Former Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Mike Pennel has signed with the Chicago Bears, according to the NFL’s personnel notice on June 13.
Chicago Bears signed Mike Pennel, cut Jeremiah Attaochu
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Chiefs fans may remember Pennel from Kansas City’s Super Bowl runs during the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He played in 22 regular-season games and all six playoff games during those seasons, recording 64 tackles in that timeframe, according to Pro Football Reference.
Overall, Pennel, 31, has been in the NFL since 2014 and entered the league undrafted. He played the first three seasons of his career for the Green Bay Packers, followed by three years for the New York Jets, the two years for the Chiefs, and played for the Atlanta Falcons during the 2021 season.
Pennel now joins a defensive tackle room in Chicago that consists of Justin Jones, Khyiris Tonga, Angelo Blackson, LaCale London, Micah Dew-Treadway, and Auzoyah Alufohai.
Legendary Actor Wants to Meet Patrick Mahomes
Patrick Mahomes’ stardom has caught the attention of one legendary figure within the acting community. So much so that this same actor cut into his own promo time recently to talk about the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback.
Legendary actor Henry Winkler, who is known for his roles in Happy Days, Arrested Development, The Waterboy, and Barry, among others, recently went on the Rich Eisen Show to promote season three of Barry ahead of the season finale, which aires on Sunday, June 11 at 10 pm eastern time.
While host Rich Eisen was talking about Barry, Winkler cut Eisen off to ask him if he’s met the Mahomes, for which Eisen said he has. Winkler then went on to say that Mahomes is “one of my heroes.”
“I root for [the Chiefs] even though I’ve never lived there. I think [Mahomes] is just phenomenal to watch,” Winkler told Eisen on June 10.
Things we weren’t expecting today: @hwinkler4real interrupting us promoting the season 3 finale of #BarryHBO to ask @richeisen if he knew @PatrickMahomes?
Yes, yes he does:
Several minutes later, Winkler said “I really do” when Eisen stated that Winkler wanted to meet Mahomes.
Eisen then brought Winkler’s fandom to Mahomes’ attention on Twitter.
“Hey @PatrickMahomes you have quite a legend in your fanbase,” he wrote. Mahomes then retweeted Eisen’s post.
Ex-Chiefs Coach Hired to XFL
The XFL, which will have its relaunch in 2023, announced key football hires and coaching staff for the league’s eight teams on June 9. Among the hires was one former coach of the Chiefs.
Ron Zook was named as Seattle’s defensive coordinator under head coach Jim Haslett.
Former UF and Illinois head coach Ron Zook and former Hawaii and SMU head coach June Jones have been hired to Jim Haslett’s staff in the XFL. Zook will be the DC and Jones will be the OC.
Zook’s stint in Kansas City was short-lived. He spent one season on the Chiefs coaching staff in 1999 as the defensive backs coach. The Chiefs went 9-7 that season and finished second in the AFC West under head coach Gunther Cunningham, who spent two seasons as Kansas City’s head coach (1999-00).
Following that season he would be hired as the New Orleans Saints’ defensive coordinator, which is a position he held for two seasons. From there he would become the head coach of the University of Florida (2002-04), the head coach of Illinois (2005-11), an assistant special teams coach (2014) and the head special teams coach for the Green Bay Packers (2015-18), and a senior analyst (2019-20) and special teams coordinator/associate head coach for Maryland (2021), according to Pro Football History.
During his 11 years as a head coach, Zook accumulated a 99-76-1 record and a 7-6 playoff record.
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Ex-Chiefs Super Bowl Champion Signs With NFC Squad