August 29, 2025 • 33 mins
An enagaging conversation with the longtime Chiefs defensive stalwart, who went from free agent to longtime starter, and followed with a rewarding coaching career and Chiefs Ambassadorship.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Danny Clinkscale reasonably irreverent podcast, insightful and
witty commentary, probing interviews and detours from the beaten path.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to Kansas City Profiles, presented by Easton Roofing in
a very enjoyable conversation with Eric Hicks. Played a decade
in the National Football League, almost all of it with
the Kansas City Chiefs on Dick Vermial and Gunther Cunningham teams.
Played from nineteen ninety eight to two thousand and six
in the National Football League, just a little bit at
the end with the Jets, and went into coaching and
(00:38):
raised a family and did all those things. He's a
native of Erie, Pennsylvania, and he dedicated himself to football.
In fact, as you'll hear, he didn't play any other
sports until he was in the tenth grade. He was
an all metro player. There was recruited heavily by Division
two programs, but not very many Division ones, and one
of those was the University of Maryland. He went there
(00:59):
and had a great ext variance at Maryland in a
tough acc They fought hard, didn't win a whole bunch
of games, but he attracted enough attention to be offered
a free agent opportunity with the Kansas City Chiefs, and
he was the only free agent to make the Chiefs
in nineteen ninety eight and parlayed that into a ten
year career. He had a thirteen sacked season, one year,
(01:21):
fourteen sacks season, one year, a nine sack season another
year before injury sidelined his career after about nine years.
A severe shoulder injury was what brought his football career
playing wise to an end. He's continued to coach football
and do all kinds of other things like travel, and
he's a Chief's ambassador now and enjoys the work with
(01:42):
the Chiefs ambassadors and the money they're able to give
to various organizations around Kansas City. He's a familiar He's
a familiar face around Kansas City and it's great to
tell the story of Eric Hicks. He is our Kansas
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Speaker 7 (04:47):
Eric.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
You're born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, and of course
you are a child of the eighties. What was it
like growing up in Erie in the eighties?
Speaker 8 (04:57):
It was very snowy. That's It's the most thing I
can remember. We always had that Lake effects snow coming
off of Lake Erie.
Speaker 7 (05:06):
And I can't remember ever.
Speaker 8 (05:08):
Having any school days off, though maybe one or two
in my whole twelve years of school. There's it's very cold.
It's a very dark place.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I lived in upstate New York for eight years and
we got lake effects snow too, so I know exactly
what you're talking about. Last year i lived there, I
shoveled one hundred and ninety inches of snow in one winter.
So yeah, right, So you're it's a lovely area, that
area of the world for about four months a year,
(05:39):
so trying to be active, and obviously you would eventually
become a standout football player, But what other things that
you enjoy growing up?
Speaker 8 (05:49):
Believe it or not, I didn't play any other sports
until tenth grade. I started playing basketball in tenth grade
because I was just dedicated to football all my life.
My sisters were a little bit older than me, so
their friends I would ask to play with them, but
they say, you'd have you could play, but you can't cry.
So that's kind of a little bit where I developed
(06:11):
my little bit of my toughness. But I was just
a normal kid. There wasn't a lot to do in area.
We rode our bikes in the summer, we slid road
in the winter. Everything in northwestern Pennsylvania, as it is
in eastern northeastern Ohio and western New York, is all
about football. And if you're if you're a fan of
(06:35):
the Bills, the Steelers, of the Browns, that's all you
really care about.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
Right And which team were you a fan of?
Speaker 7 (06:44):
Oh? I lived and died by the Steelers.
Speaker 8 (06:46):
I can remember back to the days of Franco Harris
and the end days of me and Joe Green and
guys like that, those being my first memories of football.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So you say you were dedicated to football, and obviously
you're playing up in age a lot against other people,
so it seemed like you probably took to the game
pretty quickly.
Speaker 9 (07:06):
I did.
Speaker 8 (07:06):
I was a little bit of a snot ose bloy
when I was young, so playing with those older kids
really gave me a little bit more perspective about how.
Speaker 7 (07:16):
To be tough. But I did take to the game.
I enjoyed it always.
Speaker 8 (07:23):
It was just a game that called to me and
it ended up working out.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
So you branched out a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But you obviously were one of the best players in
Erie and an All Metro player. And when it comes
time to decide what you wanted to do as far
as college is concerned, you ended up going to Maryland, obviously,
But what was the recruiting process and the decision making
process for that?
Speaker 8 (07:49):
You know, I went to a small Catholic school in
the Erie, and I wasn't really recruited by many Division
I schools. I was recruited by a lot of the
slip Rocks and Edinburgh's, which are Division two programs, maybe
even Division one now. But I didn't get recruited by
a lot of Division one schools I can really remember.
(08:10):
Maryland was the only one that was on me pretty good,
and I ended up committing early and the rest is history,
I guess.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yes, exactly. So when you went to Maryland, weather it's
a little bit nicer there.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
But what was your transition to college.
Speaker 8 (08:29):
Like, well, it was a total one eighty first of
all being the University of Maryland is about five minutes
from Washington, DC, so the culture change was astronomical.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
It was.
Speaker 8 (08:44):
I might as well have went to New York City
for how I felt about it. It really turned my
life around and upside down. But it taught me a
lot of independence, and it taught me that, you know,
I wasn't just really to be being from Erie. I
could go on and do other things in my life
(09:05):
and on my own.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
Outside of football.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
What was the Maryland experience like, did you enjoy it?
Speaker 8 (09:11):
Maryland was great. We had great basketball teams back then.
We had Joe Smith and Nate Smith.
Speaker 7 (09:17):
Player of the Year. It was a great great environment.
