LNBS: Why were the Chiefs bad in the 1980s?
 

Looking at the roster they had a good secondary (Albert Lewis, Deron Cherry, Kevin Ross, Lloyd Burress) and the receiving corps seemed pretty nice (Stephon Paige, Carlos Carson, Henry Marshall).

I know they never had a great quarterback but I feel like I’m missing something. For the fans who remember, why did they suck?

Quarterback was an albatross

One Man One Draft Pick
Todd ****ing Blacksludge
I despise him
Top of the list for Chiefs draft busts. The guy is a poser. These days I turn the channel when he is in the booth. If there was one guy I could kick in the teeth it would be him.

Paging George...

Patrick Mahomes wasn’t born until 1995

Why blame him though? 83 was before my sports memory started, but my dad always says he hated the draft pick at the time because Penn State was not known as a passing team so he didn't get why you want their QB? Seems like you should be mad at the GM.

I first switched from being a Cowboys fan (like my stepdad) to a Chiefs fan in 1982 when we started 6-2 under Marv Levy and even my stepdad thought we would make the playoffs for the first time in my sentient life. We didn't. And we stupidly let Levy go. But I was hooked.

In 1986, I was the only one in my family who thought we had a chance to make the playoffs. We did and my whole extended family got together for the game. I was like, "Ohhh this is what rooting for a winning team is like. This is fun!"

We lost badly and fired the head coach in favor of the special teams coach. It did not go well.

That's basically all I remember from the 80s until 1989, when Marty arrived to introduce us to a whole new kind of pain.

You can bugger right off. You are not the first to use reason and logic to take my hate away. Blacksludge had no interest in putting in the work to play in the NFL. He was a grifter. And don't get me started on Joe Pa and Puss State.

Here's some NFL education from 1983

The quarterbacks drafted after Todd Blackledge in the 1983 NFL Draft were:
Jim Kelly: Selected 14th by the Buffalo Bills
Tony Eason: Selected 15th by the New England Patriots
Ken O'Brien: Selected 24th by the New York Jets
Dan Marino: Selected 27th by the Miami Dolphins

Jack Steadman


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firing your coach after having made the playoffs didn't help things. who knows what they would have been like had they kept makovich as coach? :D

He was the Chiefs historian here. I always felt that was an underappreciated part of his presence on the Planet.

He still posts from time to time.

Did all the fat guys suck?

Georgeblowfish: it was 1984 my cousin's now dead and uncle now dead and a couple cats we had now dead headed to raytown road. We knew if we went that way we could stop at sambos for some food. We were all tired from watching Ray Adams fright nite. Wendell Anchewtz was said to flip the coin that day. As we walked into the Price Chopper entrance I couldnt help notice cub foods had cheaper prices.

LNBS: Why were the Chiefs bad in the 1980s?
 

No one likes to admit it now but Carl Peterson dragged the moribund franchise into competitiveness

Jack Steadman was an absolute cancer on the team in the 70s and 80s


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Our GM ran the team like it was the amusement park......Worlds of Fun!

"It's not bust QBs that tank franchises, it's the GMs who draft them."

Sure, I can see that, but I really think the QB on the field complete sucking asshole helps a lot

Hank Stram was such a singular force in the franchise’s initial success, that Lamar had no clue how to replicate that success until Marty/Carl.

Damn I forgot how hideous our cheering were.

Nope, that sums it up nicely.

Also why loaded teams in the 90's lost in the 1st round every year.

It was the failure of that loss that moved the universe to create the tulpa/Savior that was Patrick Mahomes....

I lived through it all.

Here are some of the things that I think killed the Chiefs of the 70s and 80s

1 - Early success led people in the org to believe they knew exactly what they were doing, when they didn't.

2 - Lloyd Wells had great connections to small "black" colleges at a time when the NFL was dragging its collective feet with integration. That source dried up when the NFL moved quickly to bring in black players they previously overlooked.

3 - The Blackledge fiasco stopped the org from drafting a 1st round QB for 35 years.

4 - Jack Steadman was not competent for the position he was in. He was just a friend of Lamar.

I'm sure there are more, but these things stand out in my mind. Any one of these things can bog down a franchise, but we were battling all four of them. It was a horrible time to be a Chiefs fan.

No, that was all Carl Peterson.

