Please help me welcome new writer, James S. McGregor, to ArrowheadOne. James was born in Springfield, MO, and moved around a few times but spent almost all of his childhood growing up as a Missourian. James said that, “During my childhood, I never really adopted the, root for your hometown/state rule”… so he tended to instead be a fan of certain players and their teams. James says, “I hate to admit this now, but my 1st favorite NFL team was actually the Raiders. In my defense, I was 6 years old, and Bo Jackson was my hero … and black and silver just seemed like appropriate colors for a bunch of tough guys.” He was also a Royals fan in the late 80s because of Bo and later, fell in love with the Cowboys… As he puts it, “Again mostly because of players, in particular Emmitt Smith.” Throughout the 90s James found himself rooting for the Cowboys at times, plus the Packers (mainly for Favre), the Rams (Greatest Show on Turf) and of course the Chiefs. James says, “I was always a fan of the Chiefs, especially when they had guys like Joe Montana and Derrick Thomas… but my Chiefs fandom wasn’t as hardcore then, as it is today.” James graduated high school in Columbia, MO, in the summer of 2000, and went straight to Marine Corps boot camp. During his 4 years in the Marines, when he was a newspaper journalist, he fell away from football a little bit and became more of a baseball fan. James states, “After my time in the Marines, I went back to school for a BA in History and after college, I went back into the military as an active Army officer. I served a tour in Iraq in 2011, where I did the best I could to keep up with my STL Cardinals as they won another World Series.” James says he started to get really excited again about football, and the Chiefs, when Andy Reid came along. He has a lot of respect for both him and Alex Smith. He became the hardcore fanatic that he is today in 2015 when he moved out to Colorado and met his wife – she’s a die hard Eagles fan from Philly, and in James words, “Let’s just say she gave me that last little push toward giving all my sports fandom to football. I am currently a married trucker living in Denver … yes, Broncos territory. Along with being a Chiefs fan in general, I am also a proud member of the Chiefs Fans in the Mile High fan club.” Please give a warm welcome to James. -Ladner Morse
Chiefs Training Camp to be Held in KC – By James S. McGregor – It is official, the Kansas City Chiefs will conduct training camp for the 2020 NFL season at their training facility in Kansas City, MO, rather than Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, as was originally planned. What does this mean for the players and coaching staff? How could this impact St. Joseph, MWSU, and the relationship that has been built upon the Chiefs 10 previous years of holding training camp there? And, finally, how will this change in locale affect what has already been a turbulent off-season for the Chiefs and the entire league?
First, let’s consider the situation at hand. This news should not come as any shock to most fans, as the NFL had previously made a statement mandating that all teams would be required to hold their individual team training camps at team facilities.
Following the NFL mandate, the Chiefs organization attempted an appeal to the league that would allow the team to keep its training camp in St. Joseph, as was acknowledged in the team’s recent statement:
“When the NFL announced a new policy requiring all training camps to be held at team facilities, we looked at every avenue to return to Missouri Western State University, including making a detailed appeal to the League. We were looking forward to returning to St. Joseph as we prepare to defend our Super Bowl title, but unfortunately, as conditions have evolved nationally, we have decided that our best option is to conduct training camp at The University of Kansas Health System Training Complex this season. We appreciate the overwhelming support of Chiefs Kingdom and the St. Joseph community and look forward to returning to Missouri Western State University in preparation for the 2021 season.”
It is difficult to gather from this statement alone whether or not the league denied the Chiefs’ attempts to remain in St. Joseph for training camp, or if team leadership simply changed course. It is intriguing that the organization chose the words “we have decided that our best option.” Bottom line, training camp is thus far scheduled to start on Jul. 25 in Kansas City – now, let’s discuss realized/potential impacts.
The Team
The most obvious, and potentially the biggest, impact this will have on the team may lie simply with the logistics and day-to-day operations that go into running an NFL training camp. For starters, have you ever seen “moving day” for the Chiefs? It appears to be an almost overwhelming process that requires a whole equipment team to meticulously organize, pack, and transport via semi-tractor trailers all the necessary equipment from Kansas City to St. Joseph. One potential benefit to this year’s training camp might be the cutting of this operation.
Regarding day-to-day operations and how players/coaches conduct themselves… there may actually be quite an overhaul. We’re all used to seeing players report for camp, plus getting excited to see what Anthony Sherman will arrive in each year.
