Carl Peterson and Tony Gonzalez Deserve Each Other

The most surprising thing about Tuesday's trade deadline wasn't that Roy Williams wound up in Dallas. It was that Tony Gonzalez stayed in Kansas City. Why a going nowhere team thinks they need a veteran tight end coveted by other teams is beyond me. It's also above my pay grade to figure out why said tight end would pass up the chance to go to another team with a chance to make waves in the NFL this season.

It was a little of both that kept Gonzalez in K.C. The Chiefs and Packers had agreed to deal Gonzalez for a third-round pick when, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, Chiefs GM Carl Peterson called back at the last minute to say it had to be a second rounder or the deal was off. That call came 10 minutes before the deadline.

The Packers "sent the papers and everything, thinking it was going to happen," the source said.

Peterson did get two better offers for Gonzalez. The Bills and Falcons were the bidders but Gonzalez, who claimed he wanted out of K.C., turned down the chance to go to two teams where he would have been a major piece in a puzzle that could lead to the playoffs. Neither one may fit the bill of a traditional Super Bowl contender but they've both got better records than the Packers and, in the Falcons case, a clearer path to the playoffs.

The Kansas City Star reports that the Packers wanted protection, i.e. draft picks, from the Chiefs if Gonzalez didn't play out his contract. That's a silly provision, caveat emptor and all that, and one Peterson shouldn't have agreed to but he shouldn't have agreed to it for a second rounder any more than a third-round selection. Letting it get to that point, asking Gonzalez for his approval and then pulling the plug makes Peterson a guy people, players and management, aren't going to want to do business with in the future.

Not that Gonzalez is any better. He should have gone to Atlanta or Buffalo and made a clean start of things. Whining about wanting to leave and then refusing to budge is just as bad for your team as changing the terms of a deal at the last second. These two guys deserve each other, the Chiefs would be wise to lose both of them.

(Via PFT)