05/06/13
By: Sal Carpa
How the Chiefs got Here
Throughout the winter Kansas City Chiefs owners, the Hunt family, has been looking for a way to take the Chiefs in a different direction. After finishing the year at 2-14 which saw the Chiefs tied for an NFL worst record, it is only up from here for the franchise. Throughout the off-season it has seemed that the Hunt family has been courting former Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid. However, the longer the two parties negotiated the further apart they seemed to get between each others demand over a contract. One of the rumored deal breakers for Reid was reported by Adam Schefter in that Reid did not feel comfortable being the GM and head coach that the Hunt family wanted the successor to Romeo Crennel to have. So following the NFL draft the Chiefs gave up on their pursuit of Andy Reid. This has caused the scouting department to have to run the organization throughout the off-season. Only today have the Chiefs finally hired a new Head Coach and GM in Simon Hummel.
Who is Simon Hummel?
Simon Hummel is a name probably only known to Tampa Bay Buccaneer and hardcore NFL fans. Simon Hummel was born on March 15, 1975 in Chula Vista, California. He grew up as a diehard San Diego Chargers fan watching the likes of Kellen Winslow and only living about 15 minutes from Qualcomm Stadium. He was the star of the Chula Vista High School Spartans at QB and received a full scholarship from a lot of small D-1 schools like San Diego State, Washington State, and San Jose State. However, after playing in an All-Star game his junior year Duke heavily recruited Hummel during his senior year. He signed to play QB at Duke on a scholarship. However, there were some questions if he would ever be able to adapt to college football at just 5’11 ½ ” and coming from a spread offense where he used his ability to run more than to the liking of most college coaches..
Hummel led Duke to the Hall of Fame bowl during his junior year where they lost 34-20 to Wisconsin. Hummel was projected to be a 4th round pick in the 1995 NFL draft. Hoping to improve his draft stock, Hummel returned back to Duke for his senior year. Despite his good intentions, Hummel completely tore his left ACL against Navy. During the evaluation of his ACL it was also discovered that Hummel had severe ligament damage in his throwing shoulder, sending his draft stock through the floor of NFL scouts. Hummel went undrafted in the 1996 NFL draft and was given a tryout with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Hummel was able to win a place on the Jaguars practice squad for the 1996 and 1997 season. He was then released in the 1998 off-season by the Jaguars and decided to return to Duke to work as the Quarterbacks coach for just 2 seasons.
Looking to expand his future career options, Hummel joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he was a scout for the Bucs from 2000 to 2008. While furthering his education from his certificate of business at Duke, Hummel attended the University of Tampa and got his masters degree in business administration. During those 8 years he became good friends with the Bucs Director of Scouting, Mark Dominik, and Hummel became one of Dominik’s top scouts to turn to. So when Dominik was promoted to Tampa Bay GM in 2008, he appointed Simon to be his assistant GM and the pair have been working together ever since. Hummel has been living in St. Petersburg, Florida with his wife Rebeccah and his 5 year old son Xavier, who is a big Buccaneers fan.
The Hire
Simon Hummel has signed a contract worth $24 million over four years. He will be responsible for the team on the field and the front office as a GM/head coach. Many people have been critical of Hummel’s lack of coaching experience. This comes as no surprise as Hummel has never been part of any NFL coaching staff. However, it seems that the Hunt family has very little worries about that and will hope that Hummel can significantly turn this team around in the front office department. It is expected that the Chiefs will host a press conference later in the week to introduce Hummel to the media.
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