Speaker 8 (09:24):
The springtime I can remember was the most beautiful of
all the seasons. I can just remember sitting on our
on the stoop of our residence hall. And in my
freshman year I lived in Kent Hall, which Kent Hall
at Maryland is where Jim Henson lived of the Muppets,
(09:48):
and they have a little tribute to him. Right where
we'd all sit in the summer was right by the
dining hall. It was just a great time. The summer
was great, and I had a great experience playing football.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And obviously you played well, but not well enough to
attract the attention of a draft anyway. And your time
at Maryland obviously was enjoyable for you. And you had
some good teams or some not so good teams. So
what was it like from on the field standpoint?
Speaker 8 (10:20):
There, No, were't we weren't very good. We played in
a very tough acc back then, and Florida State was king.
I can remember some of those games against them, but
playing against an other team, North Carolina Virginia, those teams
were extremely difficult. Clemson even back then. I can remember
(10:42):
talking to Tiki and Rende Barbara on the NFL field
about some of the times and ways of the ACC
back in the mid to late nineties, and we would
have a good left it was. It was a good.
Speaker 7 (10:54):
League, but we just could never get over the hump.
Speaker 8 (10:57):
I think most games we ever won there was six
in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yep, that's right in your five hundred in the ACC
that year. So when your college career was winding down,
what were your expectations entering the pro football world.
Speaker 8 (11:14):
Well, I first wanted to graduate because I had not
red shirted, so I wanted to make sure I graduated
in the four years. So what I really wanted to
do at first is become a US marshall, transporting prisoners
all over the country. But some of the coaches encouraged
me maybe to give it a try, so I tried out,
(11:34):
went through the spring process, went through the evaluation process
of scouts coming in and everything. Actually took a trip
out to Kansas City for a pre draft visit, so
that was promising. But as the draft came along and everything,
I wasn't expecting too much. But I ended up getting
a call from the Chiefs on that day after the
(11:57):
draft was over, and I took advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And it's not easy to obviously make an NFL team
as a free agent. You would be the only free
agent to make the Chiefs team that year. How did
you impress?
Speaker 8 (12:13):
Well, the first thing I would do is I would
always try to be first in the drills and everything.
If we were doing a competition drill, I'd jump in
against Will Shields if I could, just trying.
Speaker 7 (12:24):
To get my name out there somehow.
Speaker 8 (12:27):
And it was hard to impress that year, believe me,
that was a long preseason. We played in the international
game that year. We flew all the way to Japan.
We played Norman, Oklahoma against the Buccaneers. That was a
very strenuous process. And I could just remember the day
that Coach Schottenheimer pulled me aside and told me that
(12:48):
I made the team, And by then I was just
kind of flabbergasted by everything I had seen. Obviously I
was happy, but it was a long process, he was indeed.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
But you would thrive in that particular process and eventually
become a regular player. And how gratifying was it as
And when did you feel like sort of you were
establishing yourself as a player.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
Well, that was going in priborly to my second year.
We were changing up defenses, moving away from what we
call under defense to a position of where we where
we could maximize Derek Thomas's potential the most.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
And I was going to have to.
Speaker 8 (13:34):
Play against some bigger offensive linemen less against the tight end.
So I started gaining weight during that year and I
got to be pretty big, you know, a weight commensary
with what I needed to be in the NFL. And
as we got into camp, things progressed normally.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
And just one morning, our.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
Starting left end towards Achilles in practice and Kurt Schottenheimer
was looking around for somebody to just throw in because
the offense was getting ready to run the next play,
and he.
Speaker 7 (14:07):
Threw me, and you know, I didn't leave for several years.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Yeah, that's absolutely the case.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
And Chiefs had some pretty good teams that during that
span of time, and not great times all the time,
but one thirteen and three year, but never a team
that was, you know, not competitive or something like that.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
So that must have been a good side of pro
football for you.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
That was exciting in two thousand and three was definitely exciting.
You know, those years were a little bit frustrating on
defense because we never played we never felt that we
played up to the level that the offense was producing,
which was leading the NFL and several categories with several
Pro Bowlers obviously priest homes and lighting up records Tony Gonzalez.
(14:51):
We had a lot of success on that side of
the ball, and defense we struggled a bit and I
think it ultimately ended us, ended our chances of being
able to compete for a championship, especially in two thousand
and three when we were thirteen to three.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
That was a very exciting season. I think we started
off nine to zero. It was just there was so
much hope and so much excitement.
Speaker 8 (15:17):
Around the city that this might be our year after
several years. But we just didn't have done in the playoffs.
It was a game against the Colts. I think we
may have punted once and they never punted, So whoever
had the ball.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
Last won the game.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Well, what was a dynamic like to be a defensive
player When you feel like maybe you're not quite holding
up your end.
Speaker 8 (15:40):
Well, you don't want to feel like a second class citizen.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
Then you don't always.
Speaker 8 (15:45):
Want to kind of be down to the media all
the time and just saying the offense is so much
better than the defense. Offense is so much better, So
I would always try to internalize it and just try
to fix the problems at hand that we had the
offense do their thing, and I was kind of a
bit of a mouthpiece for all those guys on defense,
(16:05):
so I would just try to take and deflect all
questions as much as possible. And it stunk, right, I
can't tell you a lie. It's stunk.
Speaker 7 (16:15):
But you know that's what you get paid the big
bucks for.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, you individually had some great success. You had a
fourteen SAX season, you had a nine SAX season, and
you know it's SAX isn't obviously everything, but you actually
did quite well in that area.
Speaker 8 (16:31):
Yeah, I did have some pretty successful seasons. I ended
up having a great defensive line coach my entire time there,
almost my entire time for eight years, named Bob Carmelowitz, who.
Speaker 7 (16:45):
Really believed in me and got me in.
