Yesterday marked the debut of Episode 7 of the Kansas City Chiefs’ behind-the-scenes documentary series, “The Franchise.” The episode, titled “A Long Time Coming,” can be viewed in its entirety below. The episode covered the Pro Football Hall of Fame, including Johnny Robinson’s long-awaited induction. It has heartwarming background on Robinson’s life after football. It covers some of Tony Gonzalez going into the Hall of Fame. Most importantly, it brings us back to the present with a look at the first preseason game.
Here are four things we learned from the episode:
Norma Hunt’s connection to Steve Spagnuolo
The mother of Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt holds claim as the only woman to have ever seen every Super Bowl. During the very beginning of the episode at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, she was shown in an exhibit pictured with Roger Goodell and the Super Bowl XLII trophy. She took part in the pregame coin toss ceremony during that game.
That was the game in which the Chiefs’ new defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo, helped to end Tom Brady and the Patriots perfect season. As Clark said, it’s a pretty good omen now with Spagnuolo being a member of the Chiefs organization.
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Johnny Robinson the person
Chiefs fans had a chance to relive some of the glory days of the franchise with Robinson’s enshrinement into the Hall of Fame. Many may have long forgotten or never knew about the impact that Robinson had on the Chiefs and even the free safety position. His stepson Bob Thompson told a story about how Howard Cosell said that Robinson “virtually wrote the book on free safety.”
Robinson as a person is something that a lot of fans probably also didn’t know about. Since retiring from the NFL he’s dedicated his life to helping delinquent youths. He opened Johnny Robinson’s Boys Home in Monroe, Louisiana, and has worked there every day since his retirement from football. The home serves as an alternate placement for kids that are to be sent to jail.
I didn’t expect to go into this episode and come out misty-eyed. It’s absolutely worth your time to watch the segment where Robinson receives a letter from one of the first boys that came through his home 38 years ago, back when he first opened it.
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The motto
Steve Spagnuolo revealed the new motto for the Kansas City Chiefs defense during the 2019 season: “Chase perfection, rely on relentless.”
“I believe defensively, it’s always going to come back to the relentless part,” Spagnuolo said. “The talent gets you to a certain point. The great teams — the defenses that do get into the Super Bowl, that help their teams get there and ultimately win it — are the teams that give the effort.”
With the motto, Spagnuolo is hoping to buck the trend that plagues new defensive coordinators in their first season with a new team. That trend is that the first quarter of the season is typically a big adjustment period. The Chiefs want the defense firing on all cylinders right away.
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Reggie Ragland on the 2019 season
Ragland heads to the barbershop during the episode and evoked an interesting Ric Flair quote:
“To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man.”
As a former Alabama player, he knows all about being the man. He also knows that in the NFL, beating the man means beating Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. He knows how close the Chiefs were to accomplishing that last season. He even intercepted Tom Brady, and that alone felt like a metaphor for what was about to come.
You can tell that he’s anxious to get started again and to get another shot at beating the man during the 2019 season.
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