Like the other 31 clubs in the National Football League, the Kansas City Chiefs have a rich history that began in 1960 during the franchise’s early days as the Dallas Texans. Several decades later, the Chiefs have a storied past filled with many big names that have passed through and left behind a piece that makes Chiefs’ lore what it is today.
Beginning in 1971, the Chiefs began celebrating the players who have become highlights and even legends while wearing the red and gold. This season, the Chiefs will officially induct former return specialist Dante Hall when the Chiefs take on the Chargers on Sunday. Hall’s induction will occur at halftime, and fans will witness his name unveiling next to several other Chiefs legends on the upper deck of Arrowhead Stadium.
Hall started as a promising running back prospect at Texas A&M, but injuries derailed his Senior season, and he fell to the fifth round of the 2000 NFL Draft, where Kansas City selected him at 153rd overall. He struggled to make an immediate impact as a rookie and failed to find the end zone in his first two seasons. The Chiefs were also a team in transition that moved on from head coach Gunther Cunningham and hired two-time Super Bowl champion Dick Vermeil to lead the ship for the 2001 campaign.
Vermeil sent Hall to NFL Europe for developmental purposes, where he joined the Scottish Claymores for the 2001 spring season. In the fall, Vermeil gave Hall another shot at making the roster as a returner on special teams. Hall made the team but finished the ’01 campaign with 43 kickoff returns for 969 yards and 32 punt returns for 235 yards.
In 2002, Vermeil devised a new way to utilize Hall’s skill set upon entering his second season as the Chiefs head coach. Kansas City finished the ’02 season with the NFL’s first-ranked offense, and Hall scored his first touchdown as a wide receiver, catching a 60-yard touchdown pass from Trent Green in a game against the New York Jets on October 6.
Although the Chiefs stumbled to a mediocre 8-8 record, Hall began a legendary 13-game stretch against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 13 of the ’02 season and flowed into the middle of the 2003 campaign. Hall recorded 2,039 all-purpose yards and ten touchdowns in under a season’s worth of games, numbers that another return man in NFL history has yet to replicate.
Unlike the straight-line speed of guys like Devin Hester or Tyreek Hill, Hall had his own running style in the return game and relied on a Barry Sanders-like juking technique that earned him the nickname “The Human Joystick.”
Against the Cardinals in 2002, Hall recorded a career-high 128 return yardage. The following week, he tallied two career-high return touchdowns against the St. Louis Rams. Hall hit another career milestone the next week with 143 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
In 2003, Kansas City steamrolled through the regular season to a 13-3 record with one of the greatest offenses the NFL’s ever seen. Hall continued his scoring streak through Week 8 against Denver and finished the season with a career-high 2,446 return yards and four touchdowns.
In the Divisional round of the AFC playoffs against Indianapolis, Hall’s Chiefs went blow-for-blow with Peyton Manning and Colt’s high-flying offense in a game later dubbed “The No-Punt Bowl” because every offensive possession resulted in a score because neither defense could get a stop.
Unfortunately, despite Hall’s continued success, Kansas City fell 38-31 to Indy and wouldn’t make the postseason again under Dick Vermeil’s leadership. In 2006, Kansas City stumbled into the postseason as a wildcard but fell once again to Peyton’s Colts.
From 2004-06, Hall tallied nine more touchdowns before getting traded to the St. Louis Rams in 2007, where he’d spend a two-year stint before retiring after the 2008 season.
Hall exited the league as one of the most exciting players in NFL history and was a triple threat as a returner, receiver, and rusher. He finished his career as a two-time Pro Bowler and earned All-Pro honors in 2003. Hall fielded 642 returns for 12,397 yards in nine seasons and scored 12 touchdowns. He caught 162 passes for 1,747 yards and nine scores as a receiver. On the ground, he rushed for 242 yards on 54 carries.
