Dan Patrick Show
Is Dick Vermeil going to return to coaching in the NFL? Mort answers.
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Rams vs. Chiefs
ESPN's Chris Mortensen knows that the Dick Vermeil coaching issue will wind up being decided by NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue.
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Vermeil returning to NFL? Deal reached with Chiefs
If Vermeil goes to Chiefs, Rams want draft picks

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue will conduct a hearing, tentatively set for Tuesday via a telephone conference call, to decide whether or not the Kansas City Chiefs should compensate St. Louis Rams when Dick Vermeil is officially hired as the Chiefs' head coach.

Dick Vermeil
One year removed from a Super Bowl win with the Rams, Dick Vermeil could be coaching again with the Chiefs.

The Rams insist they are due at least a first-round draft pick as compensation for Vermeil. The Chiefs contend the two-page document that Vermeil signed with the Rams when he "retired" last January terminated his coaching contract, which runs through 2001. The document was a mechanism for the Rams to pay Vermeil $2 million over four years as a "consultant," but was basically an expression of gratitude for his Super Bowl season.

League sources say the Chiefs will be hard-pressed to prove that Vermeil was free to sign with them. The NFL frowns upon tampering with all employees; even a consulting contract could be perceived as an road block.

But, sources say the basics point to the heart of the matter: The spirit of Vermeil's agreement with the Rams is that he was retiring from coaching. The fact that he is a Super Bowl champion coach also will weigh in the favor of compensation that requires the Chiefs to give at least a first-round pick (and maybe more) if they want Vermeil, sources said.

Vermeil's change of heart has been a point of irritation to the Rams. Last Monday, Vermeil even called the Rams to see if he could get six Super Bowl tickets and made no mention of the Chiefs, despite reported speculation that Kansas City president Carl Peterson wanted to hire the coach.

Vermeil, who has agreed to a three-year, $10 million contract with the Chiefs, spent the latter part of the week trying to explain his position with Rams owners Georgia Frontiere and Stan Korenke, who will maintain a hard line about compensation to clear the transaction. There is precedent: The Chiefs, for instance, had settled on first- and fourth-round draft picks as compensation from the Green Bay Packers a year ago when the Packers considered hiring Marty Schottenheimer. But Green Bay ended up hiring Mike Sherman.

ESPN contacted Vermeil on Saturday morning. At the time, he said the idea of him coaching the Chiefs never came up in December when he was in the company of Chiefs president Carl Peterson. Peterson and Vermeil are close friends; in fact, Peterson was an assistant coach under Vermeil at UCLA and with the Philadelphia Eagles.

When ESPN specifically asked Vermeil if he would accept an offer to coach the Chiefs, he replied, "I don't think so. ... I doubt it."

However, he was adamant that reports about his decision needing his wife Carol's support were grossly overrated.

"Carol does what her husband wants to do," said Vermeil. "I've lost all the family votes in my life, and I always did what I wanted to do, and she ended up supporting it."

Sources said Vermeil will seek to hire Rams receivers coach Al Saunders as his assistant head coach and groom him as his likely successor in Kansas City.

     

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