now Bailey Zappi is interesting. He
was with us for a while and then he gets claimed,
right Cleveland gets him, and he was with New England.
(28:21):
And he's also won four games as a starter in
the National Football League with the Patriots. But Bailey, Zappi's
history with Pat goes back to a guy named Zach Kittley.
And I remember Pat and I talking about this in
the equipment room where Zappi had gone to. It was
formerly Houston Baptist, now it's Houston Christian. And that was
(28:42):
his coach. Well, that was the GA offensive graduate assistant
at Texas Tech when Pat was at TACH. What a
small world, like, Pat revers this guy, this guy's kind
of a guru, is offensive guy. And so Zappi goes
and goes with him to Houston Christian and rename Baptist
Baptist Christian Huskies and lights it up. So what is
(29:05):
this dude gets the Western Kentucky job. Okay, here goes Bailey,
goes with him to Western Kentucky and puts up incredible numbers.
If you remember Zappi coming out of Western Kentucky was
like it was like Pat, yeah, you know these like
video game numbers, and so Zappi is really interesting. But
there's a tie here with Patrick Mahomes in the quarterback room.
So with Minshew, how well do you fit in? What
(29:27):
can you bring to the table? He said the right
things during the press conference. Chad, Henny's the poster child here. Yeah,
because it's it's more about the room with Zappi and
Minshew as it is anything else that And you may
have to win a game in the National hopefully not,
but you have to win a game the National Football League,
(29:48):
and if you have to, have to have to win
a playoff game.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah, which we should ask Gardner if he's prepared to
take the field in the divisional round like Chad had
to do a couple of times, the ninety eight yard
drive nine, our driver throw the ball in four found
you know, on your side of the field. But I'm
with you in so many ways. The quarterback room, like
you said, is about more than just like going out
there and playing. It's about a room of shared experiences,
(30:12):
but also experiences from other places and to say, hey,
what about this or why don't we try that? And
you know, it's like any kind of collaborative group where
maybe someone says something from a different perspective and you
learn something that maybe you wouldn't have thought of on
your own, and that helps you win a game. So
the more minds and guys from different places we can
get in there, the better. And yeah, hopefully they don't
(30:34):
have to play in like big situations, but if they do,
you have faith in them. And like I said, the
preseason should be exciting. So for forty.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Six starts, now that's two and a third years of starting. Yeah,
so he sees something on video that Pat may not
see or coach may not see, or nags may not see,
but he sees it because he's lived it, He's done it.
I mean, he's he's not been in a flight simulator,
he's been in combat, and so I think that becomes
very very important. We saw down through the years with guys,
(31:04):
but yeah, excited to get his experience and his kind
of edge to go to that quarterback room. And you're right,
it will create a lot of fun in the preseason.
But let's jump ahead now to the black category, which
is the guys you keep. And it's not black for
the Raiders. It's black because hey, it's not greener red
you kept them. I'm super excited because since we did
(31:24):
our last episode, there are guys that have re signed
with the Kansas City Chiefs, and I'm so fired up
about every one. I'm going to mention here and we
can discuss it. We're going to start with Kareem Hunt. Okay,
what I learned last year in the twenty twenty fourth
season is I like second and four a whole lot
better than second and ten or second and nine. Let
(31:45):
me give you a stat this is crazy of the
Kansas City Chiefs. Last year, second and four or five
to go, the Chiefs had the most second and fours
or fives of any team in the NFL with seventy eight. Wow.
The next was Cincinnati was sixty one. Huh. What does
that do? It makes coaches iPad come alive. And if
(32:07):
I'm running the ball and I can get or a
short pass and I get four or five on first down, lookout.
It's one of the main reasons the Kansas City Chiefs
made it to Super Bowl fifty nine. I think that
in his seven touchdowns. Yeah, he's a red zone rushing threat.
He's maybe not going to run for seventy five yards
on a run the dead gummut, He's going to get
(32:27):
to the end zone and he'll walk off a game
like he did against Tampa Bay and no negative runs.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So the Chiefs had the fewest non kneel down negative
rushes of any team in the NFL last year by far,
only like twenty two of them. And Kareem is a
big reason why. Because Kareem never goes down at first contact,
and you could count on one hand the number of
times he was tackled in the backfield, Like whenever you
give him the ball, he might not get you six yards,
(32:53):
but he'll get you at least three or at least four.
And to your point, that allows the offense to keep
moving along and coach read as every thing at its disposal,
because the worst thing you can be in is second
and fourteen or third and seventeen, like it really constricts
your ability to move the chains. Well. Kareem kept the
offense on schedule throughout the year and in so many
(33:13):
ways saved our season. Because you lose Hollywood Brown early
in the year, lose Rashi Rice early in the year,
lose Isaiah Pacheco after the Bengals game. I mean, these
are some guys that you were counting on to be major,
major contributors, and to bring Kareem in here after not
playing the first several weeks of the season. You sign
him off the street, you bring him in here, and
(33:34):
he I think led this team in scrimmage yards. I
think he had the most rushing touchdowns on the team
and second to only Xavier in terms of total touchdowns
on the team, and he only played a handful of games.
I mean, just incredible for him to come in here,
to really sacrifice his potty in so many ways and
to give his all to this team. We don't make
the super Bowl last year without Kareem Hunt. And yeah,
I'm glad he's back. Let's get him a full offseason now,
(33:57):
back in the system. The offensive system does have to
show up in week four and figure it out as
he goes. But Kaream showed us a lot of heart
last year. He deserves to be back here, and I'm
excited to see what he can do.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
In two hundred carries. I mean, geez, unreal. Now, Cream's
got to get ready to go back to a seventeen
and eighteen body of like because now he has coaches
OTAs in his camp. Yep, okay, you missed all that
last year. Kaream get ready to do it again? Huh.
Another guy missed it but came back and it was
great and helped our season. As Juju Smith Schuster, this
(34:30):
re signing is bigger than people think they're going. Wait
a minute, I can't take Juju on my fantasy squad. Well,
he'll give you a thirty one yard play like he
did in the AFC Championship game against Buffalo, or a
fifty yarder he had against New Orleans. But I learned
in the first year, the first couple of years that
Andy Reid was here in Kansas City about a role
that he has for certain guys. And it is almost
(34:54):
like a screen setter in basketball, where I set a scream,
but I might you know, picking, and I might hit
a shot, but my screens are so good that you're
going to get a shot all day long. Juju Smith
Schuster's role in this offense is greater than anybody. I think.
Then most people realize because he does so much, not
(35:14):
just short yardage, but his ability to move and screen
and use his body legally in the way he does
his business to accept that role because it's a big
difference than what he did when he was just a
laser light show early with the Pittsburgh Steelers to accept
that role that is so important in this offense. I
saw it initially with Jason Elevant. Jason Evant, I thought, okay,
(35:38):
but I see how coach used him. Juju coming back
is a big deal.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, it is. And also maybe he can embrace and
fully utilize that role a little bit more this year
because he won't be forced into other roles because hopefully
we don't have injuries throughout the wide receiver room again.
I mean, what a godsend Juju was last year, got
here like five days before the season opener and help
this team win again. You lose, Hollywood, you lose Rashi
(36:04):
Xavier had to take on a whole new role, which
meant Juju had to slide into a different role. And
it's kind of a thankless job sometimes. But you ever
watch Juju blocking, like all the little things that he does,
Like Juju just loves being here, loves being a part
of the winning and he'll do whatever it takes to
help this team win. So yeah, glad Juju's back. He's
still so young, Like how old is Juju? Like twenty eight?
Speaker 1 (36:26):
He started when he was like seventeen.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah, I mean he's not that old, so.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Like, how was it usc like he was a junior,
I mean nineteen or something.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
He's got a lot of good football left in him.
And this receiver room at this point, I'm excited about
it because in so many ways we were excited about
last year's room. Then Juju got added to the fold,
and it's like, all right, once Hollywood comes back, this
scrop's going to be awesome. Well we never saw it
actually come to fruition, but now we might have a chance.
So glad Juju's back. And just like Kareem, he has
the entire offseason training program now with the offense. I
(36:56):
get he had been here before, but it's still a
little bit different when you show up like five days beforehand.