Carl wasn't here for Blackledge and had no connection to it. His refusal to draft a QB in rounds 1 or 2 for over a decade handcuffed this team.

Marty left KC and immediately drafted a franchise QB and put up 12 wins with a garbage franchise...

Fair enough, but there were a bunch of years between drafting Blackledge and Peterson taking over, and then after Peterson was gone and the Chiefs finally taking Patrick. It's not ALL on Peterson.

It’s hard to remember because half the games weren’t on tv then. Had good receivers and secondary and a kicker, but no QB, and the death of Joe Delaney who only played in 81 and 82 were what I remembered. We sucked in the 70’s too, so I’m guessing our draft history was pretty terrible for a 15-20 year stretch. We fired Marv Levy after the strike season in 82 and brought in Mackovic. Maybe if Levy was around for one more season, we draft Marino or Jim Kelly instead of Blackledge. I just remembered we sucked, every other team in the division had a better QB and listening to a lot of games on the radio.

JFC.. I tried picking one, but.. Holy crap…

The late-seventies and early-eighties also suffered from terrible drafts and hanging onto players that were past their prime. In an era before free agency, that was the perfect formula for suck.

Yep, I would like to get his take on it as well.

Lloyd Wells was the guy who brought real talent to the team. As the world became more integrated and more great black athletes attended more traditional powerhouse universities his influence waned. He was interviewed by Pat Summerall after the SB victory over the Vikings and Summerall referred to his connection at the HBC’s.

The 70’s roster just aged out. And Jack Steadman and Jim Schaaf were business men, not NFL talent men.

Failure to draft a decent QB. I mean for ****s sake, the allowed Frank Seuer a chance to start.

In the 80’s they had a lot of great individual pieces. And John Mackovic got them to a wild card playoff spot. They got eliminated by the JETS. But Nick Lowry didn’t like Mackovic and had a players meeting with Lamar where they demanded he be fired and that Frank Ganz could take over. This was AFTER mackovic signed a 2 year extension for getting the chiefs to the playoffs. Lamar cited a “Lack of chemistry between players and coach”.

The Chiefs clinched a playoff spot on the road in Pittsburgh while being outgained 571 - 190. They blocked a punt and returned it for a TD. Ran back a kickoff for a TD. Blocked a FG and returned THAT for a TD to hold on and win.

And that kids, is how Frank Ganz got a head coaching position.

Carl drafted Mike Elkins in round 2 in 1989 and Matt Blundin in round 2 in 1992.

They just drafted the wrong guys.

At this point this shit should be buried to never be spoke of a again. Much like a certain kicker. We're on the verge of a 3-peat for Christ sakes so lock this thread. Romper it! Delete it!

Drafting the wrong QB in the 1983 draft just killed us.
Todd Blackledge was terribad.
I know 20/20 hindsight and all, but how we passed up on Marino or Kelly is a head scratcher.

I'm very curious about this, though. I'm one of the younger crowd here, 80s Chiefs were before my time.

Why did the Chiefs fire Marv Levy?

Horrible QBs
Horrible Coaching

We went through teams with a good defense and 0 offense

Then we had teams with a lot of offense and zero defense.

Watching games in the 70s and 80s were brutal.

90s, 00s and 10s were all false hope

Then Mahomes and we all know the rest of the story

Anyone under 30 has no idea what a shitshow things were and why us old timers took so long to finally shake off the stank of failure.

QB was definitely and issue, and who knows if Marino who have succeeded here under Mackovic, but I would like to have hoped so. However, Marino and rumors dropped him to 27 so it wasn't considered a bad pick at the time.

My true feeling on what snakebit this franchise in the 80's was the death of Joe Delaney. Rookie of the year and his death hit the team and fanbase like a truck. I was in high school and I remember crying when I heard the news. News moved slow then, and my Dad had on the nightly news, as he did every night, at 5:30 when it came on midway through the broadcast. I was devestated as was the franchise and it's fans. If you pair a good running back and game with Blackledge, it may have led to some momentum. It was squashed that day when Joe Delaney was a hero. God rest his soul.

Dan Marino was drafted after Blackledge I believe. We had reachers in the draft IIRC, but, being out of market and no internet, not as dug into the details as I am now.

We signed a has been Joe Montanna, who was our best QB since Lenny Dawson. We made AFC Championship to get punked by the Bills RB, ran it down our throats.

