Wiegmann was "miserable" last season with Chiefs
Former Chiefs center Casey Wiegmann admits he was miserable last season with the Chiefs. But, following the last game last season, he was told he'd be back with the Chiefs in 2008.
Then, he said, he suddenly got released -- and he found out by voice mail.
Wiegmann, now the starting center for the Denver Broncos who come here this Sunday, spoke candidly with the Rocky Mountain News this week about his ugly breakup with the Chiefs.
One of the funny-but-sad revelations from the story was that during the Chiefs' game against the Jets last season, the Chiefs' offense had become so predictable that Jets' defenders were barking out the offensive play before the snap.
Anyway, here's some of the story:
"....For all the good memories he has in Kansas City, and there are many, Wiegmann still harbors some animosity about how his departure was handled.
Wiegmann maintained the Chiefs told him the day after the season that he'd be back, only to turn around and release him in March as part of the team's youth movement.
Kansas City was undergoing a change in philosophy to bigger-bodied linemen, and Wiegmann, at 6-foot-2, 285 pounds, was deemed too small. The Chiefs liked Rudy Niswanger, a 2006 undrafted free agent, and wanted to give him a look.
The reversal was stunning but somewhat understandable considering that backdrop. But the manner in which he was informed was unacceptable to Wiegmann.
"They called me and left a voice mail on my cell phone," he said. "It's amazing. When you give them all your hard work and all your blood, sweat and tears, they give you a phone call and leave a voice mail. It's not really the right way to do things."
In hindsight, though, a change probably was necessary.
At various points, Wiegmann had seen some of his fellow Chiefs linemen retire, perhaps prematurely, in part because of full-pad, midweek practices that beat down veteran players. He'd felt underpaid, having played seven straight years without missing a snap for a group that in the early 2000s was the NFL's standard among offensive lines. And he claimed, in vague terms, promises had been made but not kept by the Chiefs organization.
Also, Kansas City's once-powerful offense had, according to Wiegmann, become so predictable that, during the 2007 season finale in New York, Jets defensive players at the line of scrimmage called out the exact play the Chiefs were about to run three straight times.
All of it made retirement thoughts inevitable, once Wiegmann got his voice mail pink slip.
"I was just so miserable last year," he said candidly. "I went to work. I did my work and I left right after work. It was just a miserable atmosphere. I don't know what it was. . . . Things just spiraled downhill."
