Former KC Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil on why Carl Peterson is his Hall of Fame presenter
Former Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil talked Wednesday about the man who will introduce him for enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 6, 2022.
And it’s a name familiar to Kansas City.
“I’m very excited about announcing that Carl Peterson will introduce me as I’m inducted into the Hall of Fame Class of 2022,” Vermeil said in video tweeted out by the Hall of Fame.
Vermeil’s announcement was a formality, as it was previously known that Peterson would present one of his oldest friends on the special day this summer in Canton, Ohio.
In the video announcement, Vermeil points out that his decades-long friendship with Peterson began in the 1970s, when the two men met at UCLA. When Vermeil took the head coaching job with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1976, he brought along Peterson.
Peterson left the Eagles and in 1982 to help build the budding USFL, serving as general manager for the Philadelphia Stars before returning to the NFL in 1988 to become the Chiefs’ president and general manager.
While Peterson returned to the NFL, Vermeil retired (for the first time) in 1988. He came out of that retirement to take the St. Louis Rams’ head coaching job in 1997, and then guided the Rams to victory in Super Bowl XXXIV over the Tennessee Titans before retiring a second time in 1999.
It was Peterson who brought Vermeil out of his second retirement in 2001 to become the Chiefs’ head coach, a post Vermeil held through the 2005 season. In five seasons with the Chiefs, Vermeil posted a 44-36 record before retiring for a third and final time after the 2005 season.
Vermeil compiled a career record of 120-109 (.524 winning percentage) as an NFL head coach en route to the Hall of Fame. Peterson was with him at the beginning and end of that career, so it seems fitting that he will be the one to formally introduce Vermeil to football immortality.
“He’s part of our family,” Vermeil said of Peterson in the video announcement. “A great man, a great administrator, a big football guy, and I’m really honored to have him present me.”