Speaker 8 (16:47):
A lot of right positions and worked hard to ensure
that my career was on an upward trajectory. I know
he did a lot for Jared Allen as well, but
it was nice being successful. But you ultimately, I don't
want to sound like a cliche, but it's a team game.
But it's good to be able to go out there
and do your job effectively well.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
And old saying in football is one of the best
abilities is availability. And you were available. You played basically
all the time, almost every game throughout your career. That
had to take a toll, it did, it did.
Speaker 8 (17:24):
And that's back a little bit in the era where
they ran the ball quite a bit more than they
do now. They throw the ball all over the yard now,
and back then they ran and they ran right and
I was the left end, so I got a lot
of contact there. But I always took pride in my conditioning,
my physical conditioning, keeping up lifting during the season, obviously
(17:45):
lifting very hard during the offseason. And I always said,
and I say it now, stay out of the training room.
That place is a black hole. Obviously, if you get injured,
you got to go in there. Don't go in there
for bumps and bruises. You're just it's a place that's
going to suck you in every time. And if you
stay away from there, it helps make you a tougher person, yes,
(18:07):
but it also helps you be employed because you're on
the field a lot.
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More more of Danny's Reasonably Irreverend Podcast after this.
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Our guest is Eric Kicks.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
He played a decade in the National Football League, almost
all of it for the Kansas City Chiefs. Sin is
now a Chief's ambassador and had a standout career. And
so when the career arc is sort of winding down,
when would you start to think about or do you
think about, as you know, you're in your eighth year
or so, what the endgame might be.
Speaker 8 (21:00):
I was rolling along pretty good in my eighth year,
had it going pretty good. An injury is actually what
limited me and got me out of the league. It
was a cold night in the meadowlands and I fell
with my arm pinned to my head and tore everything
up in my shoulder. Ended up playing the rest of
that season when I probably shouldn't have. We're trying to
(21:21):
make the playoffs. In two thousand and five, I think
when the draft came along and they drafted Tombahawley I
probably saw the writing on the wall the most. That's
just the cold hard facts of it and taking nothing
away from Tom, but he had a great career. But
I was thinking that after nine years, they're probably nine
(21:43):
years and my being made and all those factors, it
was probably gonna be time for me to move on.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, And in two thousand and eight, you played all
the games, but you didn't start any and so at
that point in time, are you starting to think that
it might be the writing was on the wall a
little bit.
Speaker 8 (22:01):
Yeah, I think you'd be lying to yourself if you didn't.
It's just part of the game. It's a business. I
can remember being young and you know, giving guys like
Dave Zot a look, you know, on the side and
practice and I'd be going really really fast and he'd
be like, slow down. He was like, you're you don't
(22:24):
realize that you're going Your body is physically going to
slow down. At some point I was like, oh no,
I'm forever gonna be able to move as fast, And
they do all these things and it didn't end up
working that way. And I think that's that's the realization
that every player comes to.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Tell me a little bit about the off the field
times during your pro football career, in your time here
in Kansas City, family, et cetera.
Speaker 8 (22:48):
Yeah, well, people probably remember the story that my daughter
was pretty sick when I was a young player and
she was just born having had four open heart surgeries.
So we developed our foundation, and the Chiefs are big
on foundations then as they are now. It was called
the Hicks Farhartz Foundation. We did a lot of work
with children's Mercy. We had a golf tournament, We did
(23:10):
various activities around the town to promote the American Heart Association.
Differ different causes about that. It was great being a dad.
My kids got to grow up in Overland Park to
the they both went to Blue Valley West that both
graduated college. Now Kansas City has been my home for
(23:31):
twenty seven going on twenty eight years. You know, it
wasn't a smooth transition after football.
Speaker 7 (23:39):
There was definitely a lot of depression.
Speaker 8 (23:43):
A lot of thinking that you're self worth isn't what
it is or what people perceive it to be.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
You just feel down on yourself all the time.
Speaker 8 (23:54):
And it's not really about the football all that much.
I don't really miss to this day playing football all
that much, but it.
Speaker 7 (24:02):
Was being in the locker room being around.
Speaker 8 (24:04):
Those guys often say it's the finest forum on relations
that you could possibly have in life because everybody kind
of just says what they say, and you work it
out the way you work it out, and nobody ever
hears about it. Even in today's day of cell phones,
(24:24):
cell phone cameras and everything, they still keep it pretty
much in house. But yeah, I definitely struggled a little
bit when I got done playing.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
And what it sounds like that's something that you were
able to get past. However, you did a lot of coaching.
What was the process of maybe coming out the other
side as a person with a bigger smile on your face.
Speaker 7 (24:47):
Well, I can just remember that, you know.
Speaker 8 (24:50):
I've thought to myself, I have to get off the
couch at some point, And I ended up volunteering for
a high school in Overland Park and then did a
couple of jobs here and there, coached in a couple
of the leagues that are were the precursors to the
United Football League now the USFL and the Spring League
(25:12):
and things like that. Coach with coach Terry Shay, who
was our quarterbacks coach here.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
He was the head coach of all those teams.
Speaker 8 (25:21):
Ended up going to college and back to college and
getting a master's degree at thirty six years old. That
was interesting. And then I was a head coach at
Avla for a year and now I'm back at Ola
the South coaching with a good money of mind Mike Allen,
(25:41):
who just got the head coaching job there. So I'm
keeping busy. It's a good time.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
How rewarding is it to try to pass along the lessons?
And these guys they may not remember you as a
Chiefs player, but their parents would or whatever, so there's
a probably a built in respect there. But what's that
like teaching the young guys?
Speaker 8 (26:02):
Right, It's important to pass down the knowledge, but it's
important to pass it down the correct way. I often
say that football is a microcosm of life. There's no
lesson that we're teaching you in football that you're not
going to learn in life, and probably worse lessons in life.
