On to Canton: Former KC Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil elected to Pro Football Hall of Fame
In high school in California, they called Dick Vermeil the “Calistoga Comet.” Among the media in St. Louis, he was known as “Buzz Lightyear” for his ever-upbeat, charismatic leadership … not to mention the resemblance of his voice to that of Tim Allen’s for that character in the “Toy Story” franchise.
And as of Thursday night, you could say the comet was headed to infinity and beyond with his election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame among a class of eight that will be enshrined on Aug. 6 in Canton, Ohio.
Perhaps it’s all the more appropriate for a coach who willed so many past where they thought they could go that only months ago Vermeil, who finished his career with the Chiefs, had come to feel the well-deserved honor wasn’t meant to be.
So he was literally staggered when then-Hall of Fame president and CEO David Baker called him as Vermeil was picking up luggage at San Francisco International Airport to tell him he’d been nominated by the nine-member Coach Committee for consideration by the full committee last month.
As ever, it seems, Vermeil teared up, he told The Star that day. Then he had to lean against a wall as he told his wife, Carol, “I can’t believe it.”
“My attitude has always been, ‘If I don’t deserve to get in, I don’t get in; if I do, I’ll get in,’” Vermeil said at the time. “But I really didn’t expect it. I really didn’t.
“And I’m glad I didn’t. It made it more exciting that I didn’t expect it, you know?”
The formalization of the recognition of the 85-year-old Vermeil, best known for his oh-so-human touch in resuscitating the then-wretched Philadelphia Eagles and St. Louis Rams and taking each to Super Bowls, was widely expected.
But it wasn’t certified until Thursday night, when the Hall of Fame announced Vermeil in a class that also features tackle Tony Boselli, receiver Cliff Branch, safety LeRoy Butler, official Art McNally, linebacker Sam Mills, defensive lineman Richard Seymour and defensive lineman Bryant Young.
For all the great ambassadors of the game already in the Hall of Fame, you can bet that the effervescent Vermeil will stand tall among those who touch people the most. And that will be ongoing testimony to what made him so special as a coach.
“I hear many people say they judge a Hall of Famer according to the old adage, ‘Could we write the history of the game without them in it?’” Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner wrote to voters in a letter supporting Vermeil’s candidacy. “I know for a fact the history of two storied franchises, the Eagles and the Rams, could not be written without him!”
He added, “I think it’s pretty obvious that the history of pro football and the NFL would not be the same without the contributions of Mr. Dick Vermeil.”
Earlier in the day, in hopeful anticipation of his longtime friend being ushered in, former Chiefs president, CEO and general manager Carl Peterson said, “Let me tell you what: There will be tears all weekend” if Vermeil prevailed.
“And in August in Canton, Ohio,” added Peterson, who will be Vermeil’s presenter, “you’d better bring some boxloads of tissues.”
For Vermeil’s use, to be sure. But a legion of former players, assistants, family members and other men and women in and around the game will be reaching for their share, too.
And that any number of others will feel this deeply, including Chiefs coach Andy Reid, a friend whom Vermeil helped connect for the job after the 2012 season.
Simply put, he’ll earn that reaction because the ever-earnest and soulful Vermeil didn’t just coach people. He poured into them, in the moment and forever after. He created a culture of true family, an oft-overused term in sports but entirely correct when it came to Vermeil.
Citing his ongoing mentorship and continuous engagement with players from his entire career, former Chiefs star Will Shields on Thursday noted Carol Vermeil’s presence in their lives and work with Operation Breakthrough, adding, “She is just as much a part of this as he is.”
Vermeil gave players the confidence that they could do anything, added Shields, a Pro Football Hall of Famer himself, but also worked to make them better people.
Former Chiefs great Dante Hall would tell you the same thing. When I spoke with him last year, he mentioned how Vermeil became a father figure to him … and stayed one. Only a few months before, he said, Vermeil and his wife drove from Philadelphia up to Summit, New Jersey, to have lunch with Hall and his family.
“How awesome is that?” Hall said. “That man still treats me like I’m his son.”
Peterson laughed as he considered how often Vermeil must be on the phone with former players and coaches every week.
“He is easy to be loyal to because of his loyalty to you,” Peterson said. “He is truly your friend for life.”
Now, his name will be in the Hall of Fame for life in tribute to his fascinating journey from Calistoga, where his maniacal work ethic clearly was infused by his father, Louie. The mechanic and sprint-car racer once told Sports Illustrated of his dream of working 24 hours straight … and fulfilling it.
That mindset became a hallmark of his son’s work ethic on his eventual path to coaching UCLA to a Rose Bowl win over Ohio State and catching the attention of then-Eagles owner Leonard Tose.
The Eagles had been stranded between miserable and mediocre, going 33-74-5 in the eight years before he took over after the 1975 season. Moreover, they had traded at least their first two draft picks through 1978 long before true free agency was going to help. He had fans to win over, to be sure, but players, too.
Then-Eagles linebacker Bill Bergey said in 1997 that his first reaction to Vermeil was, ‘Where in the hell did we get this Harry-high school coach? I can’t believe we have somebody this crazy and this gung-ho.’”
Others had little patience for Vermeil’s harsh discipline, even deeming him a tyrant. With the Eagles winning more games each year, though, he had them in the Super Bowl by his fifth season.
But he resigned after the 1982 strike season, citing burnout. And no wonder: He often slept in his office, was known to conduct coaching interviews from midnight to 3 a.m. (so as not to interrupt his work day), and was said to have asked Carol to bring the family Christmas tree and presents there to “celebrate.”
That may well have been it in coaching for Vermeil, who then reinvented himself as a terrific broadcaster.
But 15 years later, he improbably resumed coaching with the Rams, who like the Eagles he inherited were dreadful at the time. In fact, they went 9-23 in his first two seasons. In what was effectively an entirely different era of the game, though, Vermeil whisked the Rams to a Super Bowl triumph in his third season … as portrayed in the current movie about Warner called “American Underdog.”
It would be a nice bow around all this if Vermeil’s third NFL head coaching job, here in Kansas City, had led to another Super Bowl. While he joined Bill Parcells as the only coach to lead three teams to division titles when the Chiefs went 13-3 in 2003, the Chiefs lost to the Colts 38-31 in their playoff opener, and he retired after two more seasons.
“The only regret I have in my career was I wasn’t able to hand the Lamar Hunt trophy to Lamar Hunt,” Vermeil said when I visited him in California in 2018 for a story about his wine business.
Be that as it may, the Chiefs are rightfully proud to call Vermeil one of their own.
“Coach Vermeil led the Chiefs for five seasons on the final stop of his Hall of Fame career,” Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said in a statement Thursday night. “His knowledge, humility, and passion for the game of football reflects the values of our franchise, and Chiefs Kingdom is proud to call him one of our own. We are excited for Dick and Carol and their family, and we look forward to his formal induction in Canton later this year.”
It bears mention that Vermeil finished his career with a fine but less-than-glowing regular-season record of 120-109. But we bring that up because it reflects a crucial point about his work: He took on varying degrees of reclamation projects each time, and those three works in progress went 32-60 in his first two seasons at each stop.
In Year Three and beyond, they were 88-49.
That’s telling. But maybe not as telling as how Vermeil won over the skeptical and cynical in so many places — including the fact that he remains beloved in Philly — and somehow so often replaced hopelessness with belief that became reality.
The Calistoga Comet took many to infinity and beyond, as it happens. And now he can bask in that ride himself.
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 9:10 PM.