Pink Slips May Await These 2 After Today
On Tuesday, the Associated Press bureau in Kansas City moved a story that began this way: “Job security has never gone hand in hand with coaching football, but there may not be a coach anywhere with greater reason to worry than Frank Gansz.”
Wanna bet?
Win, lose, or draw against Gansz’s Chiefs today, Charger Coach Al Saunders appears almost certain to lose his job. It might happen as early as Monday. It could happen after the game if team owner Alex Spanos doesn’t like what he sees.
At least Gansz’s job is safe until Kansas City owner Lamar Hunt hires a new general manager whom Hunt says will have full authority to keep Gansz or hire the coach of his choice.
Welcome to the Lame Duck Bowl.
It features the two worst teams in AFC West, a division that has had less success than any other in the NFL this year. If the Chargers (5-10) lose, they will finish last in the division. If the Chiefs (4-10-1) lose, they will be last.
Nevertheless, both will be looking to finish their miserable campaigns on a positive note. Both have won three of their past five. The Chiefs also have won eight consecutive season finales, more than any team in the league. But that statistic is offset by their failure to win on the road this year.
None of which much matters if the teams can’t see their way through the pall that hangs over this game like a shroud. Gansz has eight victories in 2 years in Kansas City. Saunders’ Chargers have lost 16 of the past 21. That their jobs are probably beyond saving shouldn’t surprise anyone.
“I think you have to look at it from a professional standpoint,” says Charger quarterback Mark Malone. “Our job is to go out and be prepared to play hard and win the football game. I think if you start getting caught up in politics and what’s going on upstairs, your head’s in the wrong place.”
“I think our players are going to go out and play their hearts out just like they have been playing,” says Jerry Rhome, the Charger offensive coordinator.
“For me, it’s not a distraction,” says Charger guard Dennis McKnight, referring directly to published reports that Saunders’ firing is imminent. “I’ve seen things in the papers before that didn’t come out the way it was.”
“You just have to go on about your business,” Gansz says. “It’s a requirement . . . that you have to understand some things about professional football.”
OK, fellas. We get the idea. You line up across from another human being who wants to knock your block off, and you don’t think about your boss’s job security. You think about protecting yourself. You try to do your job.
You hope somebody will look at films of how you did and decide they want you to play on their team next year.
McKnight and the rest of the Charger offensive line know the best way they can accomplish the latter is to continue to open lanes for running back Gary Anderson. Despite playing for the third-worst offense in the league, Anderson has averaged 4.7 yards per carry and needs just 98 yards to become only the sixth Charger in 29 years to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
Anderson motored for a career-high 170 yards in the Chargers’ 20-14 victory over Pittsburgh last week. And in the Chargers’ 24-23 victory over the Chiefs in Week 4, Anderson finished with 131 yards, a career-high at the time. The Chiefs’ rushing defense is the second worst in the NFL.
“In the course of the game, if we’re playing well, Gary should get the ball enough times to accomplish that (1,000 yards),” Saunders says.
Rhome talked to Anderson about it early in the week. “I told him, ‘Gary, we can’t go into the game thinking about it . . . ‘ “
Anderson cut Rhome off in mid-sentence.
“He told me, ‘Coach, I just want to win,’ ” Rhome said. “And I told, him if we do that, the 1,000 yards will take care of itself.”
If Anderson is several yards short of 1,000 late in the game--a stat the team will monitor--one Charger coach said, “You can bet we’ll get him those yards.”
The last Charger running back to gain 1,000 yards was Earnest Jackson in 1984. The only Charger running back to gain 1,000 yards a season more than once was Paul Lowe (1963 and 1965).
If the Chiefs lose, they will complete their first winless season on the road in team history. This is a dubious distinction. And, says Gansz, there is nothing mysterious about it. “It’s not magic,” he says. “It’s just straight football. It doesn’t change whether you’re on the road or on the moon. When we can stop the run and score when we have field position, we’ll win on the road.”