He has the entire offseason now to really be ingrained
in the offense, and I think that'll help him out.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
One, he's super smart too. He creates energy. Yeah, he's
a really good energy creator. The other thing is, just
like Kareem who has to channel us enter at seventeen
and eighteen, self, he's got a channels Enter twenty twenty
two self, yep, because he too is going to have
to endure coaches, OTAs and training camp, but he's been
through it before. Another guy that'll have to do that
is I'm so excited, So are you about getting him
(37:28):
resigned because I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
Is the twenty twenty four defensive version of Hollywood Brown,
and that is Charles and Mena who Charles Amena who
We saw him flash. We saw him flash in the
playoffs in twenty twenty three, his impactful games that he
had even in that Week eighteen victory over the Chargers
(37:50):
when he ripped the ball out that led to the
ninety seven yard scoop and score, but also his plays
in the playoff and then he tears his ACL in
the AFC Championship game. He cannot play in Super Bowl
fifty eight. And you get injured that late, it just
takes the next season and really throws it off the track.
And we thought Winsley geming back, Winsley coming back. He
(38:10):
came back and had his moments, but it was like
the rocket, just like with Hollywood Brown, never really got
off the launching pad. And now he's got an off
season and I'm so fired up to have him because
he's so impactful when you look at his twenty career
sacks nineteen and a half, but more importantly his eight
(38:31):
passes defense, his six forced fumbles, his fifty three quarterback hits.
He impacts a play way more than just getting sacks.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
I think he's one of the most underrated players in
the NFL, and the reason that people outside of Chiefs
Kingdom might not know much about him is just because
of the limited amount of time he's been on the
field the last couple of years. Well, this year we
finally get a full season of Charles Himnihu and I'm
so fired up about it because whenever he's been on
the field, he's just been effective for this team. Look
at a couple of years ago. Let's see twenty nine pressures,
(39:02):
seven sacks in just eleven games in twenty twenty three. Then,
of course at the ACL injury when he came back,
twelve pressure is, a sack and a forced fumble in
six games, then three tackles for loss in the sack
and three playoff games had that strip sack on a CJ. Stroud.
So he's just such a great player for this defense.
Steve Spagnolo loves him because of his positional versatility. He
(39:24):
has that length where he can knock down passes, he
can bounce inside, but also be so good as an
outside edge rusher. And you look at the dynamic of
this defensive line right now. Having Charles versus not having
Charles makes such a huge difference. Because you had Charles
and Minihu to this group. George carloftis on the other side,
you can rotate in guys like Mike Danam and Felix
and new dk Uzama. There's just a lot of depth
(39:45):
there at edge rusher when you add a player like
Charles and Menihu. So getting him back is a big deal.
Hopefully he goes out there, has a big year, can
finally play a full season with the Chiefs. And I
know how much it meant to him to get back
to the super Bowl because he couldn't play in twenty
twenty three. Game obviously didn't go the way that he planned.
But now he's back with the Chiefs and let's go
take care of business for Charles and the Super Bowl
(40:06):
this year.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah, your point and to me talking about creating energy,
which is juju what he does and even Kaream in
his own way. Yeah, there is a hunger with Charles
that you see every day.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
It was on our show when we had him on
before the Bills game.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
You can tell you look at his eye and that
look is there every day every time I see him.
He's there and so disappointed that didn't get super Bowl
fifty nine for him, but he's ready to go get sixty. Yeah. Yes,
And to your point, this I think is very good.
If you take his numbers and would somehow translate it
to a seventeen game season, he's going to lead the
(40:39):
league or be a pro bowler in many categories. Yeah,
it's just getting seventeen games. So anyway, Charles the mount
who's back. Another one I'm fired up about is Mike Panell.
Mike Panell had his best season as a pro, and
he's been around now double digits in this league. Mike
is the example we gave you early in this podcast
of looking like Atillery who could thrive in this environment,
(41:03):
this defense. Mike has done that. Now we look at
his sacks, three sacks, right career high by far, but
and played thirty percent of the snaps. But those were
a good thirty percent. And the defensive rotation the Chiefs
had last year was outstanding. And what excites me now
is you basically have that rotation back. He lose Turk Wharton,
(41:23):
his quickness and his ability to explode, but you have
the principal pieces now to have that defensive rotation the
inside outside we talked about that could make this defense
really good and sneaky good in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
And Penell man such like a thankless role for the
most part. I'm glad he got the sacks last year
because when you're just like a run stuffer, it's hard
to quantify that. But I'm going to quantify it. Okay,
So Pro Football Focus can do this.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
And he was Aninja turtle got his sack.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
On this Yes he did. It's hilarious. So he recorded
the best run defense grade among defensive tackles on the
Chiefs last year, and among defensive tackles with one hundred
and fifty run defense snaps that's a pool of ninety
nine players. He ranked thirteenth against the run according to
their metrics. Say what you want to about Pro Football Focus,
that's pretty good. So Mike Panell when he was in
(42:15):
the game and against the run, was among the very
best at his position in that situation that's saying something
and bringing a player like that back only makes this
defensive line better. And this is something else you can't
really quantify. But he's like the ultimate glue guy. I've
said that before. People like being around him. He's a
good locker room guy. And it's easy to be a
(42:36):
good locker room guy when you're winning, but when the
team is losing or had struggles, he's also been the
same guy. He's been a motivator. He's the kind of
player you want around. So you take a player who
is productive well man a fairly thankless role, do it
really well, a role that you need to have on
your team. And also he's just a great guy to
be around and helps bring the team together. Those are
the kind of players you want around.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
He too, like Kareem Hutt, Charles Amanahu Juju Smith, Schuster
has got to get ready for a coach's Ota and
trading camp because he's skipped on his last year. So
all right, Mike, get ready to go, buddy. You know
what to expect, but it's awesome to have you back.
And then finally, Marlin Twey below two UH we know
about his brother, UH plays for the Chargers, But I'm
(43:18):
excited for him to get more of a chance. We
saw him, he played sixty one snaps. We saw him,
you know, in that Week eighteen game. But he is
one that you and I will watch during OTAs and
during the mini camps to see what we've got there,
because when you look at it, he's had you know,
he's got three sacks in his career two and twenty
three with the Eagles. But if I mean, that's an
(43:39):
important piece, this defensive front. If you're you ought to
be excited about this group because in some ways it
got better, but it kept everything together. And this is
a defensive group that we talked about it. We you
talked about it at nauseum. Took on the best running
backs the league had and either contain them or shut
them down. And to hold Sakuon Barkley to two point
(44:00):
three a carry on that many carries tells you everything.
And those were runs that he was stopped before the
game was decided.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
And if there's one strength in this draft class, it's
the defensive line. So I don't know what the Chiefs
will end up doing, but there will be an opportunity
to make this defensive line even better in the draft
coming up at about a month, Can I add one
more guy?
Speaker 1 (44:22):
YEA thrown in there.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
So we signed Robert Rochelle this week, and he's interesting
because he's a corner from the Packers. Still pretty young.
He's primarily been kind of like exclusively a special teamer
during his career, particularly with the Packers, and a gunner specifically.
But go back to the game. I think it was
Sunday Night football, maybe it was against the Dolphins night
(44:46):
game at Lambeau. He recovered a fumble in that game. Ironically,
that's the game that locked up a playoff spot for
the Chiefs. I remember texting you, like, all right, check
the first box. But it's a super athletic play where
he gets right down the field, he gets off his
block to a full spin that lands on the ball.
So I don't know. I mean, let's see if he
can get some defensive snaps here with the Chiefs, see
what he can do in the secondary. But also, you
(45:08):
like having players like that that are athletic, they're young,
and they're hungry to be on special teams. S Dave
Tobill love this guy. He has some big time athletic
traits as well. So back in twenty twenty, he was
on Bruce Felban's Freaks List. You ever look at that?
