Now That Was a Coaching Staff

Jan 14, 2009, 8:59:05 AM by Bob Gretz - FAQ

There was an interesting string of images that popped up on the telly Sunday afternoon during the San Diego-Pittsburgh divisional game in the playoffs.

At half-time, the CBS studio crew was covering the first half of the game. Bill Cowher got in the last word. They then cut to an update on the expected retirement the next day of Tony Dungy. Finally, they went to commercials with scenes from Heinz Field that included Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger talking to his offensive coordinator Bruce Arians.

What do three scenes from a broadcast have in common? Cowher, Dungy and Arians were all part of Marty Schottenheimer’s first coaching staff with the Chiefs in 1989.

It’s so easy 20 years after the fact to give credit for the complete turnaround in the fortunes of the Chiefs franchise to the trio of Carl Peterson, Marty Schottenheimer and Derrick Thomas. There’s no question that they were the leaders in changing the culture of what had been one of the NFL’s most moribund franchises.

But forgotten over the years was the coaching staff that Schottenheimer put together that helped change the landscape. Just how good the group was can be seen 20 years later as members of that staff are still affecting the outcome of games and the business of football.

Five men on that staff coached in the NFL during the 2008 season, including a head coach (Dungy) and two offensive coordinators (Arians and Al Saunders in St. Louis.) Another is the top head coaching candidate in waiting (Cowher), while another is one of the top administrators for one of the league’s flagship franchises (Russ Ball.) Another one was part of the coaching staff that guided one of the top teams in college football over the ‘08 season (Joe Pendry.)

There were 12 members of that coaching staff, which by today’s standards would make it very unusual. The smallest coaching staff in the NFL for the 2008 season was Mike Tomlin’s group in Pittsburgh, which numbers just a dozen coaches. Back in ‘89, having 12 assistant coaches was about average in the league.

Four members are retired from the every-day business of football. Strength-Conditioning coach Dave Redding has battled health issues and is living in Arizona. He was part of Schottenheimer’s coaching staff with the San Diego Chargers. Defensive Line coach Tom Pratt is living in Florida, but he keeps his hand in football by going over to Japan every year for coaching clinics. He’s also worked with agents Tom Condon/Ken Kremer in helping train potential NFL draft choices.

Special Assistant/Quality Control coach Darvin Wallis retired just this year from the Chiefs after working for the club since that 1989 season. Special Assistant/Offense coach Jim Erkenbeck is retired and living in San Diego, where he was honored last year with the Distinguished Alumni Service Award by San Diego State University.

And now joining that group in retirement just this week is Dungy, who is leaving the Indianapolis Colts after seven seasons as head coach. He joined that ‘89 coaching staff as the defensive backs coach and was coming off five seasons as defensive coordinator on Chuck Noll’s staff with the Pittsburgh Steelers. When the Steelers went 5-11 in 1988, Noll demoted Dungy, but asked him to stay as defensive backs coach. Instead, Dungy decided to leave and he was offered three jobs: in San Francisco with the 49ers and Bill Walsh-George Seifert, with the New York Giants and head coach Bill Parcells and with the Chiefs.

He took the offer from Schottenheimer and came to Kansas City. It was a family decision, as he and his wife Lauren preferred to raise their two children in the atmosphere of a smaller city, rather than San Francisco or New York. Dungy coached the defensive backs for three seasons and did a very good job with a veteran group led by Albert Lewis, Kevin Ross, Deron Cherry and Lloyd Burruss. He also got the chance to reconnect with Herm Edwards, who was working for the Chiefs first as a coaching intern, then as a scout. They became friends when they were on the college all-star game circuit after their final seasons in 1976.

Dungy told me his three seasons working with the Chiefs DBs was the most fun he had in coaching. A couple years ago Dungy said of that time at Arrowhead: “They were such a talented group and they worked so hard at preparation. They approached the game the way I did as a player, but they had a lot more talent. It was just a joy. They were such an interesting group of guys.”

The defensive coordinator of that team was Cowher, who came along with Schottenheimer from Cleveland. He was just 32 years old in that ‘89 season with only four years as an assistant coach when he was named the team’s defensive coordinator. Three years later, the 35-year old Cowher was named head coach of the Steelers, replacing Noll. He stayed in that role until after the 2006 season, when he resigned to live as America’s most wanted next head coach.

Arians was the Running Backs coach on that ‘89 staff, coming off a six-year stint as head coach at Temple University. He stayed with the Chiefs through the 1992 season, and then moved on to coach at Mississippi State, the New Orleans Saints, the University of Alabama, the Indianapolis colts, Cleveland Browns and finally the Steelers, when he joined Cowher’s staff in 2004. Arians became the Steelers offensive coordinator when Tomlin took over for the 2007 season.

The offensive coordinator on Schottenheimer’s first Kansas City coaching staff was Joe Pendry, who in the last two years has been part of Nick Saban’s coaching staff at Alabama as assistant head coach-offensive line coach. Pendry was with the Chiefs through the 1992 season, and then went on and worked for the Bears, Panthers, Bills, Redskins and Texans.

The Special Teams coach on that staff was Kurt Schottenheimer, and he just wrapped up his 22nd season in pro coaching as the Green Bay Packers secondary coach. Schottenheimer ended up spending 12 seasons with the Chiefs (1989-2000), with the final two years serving as defensive coordinator on Gunther Cunningham’s staff.

Al Saunders was the Wide Receivers coach on the ‘89 Chiefs, coming to the team after serving as head coach of the San Diego Chargers. He spent 10 years with the franchise, then worked for two years with the Rams, but returned for five more seasons with the Chiefs. He left in 2006 for the Washington Redskins and then re-joined the Rams in 2007 as offensive coordinator.

The Offensive Line coach on that staff was Howard Mudd, who just wrapped up his 35th season of coaching in the NFL. He’s handled the offensive line for the Indianapolis Colts for the last 11 seasons. He left the Chiefs after the ‘92 season and went on to the Seahawks before landing in Indy where he’s been ever since, schooling and coaching up the guys that have protected Peyton Manning.

The final member of that staff was Assistant Strength/Conditioning coach Russ Ball, who had spent eight years as the strength coach at the University of Missouri before joining the Chiefs. Today, Ball is the Vice President of Football Administration/Player Finance for the Green Bay Packers. He spent 10 years with the Chiefs and then went on to work in various administrative positions with the Vikings, Redskins and Saints, before joining the Packers last year.

It was a remarkable group of coaches that helped change the face of the Kansas City Chiefs.

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.