Chiefs Owner Addresses Status Of Key Veterans

On Monday, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt addressed the future of three high-profile members of the team during a break in the league meetings. According to Adam Teicher of the Kansas City Star, Hunt believes that tight end Tony Gonzalez likely will stay, and that running back Larry Johnson and guard Brian Waters might stay. As to Gonzalez, Hunt says that no action will be taken to move the perennial Pro Bowler. “We certainly will not seek a trade for Tony,” Hunt said. “I think he’s excited about the changes we’ve made here. I think he recognizes that with Todd [Haley] as the head coach, we’re going to have an exciting offense and one that will feature the passing game. No matter our starting quarterback, it will be someone who will look his way quite a bit.” Johnson seemed dead set of leaving based on comments he made last month to a Kansas City radio station. But Hunt now seems to think that Johnson might choose to stick around. “It’s still my hope Larry will be a part of this team next season,” Hunt said. “We all saw the comments he made at the end of the season and repeated about a month later. Those were disappointing. Recently, I’ve heard he’s excited about being a Kansas City Chief again and expects to be in the offseason program and help us be successful.” If that last sentence is accurate, it would represent a remarkable change in attitude. Indeed, Johnson made a public plea to be traded or released during a radio spot -- and he specifically asked that the segment commence with this quote from Al Pacino in the movie Scarface: “You’re all a bunch of f--king assholes. You know why? You don’t have the guts to be what you wanna be. You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your f--king fingers and say, ‘That’s the bad guy.’ “So, what [does] that make you, good? You’re not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don’t have that card. Me, I always tell the truth, even when I lie.” Waters also sounded off last month regarding the new regime in Kansas City, and based on Hunt’s words it sounds like Waters is the most likely to be traded. “I have to say I was surprised by Brian Waters and his comments,” Hunt said. “My experience with him is that he’s been a leader for the team and wants to play for the Chiefs. Those comments were probably made in the heat of the moment. It’s important for Brian and Todd and Scott to get to spend some time together working with each other before any kind of decision is made there.” So there’s a chance that all three of the players ultimately will stick around. Given the noise that each of them were making not all that long ago, finding a way to make the three players want to stay would represent a major victory of the Pioli-Haley era.