For those that don't know, it's basically just a list
of the players with the craziest like athletic measurables in
college football. He's six. Carson Steel is definitely on the
(45:32):
Freaks List. He's six foot tall, one hundred and ninety
three pounds, runs a four to three eight. He had
an eleven foot eight inch broad jump. Just big time
athletic traits. So we'll see what he can do here
in Kansas City. He was a fourth round pick back
in twenty twenty one. But I'm just saying, you have
a player like this with big time athletic traits who's
hungry and eager to be on special teams, that helps
your team overall. So Robert Rochelle is also a guy
(45:54):
we should talk about.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
If he locks down gunner, yeah, exact or bracket guy,
one of the two spots there as gunner and locks
it down like a Matthews later type, that is big
for this team because different guys have done that in
different roles. We've had starters out there, young guys. But
if somebody locks that down and becomes elite. That is
(46:16):
a big deal. In a way, the twenty five chiefs
can improve in a great deal.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
And maybe he could be that guy. We'll find out.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
We're gonna say goodbye with the guys on the red list,
and these hurt. You know. I'm gonna put together a
social piece I think for every one of them, just
because I just we get involved in him, and to
say goodbye is tough. Mcole Hardman three super Bowl rings.
He's gonna do well in Green Bay. This is different
than it's time with the Jets, I think. And his
fifty eight yard kickup or kickoff returned against Houston started
(46:44):
everything in twenty nineteen super Bowl winning catch and super
Bowl fifty eight, but way more than that, he was
master of the Jets sweeps and did a lot. Derek Noddy,
we talk about Jerry Tillery, we talk about run stuffing.
He was one of the more unselfish players I've ever seen.
Three super Bowl rings. That's six super Bowl rings from
two dudes. So we'll say goodbye to them, wish them
(47:07):
the best. I hope Derek has a great career continued
with the Jets. But these are guys we will hug
at reunions and remember them finally.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
So Derek was part of the twenty eighteen draft class
YEP and then mcole the twenty nineteen draft class. Two
of the best people and guys you'll ever meet, Like
just so friendly and kind, always willing to do stuff
for the team in any capacity on the field or
off the field, or you know, like with our social
media department or with you and I just talking on
the podcast, Like just the nicest, kindest people ever, Like
(47:40):
McCole is genuinely one of the coolest, most down to
earth people I think I've ever met. And Derek is quieter,
but he's so friendly in kind once you get to
know him. We're so fortunate to get to know both
those guys over the years. They help this team win
so much, and I'm glad that they both had their moments.
I was so happy that mc coole caught the game
winning type down super Bowl fifty eight. I found him
(48:01):
on the field afterward, and I'm like, I am so
happy for you because you've earned every bit of this.
And for Derek, I'll never forget after Super Bowl fifty four,
he was miked up. He's wandering around the Field saying,
I've never been a champion before in my life, and
today I'm a champion. And little did he know he
was going to be a champion a few more times.
So we appreciate those guys that those guys are chiefs
(48:22):
for life, no matter that they're signing elsewhere. Of course,
going to make some money and continue their careers and
have great success, I hope, but in my book, they're
chiefs for life.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Derek Noughty also got all this started. Remember his interception
in Mexico City. Yeah, that game started everything. I didn't
lose after that game. That was that start of the streak.
And I remember that interception, like, Derek Noughty's just I'm
calling to play, and I remember seeing him after the game.
He's just like grinning ear to ear like I got
an interceptionally. But do you ever have a friend move
away in grade school? Oh?
Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah, the worst?
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah? I had Johnny Jones. He moved away in fourth grade.
He went the Grand Colorade. I don't even know where
he's at now. But that's what this feels like, is
to lose two good friends that moved away. We wish
them the best, but thank you. Nicole Hartman and thank
you Derek Noddy, and you have six Super Bowl rings
between the two of you from your time here. So
(49:18):
we also remember Spartacus and Dan Israel and he will
be remembered Thursday at a memorial service here in Kansas
City at the Church of the Resurrection. But we also
always want to keep you up with the g r
B of NFL Free Agency
If you've ever listened to a Chiefs game over the
past thirty five years. That's where we'll start this Defending
the Kingdom podcast as we remember Spartacus aka Dan Israel
or Dan Israel aka Spartacus that and we'll update Free Agency.
Remember we're doing the Green, Red, Black thing. So it's
GRB two point zero and a tribute to Spartacus. And
(00:21):
of course, like every Defending the Kingdom episode, it's brought
to you by your friends at Ticketmaster. They become your
twelve month place to go for your favorite events. Let's
keep it on an RPO.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
At the five.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It's a lead plot, take us out of the hands
on this side, touch down Chunzas City. However you won
I Mitch hold his voice of the Chiefs along with
senior team reporter Matt McMullen, and we're going to start, well,
let's go around the world before we start our tribute.
But we will start this podcast with a tribute to
Dan Israel, who passed on March the twentieth after a
(00:55):
ten year bout with cancer.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And Dan's the absolute best. Look forward to talking about him.
It's been a hard week, hard couple of days, and
we'll get into it here in a minute. I do
have four around the world's right, beginning with a pretty
cool one.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So I heard from Ross Rashie Rice coming back.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I cannot wait to finally see Rashie Rice Xavier Worthy
in Hollywood Brown on the field. At the same time,
this is something that in the dorms in Saint Joe
a year ago, we were talking about how awesome that
trio was going to be. We never saw it. It
never happened. Well it's happening this year. Four.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It was like a light on them being like the
Holy Grail, like when they're walking down the hill in
Saint Joseph and you and I are just stunned. We're like, wow,
look at the five to one four area code and
then eight. Never happened, but.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Turn it into the one area code.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
But we can't wait. We'll get it next year.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So four for Rashie Rice heard from Ross in Ayrshire,
which is in southwest Scotland. Yeah you ever been there?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Have not? Want two? Yeah for sure?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I mean I googled it. It looked absolutely amazing, like
the most beautiful place ever. So got to go there
and Ross was curious if anyone listening is from Ayrshire
or nearby, or from Scotland in general. Trying to find
some Chiefs fans up there. So if you are in
that area, want to hang out with Ross let me know.
We heard from a listener in Portland, Oregon. I've been
(02:14):
a fan since nineteen sixty three. Originally grew up though
in Bellfree, Montana. Becky is checking in from South Oletha.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Well, let's back up. Nineteen sixty three would have been
the first year of the Kansas City Chiefs. They had
sixty sixty one and sixty two as the Dallas Texans
and made the move, so there must be some story there.
Although she's from Montana, but that would have been the
first year of the Chiefs were here in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
They also wanted you to guess who the high school
mascot and Belfree was, but I forgot to look up
what it was, So do you have any guesses? I
guess I could look it up right now.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
It's got to be cool though, if it's in Bellfree, Montana.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I'm going to google this so you can think of
I mean.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I love Eagles, but don't be the Eagles. You've got
to be something, Okay, I mean Montana States, the Bobcats
University of Montana. It's the Grizzlies, but Bellfree Montana.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Stick with me. Wow, Google's doing its thing, is it? Oh?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
This is pretty good?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
This is pretty Is it a good one? So it's alliterative,
it's all.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And it doesn't deal with the nineteen twenty three trilogy, right,
it doesn't deal with right, the famous trilogy on Paramount.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
No, it doesn't. Okay, for a second, I was like
dutnt r the Dutton ran. No, it does not have
to do with Yellowstone.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Okay, yellows about thinking Yellowstone nineteen twenty three, eighteen eighty
three or nine whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
It is not quite This is pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Binge. I'm so in a binge on that every episode
all at once, and just have doritos. Do you have
a guess? Uh, let me guess. Is it an animal?
It is? Yeah, then I'm gonna go with the beavers.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Okay, it's a great guess. You are incorrect. It's the
Belfrey Bats.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
The bats. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty good way to go,
Belfree Bats.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Bellfree Bats. So there we go. We learned something today.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
A grade on that one.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I love it. So Becky is chicking in from South Aleatha.
Then we have a listener in Tucson.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Did she go to Aalitha South? Is she a falcon?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
I don't know, let us know, need more information. Listener
in Tucson listened to last week's episode, agreed with the
Arizona State hate sports down.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
So she's U of a right. Don't fear the fork.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I should have worn my Arizona State shirt that will
probably never be worn ever again.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Two sons of magnificent city though. I love it so beautiful, interesting,
a lot of great memories there. You know, we were
just in Arizona with the family, but we were in
of course the Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe area. But it is
a sneaky place to go vacation, to go to Tucson.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I've never been. I lived in Scottsdale for a year,
but never went to Tucson.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
You'll love it, different feel to a different vibe. I
should go in a great vibe.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
He also mentioned bear down.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
You have a bear down.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
He said bear down in his message, and he also said.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Hashtag bear down, referring to a.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Couple of weeks ago when I talked about the Kapi
bar that I met in Wichita, He said there was
a lost capy bara wandering around his neighborhood in Tucson.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Last week, So that would have been so cool.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
I mean if I walked outside and just saw a
copy bar walking down the road, I'm not sure the
emotions that I'd feel. What do you do? Do you
just call animal control?