We’re also familiar with what a creature of habit Andy Reid is, and how much he likes to get his team disconnected from everything so that they can focus 100% of their energy and attention on football while also building chemistry and camaraderie (especially with new players/coaches). However, Reid is a sage among NFL head coaches: he has a set of experienced coordinators and assistant coaches (all of whom are returning from last year, minus one assistant special teams coach), and it is probably safe to assume that this coaching staff will have no problem getting the job done and preparing the team to be competitive… as they have already proven great flexibility throughout the off-season so far, utilizing video-based meetings to “keep things rollin’” as Reid might say.
It is also worth noting that the Chiefs rank #2 in the NFL in the amount of player snaps from the previous year returning to play for the team again this year (84.7%), and that 20 of their 22 starters from Super Bowl LIV remain on the roster as of the publication of this article – so familiarity in the building should be a great ally throughout training camp, regardless of where it is held.
St. Joseph/MWSU
As previously mentioned, the Chiefs have called Missouri Western State University — MWSU — their training camp home for the past 10 years. Back in February, not two weeks after the Super Bowl victory, the Chiefs organization and the university agreed to terms for a new contract that was set to keep the Chiefs going to MWSU for training camp through at least the 2022 season, and possibly for 2 additional years beyond that if an optional extension was utilized. It appears that the Chiefs will be primed to return to St. Joseph in 2021, but how will this year’s absence potentially impact both the contractual agreement and the MWSU/St. Joseph economy?
Last year’s training camp saw fan attendance records shattered, as many thousands flocked to MWSU to take in camp and, for most, get a close look at the guy who won the 2018 NFL MVP award by taking the league by storm with his historic season. Naturally, when the old contract was set to expire, MWSU was happy to extend the relationship; according to a Feb. 14 article published by Chiefs.com, MWSU President Matt Wilson said,
“Missouri Western is elated to welcome the champions back home to our campus. Working together with the Chiefs over the past decade has clearly been beneficial for the club, the university, our community partners and the state of Missouri.”
Hopefully the absence of the team this year will not dramatically hurt the university or the city of St. Joseph financially, especially during a year when the national economy is already taking a hit as result of COVID-19, and in many places due to social unrest.
The COVID Affect
Speaking of “the COVID,” we have already seen what a major impact the virus has had on all of sports, including the NFL, and the Chiefs will be no exception. The one seemingly apparent benefit to being the NFL, is that they are well positioned to study and possibly take cues from the other leagues on:
- how the virus affects their overall ability to run their leagues
- play games and please fans
- appease players and keep them safe
- ultimately, remaining profitable
The major concern for the NFL, as well as the Chiefs, seems to be the fact that the virus is not going away anytime soon. The league will have to continue to be flexible as they determine how to navigate the 2020 season – and, of course this includes the Chiefs organization: trying to determine how they will navigate training camp in Kansas City, and how they will mitigate any COVID-related risks to keep all team personnel (and fans) safe.
The biggest questions and concerns relating to having camp in Kansas City will probably revolve around the challenge of social distancing while still preparing for the season. There is even a theory that it might have been safer (regarding COVID) to hold training camp at MWSU as planned. Think about it this way: when players go to St. Joseph, they are placed in a dorm and cut off from their families and friends – the entire team is essentially quarantined during training camp. By having camp in Kansas City, personnel will likely be allowed to go home every day, go to the grocery store, etc. It is possible that the element of social distancing and control — which we know Andy Reid loves during training camp even when there isn’t a pandemic — could have remained strongly in effect.
It will be interesting to see how the team and the NFL controls/mandates personnel activities in order to keep everyone safe. It seems highly concerning that already we have seen the cancellation of the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, OH, as well as the postponement of the enshrinement of the 2020 Hall of Fame inductee class (is this just the beginning?)… though the NFL still seems to believe that the remainder of training camp, preseason and the rest of the season will take place as scheduled.
Chiefs Training Camp Bottom Line
Bottom line is pretty simple: this training camp for the reigning Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs, along with the entire NFL season — fingers crossed that there will be one — is going to be unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Now that’s absolutely fitting for 2020, wouldn’t you say?
James S. McGregor — ArrowheadOne
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