GRETZ: Where there's a Will …

Apr 01, 2005, 5:40:52 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

This must be the cruelest of April fool’s jokes: Will Shields status in the Chiefs starting offensive line is up in the air?

Will he retire? Will he play on? Will Will find a way? Suddenly, it has become one of the biggest topics of discussions in the Chiefs Kingdom. The Chiefs are lifting weights and running sprints and Will Shields is not among them.

Now, he could stay home until the first day of the regular season and step into the starting lineup and it would probably be hard to tell he’d been missing. That’s the way it is with a player that has played as long and as well as Shields; there are certain things that come naturally, especially for an athlete as physically gifted and intelligent as him.

Right now, Shields is skipping school, but they are all classes that he can make up. He’s trying to decide if he’s going to graduate early.

Naturally, the mere thought has fans, coaches and teammates concerned, as well it should. Will Shields is one of the greatest players to ever wear Lamar Hunt’s red and gold uniform. He is the best offensive lineman in team history and should, I say should, find a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Will he hang’em up after 12 seasons? I’m not going to try and read his mind. Shields says the same things now that he was saying about a month ago during an event at the stadium. That was pretty much the same thing he said way back in January: he’s thinking through the situation, his future and he has yet to make a decision.

When you’ve played 192 consecutive games … when you can count the number of practice sessions you’ve missed over 12 years on your fingers and have some left over … when you’ve had the type of collisions that Shields has lived through … pondering retirement is a 365-day a year matter.

If you doubt me, then do this simple experiment: go out to the garage or down to the basement and find the heaviest object you can physically lift and carry. Now, pick that object up and sprint as fast as you can for about 10 yards and run into a wall. Pick yourself up, pick up the object and do it again, and again, and again … Do it about 60 times, if you can survive that long. You’ll want to retire as well.

Even that won’t give you an idea of what Shields and his body have gone through during his time in the NFL. He’s never missed a game because of injury, but that doesn’t mean Shields hasn’t been hurt. Knee and ankle injuries have cost him plays within a game and there was that Houston game back in 2003 when a sore hip flared up and he almost was a pre-game scratch.

Not surprisingly, Shields played that day, just as he did in every game before that, and every game since.

Frequently, we take for granted athletes like Will Shields. So often, our attention gets diverted by the meteors that flash across the sporting sky. No matter when he decides to leave the game – now, next season, after that – Will Shields will be missed. Someone will take his place, maybe even perform quite well, but he won’t be Will Shields.

The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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A former beat reporter who covered the Pittsburgh Steelers during their glory years, Gretz covered the Chiefs for the Kansas City Star for nine years. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Board of Selectors. He has been the senior columnist for the Chiefs web site since its inception.