Gunther Cunningham photo above courtesy of Flickr 

Voice of Gunther Cunningham

By Greg Echlin

Gunther Cunningham would be the first to tell you that life isn’t fair.  He learned that as a kid born in war-ravaged Munich, Germany, a year after World War II ended.  But he never made excuses for the bad hands dealt to him.

Cunningham died of cancer, May 11 at the age of 72, in Michigan where he settled after his final stint as an assistant coach for eight years with the Detroit Lions.

In his only two years as a head coach, with the Kansas City Chiefs, Cunningham tried to revive a team that had slipped to 7-9 in 1998 under Marty Schottenheimer.  But after a 9-7 record the next year and narrowly missing the playoffs when beaten in overtime in the season finale by the Oakland Raiders, Cunningham couldn’t overcome the devastating off-season death of Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Thomas.

As the Chiefs defensive coordinator and head coach, Cunningham staunchly defended his players who had come under fire for troubles on and off the field.  To fire up Derrick Thomas before a December home game against Minnesota, Cunningham tried negative reinforcement.

“The story came out that every time I tried to bench a guy they’d make a play.  So I told Derrick, ‘I’m benching you,’” said Cunningham with a laugh after the game.  “He gave me the game ball.  He was magnificent.”

Without Thomas on defense in 2000, and a sputtering offense with Elvis Grbac as quarterback, the Chiefs finished 7-9 and Cunningham was through as a head coach.

Cunningham was never short on opinions.  Even if it went against the infamous decision Schottenheimer made to re-install Grbac as the playoff quarterback in 1998 after Rich Gannon successfully directed the Chiefs in the right direction down the stretch when Grbac was injured.

When asked in ’99 about the quarterback change, Cunningham responded, “I don’t think I would have done that.  I can speak very honestly about it.  I think when Rich (Gannon) was doing it and winning all those games, to make the change at that point would have been a difficult thing for me to ever think about.”

When Dick Vermeil succeeded Cunningham as the head coach in 2001, he went out and got his own quarterback—Trent Green.  Grbac was out along with Cunningham.

Trouble is, Vermeil never got Kansas City’s defense playing to the level that Cunningham did as the Chiefs defensive coordinator.