Chiefs face life without Green
Injured quarterback won't play Sunday against Denver
Kansas City, Mo. ? Even Lia Edwards is beginning to think that wherever her husband goes, something bad happens to quarterbacks.
Last year, Chad Pennington lasted only three games, and by the end of the season, coach Herm Edwards had played five different New York Jets quarterbacks, and his team finished a dismal 4-12.
This season, Edwards’ first in Kansas City, Trent Green lasted less than three quarters before sustaining a severe concussion that landed him in the hospital for two nights.
Before Edwards arrived, Green had been an NFL ironman, starting 81 straight games.
“She said, ‘Before you married me, in that life you were living, you did something bad to somebody,'” Edwards quipped Tuesday.
Edwards said Green would go home from the hospital Tuesday afternoon but definitely would not play against Denver on Sunday. It’s uncertain when he’ll play again, Edwards said.
Edwards said the two-time Pro Bowl quarterback was in good spirits.
“If it was up to Trent, knowing him and the kind of guy he is, he’d show up tomorrow,” Edwards said. “He’d show up tomorrow, and he’d go into meetings, and he’d be whispering in my ear saying, ‘Coach, you know by Friday I’ll be ready to go.”‘
Green was knocked unconscious and hospitalized after his head slammed into the ground on a hit by Cincinnati’s Robert Geathers in Kansas City’s home opener. He sustained what the Chiefs described as a severe concussion and will have at least two weeks to recover because Kansas City has a bye after the Denver game.
But if it takes longer, Edwards promises to understand.
“In life,” he said, “what we do is in the toy department.”
Meanwhile, the focus has shifted to Damon Huard, who replaced Green in the third quarter of Kansas City’s 23-10 loss to the Bengals and completed 12 of 20 passes for 140 yards and a touchdown. The connection to Tony Gonzalez was the first touchdown pass Huard had completed since he threw one for Miami at Indianapolis on Nov. 26, 2000.