Huard a forgotten man after starting last year
By JEFFREY FLANAGAN
The Kansas City Star
Quite a bit has changed in Chiefs quarterback
Damon Huard’s football life in the last year.
Huard opened last season as the starting quarterback and held that job for more than two months.
This season, Huard is virtually a forgotten man. And actually, he doesn’t seem to mind.
“You have to realize that it’s a long, long season,” Huard said with a smile. “You tell yourself that last year, there was something like 64 different quarterbacks who started in the NFL.
“So you know going into the season, there’s a good chance that at some point, you’re going to play.”
Huard, 35, has been around the league long enough to know that patience is everything.
“I don’t want anything to happen to Brodie (Croyle),” he said. “But you have to get in the mind-set that as a backup, you still have a good chance to be playing someday. It’s a tough, tough league.”
Though Huard’s big chance to be a regular starter has apparently come and gone, he isn’t bitter about his reduced role.
“That’s not my nature, to think in terms of selfishness,” he said. “I’ve been in this role before. With the age that I am … there’s only a handful of players starting in the league at age 35-plus. So I understand. And I know my role.”
Huard also is smart enough to know perhaps his services may be more valuable on another team. If some other team’s starter gets hurt, Huard could be a valuable commodity. In other words, no one knows, especially him, how long he’ll be a Chief.
“I really don’t worry about that stuff,” he said. “I know what my track record is. I know what I’ve done before.
“But where I end up is pretty much out of my control.”
Condon to union?
The rumors of former Chief and present super agent Tom Condon taking the place of the late Gene Upshaw as the executive director of the NFL Players Association have been out there almost from the moment Upshaw passed away.
Chiefs player rep Brian Waters chuckled a bit when asked about the rumor.
“Yeah, that’s been out there awhile,” he said. “I just don’t know. He’s got it pretty good right now, a pretty comfy situation. He’d obviously have to give that up because it’d be such a conflict of interest.
“The other thing is that (the players association) would really be looking for someone who is going to be the head for a long, long time. We have a mandatory retirement age for the executive director and that’s 65. Even with Gene, we knew that would be coming up. He was going to be 65 a year from this September.
“We would be hoping to have someone for 20 to 25 years.”
Condon is 55.
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