Latest report makes Chiefs owner Clark Hunt look like the cheapest man in the NFL
By John Buhler
To the Cincinnati Bengals, Los Angeles Chargers and Washington Commanders, I owe you a great apology. You are no longer the Unholy Triumvirate of NFL Cheapskates. That title belongs to one man, and one man only. Clark Hunt, come on down! The price is never right for the Kansas City Chiefs owner to make any serious upgrades to his players' facilities. All they do is win, and he never pays up.
After getting an F- grade from his players in the semi-anonymous NFLPA survey, Hunt doesn't seem to get that he doesn't get it. In Nate Taylor and Kalyn Kahler's latest for The Athletic ($), the talented writers gathered some quotes to paint a better picture of what the hell is going on in Kansas City. I know that The Hunts reside in Dallas, but they clearly have no intention of ever making this right.
The Chiefs don't even have air conditioning in their indoor practice facility. Patrick Mahomes told team president Mark Donovan "Come on, man" while having to navigate the Kansas City heat inside while filming a commerical. A few days later, the team practiced in the same inhumane conditions. Head coach Andy Reid was sweating through his windbreaker. He is a large man who is in his 60s...
All the while, Hunt seems to dangle upgrades in front of his juggernaut team with no intention of doing them. There have been claims that this team wins too much for upgrades to be done in time for the season, or that there will be upgrades by the time the 2026 World Cup comes to Arrowhead in a few summers. No matter if they come or not, every player on this team had better facilities in college.
I mean, players were doing cartwheels in the locker room for getting new footstools to sit on, folks!
Clark Hunt uses dad's oil money and football toy to never help his players
This is embarrassing. As if people outside of Chiefs Kingdom and Swiftie Nation needed another reason to not like this team. I feel horrible for the players because they are being completely taken advantage of by a man who weekends in Kansas City nine to 12 times a year. The players seem to get it. Shut up and take your lumps. If you do your job, you will win championships and life will be splendid.
However, when you get the most alarming grade across any sector for any of the 32 NFL franchises, you have my undivided attention. We don't need the Chiefs to get on the Weenie Hut Jr. level that the Minnesota Vikings live on, but at least get to middle of the pack, please. The only logical thing I can think of over where the money is going is to help fellow SMU alum Jim Irsay try to relocate a whale.
If you want more quotes than Mahomes saying, "Come on, man!", check out what J.C. Tretter said.
“The answer (the players) got back was, ‘You guys won too far in the (2022) playoffs, and we didn’t have time to fix it. They just won another Super Bowl. I know there’s some frustration of, ‘We keep winning Super Bowls and nothing is coming back to us. There’s no priority on making our lives better, but we kept making the organization more money.’ That’s reflected in their results. That’s why (Hunt’s) grade is so low.”
The former president of the NFLPA said that during the NFL Scouting Combine back in February...
Now that he plays for the New Orleans Saints, here is what former linebacker Willie Gay Jr. had to say.
“No one ever said, ‘Hey, you guys get a renovation if you win a Super Bowl?' They won a Super Bowl in 2019, and that didn’t happen, so as players, we knew we were not getting any renovations. But s**t, we are winning Super Bowls, so at the end of the day, how much can we argue? Hey, the facility is falling apart, but we (won) the second Super Bowl in two years. I love Clark Hunt as a person.”
This feels like Stockholm Syndrome from an ownership perspective. At least Gay got out of Dodge...
Of course, Reid's comments about Hunt are only going to enable him to forever be a total cheapskate.
“I think Clark does a great job. Whatever they say about everything else, I give him an A-plus because he gives us an opportunity to win games. As a coach, that’s what you like. He’s not just right over the top of you, beating you up every five minutes. He gets it. We have a great working relationship. He allows us to get players and keep players. That’s a tough thing to do as you navigate through the salary cap.”
Coach Reid, you owe your players better than this. After all, some of the guys can't even get regular treatment at the team's facilities that are rotten away before your very eyes. "If we just win more games, maybe we can get a couch in the locker room to sit on?" Unfortunately, trickle down economics don't work. All they do is line the pockets of guys like Hunt who had it made from birth.
If this team was not winning as prolifically as it does right now, don't kid yourself. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell would look at possibly relocating this team. After all, he works for the owners and Hunt's inherently cheapskate ways are making the other 30 look bad, even the Unholy Triumvirate. While the product on the field is regularly A+, Chiefs players have spoken. An F- to you, Mr. Hunt!
The last thing Kansas City needs is for FIFA to pull its World Cup games because Hunt won't spend.