Dick Vermeil has chosen Carl Peterson as his presenter at the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Vermeil and Peterson were closely linked for decades: Peterson was an assistant on Vermeil’s staffs at UCLA and the Eagles in the 1970s, and Peterson was the general manager of the Chiefs who persuaded Vermeil to come out of retirement and coach in Kansas City in 2001.
“I’m very excited about announcing that Carl Peterson will introduce me as I’m inducted into the Hall of Fame Class of 2022,” Vermeil said in a video released by the Hall of Fame. “Carl and I started all the way back in the early 70s at UCLA when he was an assistant coach there. I took the head coaching job replacing Pepper Rodgers, and he was on the staff, made the great decision to keep him with me, took him to Philadelphia with me as a tight end coach and an administrative assistant to me and then elevated him to personnel director and assistant GM. He later took over the USFL [as president of the Philadelphia Stars] and turned it into a championship team, went to Kansas City for 20 years, was president and general manager and did a great job there, hired me to come back into coaching and coached there for five years. He’s part of our family, a great man, a great administrator, a big football guy. And I’m really honored to have him present me.”
Peterson resigned from the Chiefs at the end of the 2008 season. That was his last NFL job, but in retirement he has continued working with Vermeil, in the wine business.