Speaker 1 (05:14):
I guess, or you know that will there's rescue dogs?
Yeah and Pip, Yeah, you rescued Pip. Sure Tips turn
into the greatest dog in the Chiefs kingdom, giving us
the power to get to Are there rescue kapy bars?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I'm sure there are. There have to be right.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Is it legal to have one and domesticated?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I think it depends on the state, So maybe Arizona
they can. I don't know what plays to kape bar.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
There's a place called the Western Law Paloma. This person
would know where it's at kind of the northern hills
of Tucson. It's magnificent. It's got a huge tennis facility there,
but they do a great job of talking about the
It's basically like a botanical garden kind of thing. It's
a museum of like desert plants. It's it's really really good.
(05:58):
Tucson Okay, throw it out there.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You know, it's March twenty fifth, when we're shooting this,
when we're just having the most random conversation ever, and
I'm here to extend the randomness. This is kind of
an around the world thing.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Is it from Tucson.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's not from Tucson. So this envelope here, for those watching,
is from my wife's uncle, which is at my uncle
in law. I don't know. I'm not sure how how
that worked.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I'd stay with wife's uncle.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah. Shout out to Glenn Davis. He is a Bronco fan.
But when he was younger, I guess, just wanted to
get stuff from all the different teams. And in nineteen
seventy eight he sent the chiefs of Letter I'm guessing,
and asked for just some general stuff, and they sent
him back this envelope full of stuff. We're going to
open this, Okay, Okay, Mitch has not seen the stuff
(06:44):
in here. It's pretty cool though.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
I love the font though. Look at this fund old
school like case. Yeah yeah, it's the old yeah lower case.
And then I love the old computerized label yeah exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, from nineteen seventy eight. This is all preserved, really, well, okay,
So here's the first look at this letter says, dear
Kansas City Chiefs fan, thank you for your recent request
for information regarding the Kansas City Chiefs. Your continuous and
outstanding support is truly appreciated. And then they go on
to say, we receive a lot of mail, but we
hope you enjoy this stuff. So yeah, kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Did they know that Glenn though, was just represented? No,
you misrepresented, dear Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Chief So I'm saying they are confused.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
This is a scandal the goodness.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Of their hearts. So here we go. Here's a nineteen
seventy eight roster. Love's print it out. Gary Spaney's on there.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah, in a rookie, I think, uh huh. And it's
like it's old like typewriter, yeah, ribbon.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And it's like a little bit like off to the side.
It's not perfectly even. Here's the best thing. This is
a nineteen seventy eight Chief souvenir price list. Look at
some of these prices on here. You can get a
a pennant for one dollar to brgain. You can get
a bobblehead chief stall for two dollars. Postcards are twenty cents.
(07:55):
You have to include fifty cents per order for handling
and postage though.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
So I had to order a twenty cent postcard. Anyway,
I have to add fifty cents more than the card.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Okay, here's your nineteen seventy eight pocket schedule if you
need that.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, so it was not a good team. Just let's
just throw that out there. Four preseason games. I got it, yep.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
And here's some football cards. So there's Gary Spanney, Art Still,
Mike Bell, uh, Carlos Carson, Tom Condon, famous agent, Lloyd Burris, Yeah,
Tom Connor, famous agent, Nick Lowry, Gary Green. There's some
pretty good players on here.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Really good players. They just just didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
For the any Joe Delaney card. Oh it's kind of cool.
So anyway, I thought you might enjoy this, get a
kick out of it.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Heck yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
In nineteen seventy eight, it's been sitting somewhere, very well
preserved in his house, and he mailed it to me,
and here we go. Does he want you to keep
it now or is he going to Glenn once? On
all this back, I'm allowed to keep it. Yeah, I'm
not sure what I'll do with it. But it'll live
up in the office somewhere. Those that have been in
my office know that I have a bunch of a
random Chiefs memorabilia. So oh, there's also this it's like
a little breakdown of the team, some pictures in the front.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So Marv Levy he'd be sick.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
And it's got the nineteen eighty one schedule, So well,
that doesn't make any sense, does it.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Eighty one eighty one was the uh? I mean that
team had that team had a shot, and that was
Delaney and those guys, and they they just didn't quite
get it done. But that which Marv Levy. If they
just stayed with Marv Levy, things could have.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
So if we have stuff from seventy eight and eighty one,
do you think maybe this was like an eighty three
and they just send him a whole bunch of random stuff.
I think it was might have been. Oh well they get.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
In turn going just clear off the desk over there,
what do you have over that?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Stuff'd be like fifty years later, we're talking about it
on our podcast What's a Podcast?
Speaker 1 (09:44):
It'd be ten years, ten years later going to your office,
which actually I think is cool. All the stuff you've
got and going, hey, just send them some stuff.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Like okay, just dig it out of my drawer.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Oh golly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
But anyway, that's your Off the Rails around the World
segment for today.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah. I love it. Thanks to the levity because it
has been a tough ten days, two weeks. Dan Israel
was an amazing man and I worked with him for
thirty one years. He was different roles of the Chiefs
Radio Network, but he started in thirty five seasons ago,
(10:20):
and if you think about it, the team started in
nineteen sixty, so he was over halfway of the entire
organizational history. But way more to Dan than just being
the executive producer of the Chiefs Radio Network. And I
don't want to give away what I'm going to present
in his eulogy on Thursday and his memorial service at
the Church of the Resurrection here in Kansas City, but
(10:44):
he touched so many lives. He was a genius of
sound and music, and he could take music and words,
which seems like this kind of collision of consonants and vowels,
and as I'll say in the eulogy, he could take
a twig and drop it and it would turn into
(11:05):
this bouquet of flowers. That's the way. Dan was so
incredibly creative, a master of sound, and his expertise went
far beyond the Chiefs Kingdom because he was a consultant
for the major networks. He was a consultant for the
Olympic Games, the National Football League. National outlets like Westwood
(11:26):
One or Serious all knew who Dan was because he
was either consultant or directly involved with them. But he
had a ten year struggle with cancer. I remember when
he was first diagnosed in twenty fourteen, as with stage
four colon cancer, which in most cases is a death
wish that doesn't, you know, last very long, and so
(11:47):
we thought maybe he could go for a year. I
remember his first miss was twenty fifteen. We played Minnesota
in the University of Minnesota's old stadium because they were
working on the old stadium, but the stadium on campus
at the u of M because they were no more
metrodome and they were getting us bank ready. So I
(12:07):
remember that distinctly because we played at the Gopher Stadium
and Dan wasn't there and we're thinking, who, well, what
a void. And the fact that he lived for almost
ten more years and went through just treacherous and brutal chemotherapy,
but it kept him alive, but it finally just wore
him down that and the cancer would spread throughat his body.
(12:30):
Just a courageous dude, so talented, touched so much of
the Chief Kingdom, more than people even realize. But anyway,
I don't want to ramble, but yeah, it's been difficult,
but a tribute. We called him Spartacus. He was our
Spartacus and just an amazing dude.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
So I've had the privilege of being in the radio
booth with you on the road over the last several
years spotting for you, and what that means is I
had a front row seat to see Dan Israel producing
and really conducting the whole operation. And being with you
in the radio booth is amazing because you're somehow taking
information from like nine different inputs and you're turning it
(13:12):
into an incredible broadcast. And Dan was the one who
was basically in charge of the whole thing. He's helping
manage all those inputs. He produced the whole broadcast, so
it's not just what you hear on the air when
the game is going on, but it's in and out
of breaks, the music. He would choose just the entire operation.