Because I can remember playing against Peyton Manning several times,
(26:23):
and I know football players talk about I'm a soldier
or you know, it's a war in there. Well, he
never tried to shoot me after the game, So do
you have to realize that as much as we teach
you in football and the lessons that can be carried
over throughout life, it's truly not life and death.
Speaker 7 (26:42):
But we're going to try to make the.
Speaker 8 (26:43):
Situation as close to reality as possible for you, so
you make a smooth transition into being a better college student,
being a better father, being a better husband.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
When you get older, when you know a lot of
people who will see another generation coming along will say, well,
it was better back in my day. How do you
react to the young people and as you say, the
social media and the cell phones and the challenges that
that brings, is you're trying to pass lessons along.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
I tell you it's gotta be an a daunting task
for these young people today. I can remember I saw
I went to a concert. I saw Lona Richie, and
Lona Richie said, back in my day, you could do
the worst thing that you've ever done in the history
of your life, and you wake up in the next
(27:38):
morning and it never even happened. That's how it was,
even through my college years, talking to my college buddies, saying,
could you believe if we had cell phone cameras and everything.
Speaker 7 (27:51):
Being back in college. It would have been a very
different outcome.
Speaker 8 (27:55):
Our behavior probably would have changed accordingly, but it had
been a different outcome. But yeah, the cell phones and
the video games, I think is what gets me. Those kids,
they sit in front of that thing. I don't understand
how their brain doesn't rot. But you know, I'm glad
we didn't have all those choices back in the day.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Well, you mentioned your children and graduating from college. Now
break on them a little bit.
Speaker 8 (28:22):
Yeah, my daughter is twenty six. She graduated from Kansas State.
She works in the social media world. She's actually about
to get married in October, so that's exciting for our family.
My son is twenty two. He played football at Bowling
Green ended up graduating from there in three years. I
had some pretty significant injuries, so we decided to stop
(28:45):
playing football. He's a graduate assistant now, I mean a
graduate student at Rockhurst University in town and he plays lacrosse.
Had a couple of years of eligibility left, so this
will be his last year of competing and he'll get
his in.
Speaker 7 (29:00):
So they're doing well. Both great kids.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
That's really cool. You mentioned in passing that getting a
master's degree at age thirty six and sort of off
handily said, well, that was interesting, but tell me, tell
me about the challenge of doing that, and you know,
deciding that that was something that was a great challenge
you wanted to take on.
Speaker 8 (29:22):
Well, not having not been in college since twenty two
years old, that's quite a gap, and to have all
the events and everything that happened in those years that
passed in between there. But an opportunity opened up down
in Texas with a guy I had worked at at
an All Star game one time and went down there.
(29:44):
The toughest part was to tell you the truth. So
we'd have practice like normal and have to break down
practice like normal and all of that, but I'd have
to go to class on Wednesdays and Monday nights and
leave practice.
Speaker 7 (29:57):
So it was definitely different for me. You know.
Speaker 8 (30:01):
I was always a team first guy and a guy
that followed the rules.
Speaker 7 (30:07):
And made sure all the rules.
Speaker 8 (30:08):
Were in order, and having to just leave everything was different,
and doing the football work and the school work at
the same time was a bit of a challenge.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You're a Chief's ambassador now, and the Chief's ambassador during
a time when the chiefs are you know, well one
of the best, if not the best every year.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
But what's that experience like for you.
Speaker 7 (30:31):
The ambassador experience.
Speaker 8 (30:33):
Yes, it's great, to tell you the truth, I was
a little bit kind of reserved about joining them when
they first approached me. You know, I was like, I
don't really want to sit down and talk about football
all day and all that, right, But that's totally not
what the organization is about. They accepted me with open arms.
(30:54):
The organization is great. It's the greatest alumni organization in
the NFL, and what I from what I understand, was
the first and is the oldest. But I wasn't aware
of the work that they did in the money that
they draw into their five oh one C three status
and the fact that they give us money to be
(31:16):
able to give out grants every year. Then the fact
that we can go out in the community and we
can attend these events and hand these checks out or
just go to support another ambassador's event, and frankly, sitting
around with the guys every now and then isn't all
that bad either.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Well, you're still a young man.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
You're forty nine years old right now, so you've got
a milestone birthday here coming up fairly soon.
Speaker 7 (31:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
Yeah, But your birthday has.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Just passed a little bit ago, so you got some
time there. But what's in the future for Eri Kicks, Well.
Speaker 7 (31:51):
We'll see.
Speaker 8 (31:53):
Thinking about maybe going back to school for continuing education,
get a second bachelor's degree or a second master's. I'm
going to continue coaching football only the South. I like
to travel quite a bit, try to do that when
I can. You know, that's not no matter. If you
still have adults, they still have activities that.
Speaker 7 (32:14):
You feel compelled to go to.
Speaker 8 (32:16):
So uh, it's kind of hard to get around, but
that's that's part of being a dad. So I'm on
a I'm on a good path, and I can't complain.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
When you reflect back on the first half century of
your life, it seems like it is with a certain
amount of gratitude.
Speaker 8 (32:36):
Oh absolutely, I I've led led an extraordinary life life
as you probably write a book on. And the only
problem is I don't know how to write, and I
wouldn't be able to throw the people under the bus.
Then I would never I would never do that to
be able to write a successful, entertaining book. But I
(32:56):
can't complain one bit. Have healthy, chill, they've grown, had
a great career. I have been able to do things
in life that I could have only dreamed of being
a small small boy. Yes, I was small at one time.
From Erie, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
We hope you enjoyed the latest Danny Klinkscale Reasonably irreverent podcast.
