Kansas City Has Some New Chiefs and Old Quarterbacks : Schottenheimer, Peterson Call Shots; DeBerg, Jaworski the Signals

Marty Schottenheimer, who coached the Cleveland Browns into the playoffs the last four years, and Carl Peterson, a general manager who helped rebuild the Philadelphia Eagles, are trying to overhaul the Kansas City Chiefs.

It won’t be easy.

The day after Schottenheimer was hired, a cartoon of the coach appeared in the Kansas City Star & Times. It showed Schottenheimer in a dingy at the bottom of a lake. The caption: “We can make this boat a winner in no time.”

The Chiefs haven’t been a winner in a long time. In fact, they last won a division championship 18 seasons ago.

And Kansas City coaches have had short life expectancies. Since Hank Stram left the Chiefs in 1974, Kansas City has had six coaches.

But if owner Lamar Hunt wants to recapture the Chiefs’ lost glory, he might well have hired the right men this time in Schottenheimer and Peterson.

Schottenheimer is the first coach in the Chiefs’ 29-year history with previous head coaching experience in the National Football League and Peterson is the first Chief executive with a football background.

A former UCLA assistant, Peterson accompanied Dick Vermeil to Philadelphia and later became personnel director of the Eagles. The Eagles, who hadn’t had a winning season in 12 years, played in the Super Bowl after the 1980 season and made the playoffs during the final four seasons Peterson was with the team.

After rebuilding the Eagles, Peterson left for the United States Football League, where he built the Philadelphia-Baltimore Stars into the USFL’s best organization--winning two titles in three seasons.

And Schottenheimer? After taking over the Cleveland Browns in 1984, he coached them to a 46-31 record in 4 1/2 seasons before he was fired by owner Art Modell in a dispute over coaching control last December. The only coach who has taken his team to the AFC playoffs for the last four years, Schottenheimer won three divisional titles.

Schottenheimer and Peterson have cleaned house here, having made 57 player transactions between February and the start of training camp. Forty-seven of the 80 players who reported to training camp weren’t with the Chiefs last season.

Bill Kenney, quarterback for the last nine years, was released. And the Chiefs signed 17 Plan B free agents, including veteran quarterback Ron Jaworski.

Jaworski, 38, is competing with Steve DeBerg, 35, for the starting job, which DeBerg has won, at least for Sunday’s opener at Denver.

Is Schottenheimer worried about having two quarterbacks with so many miles on them?

“Not nearly as much as I would be if I had two 21-year-old quarterbacks,” Schottenheimer said. “I think we’ll have to draw on the strength of the quarterbacks, which is experience.”

Len Dawson, the Hall of Fame Chiefs’ quarterback, thinks the new regime is making progress.

“It looks like they’re making the right moves,” said Dawson, a local sportscaster. “But the big question you’ve got to ask is, do they have the talent? We had great talent when we went to the Super Bowl (after the 1966 and 1969 seasons). They don’t have Super Bowl talent, but other teams in the (AFC) West are having the same problems.”

Schottenheimer said he hopes to contend this season, and Peterson would like to build a team that will be a perennial contender.

The Chiefs, who have drawn poorly at 78,000-seat Arrowhead Stadium, are also trying to re-sell Kansas City on the team. Schottenheimer and Peterson are the focus of a high-profile marketing campaign to sell season tickets.

Why not sell the players instead?

“It’s pretty hard to sell a team that has gone 8-22-1 over the last two seasons,” said Bob Moore, the team’s publicist.

In any event, the campaign has resulted in a 22.7% increase in season ticket sales, best in the NFL this season. But the Chiefs, who sold just 26,594 season tickets last year, had the lowest ticket base on which to improve.

The Chiefs, who used to operate with a skeleton sales staff, hired Joel Finglass, a marketing whiz from the Dallas Sidekicks of the Major Indoor Soccer League, and increased their sales force.