Like when you listen to a Chiefs game and you
(13:33):
listen to Mitch how the whole thing is so seamless. Well,
Dan created the whole thing. And it was so cool
the four years I guess now that I've spotted for
you to see him do his thing, because it was
like effortless. It was like the hardest job in the world,
but it was effortless and it was a real honor
to see him do all that. But more than anything,
I'll always just remember Dan's kindness to me. Dan was
(13:56):
kind to me when I first got hired here in
twenty seventeen and I was writing articles for the website
just on community events. Well, he would seek me out
and be interested in my football opinions and wanted to
talk to me and hear about my background. And he
didn't have.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
To do that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
I wouldn't have blamed him if he didn't do that.
And I just will never forget that that he took
an interest in me and was always kind to me,
and you know, spotting for you in the booth. If
I missed something, he wouldn't lay into me like he
just was the best. And for those that don't know Dan,
but have been seeing all the outpouring on social media
and everything, I think you're kind of getting the idea
(14:32):
of what kind of guy. He was an incredible professional,
but and even better, just human being and game day
and just being here at work will not be the same.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And Dan was so much more outside of the chiefs realm.
He and his brother had Short Circuit Electronics, a multi
multi million dollar company that worked with some of the
biggest companies in our nation and even globally, and big
defense contracts. I mean, Dan was an incredible entrepreneur. I
(15:03):
mentioned so creative. He was also a composer, and he
had the best production studio in Kansas City in his
house downstairs. And I remember the first time I saw it.
At this incredible, huge grand piano was over in the
corner with a light shining on it, and where Dan would,
(15:24):
you know, sit down, and like any composer, would just
start to play and start to you know, imagine in
his mind and then would write music and then his
production studio and his editing equipment. It was just like
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I said, I
feel like I'm in la or in Nashville, and he goes, well,
(15:44):
you say that, and then he goes over like Pops's
secret door open. And he had worked with national recording artists,
including the famous Christian singer from Nashville, Michael W. Smith
early in his years. And so I just like, who
am I talking to here? And uh, just he was.
He was incredible. There was a lot of depth to Dan.
(16:06):
And I'm really trying to remember him properly for a
uh the eulogy that I'll give on Thursday, and just
to be a proxy for his children met Into and
uh Lauren, and then for his brother David and his mom.
So anyway, we start this uh defending the Kingdom with
(16:26):
a tribute to Spartacus, who courageous. He was a courageous dude. Man.
He this this chemo and he took different kinds. And
he would go to M. D Anderson in Houston. You
know when you when you going to M. D Anderson,
you know it's intense, right, You've had friends that have
gone there and it would be like an a gap
blitz and I you know, an unblocked guy just smashing
(16:50):
the quarterback and knocking the wind out of you. And
he said it would just destroy me, and then he goes. Eventually,
like the couple of weeks, I'd be like the quarterback
trying to get back up, and then he'd feel good
and get ready to snap the ball again, and it
would just keep repeating that sequence for months and months
and years and years kept him alive, but eventually all
(17:11):
of that cut up with him in on March the twentieth.
He passed at four to twenty in the morning. But
we remember Spartacus. He cannot be replaced. He will not
be replaced. We got to figure out a way to
move on without him, but we remember him. And so
I love the way he welcomed you to end of
the booth like you'd been there every day.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Like every day, like I was part of the family.
It just meant a lot to me. His legacy will
live on forever because he changed his place for the better.
It means a lot if when you pass on, the
chiefs are immediately putting out a statement from Clark Hunt,
from Mark Donovan, from Coach Reid. I mean, that's the
impact he left that the people that are in charge
(17:50):
of this whole thing. The day that he passes, they're like,
we need to say something because of the legacy that
he left. Also, you mentioned how he was a composer.
I didn't know that until he told me today. But
I'm not surprised because again, what he does in the
booth was kind of like composing the whole broadcast. And
one thing that sticks in my mind is when he
(18:12):
was timing you out of breaks, he would do it
with such rhythm, you know what I'm talking about, Like
it'ld be like like five like that, Like it was
such rhythm to it. So I'm not surprised that that
he was a composer, but just an amazing guy and
we could talk about him forever. Also, never complained, never
complained about anything, because if you think about it, the
entire time that I knew him, he was undergoing this treatment,
(18:34):
and I would have never known unless you had told me.
I mean, he went about his business like he was
grateful for every day and every day was a gift,
and he was excited to attack the day. I mean,
to still travel with the team, and because it's a
grind and to you know, be doing everything that he
was doing. Never complained, never wanted to people to feel
(18:55):
sorry for him. He just attacked every single day and
really led by example. So again we could talk about
Dan forever, but just an amazing guy who left an
immense legacy.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Well close this segment is with this Coach loved him.
Coach Reid loved him and respected Dan Israel. He knew
that he was dirty, tough, as coach would say, and
wicked smart another one of coach's phrases. But Dan was
the first person to talk to coach after games, after
the inner circle. Coach always meets with the inner circle, right,
(19:27):
and then there's a brief conversation, then they disperse and
then Dan walks in and that's you know, close to
the fire. Yeah, and it was this year. I think
it was the Carolina game. We didn't play particularly well,
thirty three thirty one victory and pull it out on
Pat scramble and one of our was that stake off
field goals. He was Strader and now is a cult.
(19:49):
But anyway, Strader gets the win. He's so excited he
turns his hamstring up running when he came back here,
I was like, what anyway, I got it. So on
Monday we have the Chiefs Kingdom Show. One of the
great features of that show is a fireside chat with
coach Reid. It's different than his normal pressers. It's a
(20:09):
time where he's somewhat relaxed even after a loss, where
he's got time, he's backed up and thought about things,
and he's just so wise and entertaining. It's awesome, best
part of the week in many ways. But when there's
a short week like Carolina to the Raiders was a
six day week, coach will not do that live. He
needs that fifteen minutes to utilize to get ready for
(20:32):
the next week. So Dan and I would collaborate, and
I just reminded, hey, we got to get some more
questions from coach. If you can think about it, two
more questions and get the get some impact, so we
can make a segment for Monday, because he's not going
to do the live segment with us. Well, you remember
that was not a great game. Yeah, and his comments were, hey,
(20:54):
we won this game because the feeling after the game
is like a losing locker room in many ways. Remember
that feeling was strange.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, because it felt like we kind of let them
hang around. Yeah, and it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Was and coaches going Okay, hey, we can play a
lot better. We're going to fix this. I always say
but he not great. Well, he sees Dan and I'm
see Dan on the plane we're coming home, and I go, so,
how was it? Did you get any sound we can use?
He goes, not a lot, but he goes, the first
thing Coach asked me was about me. It wasn't about
(21:26):
the game. Coach completely switch gears Dan, how are you?
How's things going? He could tell he could see Dan
and know that he was coming off a tough chemo hit,
and uh, that's what coach is about. But he and
Dan had a special relationship. Coach reading Dan. So anyway, Spartacus, well,
Mischa and you are replaceable. Now we're going to finish
(21:50):
this episode by updating free agency. We talked about it
as GRB basically, and you know, like to categorize guys green,
the guy you gain, read, the guys you lose, and
then black or the guys you keep. And of course
all three categories are full, not only for the Chiefs
but for the other thirty one teams the National Football League.
(22:13):
It's always active this time of year. Well, we thought
we'd update you with guys that the Chiefs have gained.
And we'll start here with Jerry Tillery. You and I
love to get into the draft, we go through it,
and I remember when Jerry Tillery was coming out of
Notre Dame. He was a top prospect. He was a
first round pick. Yeah, the Chargers picked him late in
the first round and it just had The career is
(22:36):
not flourished for him like we thought it would. But
I remember how highly regarded Jerry Tillery was coming out
of Notre Dame.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And he while he hasn't been like a superstar, he's
been a good player. I mean he's played in seventeen
games last year for the Vikings eleven starts, and of
course had a bunch of experience with the Chargers, like
over fifty games played I think, and also the Raiders
over the last handful of years. I think I like
most about him to go with that experience is his size.
(23:03):
So he's six foot six, two hundred and ninety five pounds.
He has the inside outside of flexibility, so he's primarily
like an inside defensive tackle, but he can also play
on the edge if needed, which De Spadnolo of course
loves those kind of players. But this signing is another
example of what we talked about on our last episode
where Brett Viach has done a great job of positioning us.
