Turning the AFC West Upside Down

Dec 31, 2008, 8:55:09 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

In the last 15 years or so there were three individuals who pretty much dominated the discussion when it came to the AFC West.

One was Carl Peterson. Wednesday will be his last day as the president-general manager of the Chiefs.

The second was Mike Shanahan. On Tuesday, he was fired as head coach and major domo of the Broncos.

And the third was Al Davis. On Tuesday, the Raiders managing general partner was supposedly hurrying to hire a new head coach, with rumors resting on the head of former NFL quarterback-now Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh.

That Davis outlasted both Peterson and Shanahan in the division is bound to lift his spirits. He’s been battling health problems and missed his first Raiders game in some time last Sunday when his doctors ordered him not to make the trip to Tampa for the game against the Bucs.

Davis had no bigger foils in the division than Peterson and Shanahan, largely because their teams dominated his over the years.

That he remains and they are both now gone would have to rank as one of the NFL’s most surprising developments in 2008.

Early in Peterson’s tenure, Davis tried to run a power play or two on the Chiefs. He figuratively tried to push the team, something he had done in seasons before. Peterson pushed back and thus developed a personal rivalry between the two. It drove Davis crazy that under Peterson the Chiefs so dominated his football team, as the Raiders lost 30 of the 41 games played. The Chiefs had winning streaks in the last 20 years of six, seven and nine consecutive games.

At one point Davis so admired Shanahan that he named him head coach. That was in 1988. The football love affair lasted just 20 games, as Davis fired Shanahan four games into the 1989 season. Davis still owes his former coach money from his contract and has refused to pay over all these years.

That’s why Shanahan so enjoyed creating a 21-7 record against the Raiders over 14 seasons in Denver. At one point they had a seven-game winning streak.

Combined, Peterson’s Chiefs and Shanahan’s Broncos were 51-18 against the Raiders, a winning percentage of .739.

Peterson resigned a year before his contract was due to expire. Shanahan was fired when he refused to do the same to his defensive coordinator. Denver owner Pat Bowlen asked for the staff change after the Broncos collapse over the last month, when they blew a three-game lead and then lost what was the AFC West Bowl last Sunday night to San Diego. The Chargers scored 52 points against the Denver defense and apparently that was more than Bowlen could handle.

In the history of both franchises, Peterson and Shanahan will forever be iconic figures for making their teams the most competitive in the AFC West for such long periods of time.

But in a “what have you done for me lately” world, they both struggled in recent seasons. The Chiefs were 6-26 over the last two seasons as they try to rebuild with youth. They haven’t won a game in the playoffs since January of 1994. The Broncos were 24-24 in the last three years and missed the playoffs all three times, including twice on the last day of the season. They’ve won just one post-season game since John Elway retired after the 1998 season.

Now, the San Diego Chargers are the dominant team in the AFC West. They’ve won three straight division titles and four of the last five, including this season with a mere 8-8 record.

The only thing constant about the NFL is change, but the AFC West hasn’t seen anything like this in some time.

And I imagine Al Davis is smiling.

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.