One season-ticket holder was invited to Arrowhead Stadium for a gourmet lunch on the 50-yard line with Peterson and Schottenheimer. He bought more than 200 additional season tickets.

“We’ve been more aggressive than ever before,” said Theotis Brown, a former UCLA running back who joined the front office after retiring from the Chiefs.

The Big Chief

After he was hired as a UCLA assistant football coach in 1972, Carl Peterson called his wife.

“Honey, the good news is that I got the job at the alma mater,” he told his wife. “The bad news is that I had to take a $12,000 pay cut.”

Peterson coached the wide receivers for two years on Pepper Rodgers’ staff and remained in the same job when Dick Vermeil replaced Rodgers in 1974.

But when Vermeil left UCLA for the Eagles in 1976, Peterson went with him.

“I knew I didn’t want to be a college coach when I was 50,” Peterson said. “I didn’t want to be recruiting high school kids.”

After earning his doctorate in higher education administration at UCLA, Peterson got his pro football education with the Eagles. He coached the Eagle tight ends for a year, then moved into the front office as player personnel director.

“I told Dick that I’d rather be the guy that does the hiring and the firing rather than the guy that gets fired,” he said.

Peterson proved to be a shrewd judge of talent, drafting several players who made big impacts in the NFL, among them linebacker Jerry Robinson, now of the Raiders.

The Eagles, who had 12 consecutive losing seasons, flourished under Vermeil and Peterson, advancing to the Super Bowl after the 1980 season.

But Peterson wasn’t satisfied.

He left in 1982 to become president and general manager of the Philadelphia-Baltimore Stars of the USFL. If every franchise had been run as well as the Stars, the USFL might not have folded. They won the 1984 and 1985 league championships and led the league in attendance for three seasons.

Among the other things he did with the Stars, Peterson hired Jim Mora, defensive coordinator at the University of Washington, as head coach. Mora now coaches of the New Orleans Saints.

“Carl did it with the Stars,” Mora told the Kansas City Star & Times. “There’s no reason he can’t do it again in Kansas City.”

After the USFL folded, Peterson joined a group that was trying to bring an NFL team to Baltimore. He later helped start Philly Sport, a monthly magazine.

But Peterson longed to return to the NFL and his dream materialized last December when Lamar Hunt signed him to a four-year contract. Hunt gave Peterson complete control of the Chiefs. Peterson brought 17 former staff members from the Stars to the Chiefs’ front office and coaching staff.

“What I did in the USFL was to build from scratch,” Peterson said. “This is a rebuilding thing, similar to the Eagles. And I don’t have to tell you it’s not going to be easy.”

Peterson’s other goal is to turn a profit.

A tough negotiator, he has tried to hold the line on player contracts. Two all-pros, kicker Nick Lowery and wide receiver Stephone Paige, ended holdouts last week after Peterson said the Chiefs were prepared to play without them this season.

“I’m not here to make examples,” Peterson said. “I want to be fair but I don’t want to throw everything away.”

Said safety Deron Cherry, who signed a new contract with the Chiefs this season: “It’s not that (Peterson is) cheap. He’s a tough businessman, but that’s what he has to be.”

Although there was speculation that Peterson would lure Vermeil out of retirement, his first move was to hire Schottenheimer, who was ousted by the Browns on Dec. 27.

Peterson was compiling a list of coaching candidates when Schottenheimer phoned.

“Marty told me that I was going to hear on TV that he had resigned as coach of the Browns,” Peterson said. “He said that he’d never quit anything in his life and he still wanted to be an NFL coach.”

Workaholics, Peterson and Schottenheimer seem perfectly matched. Peterson even sits in on team meetings.

“Most general managers seem removed from the players,” DeBerg said. “But you see Carl in meetings. He’s an X’s and O’s guy.”

Peterson said: “Marty has the final say in hiring and firing his staff. And we’re both involved in personnel. But there can be only one captain and that’s the general manager.”

The New Coach

Marty Schottenheimer was scowling after the Chiefs lost their first exhibition game, 23-13, to the Minnesota Vikings.