I think to attack the draft and truly take the
(23:25):
best players available, and you lose a guy like Trashaan Wharton,
who was so good for this team for so many years.
I don't want to say a player can replace another,
but Tillery, in terms of his body of work and
his body type, can kind of slide into that role,
I think. And you can attack the draft now where
if you want to take a defensive tackle high, you can,
but you don't necessarily have to because if you had
(23:46):
to roll out there on Day one against whoever we
play in the first week of the season with Jerry
Tillery next to Chris Jones, that's pretty good. So I
like the signing a lot. We're going to see what
he has in training camp. But he's still a young
player with a lot of experience and versatility.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
And we have seen this so many times, whether it's
our players are throughout the NFL having the right coach,
particularly at this time in his career. He started in
twenty nineteen, that's when he was a number one draft pick,
or not a first round draft pick, but the right coach,
right scheme, right circumstance, guy's career can take off. Mike
Panell is a great examplest. We're going to talk about
(24:22):
Mike in a second. Mike's career was redefined when he
became a Kansas City chief, and we're hoping the same
with Tillery. Now. Tillery's had productivity. First of all, he's
been available. It's the best abilities availability. Ninety six games.
When you look at what he's done in six years,
that's a good thing. And his twenty eight quarterback hits
in the twenty and twenty one season show you that
there is potential there. So Jerry Tillery, who's making his
(24:45):
way around the AFC West yp It's four teams. You're
going to stay here. You don't want to go to
the Broncos. I want you to flourish here. So great
to see Jerry now a common well much discussed name
also joins the Chiefs. We didn't talk about name and
his gardner Minshew, the mustachioed one who became famous running
Jacksonville and everybody wearing Minshew mustaches. This is really an
(25:09):
intriguing person. I cannot wait to talk to him, have
yet to talk to him. Okay, are you excited him?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I'm excited for the preseason because I do the preseason
sideline stuff and Gardner Minshew is going to make the
preseason electric. I think I love like kind of his
makeup as a person. So he has a lot of experience,
which is great for your backup quarterback. But I kind
of dove into who he is as a dude when
I learned that we had signed him, which ironically our
(25:35):
last episode when we filmed it, we were joking around
that we're totally going to sign someone later today now,
and we did. It was Gardner Man. But anyway, his
first game ever was against the Chiefs, remember that, and
he was like amazing. He started like fifteen or fifteen
or something because.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Twenty two to twenty five for the game.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Who was I knew who he was.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
I'm coming to college. Yeah, we'll get to that in
a second, but the dude was he was killing us. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Nick Foles gets hurt and he comes in and we
can't force an incompletion. And he made the most of
his time in Jacksonville. He's pretty good there. Then went
to Philadelphia and was there backup. But one of my
favorite kind of things I learned about Minshew. Have you
seen the hug he shared with his dad after he
led the Eagles to a win a handful of years ago.
(26:19):
It's the most like genuine authentic thing ever where if
you told me it was outside of like a high
school stadium and Gardner was like a high school senior
and led like his team to a big win. His
dad was proud of him. It was like the same thing.
And I don't know, I still like that, Like in
the world of professional sports where there's so much money
and sponsors and everything, like, it's so cool to see
just an authentic moment. I think he plays the game
(26:42):
for the right reasons. In his opening pressor, he seems
so excited to be here and just to learn and
to help in any way that he can. So as
many people that like that that you can get around
you the better, So I'm all for it.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, And that becomes the story because I'm gonna well
and he's so interesting because of his travels. You know.
He makes Last Chance You, the original year of Last
Chance You as a villain because he beats the he's
the antagonist by beating the team that was being featured
on Netflix, you know, and then he goes on to
(27:14):
win the Juco Championship and that becomes a deal. Then
he's going to go to Troy. That didn't work out,
so he goes to East Carolina. That didn't work out
kind of. Then he goes to Washington State because he's
going to be a part of the air raid offense
Mike Leach and put up crazy numbers at Wazoo. So
then that leads to his time in the National Football League.
But boiled down two things. One, he has started forty
(27:37):
six games, one seventeen of them. And the definition of
a backup quarterback in the NFL is can you win
a game? Can you win a game on your own?
Pat can't play? Can you win a game? Matt Moore
did it? Remember against the Vikings back in the twenty
nineteen season, and we saw what chand heading did heroic
And I'm gonna throw Bailey Zappion here because he's that's
(27:59):
the quarterback room now. Still Chris Oladokins in there as well.
I mean there's but that room. It's got to be
the room. So Gardner Minshew's value here for Patrick Mahomes
and Matt Nagy and the rest of the offensive step,
but especially that room. Now Bailey Zappi is interesting. He
was with us for a while and then he gets claimed,
right Cleveland gets him, and he was with New England.
(28:21):
And he's also won four games as a starter in
the National Football League with the Patriots. But Bailey, Zappi's
history with Pat goes back to a guy named Zach Kittley.
And I remember Pat and I talking about this in
the equipment room where Zappi had gone to. It was
formerly Houston Baptist, now it's Houston Christian. And that was
(28:42):
his coach. Well, that was the GA offensive graduate assistant
at Texas Tech when Pat was at TACH. What a
small world, like, Pat revers this guy, this guy's kind
of a guru, is offensive guy. And so Zappi goes
and goes with him to Houston Christian and rename Baptist
Baptist Christian Huskies and lights it up. So what is
(29:05):
this dude gets the Western Kentucky job. Okay, here goes Bailey,
goes with him to Western Kentucky and puts up incredible numbers.
If you remember Zappi coming out of Western Kentucky was
like it was like Pat, yeah, you know these like
video game numbers, and so Zappi is really interesting. But
there's a tie here with Patrick Mahomes in the quarterback room.
So with Minshew, how well do you fit in? What
(29:27):
can you bring to the table? He said the right
things during the press conference. Chad, Henny's the poster child here. Yeah,
because it's it's more about the room with Zappi and
Minshew as it is anything else that And you may
have to win a game in the National hopefully not,
but you have to win a game the National Football League,
(29:48):
and if you have to, have to have to win
a playoff game.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah, which we should ask Gardner if he's prepared to
take the field in the divisional round like Chad had
to do a couple of times, the ninety eight yard
drive nine, our driver throw the ball in four found
you know, on your side of the field. But I'm
with you in so many ways. The quarterback room, like
you said, is about more than just like going out
there and playing. It's about a room of shared experiences,
(30:12):
but also experiences from other places and to say, hey,
what about this or why don't we try that? And
you know, it's like any kind of collaborative group where
maybe someone says something from a different perspective and you
learn something that maybe you wouldn't have thought of on
your own, and that helps you win a game. So
the more minds and guys from different places we can
get in there, the better. And yeah, hopefully they don't
(30:34):
have to play in like big situations, but if they do,
you have faith in them. And like I said, the
preseason should be exciting. So for forty.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Six starts, now that's two and a third years of starting. Yeah,
so he sees something on video that Pat may not
see or coach may not see, or nags may not see,
but he sees it because he's lived it, He's done it.
I mean, he's he's not been in a flight simulator,
he's been in combat, and so I think that becomes
very very important. We saw down through the years with guys,
(31:04):
but yeah, excited to get his experience and his kind
of edge to go to that quarterback room. And you're right,
it will create a lot of fun in the preseason.
But let's jump ahead now to the black category, which
is the guys you keep. And it's not black for
the Raiders. It's black because hey, it's not greener red
you kept them. I'm super excited because since we did
(31:24):
our last episode, there are guys that have re signed
with the Kansas City Chiefs, and I'm so fired up
about every one. I'm going to mention here and we
can discuss it. We're going to start with Kareem Hunt. Okay,
what I learned last year in the twenty twenty fourth
season is I like second and four a whole lot
better than second and ten or second and nine. Let
(31:45):
me give you a stat this is crazy of the
Kansas City Chiefs. Last year, second and four or five
to go, the Chiefs had the most second and fours
or fives of any team in the NFL with seventy eight. Wow.
The next was Cincinnati was sixty one. Huh. What does
that do? It makes coaches iPad come alive. And if
(32:07):
I'm running the ball and I can get or a
short pass and I get four or five on first down, lookout.
It's one of the main reasons the Kansas City Chiefs
made it to Super Bowl fifty nine. I think that
in his seven touchdowns. Yeah, he's a red zone rushing threat.