QB1 is the key that unlocks all the doors.

Some players drafted after Blackledge:

Bruce Matthews
Jim Kelly
Dan Marino
Darrell Green



Woof ��

EXACTLY!

124-76 .619 as Chiefs HC. They were still good up through 73.

Delaney's death was crushing. RBs really mattered then.

I see you with top right next to the helmet. She's still out there in her early 60s.

I disagree. It's impossible to appreciate where we are unless you understand where we were.

There are tons of NFL fans out there that think it's "unfair" for the Chiefs to experience so much success, and maybe they're right, but OTOH, **** them. It's not like we haven't paid the price along the way.

And let's all take a moment to remember the Buffalo Bills of the early 90s. They went to 4 straight Super Bowls and lost every one of them. Their fans didn't give a damn that other fans wanted them to step aside. I remember seeing video of songs they sang telling the rest of the AFC to **** off. So, my sympathy for Buffalo fans is hitting the bottom peg.

None of the rest of the NFL gave a damn when the Chiefs sucked for so long. We were looked over, ignored, and laughed at. I lived that experience. They can all **** right off. I'm enjoying every damn bit of our current run and they can cry in their pillows all they want.

We're the Kansas City ****ing Chiefs and don't you ever forget it.

Yeah. **** man... could have had Marino and we got Shitledge.

If I remember correctly from documentaries, Marino slid because of alleged drug use??!

And Kelly slid because he had a short list of teams he was only willing to play for? Then he went to the USFL for a few years before the NFL.

Anyways, even Tony Eason and Ken O Brian would have been better than Blackledge. Both drafted after him.

Without reading all the posts, much of the blame goes to Hank Stram for not bringing on new talent and sticking with the older guys too long until they were done.

They had poor luck drafting Lenny Dawson's replacement. Steve Fuller and Todd Blackledge, both first round picks, were a horrible busts.

The Head Coach choices were pathetic, Marv Levy brought on the winged T which was an embarrassment. John Mackovic was horrible, Frank Ganz was a great special teams coach but not head coach.

Marty was such a welcome relief.

Marty Ball forever (it seemed). I did love that guy. RIP

The rest of the AFC West was also very good during that time-frame.

Scanned through the thread and one thing that has not been mentioned is Joe Delaney's untimely and tragic death in '8. This should be included in why KC sucked out loud in the 80's.

I left Missouri for good in 1984 when I went in the Navy. After that, and until the Montana days, it was nearly impossible for me to see a Chiefs game since they were almost never broadcast locally in Virginia or Illinois. And they certainly weren't broadcast when I was deployed.

Of course, I didn't miss much.

In that era, the Chiefs home games were rarely broadcast locally. That’s how bad they were.

Only Elway was drafted before Blackledge.

Dan Marino, Tony Eason, Ken O'Brien and Jim Kelly all drafted after him.

In fairness, Blackledge threw 22 TDs in his senior season. Those were elite numbers back then. Second nationally.

Chiefs whiffed drafting Marino and Kelly in 1983.

Poor Leadership.

Sorry Mr. Hunt, but you and Jack Steadman were far more interested in your other business interests than the Kansas City Chiefs Football Franchise - and it started in the mid 70's (not the 80's), and lasted until they got a real football guy in place (Carl Peterson). It was a rudderless ship in those days, and I'm so glad that shit is in our distant rear view.

Compare his JR to SR year stats. Evaluators didn't really put much emphasis on the whole picture, but rather the individual.

Alleged drug use was correct, which I don't think was ever proven. Pitt had their players tested in 1982, and they all were clean. It probably started off as him being a "partier", which is normal for a college student to do that. It just snowballed.

Also, if I recall correctly, the 1982 was also that year where the catchphrase "Just Say No" was growing.

I think Marino one was stricken off on one or two teams because he cussed out a receiver running a wrong route on a workout, but I'm not 100% positive on this one.

Either way, a lot of teams dropped the ball on this one, especially Kansas City. Selecting Blackledge over Marino set that franchise back 15 years.

He had the talent. He did not have the drive or desire to see it thru. He hung up his cleats right after the Chiefs drafted him.