Come back soon for something fresh and new. This podcast
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Welcome to the Danny Clinkscale reasonably irreverent podcast, insightful and
witty commentary, probing interviews and detours from the beaten path.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to Kansas City Profiles, presented by Easton Roofing in
a very enjoyable conversation with Eric Hicks. Played a decade
in the National Football League, almost all of it with
the Kansas City Chiefs on Dick Vermial and Gunther Cunningham teams.
Played from nineteen ninety eight to two thousand and six
in the National Football League, just a little bit at
the end with the Jets, and went into coaching and
(00:38):
raised a family and did all those things. He's a
native of Erie, Pennsylvania, and he dedicated himself to football.
In fact, as you'll hear, he didn't play any other
sports until he was in the tenth grade. He was
an all metro player. There was recruited heavily by Division
two programs, but not very many Division ones, and one
of those was the University of Maryland. He went there
(00:59):
and had a great ext variance at Maryland in a
tough acc They fought hard, didn't win a whole bunch
of games, but he attracted enough attention to be offered
a free agent opportunity with the Kansas City Chiefs, and
he was the only free agent to make the Chiefs
in nineteen ninety eight and parlayed that into a ten
year career. He had a thirteen sacked season, one year,
(01:21):
fourteen sacks season, one year, a nine sack season another
year before injury sidelined his career after about nine years.
A severe shoulder injury was what brought his football career
playing wise to an end. He's continued to coach football
and do all kinds of other things like travel, and
he's a Chief's ambassador now and enjoys the work with
(01:42):
the Chiefs ambassadors and the money they're able to give
to various organizations around Kansas City. He's a familiar He's
a familiar face around Kansas City and it's great to
tell the story of Eric Hicks. He is our Kansas
City profile presented by Eastern Roofing.
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Speaker 7 (04:47):
Eric.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
You're born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, and of course
you are a child of the eighties. What was it
like growing up in Erie in the eighties?
Speaker 8 (04:57):
It was very snowy. That's It's the most thing I
can remember. We always had that Lake effects snow coming
off of Lake Erie.
Speaker 7 (05:06):
And I can't remember ever.
Speaker 8 (05:08):
Having any school days off, though maybe one or two
in my whole twelve years of school. There's it's very cold.
It's a very dark place.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
I lived in upstate New York for eight years and
we got lake effects snow too, so I know exactly
what you're talking about. Last year i lived there, I
shoveled one hundred and ninety inches of snow in one winter.
So yeah, right, So you're it's a lovely area, that
area of the world for about four months a year,
(05:39):
so trying to be active, and obviously you would eventually
become a standout football player, But what other things that
you enjoy growing up?
Speaker 8 (05:49):
Believe it or not, I didn't play any other sports
until tenth grade. I started playing basketball in tenth grade
because I was just dedicated to football all my life.
My sisters were a little bit older than me, so
their friends I would ask to play with them, but
they say, you'd have you could play, but you can't cry.
So that's kind of a little bit where I developed
(06:11):
my little bit of my toughness. But I was just
a normal kid. There wasn't a lot to do in area.
We rode our bikes in the summer, we slid road
in the winter. Everything in northwestern Pennsylvania, as it is
in eastern northeastern Ohio and western New York, is all
about football. And if you're if you're a fan of
(06:35):
the Bills, the Steelers, of the Browns, that's all you
really care about.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
Right And which team were you a fan of?
Speaker 7 (06:44):
Oh? I lived and died by the Steelers.
Speaker 8 (06:46):
I can remember back to the days of Franco Harris
and the end days of me and Joe Green and
guys like that, those being my first memories of football.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
So you say you were dedicated to football, and obviously
you're playing up in age a lot against other people,
so it seemed like you probably took to the game
pretty quickly.
Speaker 9 (07:06):
I did.
Speaker 8 (07:06):
I was a little bit of a snot ose bloy
when I was young, so playing with those older kids
really gave me a little bit more perspective about how.
Speaker 7 (07:16):
To be tough. But I did take to the game.
I enjoyed it always.
Speaker 8 (07:23):
It was just a game that called to me and
it ended up working out.
Speaker 6 (07:28):
So you branched out a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
But you obviously were one of the best players in
Erie and an All Metro player. And when it comes
time to decide what you wanted to do as far
as college is concerned, you ended up going to Maryland, obviously,
But what was the recruiting process and the decision making
process for that?
Speaker 8 (07:49):
You know, I went to a small Catholic school in
the Erie, and I wasn't really recruited by many Division
I schools. I was recruited by a lot of the
slip Rocks and Edinburgh's, which are Division two programs, maybe
even Division one now. But I didn't get recruited by
a lot of Division one schools I can really remember.
(08:10):
Maryland was the only one that was on me pretty good,
and I ended up committing early and the rest is history,
I guess.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yes, exactly. So when you went to Maryland, weather it's
a little bit nicer there.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
But what was your transition to college.
Speaker 8 (08:29):
Like, well, it was a total one eighty first of
all being the University of Maryland is about five minutes
from Washington, DC, so the culture change was astronomical.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
It was.
Speaker 8 (08:44):
I might as well have went to New York City
for how I felt about it. It really turned my
life around and upside down. But it taught me a
lot of independence, and it taught me that, you know,
I wasn't just really to be being from Erie. I
could go on and do other things in my life
(09:05):
and on my own.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
Outside of football.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
What was the Maryland experience like, did you enjoy it?
Speaker 8 (09:11):
Maryland was great. We had great basketball teams back then.
We had Joe Smith and Nate Smith.
Speaker 7 (09:17):
Player of the Year. It was a great great environment.
Speaker 8 (09:24):
The springtime I can remember was the most beautiful of
all the seasons. I can just remember sitting on our
on the stoop of our residence hall. And in my
freshman year I lived in Kent Hall, which Kent Hall
at Maryland is where Jim Henson lived of the Muppets,
(09:48):
and they have a little tribute to him. Right where
we'd all sit in the summer was right by the
dining hall. It was just a great time. The summer
was great, and I had a great experience playing football.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
And obviously you played well, but not well enough to
attract the attention of a draft anyway. And your time
at Maryland obviously was enjoyable for you. And you had
some good teams or some not so good teams. So
what was it like from on the field standpoint?