He's maybe not going to run for seventy five yards
on a run the dead gummut, He's going to get
(32:27):
to the end zone and he'll walk off a game
like he did against Tampa Bay and no negative runs.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So the Chiefs had the fewest non kneel down negative
rushes of any team in the NFL last year by far,
only like twenty two of them. And Kareem is a
big reason why. Because Kareem never goes down at first contact,
and you could count on one hand the number of
times he was tackled in the backfield, Like whenever you
give him the ball, he might not get you six yards,
(32:53):
but he'll get you at least three or at least four.
And to your point, that allows the offense to keep
moving along and coach read as every thing at its disposal,
because the worst thing you can be in is second
and fourteen or third and seventeen, like it really constricts
your ability to move the chains. Well. Kareem kept the
offense on schedule throughout the year and in so many
(33:13):
ways saved our season. Because you lose Hollywood Brown early
in the year, lose Rashi Rice early in the year,
lose Isaiah Pacheco after the Bengals game. I mean, these
are some guys that you were counting on to be major,
major contributors, and to bring Kareem in here after not
playing the first several weeks of the season. You sign
him off the street, you bring him in here, and
(33:34):
he I think led this team in scrimmage yards. I
think he had the most rushing touchdowns on the team
and second to only Xavier in terms of total touchdowns
on the team, and he only played a handful of games.
I mean, just incredible for him to come in here,
to really sacrifice his potty in so many ways and
to give his all to this team. We don't make
the super Bowl last year without Kareem Hunt. And yeah,
I'm glad he's back. Let's get him a full offseason now,
(33:57):
back in the system. The offensive system does have to
show up in week four and figure it out as
he goes. But Kaream showed us a lot of heart
last year. He deserves to be back here, and I'm
excited to see what he can do.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
In two hundred carries. I mean, geez, unreal. Now, Cream's
got to get ready to go back to a seventeen
and eighteen body of like because now he has coaches
OTAs in his camp. Yep, okay, you missed all that
last year. Kaream get ready to do it again? Huh.
Another guy missed it but came back and it was
great and helped our season. As Juju Smith Schuster, this
(34:30):
re signing is bigger than people think they're going. Wait
a minute, I can't take Juju on my fantasy squad. Well,
he'll give you a thirty one yard play like he
did in the AFC Championship game against Buffalo, or a
fifty yarder he had against New Orleans. But I learned
in the first year, the first couple of years that
Andy Reid was here in Kansas City about a role
that he has for certain guys. And it is almost
(34:54):
like a screen setter in basketball, where I set a scream,
but I might you know, picking, and I might hit
a shot, but my screens are so good that you're
going to get a shot all day long. Juju Smith
Schuster's role in this offense is greater than anybody. I think.
Then most people realize because he does so much, not
(35:14):
just short yardage, but his ability to move and screen
and use his body legally in the way he does
his business to accept that role because it's a big
difference than what he did when he was just a
laser light show early with the Pittsburgh Steelers to accept
that role that is so important in this offense. I
saw it initially with Jason Elevant. Jason Evant, I thought, okay,
(35:38):
but I see how coach used him. Juju coming back
is a big deal.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, it is. And also maybe he can embrace and
fully utilize that role a little bit more this year
because he won't be forced into other roles because hopefully
we don't have injuries throughout the wide receiver room again.
I mean, what a godsend Juju was last year, got
here like five days before the season opener and help
this team win again. You lose, Hollywood, you lose Rashi
(36:04):
Xavier had to take on a whole new role, which
meant Juju had to slide into a different role. And
it's kind of a thankless job sometimes. But you ever
watch Juju blocking, like all the little things that he does,
Like Juju just loves being here, loves being a part
of the winning and he'll do whatever it takes to
help this team win. So yeah, glad Juju's back. He's
still so young, Like how old is Juju? Like twenty eight?
Speaker 1 (36:26):
He started when he was like seventeen.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah, I mean he's not that old, so.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Like, how was it usc like he was a junior,
I mean nineteen or something.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
He's got a lot of good football left in him.
And this receiver room at this point, I'm excited about
it because in so many ways we were excited about
last year's room. Then Juju got added to the fold,
and it's like, all right, once Hollywood comes back, this
scrop's going to be awesome. Well we never saw it
actually come to fruition, but now we might have a chance.
So glad Juju's back. And just like Kareem, he has
the entire offseason training program now with the offense. I
(36:56):
get he had been here before, but it's still a
little bit different when you show up like five days beforehand.
He has the entire offseason now to really be ingrained
in the offense, and I think that'll help him out.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
One, he's super smart too. He creates energy. Yeah, he's
a really good energy creator. The other thing is, just
like Kareem who has to channel us enter at seventeen
and eighteen, self, he's got a channels Enter twenty twenty
two self, yep, because he too is going to have
to endure coaches, OTAs and training camp, but he's been
through it before. Another guy that'll have to do that
is I'm so excited, So are you about getting him
(37:28):
resigned because I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
Is the twenty twenty four defensive version of Hollywood Brown,
and that is Charles and Mena who Charles Amena who
We saw him flash. We saw him flash in the
playoffs in twenty twenty three, his impactful games that he
had even in that Week eighteen victory over the Chargers
(37:50):
when he ripped the ball out that led to the
ninety seven yard scoop and score, but also his plays
in the playoff and then he tears his ACL in
the AFC Championship game. He cannot play in Super Bowl
fifty eight. And you get injured that late, it just
takes the next season and really throws it off the track.
And we thought Winsley geming back, Winsley coming back. He
(38:10):
came back and had his moments, but it was like
the rocket, just like with Hollywood Brown, never really got
off the launching pad. And now he's got an off
season and I'm so fired up to have him because
he's so impactful when you look at his twenty career
sacks nineteen and a half, but more importantly his eight
(38:31):
passes defense, his six forced fumbles, his fifty three quarterback hits.
He impacts a play way more than just getting sacks.
Speaker 2 (38:39):
I think he's one of the most underrated players in
the NFL, and the reason that people outside of Chiefs
Kingdom might not know much about him is just because
of the limited amount of time he's been on the
field the last couple of years. Well, this year we
finally get a full season of Charles Himnihu and I'm
so fired up about it because whenever he's been on
the field, he's just been effective for this team. Look
at a couple of years ago. Let's see twenty nine pressures,
(39:02):
seven sacks in just eleven games in twenty twenty three. Then,
of course at the ACL injury when he came back,
twelve pressure is, a sack and a forced fumble in
six games, then three tackles for loss in the sack
and three playoff games had that strip sack on a CJ. Stroud.
So he's just such a great player for this defense.
Steve Spagnolo loves him because of his positional versatility. He
(39:24):
has that length where he can knock down passes, he
can bounce inside, but also be so good as an
outside edge rusher. And you look at the dynamic of
this defensive line right now. Having Charles versus not having
Charles makes such a huge difference. Because you had Charles
and Minihu to this group. George carloftis on the other side,
you can rotate in guys like Mike Danam and Felix
and new dk Uzama. There's just a lot of depth
(39:45):
there at edge rusher when you add a player like
Charles and Menihu. So getting him back is a big deal.
Hopefully he goes out there, has a big year, can
finally play a full season with the Chiefs. And I
know how much it meant to him to get back
to the super Bowl because he couldn't play in twenty
twenty three. Game obviously didn't go the way that he planned.
But now he's back with the Chiefs and let's go
take care of business for Charles and the Super Bowl
(40:06):
this year.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Yeah, your point and to me talking about creating energy,
which is juju what he does and even Kaream in
his own way. Yeah, there is a hunger with Charles
that you see every day.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
It was on our show when we had him on
before the Bills game.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
You can tell you look at his eye and that
look is there every day every time I see him.
He's there and so disappointed that didn't get super Bowl
fifty nine for him, but he's ready to go get sixty. Yeah. Yes,
And to your point, this I think is very good.
If you take his numbers and would somehow translate it
to a seventeen game season, he's going to lead the
(40:39):
league or be a pro bowler in many categories. Yeah,
it's just getting seventeen games. So anyway, Charles the mount
who's back. Another one I'm fired up about is Mike Panell.
