National Football League

Chiefs' Vickerson can't wait to prove Broncos -- and the world -- wrong

Published Sep. 11, 2014 5:56 p.m. ET

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Let's be blunt: We like Big Vick already.

"We" being the scribes, of course, and "they" being the Kansas City Chiefs. Nice guys, by and large. They tolerate us. Those who'd like to see us all tied up and dipped in a large vat of molten gold (and that's fine, sometimes we deserve it), stay away from the media's open-locker-room session, by and large. Win or lose, courtesy reigns. Usually.

But those who stand before the huddled masses of microphones tend to be company men. They tend to say the right things. They tend to say the same things. Especially the latter. It drives the beat guys a little nuts.

Kevin Vickerson is not a "company man" yet. Which, to be perfectly blunt again, is kind of beautiful.

The Chiefs signed him Tuesday off the street -- he got cut by Denver, Sunday's opponent, capping a run of four years and change with the Broncos -- after a ruptured Achilles ended defensive end Mike DeVito's season before it ever got started.

In the NFL, desperation and opportunity make for funny marriages, sometimes. Vickerson, or "Big Vick," as his pals call him, held court at the team practice facility this week. Fresh meat. No filter.

When a veteran Chiefs reporter asked the newest Kansas City defensive lineman about the fact he didn't play in the Super Bowl in February because of a dislocated hip ...

"That's OK," Vickerson interjected before the question was finished. "We can get that here."

Another longtime Chiefs scribe asked Vickerson if he felt healthy. The eyes burned.

"Yeah," he replied, cooly. "And I'm going to show the world I'm healthy."

Flip through our photo album of NFL cheerleaders.

He wasn't done. We asked what he wanted to get done here.

"I definitely play with a chip on my shoulder," Vickerson replied. "I'm trying to get another year on my deal."

Think y'all are going to like this guy.

Monday, Left Hand Brewing Company. Wednesday, Boulevard.

What happened?

"Life in the NFL," Big Vick replied. "That's all."

Vickerson is 31, the journeyman's journeyman. The Chiefs are his fifth NFL club and the latest stop in a journey that starts in Detroit and winds through Michigan State and Cologne, Germany, as part of the dearly departed NFL Europa. Big Vick has loved, and he has lost. And the man has no time for crapola.

"Business is business," he said.

And he's done this bit of business before. After three years with Tennessee, Vickerson was traded to Seattle in April 2010 as part of an NFL Draft swap, and played the Titans in the preseason's first week. The next month, he was released by Seattle as part of the team's final cuts heading into the regular season. Denver scooped him up and two weeks after that, the Broncos played the Seahawks.

After a solid -- and, occasionally, um, temperamental -- stint in Denver that included three division titles and an infamous $15,000 fine for a horse-collar tackle on Cam Newton, the Broncos released the Michigan native on Aug. 30.

And here we are, heading back in Denver for Week 2.

Small world. Small league.

"That's crazy because every time I've went somewhere else, I always played my former team that first (or second) game," said Big Vick, who has 153 tackles and 6 1/2 sacks on his NFL resume. "I've seen it all before. Same thing."

At 6-foot-5, 328 pounds, Vickerson is your classic load. He's also an interesting addition, a useful addition -- not the least of which being because he's fresh out of Camp Elway.

"They've got an 'Us-Against-The-World (mentality),'" Vickerson said of his former club and the Chiefs' AFC West rival. "They know everybody's going to be gunning for them because they're the second team coming back from the Super Bowl last year."

The plan is to work Big Vick in at end, ostensibly as a replacement for DeVito's reps, given that the latter, like inside linebacker Derrick Johnson, is out for the year. In a pinch, Vickerson might even help inside -- nose tackle Dontari Poe appeared visibly beat up late in last Sunday's 26-10 stinker of a home loss to Tennessee, and with no DJ behind him, the Titans wasted no time pounding their tailbacks up the "A" and "B" gaps.

"(The) game doesn't change," Big Vick said. "It's just ball."

Sometimes, it's personal, too. Exhibit A: New Broncos wideout Emmanuel Sanders. The Chiefs said they had agreed to a deal in principle with the free agent out of Pittsburgh in March. A short time later, he turned up with a three-year contract in Denver.

Chiefs brass accused Sanders' camp of using them as leverage, Sanders said the relationship was never that serious and, long story short, Donnie Avery wound up getting targeted 13 times in Week 1.

"It was close," Sanders recently told the Broncos' team website. "We still have a lot of stuff we (had) to do in terms of incentives. We had that foundation of the contract ready (in Kansas City), but I wasn't happy with the incentives. That whole ordeal, it was close, but it wasn't anything official. They tried to make it seem like it was official, but it never was."

And yada and yada and yada. Reportedly, Sanders' agent, Steve Weinberg, was shopping his client's wares to the Buccaneers, too, after agreeing to a deal, in principle, with the Chiefs. For their part, the Broncos told reporters they had no idea there were shenanigans involved.

Trust, after all, is a two-way street.

Of course, so's I-70.

"He (Vickerson) was somebody we were very concerned about last year when we played them," coach Andy Reid noted. "I told him when he got hurt (last fall) I felt bad for him. But I wasn't the saddest guy in the world, because he's a substantial load and a good football player.

"So we welcome him in. He's coming off an injury. He went through training camp and did this thing there. Now he has an opportunity as a seasoned veteran to come in here and help this football team."

Because life in the NFL is, like the man says, kind of crazy. Against his old team, Tennessee, in August 2010 while with Seattle, Vickerson recorded three stops, two of them solos; his new team won, 20-18.

Against the Seahawks -- his new old team -- with the Broncos in Week 2 of the 2010 regular season, Vickerson was credited with one stop as Denver won, 21-14. In a rematch with the Titans in Week 4 that fall, Big Vick posted arguably his best stat line of the year: six tackles, three solo, in a 26-20 Broncos victory.

Three rematches, three former clubs, three wins. As history goes, it's the kind Reid sure as hell wouldn't mind seeing repeat itself.

You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.