Coach Dick Vermeil told the Philadelphia Inquirer for a story posted on its Web site that the knee injury wide receiver Freddie Mitchell suffered early in training camp may cost Mitchell a spot on the roster. Mitchell decided against arthroscopic surgery after tearing meniscus cartilage in his right knee July 30. The Chiefs told the Inquirer that Mitchell might have missed two weeks or less if he had had the operation. Mitchell is running full speed but still can't cut on the right knee. "He was doing fine before he hurt the cartilage, and he elected on his own not to get it operated on," Vermeil told the Inquirer. "Our people thought he ought to get it done, and he'd be back practicing right now. But, you know, a player has his right to make a decision, and, hopefully, it was not the wrong one for him. But he would have been very, very competitive to make this football team. It's going to be tough now, if you're not in position to compete."

Kansas City Chiefs? star tight end Tony Gonzalez recently received the results of the x-rays taken on his foot and to his delight, the x-rays came back negative. Coach Dick Vermeil is not sure when Gonzalez will return to practice and with backups Jason Dunn and Kris Wilson already injured, Vermeil has been forced to go deep into his bench calling on Edwin Thompson and Mike Kallfelz. ?Neither of them have played in the National Football League,? Vermeil said. ?The kids struggled last night but they gave us the best that they had and enabled us to practice.?

Dick Vermeil's retirement isn't as certain as it was a few months ago. In January, at the end of Kansas City's tough and disappointing 7-9 season, the oldest head coach in the NFL honestly thought it would be. "I've told my assistant coaches that next year will be my last,'' he announced. Everything will hinge on how the 2005 Chiefs do. Provided they compete and he still feels up to the job, Vermeil just might return for his 16th campaign in a league where he was the 1999 coach of the year. "If the team plays real well and it looks like the way we do things is capable of producing a good football team, then I might stay,'' Vermeil said. "I'm just going to play it out and see what happens.'' He already hastily retired once and lived to regret it. Shortly after the St. Louis Rams won the Super Bowl after the '99 season, he unexpectedly stepped down and returned to his 114-acre estate in rural Pennsylvania. "I realized very quickly that that was a mistake. I don't sit and wallow in regret, but it was a mistake,'' he said. "I'm just not going to be as impulsive as I was with the Rams.''

Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Freddie Mitchell inured his knee in Sunday?s morning special-teams workout. Vermeil said the injury ?doesn?t appear to be a serious one,? but it?s obviously a blow to Mitchell, the former Philadelphia Eagle who?s fighting for a spot on the roster. Mitchell, who signed as a free agent in June, had impressed the Chiefs coaches through the first three days of camp with his work ethic and ability to make several difficult catches. Mitchell may leave the camp to have his knee scoped to measure the extent of the damage.