Speaker 8 (10:20):
There, No, were't we weren't very good. We played in
a very tough acc back then, and Florida State was king.
I can remember some of those games against them, but
playing against an other team, North Carolina Virginia, those teams
were extremely difficult. Clemson even back then. I can remember
(10:42):
talking to Tiki and Rende Barbara on the NFL field
about some of the times and ways of the ACC
back in the mid to late nineties, and we would
have a good left it was. It was a good.
Speaker 7 (10:54):
League, but we just could never get over the hump.
Speaker 8 (10:57):
I think most games we ever won there was six
in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yep, that's right in your five hundred in the ACC
that year. So when your college career was winding down,
what were your expectations entering the pro football world.
Speaker 8 (11:14):
Well, I first wanted to graduate because I had not
red shirted, so I wanted to make sure I graduated
in the four years. So what I really wanted to
do at first is become a US marshall, transporting prisoners
all over the country. But some of the coaches encouraged
me maybe to give it a try, so I tried out,
(11:34):
went through the spring process, went through the evaluation process
of scouts coming in and everything. Actually took a trip
out to Kansas City for a pre draft visit, so
that was promising. But as the draft came along and everything,
I wasn't expecting too much. But I ended up getting
a call from the Chiefs on that day after the
(11:57):
draft was over, and I took advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And it's not easy to obviously make an NFL team
as a free agent. You would be the only free
agent to make the Chiefs team that year. How did
you impress?
Speaker 8 (12:13):
Well, the first thing I would do is I would
always try to be first in the drills and everything.
If we were doing a competition drill, I'd jump in
against Will Shields if I could, just trying.
Speaker 7 (12:24):
To get my name out there somehow.
Speaker 8 (12:27):
And it was hard to impress that year, believe me,
that was a long preseason. We played in the international
game that year. We flew all the way to Japan.
We played Norman, Oklahoma against the Buccaneers. That was a
very strenuous process. And I could just remember the day
that Coach Schottenheimer pulled me aside and told me that
(12:48):
I made the team, And by then I was just
kind of flabbergasted by everything I had seen. Obviously I
was happy, but it was a long process, he was indeed.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
But you would thrive in that particular process and eventually
become a regular player. And how gratifying was it as
And when did you feel like sort of you were
establishing yourself as a player.
Speaker 8 (13:15):
Well, that was going in priborly to my second year.
We were changing up defenses, moving away from what we
call under defense to a position of where we where
we could maximize Derek Thomas's potential the most.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
And I was going to have to.
Speaker 8 (13:34):
Play against some bigger offensive linemen less against the tight end.
So I started gaining weight during that year and I
got to be pretty big, you know, a weight commensary
with what I needed to be in the NFL. And
as we got into camp, things progressed normally.
Speaker 7 (13:54):
And just one morning, our.
Speaker 8 (13:56):
Starting left end towards Achilles in practice and Kurt Schottenheimer
was looking around for somebody to just throw in because
the offense was getting ready to run the next play,
and he.
Speaker 7 (14:07):
Threw me, and you know, I didn't leave for several years.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Yeah, that's absolutely the case.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
And Chiefs had some pretty good teams that during that
span of time, and not great times all the time,
but one thirteen and three year, but never a team
that was, you know, not competitive or something like that.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
So that must have been a good side of pro
football for you.
Speaker 8 (14:29):
That was exciting in two thousand and three was definitely exciting.
You know, those years were a little bit frustrating on
defense because we never played we never felt that we
played up to the level that the offense was producing,
which was leading the NFL and several categories with several
Pro Bowlers obviously priest homes and lighting up records Tony Gonzalez.
(14:51):
We had a lot of success on that side of
the ball, and defense we struggled a bit and I
think it ultimately ended us, ended our chances of being
able to compete for a championship, especially in two thousand
and three when we were thirteen to three.
Speaker 7 (15:07):
That was a very exciting season. I think we started
off nine to zero. It was just there was so
much hope and so much excitement.
Speaker 8 (15:17):
Around the city that this might be our year after
several years. But we just didn't have done in the playoffs.
It was a game against the Colts. I think we
may have punted once and they never punted, So whoever
had the ball.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
Last won the game.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Well, what was a dynamic like to be a defensive
player When you feel like maybe you're not quite holding
up your end.
Speaker 8 (15:40):
Well, you don't want to feel like a second class citizen.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
Then you don't always.
Speaker 8 (15:45):
Want to kind of be down to the media all
the time and just saying the offense is so much
better than the defense. Offense is so much better, So
I would always try to internalize it and just try
to fix the problems at hand that we had the
offense do their thing, and I was kind of a
bit of a mouthpiece for all those guys on defense,
(16:05):
so I would just try to take and deflect all
questions as much as possible. And it stunk, right, I
can't tell you a lie. It's stunk.
Speaker 7 (16:15):
But you know that's what you get paid the big
bucks for.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Well, you individually had some great success. You had a
fourteen SAX season, you had a nine SAX season, and
you know it's SAX isn't obviously everything, but you actually
did quite well in that area.
Speaker 8 (16:31):
Yeah, I did have some pretty successful seasons. I ended
up having a great defensive line coach my entire time there,
almost my entire time for eight years, named Bob Carmelowitz, who.
Speaker 7 (16:45):
Really believed in me and got me in.
Speaker 8 (16:47):
A lot of right positions and worked hard to ensure
that my career was on an upward trajectory. I know
he did a lot for Jared Allen as well, but
it was nice being successful. But you ultimately, I don't
want to sound like a cliche, but it's a team game.