Mike Panell had his best season as a pro, and
he's been around now double digits in this league. Mike
is the example we gave you early in this podcast
of looking like Atillery who could thrive in this environment,
(41:03):
this defense. Mike has done that. Now we look at
his sacks, three sacks, right career high by far, but
and played thirty percent of the snaps. But those were
a good thirty percent. And the defensive rotation the Chiefs
had last year was outstanding. And what excites me now
is you basically have that rotation back. He lose Turk Wharton,
(41:23):
his quickness and his ability to explode, but you have
the principal pieces now to have that defensive rotation the
inside outside we talked about that could make this defense
really good and sneaky good in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
And Penell man such like a thankless role for the
most part. I'm glad he got the sacks last year
because when you're just like a run stuffer, it's hard
to quantify that. But I'm going to quantify it. Okay,
So Pro Football Focus can do this.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
And he was Aninja turtle got his sack.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
On this Yes he did. It's hilarious. So he recorded
the best run defense grade among defensive tackles on the
Chiefs last year, and among defensive tackles with one hundred
and fifty run defense snaps that's a pool of ninety
nine players. He ranked thirteenth against the run according to
their metrics. Say what you want to about Pro Football Focus,
that's pretty good. So Mike Panell when he was in
(42:15):
the game and against the run, was among the very
best at his position in that situation that's saying something
and bringing a player like that back only makes this
defensive line better. And this is something else you can't
really quantify. But he's like the ultimate glue guy. I've
said that before. People like being around him. He's a
good locker room guy. And it's easy to be a
(42:36):
good locker room guy when you're winning, but when the
team is losing or had struggles, he's also been the
same guy. He's been a motivator. He's the kind of
player you want around. So you take a player who
is productive well man a fairly thankless role, do it
really well, a role that you need to have on
your team. And also he's just a great guy to
be around and helps bring the team together. Those are
the kind of players you want around.
Speaker 1 (42:57):
He too, like Kareem Hutt, Charles Amanahu Juju Smith, Schuster
has got to get ready for a coach's Ota and
trading camp because he's skipped on his last year. So
all right, Mike, get ready to go, buddy. You know
what to expect, but it's awesome to have you back.
And then finally, Marlin Twey below two UH we know
about his brother, UH plays for the Chargers, But I'm
(43:18):
excited for him to get more of a chance. We
saw him, he played sixty one snaps. We saw him,
you know, in that Week eighteen game. But he is
one that you and I will watch during OTAs and
during the mini camps to see what we've got there,
because when you look at it, he's had you know,
he's got three sacks in his career two and twenty
three with the Eagles. But if I mean, that's an
(43:39):
important piece, this defensive front. If you're you ought to
be excited about this group because in some ways it
got better, but it kept everything together. And this is
a defensive group that we talked about it. We you
talked about it at nauseum. Took on the best running
backs the league had and either contain them or shut
them down. And to hold Sakuon Barkley to two point
(44:00):
three a carry on that many carries tells you everything.
And those were runs that he was stopped before the
game was decided.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
And if there's one strength in this draft class, it's
the defensive line. So I don't know what the Chiefs
will end up doing, but there will be an opportunity
to make this defensive line even better in the draft
coming up at about a month, Can I add one
more guy?
Speaker 1 (44:22):
YEA thrown in there.
Speaker 2 (44:23):
So we signed Robert Rochelle this week, and he's interesting
because he's a corner from the Packers. Still pretty young.
He's primarily been kind of like exclusively a special teamer
during his career, particularly with the Packers, and a gunner specifically.
But go back to the game. I think it was
Sunday Night football, maybe it was against the Dolphins night
(44:46):
game at Lambeau. He recovered a fumble in that game. Ironically,
that's the game that locked up a playoff spot for
the Chiefs. I remember texting you, like, all right, check
the first box. But it's a super athletic play where
he gets right down the field, he gets off his
block to a full spin that lands on the ball.
So I don't know. I mean, let's see if he
can get some defensive snaps here with the Chiefs, see
what he can do in the secondary. But also, you
(45:08):
like having players like that that are athletic, they're young,
and they're hungry to be on special teams. S Dave
Tobill love this guy. He has some big time athletic
traits as well. So back in twenty twenty, he was
on Bruce Felban's Freaks List. You ever look at that?
For those that don't know, it's basically just a list
of the players with the craziest like athletic measurables in
college football. He's six. Carson Steel is definitely on the
(45:32):
Freaks List. He's six foot tall, one hundred and ninety
three pounds, runs a four to three eight. He had
an eleven foot eight inch broad jump. Just big time
athletic traits. So we'll see what he can do here
in Kansas City. He was a fourth round pick back
in twenty twenty one. But I'm just saying, you have
a player like this with big time athletic traits who's
hungry and eager to be on special teams, that helps
your team overall. So Robert Rochelle is also a guy
(45:54):
we should talk about.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
If he locks down gunner, yeah, exact or bracket guy,
one of the two spots there as gunner and locks
it down like a Matthews later type, that is big
for this team because different guys have done that in
different roles. We've had starters out there, young guys. But
if somebody locks that down and becomes elite. That is
(46:16):
a big deal. In a way, the twenty five chiefs
can improve in a great deal.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
And maybe he could be that guy. We'll find out.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
We're gonna say goodbye with the guys on the red list,
and these hurt. You know. I'm gonna put together a
social piece I think for every one of them, just
because I just we get involved in him, and to
say goodbye is tough. Mcole Hardman three super Bowl rings.
He's gonna do well in Green Bay. This is different
than it's time with the Jets, I think. And his
fifty eight yard kickup or kickoff returned against Houston started
(46:44):
everything in twenty nineteen super Bowl winning catch and super
Bowl fifty eight, but way more than that, he was
master of the Jets sweeps and did a lot. Derek Noddy,
we talk about Jerry Tillery, we talk about run stuffing.
He was one of the more unselfish players I've ever seen.
Three super Bowl rings. That's six super Bowl rings from
two dudes. So we'll say goodbye to them, wish them
(47:07):
the best. I hope Derek has a great career continued
with the Jets. But these are guys we will hug
at reunions and remember them finally.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
So Derek was part of the twenty eighteen draft class
YEP and then mcole the twenty nineteen draft class. Two
of the best people and guys you'll ever meet, Like
just so friendly and kind, always willing to do stuff
for the team in any capacity on the field or
off the field, or you know, like with our social
media department or with you and I just talking on
the podcast, Like just the nicest, kindest people ever, Like
(47:40):
McCole is genuinely one of the coolest, most down to
earth people I think I've ever met. And Derek is quieter,
but he's so friendly in kind once you get to
know him. We're so fortunate to get to know both
those guys over the years. They help this team win
so much, and I'm glad that they both had their moments.
I was so happy that mc coole caught the game
winning type down super Bowl fifty eight. I found him
(48:01):
on the field afterward, and I'm like, I am so
happy for you because you've earned every bit of this.
And for Derek, I'll never forget after Super Bowl fifty four,
he was miked up. He's wandering around the Field saying,
I've never been a champion before in my life, and
today I'm a champion. And little did he know he
was going to be a champion a few more times.
So we appreciate those guys that those guys are chiefs
(48:22):
for life, no matter that they're signing elsewhere. Of course,
going to make some money and continue their careers and
have great success, I hope, but in my book, they're
chiefs for life.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Derek Noughty also got all this started. Remember his interception
in Mexico City. Yeah, that game started everything. I didn't
lose after that game. That was that start of the streak.
And I remember that interception, like, Derek Noughty's just I'm
calling to play, and I remember seeing him after the game.
He's just like grinning ear to ear like I got
an interceptionally. But do you ever have a friend move
away in grade school? Oh?
Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah, the worst?
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Yeah? I had Johnny Jones. He moved away in fourth grade.
He went the Grand Colorade. I don't even know where
he's at now. But that's what this feels like, is
to lose two good friends that moved away. We wish
them the best, but thank you. Nicole Hartman and thank
you Derek Noddy, and you have six Super Bowl rings
between the two of you from your time here. So
(49:18):
we also remember Spartacus and Dan Israel and he will
be remembered Thursday at a memorial service here in Kansas
City at the Church of the Resurrection. But we also
always want to keep you up with the g r
B of NFL Free Agency
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