1980 Kansas City Chiefs season

The 1980 Kansas City Chiefs season was the franchise's 11th season in the National Football League and 21st overall. They improved from 1979 from a 7–9 to an 8–8 record, the most wins for the franchise since an 8–6 season in 1972, but missed the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season.

1980 Kansas City Chiefs season
OwnerLamar Hunt
Head coachMarv Levy
General managerJim Schaaf
Home fieldArrowhead Stadium
Results
Record8–8
Division place4th AFC West
Playoff finishDid not qualify
Pro BowlersWR J. T. Smith
DE Art Still
S Gary Barbaro

The Chiefs selected guard Brad Budde, the son of Chiefs Hall of Fame guard Ed Budde, as the team's first-round draft choice, making the Buddes the first father-son combination to become first-round draftees of the same team in NFL history.[1] In a then-controversial move on August 26, the Chiefs released placekicker Jan Stenerud, who at the time was club's all-time leading scorer. He was replaced by journeyman Nick Lowery, who had been cut 11 times by eight different teams himself.[1]

After suffering an 0–4 start, the team rebounded to post a four-game winning streak.[1] After Steve Fuller was sidelined with a knee injury late in the season, former Miami 12th-round draft choice Bill Kenney became the team's starting quarterback. He was so anonymous that when he appeared in that contest, the name on the back of his jersey was inadvertently misspelled "Kenny."[1] Kenney went on to lead the club to a 31–14 victory against Denver on December 7 in his initial NFL start. The defense continued to evolve as defensive end Art Still and safety Gary Barbaro became the first Chiefs defensive players to be elected to the Pro Bowl in five seasons.[1]

NFL Draft
Main article: 1980 NFL Draft
1980 Kansas City Chiefs draft
Round Pick Player Position College Notes
1 11 Brad Budde  Guard USC
3 66 James Hadnot  Running back Texas Tech
4 94 Dave Klug  Linebacker Concordia–Moorhead Played for Chiefs 1981–83
5 114 Carlos Carson *  Wide receiver LSU
5 115 Dan Pensick  Defensive tackle Nebraska
6 147 Bubba Garcia  Wide receiver UTEP
6 164 Larry Heater  Running back Arizona
8 203 Sam Stepney  Linebacker Boston University
9 230 Tom Donovan  Wide receiver Penn State
10 261 Rob Martinovich  Tackle Notre Dame
11 287 Dale Markham  Tackle North Dakota
12 314 Mike Brewington  Linebacker East Carolina
      Made roster    *   Made at least one Pro Bowl during career

[2]

Personnel

Staff
1980 Kansas City Chiefs staff
Front office

Head coaches

Offensive coaches

 Defensive coaches
  • Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers – Rod Rust
  • Defensive Line – Walt Corey
  • Defensive Backs – Dick Roach

Special teams coaches

Strength and conditioning

  • Strength and Conditioning – Rick Abernethy

Roster
1980 Kansas City Chiefs roster
Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Tight ends

 Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

 Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special teams

 Reserve lists


Practice squad



Rookies in italics

Schedule

Preseason
Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance Recap
1 August 9 Cleveland Browns W 42–0 1–0 Arrowhead Stadium 38,055 Recap
2 August 18 Minnesota Vikings W 24–10 2–0 Arrowhead Stadium 39,879 Recap
3 August 23 at St. Louis Cardinals W 20–10 3–0 Busch Memorial Stadium 41,687 Recap
4 August 30 vs San Francisco 49ers L 21–31 3–1 Arizona Stadium 27,000 Recap

Regular season
Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance Recap
1 September 7 Oakland Raiders L 14–27 0–1 Arrowhead Stadium 54,269 Recap
2 September 14 Seattle Seahawks L 16–17 0–2 Arrowhead Stadium 42,403 Recap
3 September 21 at Cleveland Browns L 13–20 0–3 Cleveland Stadium 63,614 Recap
4 September 28 San Diego Chargers L 7–24 0–4 Arrowhead Stadium 45,161 Recap
5 October 5 at Oakland Raiders W 31–17 1–4 Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum 40,153 Recap
6 October 12 Houston Oilers W 21–20 2–4 Arrowhead Stadium 75,048 Recap
7 October 19 at Denver Broncos W 23–17 3–4 Mile High Stadium 74,459 Recap
8 October 26 Detroit Lions W 20–17 4–4 Arrowhead Stadium 59,391 Recap
9 November 2 Baltimore Colts L 24–31 4–5 Arrowhead Stadium 52,383 Recap
10 November 9 at Seattle Seahawks W 31–30 5–5 Kingdome 58,976 Recap
11 November 16 at San Diego Chargers L 7–20 5–6 San Diego Stadium 50,248 Recap
12 November 23 at St. Louis Cardinals W 21–13 6–6 Busch Memorial Stadium 42,871 Recap
13 November 30 Cincinnati Bengals L 6–20 6–7 Arrowhead Stadium 41,594 Recap
14 December 7 Denver Broncos W 31–14 7–7 Arrowhead Stadium 40,237 Recap
15 December 14 at Pittsburgh Steelers L 16–21 7–8 Three Rivers Stadium 50,013 Recap
16 December 21 at Baltimore Colts W 38–28 8–8 Memorial Stadium 16,941 Recap

Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Standings
AFC West
W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK
San Diego Chargers(1) 11 5 0 .688 6–2 9–3 418 327 W2
Oakland Raiders(4) 11 5 0 .688 6–2 9–3 364 306 W2
Kansas City Chiefs 8 8 0 .500 4–4 6–8 319 336 W1
Denver Broncos 8 8 0 .500 3–5 5–7 310 323 W1
Seattle Seahawks 4 12 0 .250 1–7 3–9 291 408 L9

Season summary

Week 1 vs Raiders
Week One: Oakland Raiders (0–0) at Kansas City Chiefs (0–0)
1 2 34Total
Raiders 7 0 14627
Chiefs 7 0 0714

at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri

Game information

References
  1. "Kansas City Chiefs History 1980s". Archived from the original on August 6, 2007. Retrieved July 31, 2007.
  2. "1980 Kansas City Chiefs Draftees". Pro Football Reference. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.