Kansas City, Mo. – In the days leading up to his return Sunday to the Kansas City Chiefs, Trent Green received enough stimuli – externally and internally – to give him a headache.
There was his former coach, Dick Vermeil, reminding the quarterback he didn’t have to be a hero after missing eight games with a severe concussion. There was his current coach, Herman Edwards, who, while substantially trimming down the team’s game plan, still left the veteran signal-caller wallowing in a playbook that he hadn’t really executed since the preseason.
Then there was Green himself. While excited to be back in the lineup, his heart ached for a teammate, Damon Huard, who would resume his role as backup. Finally given a chance to perform after six seasons in the NFL, Huard had led Kansas City to five wins in eight starts, playing well enough to become the fifth-rated passer in the league.
And while Green’s foggy noggin had cleared, there was still his gut to be reckoned with. That was questioning whether his teammates were confident he was the man to lead them in the Chiefs’ playoff push.
“That doubt creeps into any player,” Green said. “I was kind of an unknown because I hadn’t played in so long.”
And while there might have been a few unanswered queries after a 17-13 nailbiter over Oakland, Edwards has made it clear that, beginning with Thursday’s important game vs. the Broncos, his team will go wherever Green takes them.
“I’m a firm believer in there’s a reason why a guy’s a starter,” Edwards said. “And that’s why he’s our quarterback, to be quite honest. He’s the guy that, in the end, when you need seven games – and it’s a seven-game season for us – he’s the guy who’s going to do a great job for us. He will enable us to win football games.”
Against the Raiders, that largely meant handing the ball off to Larry Johnson. With tight end Tony Gonzalez and two starting offensive linemen out with injuries, Edwards said he wasn’t going to expose Green to too many shots. Green threw only 16 passes in the game, a mere four in the first half. However, three of his nine completions came in the final four minutes of the game, when he led the Chiefs on an 80-yard, game-winning march.
Almost as important as the Chiefs’ final series was that Green didn’t appear the least bit hesitant, taking off on scrambles when necessary, even choosing to go down headfirst.
“I’m sure my family’s hearts jumped to their throats when they saw that,” he said.
“He did a good job,” Edwards said. “He especially did a good job those times he got hit. He got back up. I think everyone wanted to see that.”
Wide receiver Dante Hall compared Green’s return to a boxer returning to the ring – “once he takes one on the chin, he knows he’s all right” – and it seemed to take a state boxing commission-like process for the quarterback to return to the lineup.
In Pittsburgh, Ben Roethlisberger was back on the field just days after suffering his second concussion in four months. While Green’s certainly was more severe, given the stakes, there is always the expectation players will return to the field sooner rather than later. That Green didn’t came as a pleasant surprise to many.
According to Michael Kaplan, the president of the Brain Injury Association of New York State, Kansas City was a notable exception in a league in which toughing it out is paramount.
“It permeates everything,” Kaplan told The Kansas City Star. “When you see things treated with indifference … it affects everybody who’s had a brain injury. These kids look at (NFL) players as role models.”
In Green’s case it was the player who was pushing to return to the field. While he insisted he could play as long as three weeks ago, the Chiefs, who enlisted at least three outside specialists to help with Green’s diagnosis, didn’t budge.
“He’s more than our quarterback and there’s more than an employer-employee relationship between us,” general manager Carl Peterson said. “The doctors were being conservative, and I would much rather err on the side of caution than any other way.”
Green finally was given clearance to play last Tuesday. That night he went to the Chiefs’ complex to tell the coaches he was ready. Edwards, who had felt Kansas City had gotten too far away from the run the previous week, throwing 38 times versus just 19 carries in a loss to Miami, welcomed him back and pared the game plan down even more.
In doing so, the coach acknowledged he was taking something of a risk. If Johnson and the running game weren’t successful against the Raiders’ defense, which had limited Denver to 63 yards a week earlier, the game likely would be a close one. And, if the Chiefs were somehow upset by Oakland, Edwards, who already had caught some heat for seemingly waffling between Green and Huard, certainly would have caught more grief for making the switch.
“We knew we were cutting it close, but that’s OK,” Edwards said. “This is how we’re going to play.”
Even if Gonzalez returns to the field Thursday night, the Broncos, after allowing LaDainian Tomlinson to score four touchdowns against them, certainly can expect to face a heavy dose of Johnson.
But having Green back, even if it is only to hand the ball off, has emboldened the Chiefs.
“We’re ready to roll,” Hall said. “All our remaining games are either in the division or in the conference. Now’s the time when the contenders get separated from the pretenders.”
Staff writer Anthony Cotton can be reached at 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com.
