Kansas City, Mo. ? Before he could celebrate Kansas City’s dramatic victory over Oakland on Sunday, Carl Peterson had to remove slivers of glass from his face, hair and clothing.

When Larry Johnson went vaulting into the end zone on the final play, the Chiefs’ president and general manager punched the window in his private suite so hard it shattered.

Nobody was hurt except the Raiders, who went home with one of the most demoralizing 27-23 losses a team can endure.

“I’m fine,” Peterson said Monday. “Maybe a little embarrassed. But I didn’t cut myself.”

Because Johnson scored on the one-yard vault and vindicated coach Dick Vermeil’s bold gamble to go for the victory and not the tie, the Chiefs (5-3) still are in the thick of the AFC West race.

“It was a gutsy decision and a huge win,” Peterson said.

The Raiders had gone up 23-20 on Randy Moss’ touchdown catch with 1:45 to play. Then Trent Green, just four days after the funeral of his father, led a rapid-fire 72-yard drive. Running back Larry Johnson got wide open over the middle and took a short pass, then sped to the one before two Raiders caught him from behind.

Five seconds remained on the clock, time for only one play. Go for the tie by having Lawrence Tynes kick a virtually automatic field goal? Or go for the win?

“I can’t remember a regular-season game where a decision was made at the end of game to go for a win and not a tie, especially at home,” Peterson said. “Obviously, my head coach made the right decision.”

It was the Super Bowl ring Peterson wears from his days as a front office executive in Philadelphia that ruined the window.

“Through the years when we’d have a big play, I’d stand up and pound on the window a little bit,” he said. “I hit it with my Super Bowl ring and I think I pounded a little harder than I normally do. I shattered it.

“I just went down and washed the glass out of my face and hair.”

Twenty-four hours after Vermeil’s bold stroke paid off, fans still were buzzing. Vermeil spoke with coaches and players, including Green, before calling for the power run over 10-time Pro Bowl right guard Will Shields.

“What convinced me is that I had time to think it over,” Vermeil said Monday. “I talked to (offensive coordinator) Al Saunders and I talked to (offensive line coach) Mike Solari and they both agreed on the play we would run.”

The Raiders had several big plays on kick returns, and Kerry Collins led Oakland on two fourth-quarter scoring drives.

“I just felt if we kicked the field goal and tied it up and then lost the toss, they would get the ball and if they got the ball, they had been moving the ball and have a good long-

distance field-goal kicker and we may not have another opportunity,” Vermeil said.

“If we did win the toss, it would have taken us another 10- or 12-play drive to get back down to where we were. If it had been two yards, I probably would have kicked it. It wasn’t some big, heroic thing. I just felt it was the right thing to do.”

Left guard Brian Waters, who also came over to block on the play, said Vermeil would have had an unhappy offense if he’d elected to kick the field goal.

“If we didn’t go for it, believe me there would have been a lot of discussions in this locker room,” Waters said.

Peterson said he was not going to let Jackson County taxpayers cover the costs of the glass.

“I’m going to pay for it out of my own pocket,” he said. “I’ll make sure they put tougher glass in there just in case we ever have another game like that.”