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.''