But it's good to be able to go out there
and do your job effectively well.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
And old saying in football is one of the best
abilities is availability. And you were available. You played basically
all the time, almost every game throughout your career. That
had to take a toll, it did, it did.
Speaker 8 (17:24):
And that's back a little bit in the era where
they ran the ball quite a bit more than they
do now. They throw the ball all over the yard now,
and back then they ran and they ran right and
I was the left end, so I got a lot
of contact there. But I always took pride in my conditioning,
my physical conditioning, keeping up lifting during the season, obviously
(17:45):
lifting very hard during the offseason. And I always said,
and I say it now, stay out of the training room.
That place is a black hole. Obviously, if you get injured,
you got to go in there. Don't go in there
for bumps and bruises. You're just it's a place that's
going to suck you in every time. And if you
stay away from there, it helps make you a tougher person, yes,
(18:07):
but it also helps you be employed because you're on
the field a lot.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
More more of Danny's Reasonably Irreverend Podcast after this.
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Speaker 6 (20:34):
Our guest is Eric Kicks.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
He played a decade in the National Football League, almost
all of it for the Kansas City Chiefs. Sin is
now a Chief's ambassador and had a standout career. And
so when the career arc is sort of winding down,
when would you start to think about or do you
think about, as you know, you're in your eighth year
or so, what the endgame might be.
Speaker 8 (21:00):
I was rolling along pretty good in my eighth year,
had it going pretty good. An injury is actually what
limited me and got me out of the league. It
was a cold night in the meadowlands and I fell
with my arm pinned to my head and tore everything
up in my shoulder. Ended up playing the rest of
that season when I probably shouldn't have. We're trying to
(21:21):
make the playoffs. In two thousand and five, I think
when the draft came along and they drafted Tombahawley I
probably saw the writing on the wall the most. That's
just the cold hard facts of it and taking nothing
away from Tom, but he had a great career. But
I was thinking that after nine years, they're probably nine
(21:43):
years and my being made and all those factors, it
was probably gonna be time for me to move on.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah, And in two thousand and eight, you played all
the games, but you didn't start any and so at
that point in time, are you starting to think that
it might be the writing was on the wall a
little bit.
Speaker 8 (22:01):
Yeah, I think you'd be lying to yourself if you didn't.
It's just part of the game. It's a business. I
can remember being young and you know, giving guys like
Dave Zot a look, you know, on the side and
practice and I'd be going really really fast and he'd
be like, slow down. He was like, you're you don't
(22:24):
realize that you're going Your body is physically going to
slow down. At some point I was like, oh no,
I'm forever gonna be able to move as fast, And
they do all these things and it didn't end up
working that way. And I think that's that's the realization
that every player comes to.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Tell me a little bit about the off the field
times during your pro football career, in your time here
in Kansas City, family, et cetera.
Speaker 8 (22:48):
Yeah, well, people probably remember the story that my daughter
was pretty sick when I was a young player and
she was just born having had four open heart surgeries.
So we developed our foundation, and the Chiefs are big
on foundations then as they are now. It was called
the Hicks Farhartz Foundation. We did a lot of work
with children's Mercy. We had a golf tournament, We did
(23:10):
various activities around the town to promote the American Heart Association.
Differ different causes about that. It was great being a dad.
My kids got to grow up in Overland Park to
the they both went to Blue Valley West that both
graduated college. Now Kansas City has been my home for
(23:31):
twenty seven going on twenty eight years. You know, it
wasn't a smooth transition after football.
Speaker 7 (23:39):
There was definitely a lot of depression.
Speaker 8 (23:43):
A lot of thinking that you're self worth isn't what
it is or what people perceive it to be.
Speaker 7 (23:51):
You just feel down on yourself all the time.
Speaker 8 (23:54):
And it's not really about the football all that much.
I don't really miss to this day playing football all
that much, but it.
Speaker 7 (24:02):
Was being in the locker room being around.
Speaker 8 (24:04):
Those guys often say it's the finest forum on relations
that you could possibly have in life because everybody kind
of just says what they say, and you work it
out the way you work it out, and nobody ever
hears about it. Even in today's day of cell phones,
(24:24):
cell phone cameras and everything, they still keep it pretty
much in house. But yeah, I definitely struggled a little
bit when I got done playing.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
And what it sounds like that's something that you were
able to get past. However, you did a lot of coaching.
What was the process of maybe coming out the other
side as a person with a bigger smile on your face.
Speaker 7 (24:47):
Well, I can just remember that, you know.
Speaker 8 (24:50):
I've thought to myself, I have to get off the
couch at some point, And I ended up volunteering for
a high school in Overland Park and then did a
couple of jobs here and there, coached in a couple
of the leagues that are were the precursors to the
United Football League now the USFL and the Spring League
(25:12):
and things like that. Coach with coach Terry Shay, who
was our quarterbacks coach here.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
He was the head coach of all those teams.
Speaker 8 (25:21):
Ended up going to college and back to college and
getting a master's degree at thirty six years old. That
was interesting. And then I was a head coach at
Avla for a year and now I'm back at Ola
the South coaching with a good money of mind Mike Allen,
(25:41):
who just got the head coaching job there. So I'm
keeping busy. It's a good time.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
How rewarding is it to try to pass along the lessons?
And these guys they may not remember you as a
Chiefs player, but their parents would or whatever, so there's
a probably a built in respect there. But what's that
like teaching the young guys?
Speaker 8 (26:02):
Right, It's important to pass down the knowledge, but it's
important to pass it down the correct way. I often
say that football is a microcosm of life. There's no
lesson that we're teaching you in football that you're not
going to learn in life, and probably worse lessons in life.
