The Kansas City Chiefs of the 1990s went through many changes to remain competitive. The team had projections for the postseason and beyond each year but could not capture the elusive Super Bowl appearance.
Former Chiefs linebacker Donnie Edwards was in many big games early in his first stint with the Chiefs throughout the late 1990s. Chiefs Wire’s Ed Easton Jr. spoke to Edwards about the start of his career in Kansas City and coming up short in his pursuit of a Super Bowl title.
“I remember my rookie year, it was mini camp,” Edwards began. “I’m standing next to a guy named Martin Bayless. Bayless was a safety. He played probably 13 years in the league. A big safety, but more importantly, Bayless had free football camps in San Diego. He used to play for the Chargers, and I was obviously part of his free football camp because we couldn’t afford to go to a football camp.
“It was pretty ironic to be standing next to him in the NFL, with the person responsible for helping me get to this point, and we’re looking at each other. He [looked] at me, he’s like, ‘I know you’, and he’s like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m getting old. You’re the first graduate who made it to the NFL as part of my free football camps’. That was amazing. You talk about someone paying it forward and giving other kids an opportunity.”
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The late 1990s Chiefs teams were loaded with talent, and Edwards admired his teammates, who made Kansas City a powerhouse in the AFC.
“Now it’s time to earn a starting spot and contribute to the team,” Edwards continued. “We had a great team in ’96 and ’97—the first tenure. I know ’96. I think we missed the playoffs by about one game at the end. It was disheartening, too, because the year before, ’95, the Chiefs went to the playoffs, and I believe they lost to Denver.
“Fast forward to ’97, that year we went 13-3. Elvis Grbac goes down. He breaks his collarbone. And then remember Rich Gannon comes in. And I think we win 12 games straight. We were rolling, and we had Spider-Man (Andre Rison). We had Greg Hill. We had Marcus Allen that year. I mean, we had a great team.”
The Chiefs lost great players due to tragedy, free agency, and retirement as time passed. The breakout season of 1997 ended unexpectedly at the hands of the eventual Super Champions, the Broncos.
“We’re gelling and, unfortunately, we had a bye in the playoffs,” Edwards said. “I think about this; it just puts a pit in my stomach. We lost 14 to 10 to the Broncos. We played them three times that year… Now that I’m retired, looking back to those years, I think that was the year I truly had the opportunity, and then in ’98. That was a challenging year. That was the last year [of] Marty Schottenheimer.”
Gunther Cunningham and Dick Vermeil would follow as head coaches until Edwards’ last season in 2001 for his first tenure in Kansas City.
To learn more about Donnie Edwards’ work with military veterans, visit the Best Defense Foundation’s website.