Memo to Scott Pioli: Keep Bill Kuharich.
Kuharich is Kansas City's vice president of player personnel, and to say he just got a raw deal is an understatement. Kuharich deserved to be part of the Chiefs' hunt for a general manager, but he wasn't ... and he wasn't because the Chiefs confined their search to applicants outside the club.
So they landed the Patriots' Pioli, and hooray for them.
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| With his proven track record, Bill Kuharich should be allowed to see his latest rebuilding project through. (Getty Images) |
If he does what is best for him and his new employer keeps him, he trusts him and he relies on him. Kuharich not only is good at his job; he is so good he deserved to be a candidate for the position Pioli just filled.
But he wasn't, and I'm still not sure why.
Maybe the Chiefs considered him too old. He's 55. Maybe they wanted someone more telegenic. Kuharich is more at home in a sweater and khakis. Or maybe they just wanted a perspective from someone outside the organization, someone more removed from former president Carl Peterson.
"He was collateral damage," one NFC general manager said. "The Chiefs didn't want to go anywhere near someone close to Carl. And that's unfortunate because Kuharich is outstanding."
Well, whatever the reason it was apparent Kuharich didn't pass the physical and that owner Clark Hunt would be sold on someone outside the 816 area code. And that's OK if Hunt also understood that by doing that he eliminated one of his most qualified candidates.
"I want somebody who's a shrewd evaluator of football talent," Hunt said last month. "(His) job will be to think 24/7 about the football team. That's the most important quality."
Pardon me, but I think he just described Kuharich.
Look, I don't know if he could have outpolled Pioli. I don't know that anyone could. But I do know he deserved a chance to make his case because, like Pioli, he knew how to build a football team. He did it when he was general manager with the Saints, and he has done in his nine years with the Chiefs.
Let's start with New Orleans. I know what you're going to tell me: The Saints didn't rebound from their 1990s funk until Kuharich left, and you're right. But this just in: They got good with Kuharich's players.