Schottenheimer looked ready to explode when he met the press.

Instead he began the interview with a joke.

“The only good thing about the game was that it didn’t count,” Schottenheimer said with a laugh.

After feuding with Cleveland reporters, who found him aloof and arrogant, Schottenheimer is trying to charm the Kansas City press.

“My relationship with the media in Cleveland wasn’t a particularly good one, and I’m sure part of that was my fault,” Schottenheimer said.

Why has his relationship with the media improved in Kansas City?

“I’m not sure I know,” he said. “I’ve always recognized that the media has a job to do and I’ve always tried to help them do it. But the biggest problem I had with the media in Cleveland was that they felt I was compelled to give them information relative to our players. And I have never felt compelled to share information that I felt would compromise our ability to be a successful football team.

“I’ve had several of the media members in Cleveland say that I wasn’t fair to them because I wouldn’t identify players who made errors in games. I’ll never single out a player that way because it’s my philosophy. But (the reporters) thought I was being unfair to them and maybe they were right.

“Could we create a little controversy if I kept going along this line?”

Although Schottenheimer has changed his image, he hasn’t changed the work ethic than enabled him to become the AFC’s winningest coach over the last two seasons.

“Marty almost took us to the Super Bowl,” said Art Modell, the Browns’ owner. “I think he’s going to do a good job with the Chiefs.”

Schottenheimer arrives at the office at 7 a.m. and stays as late as 1 a.m. His practices, though well organized, seem to go on forever.

“Some people would say I’m extremely thorough,” Schottenheimer said. “I happen to think I’m just very slow.”

Jaworski said that Schottenheimer’s work habits are similar to, but not exactly the same as, those of Vermeil, who quit, citing burnout.

“Dick was football 24 hours a day,” Jaworski said. “Marty is football 18 hours a day. Unlike Dick, he has the ability to relax.”

After replacing Frank Gansz, who coached the Chiefs to an 8-22-1 record over the last two seasons, Schottenheimer has installed new offensive and defensive systems.

The Chiefs like them.

“He has a proven system and he knows it works,” linebacker Dino Hackett said. “With Marty, you always know where he’s coming from. In the past I wasn’t sure if (former coaches) were trying to hide something.”

The Chiefs are also impressed with Schottenheimer’s football knowledge.

“The only other coach I knew who could coach offense and defense like Marty was Tom Landry,” DeBerg said.

The Old Quarterbacks

DeBerg is the best quarterback coach in the NFL who isn’t a quarterback coach.

Since entering the NFL in 1978, he has taught Joe Montana, John Elway, Steve Young and Vinny Testaverde.

“I’ll be somewhere and then that team will have the opportunity to draft the next Joe Namath,” DeBerg said. “When they get drafted, I have to help them learn how to be NFL quarterbacks.

“I couldn’t relate to them because of their age. But with Ron, we give each other feedback.”

After losing his job so often to young quarterbacks, DeBerg is battling Jaworski, who is three years older.

“I prefer not to be in this situation, but if that’s what it takes to win I’ll do it,” DeBerg said. “I’ve had numbers and all that. I just want to be on a winning team.”

Jaworski is used to quarterback controversies.

When he began his career with the Rams in 1973, John Hadl was the incumbent. After Jaworski beat out Hadl, he was unseated by Pat Haden and traded to the Eagles.

Jaworski flourished in Philadelphia and was voted the NFC player of the year for 1980 after leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl. But injuries and age slowed him and after the Eagles drafted Randall Cunningham, he left for Miami, where he played behind Dan Marino. Jaworski has thrown only 14 passes over the last two seasons.

A free agent, Jaworski signed with the Chiefs, where he was reunited with Peterson.

The Chiefs are hoping that the two old quarterbacks can rejuvenate the floundering franchise.

But DeBerg warned that it’s not going to be easy.

“There are a lot of people here walking around with question marks on their faces,” DeBerg said.