He also won a national championship that year

Meanwhile, Marino had regressed his senior year, and got blown out twice by Blackledge in college (Pitt and Penn State were both great teams back then). He also had the drug rumors. Marino falling to the defending AFC Champ Dolphins shows how many teams didn’t believe in him

I will not have this Mike Elkins slander.

Bad QBs. End of story.

Steadman as a GM only because your buddies with Lamar. Lamar was a visionary man but, he had that blindspot for Steadman.

Interesting. I never realized why he went so low in the first round.

It's funny. I was born in 1983 and was born and raised in KC but my interest in football and the Chiefs didn't start until right around the time we got Joe Montana. However I do recall having really good seats at a playoff game in like 1990 or 1991. It was so bitterly cold. I think we played against the Raiders.

I do really need to go back and watch some stuff on the 80s Chiefs just for historical reference.

That was probably against Todd Marinovich

10-6 forever and a wild card shot. ;)

Yeah, I was fortunate during my hitch, 68-73, as they were on a lot. Willie Lanier was so fun to watch.

“Because Chiefs”

Who was that? Not disagreeing with you, just curious who he drafted?

There's a great ESPN 30 for 30 that goes into detail on the draft. I think it was Marino's agent at the time who took highly detailed notes on the whole process leading up to and after the draft and the show creator was able to recreate a lot of what happened that caused Marino to fall so far, including the cocaine rumors.

I cannot forget that 1985 draft and the Ethan Horton selection at #15 and how that didn't pan out and Horton was gone after the 1985 season. UGH!!

Looking at Horton's college stats, he was easily one of college football's best runners in his junior & senior seasons. If only he could have kept that going for KC, then who knows what might have been. But, such a thing never happened.

Jim Scaaf, GM from 1976 to 1988.

I’m assuming he means Drew Brees and Rivers a few years later?

But Marty didn’t draft a QB his one year with the Redskins. He brought in Jeff George.

Why do we blame Steadman? Should we be blaming Schaaf?

Steadman was GM from '60 to '76. He became President in '76 and Schaff took over as GM until 1988.

Steadman helped Lamar establish the AFL and helped put the Chiefs in Missouri. Our initial prominence is in large thanks to Steadman.

Sure, the decline began in the mid-70s under Steadman once all of the greats started aging out but Schaaf never truly dug us out during his tenure.

When Jack Steadman was named GM in 1966, the NFL was more a car club than a multi-billion $ enterprise...guys with money getting together, show off their cars, but was more of a reason to drink a few beers and show off their status. Hunt ran the Chiefs like this his entire life, he did not have the same drive to win as Al Davis et al, and hired business buddies with little to no football background to run the org. His scouting dept. literally knew as much as you and I about college football with the info we currently have. Drafts were abysmal, there was no focus on QB (even though all the SB champs of the era had HoF QBs)...drafting so high every year, you could hardly miss out on talent, but without a comprehensive rebuild plan like Parcells brought to the moribund Giants, they just floundered year after year. Several franchises did. I think it was Bill Walsh, Parcells, and Joe Gibbs that demonstrated to the league that they will anally rape you in the SB if you don't have a top notch scouting/personell dept., a HC that is also a highly organized CEO, and get a QB capable of running an efficient offense without TOs.

In the decade of the 80s, only Thiesmann and McMahon weren't multi-SB champs, and only the Bears didn't have a multi SB HC.

I always felt that Blackledge never really got a chance. There were lots of missed opportunities, Steve Fuller over Joe Montana. The coaching was bad, the Hunts had lost interest after winning the SB. I recall going to a lot of games in the 80s where there was absolutely no one in the upper seats. When games were televised, they cameras would stop at the gold club level to prevent showing the empty stadium. The loss of Joe Delaney really did send the team on a negative path. The Royals were always in contention and people only have so much money to spend on sports.

Yes, Schaaf was a disaster, but he was brought in by Steadman. Neither were "football" men, and Lamar Hunt was ultimately to blame for putting these men in charge of football operations and personnel decisions. They were a decade or two behind in the "science" and analytics of pro football. They were so far out of their element, I'm surprised they weren't busted at the airport in dresses trying to steal lingerie.

What did people think of Bill Kenney? He made the pro bowl in 1983

He's been mentioned, but my very 1st thought when seeing this thread title was Todd Blackledge. Not blaming him personally, but just picking him over QBs that had great careers. That pick set the franchise back a decade.