Because I can remember playing against Peyton Manning several times,
(26:23):
and I know football players talk about I'm a soldier
or you know, it's a war in there. Well, he
never tried to shoot me after the game, So do
you have to realize that as much as we teach
you in football and the lessons that can be carried
over throughout life, it's truly not life and death.
Speaker 7 (26:42):
But we're going to try to make the.
Speaker 8 (26:43):
Situation as close to reality as possible for you, so
you make a smooth transition into being a better college student,
being a better father, being a better husband.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
When you get older, when you know a lot of
people who will see another generation coming along will say, well,
it was better back in my day. How do you
react to the young people and as you say, the
social media and the cell phones and the challenges that
that brings, is you're trying to pass lessons along.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
I tell you it's gotta be an a daunting task
for these young people today. I can remember I saw
I went to a concert. I saw Lona Richie, and
Lona Richie said, back in my day, you could do
the worst thing that you've ever done in the history
of your life, and you wake up in the next
(27:38):
morning and it never even happened. That's how it was,
even through my college years, talking to my college buddies, saying,
could you believe if we had cell phone cameras and everything.
Speaker 7 (27:51):
Being back in college. It would have been a very
different outcome.
Speaker 8 (27:55):
Our behavior probably would have changed accordingly, but it had
been a different outcome. But yeah, the cell phones and
the video games, I think is what gets me. Those kids,
they sit in front of that thing. I don't understand
how their brain doesn't rot. But you know, I'm glad
we didn't have all those choices back in the day.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Well, you mentioned your children and graduating from college. Now
break on them a little bit.
Speaker 8 (28:22):
Yeah, my daughter is twenty six. She graduated from Kansas State.
She works in the social media world. She's actually about
to get married in October, so that's exciting for our family.
My son is twenty two. He played football at Bowling
Green ended up graduating from there in three years. I
had some pretty significant injuries, so we decided to stop
(28:45):
playing football. He's a graduate assistant now, I mean a
graduate student at Rockhurst University in town and he plays lacrosse.
Had a couple of years of eligibility left, so this
will be his last year of competing and he'll get
his in.
Speaker 7 (29:00):
So they're doing well. Both great kids.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
That's really cool. You mentioned in passing that getting a
master's degree at age thirty six and sort of off
handily said, well, that was interesting, but tell me, tell
me about the challenge of doing that, and you know,
deciding that that was something that was a great challenge
you wanted to take on.
Speaker 8 (29:22):
Well, not having not been in college since twenty two
years old, that's quite a gap, and to have all
the events and everything that happened in those years that
passed in between there. But an opportunity opened up down
in Texas with a guy I had worked at at
an All Star game one time and went down there.
(29:44):
The toughest part was to tell you the truth. So
we'd have practice like normal and have to break down
practice like normal and all of that, but I'd have
to go to class on Wednesdays and Monday nights and
leave practice.
Speaker 7 (29:57):
So it was definitely different for me. You know.
Speaker 8 (30:01):
I was always a team first guy and a guy
that followed the rules.
Speaker 7 (30:07):
And made sure all the rules.
Speaker 8 (30:08):
Were in order, and having to just leave everything was different,
and doing the football work and the school work at
the same time was a bit of a challenge.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You're a Chief's ambassador now, and the Chief's ambassador during
a time when the chiefs are you know, well one
of the best, if not the best every year.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
But what's that experience like for you.
Speaker 7 (30:31):
The ambassador experience.
Speaker 8 (30:33):
Yes, it's great, to tell you the truth, I was
a little bit kind of reserved about joining them when
they first approached me. You know, I was like, I
don't really want to sit down and talk about football
all day and all that, right, But that's totally not
what the organization is about. They accepted me with open arms.
(30:54):
The organization is great. It's the greatest alumni organization in
the NFL, and what I from what I understand, was
the first and is the oldest. But I wasn't aware
of the work that they did in the money that
they draw into their five oh one C three status
and the fact that they give us money to be
(31:16):
able to give out grants every year. Then the fact
that we can go out in the community and we
can attend these events and hand these checks out or
just go to support another ambassador's event, and frankly, sitting
around with the guys every now and then isn't all
that bad either.
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Well, you're still a young man.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
You're forty nine years old right now, so you've got
a milestone birthday here coming up fairly soon.
Speaker 7 (31:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
Yeah, But your birthday has.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Just passed a little bit ago, so you got some
time there. But what's in the future for Eri Kicks, Well.
Speaker 7 (31:51):
We'll see.
Speaker 8 (31:53):
Thinking about maybe going back to school for continuing education,
get a second bachelor's degree or a second master's. I'm
going to continue coaching football only the South. I like
to travel quite a bit, try to do that when
I can. You know, that's not no matter. If you
still have adults, they still have activities that.
Speaker 7 (32:14):
You feel compelled to go to.
Speaker 8 (32:16):
So uh, it's kind of hard to get around, but
that's that's part of being a dad. So I'm on
a I'm on a good path, and I can't complain.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
When you reflect back on the first half century of
your life, it seems like it is with a certain
amount of gratitude.
Speaker 8 (32:36):
Oh absolutely, I I've led led an extraordinary life life
as you probably write a book on. And the only
problem is I don't know how to write, and I
wouldn't be able to throw the people under the bus.
Then I would never I would never do that to
be able to write a successful, entertaining book. But I
(32:56):
can't complain one bit. Have healthy, chill, they've grown, had
a great career. I have been able to do things
in life that I could have only dreamed of being
a small small boy. Yes, I was small at one time.
From Erie, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
We hope you enjoyed the latest Danny Klinkscale Reasonably irreverent podcast.
Come back soon for something fresh and new. This podcast
was made possible by our great sponsors like Eastern Roofing,
where integrity matters. Joe Spiker and his team are the
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(33:36):
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