KANSAS CITY Xavier Williams Jersey , Mo. (AP) — en vastly different had his family not emigrated from postwar Germany, settling in California when he was a young boy.For one thing, he almost certainly never would have dedicated his life to football.Yet Cunningham would go on to spend more than five decades in the game, including coaching stints in college and the CFL before making a name for himself in the NFL. He worked for six different franchises over 34 years in the league, including a two-year stint as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.Cunningham died on Saturday after a brief illness. He was 72.His wife, Rene, said in a statement Monday that Cunningham died in Detroit, where he had served as defensive coordinator and a senior coaching assistant for the Lions before retiring in 2016.“My family and I are deeply saddened to hear the news of Gunther’s passing,” Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said in a statement. “He led some of the most feared defenses in our franchise’s history with his energetic and motivating coaching style. Gunther made a tremendous impact on so many lives on and off the playing field in nearly five decades of coaching.”The Lions said in a statement that Cunningham will “forever be remembered as one of the great men in our game. He left a lasting impact on every person who was fortunate enough to work with him.”Cunningham’s father, Garner, was an American serving in the Air Force in Germany when he met his German wife, Katherina. Their precocious boy was born in Munich in 1946, and the family soon moved to the U.S. and settled in California, where Cunningham — who spoke no English — was ridiculed like many post-World War II immigrants for both his accent and ancestry.It was on the football field where he found his voice.Cunningham became a star linebacker for his high school team in Lompoc, and earned a scholarship to play at Oregon. His aptitude for the game made him a natural coach, and Cunningham got his start as the Ducks’ defensive line coach from 1969-71.He later coached at Arkansas, Stanford and California before a stint with Hamilton in the CFL. He then followed Frank Kush to the Baltimore Colts, where he got his first NFL coaching job.Colts owner Jim Irsay tweeted that Cunningham was “one of the finest men in our business.”Cunningham eventually became one of the most aggressive and successful defensive coaches in the league Patrick Mahomes Jersey , burnishing his reputation with the Chargers and Raiders before landing in Kansas City. He was an integral part of Marty Schottenheimer’s best teams as the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator, and was promoted to head coach when Schottenheimer resigned after the 1998 season.He went 9-7 in his first year and 7-9 in his second, and his only head coaching stint ended on a sour note. Cunningham claimed he was never told by management that he’d been fired, learning it instead from reporters when he arrived to work in the morning.Cunningham spent some time with the Titans before Dick Vermeil lured him back to the Chiefs as his defensive coordinator. He spent the rest of his career with the Lions.“I had the honor to coach with him & against him,” tweeted longtime coach Jeff Fisher, who had Cunningham on his staff in Tennessee. “You’ll never meet another man with such a passion for people, family and football. We will miss him deeply.”Cunningham was known for his fiery demeanor and colorful vocabulary — yes, he picked up English, but his players would joke that he also knew plenty of French. Even in his final years on the sideline in Detroit, it wasn’t uncommon to see Cunningham drop-kicking a clipboard in frustration.But he also was the consummate players’ coach, putting their best interests first.“So sad to hear of the passing of one of the best coaches in the game,” said Rich Gannon, who was quarterback in Kansas City during the late 1990s. “I went against him and his defense in practice every day for four years with the Kansas City Chiefs and it definitely made me a better player.”Cunningham is survived by Rene, his wife of nearly 50 years, and their son Adam and daughter Natalie. The family is planning a memorial service at a later date. In this season of unprecedented offensive football output, talk recently has emerged of a defensive player earning the league MVP award. But the man who runs the defense for which Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald plays doesn’t see it happening. Unless he’s engaging in reverse psychology.“Yeah, they’re not going to give it to a defensive player, in my opinion Mitch Morse Jersey ,” Wade Phillips told reporters on Thursday. “Quarterbacks are always the guy that — and probably well deserved — they cause a lot of points. It’s harder on defense to say, ‘Hey, man, he stopped him from scoring how many times or how many points he’s accounted for.’ But, [Aaron has] actually accounted for a lot of points because he’s stopped drives or he’s caused fumbles, all those things. But you don’t see that in the defensive player stats and so forth, so I think it’s always going to be an offensive player, pretty much. I think the only chance that any player would have and Aaron would have would be to set the all-time record for sacks or something like that. We’re glad we have him and whether he gets the MVP or Todd Gurley gets it, we really don’t care.”Last year, Donald became the defensive player of the year and Gurley won the offensive player of the year award. This year, they could split votes, opening the door for someone from another team to win it. Unless the voters who are inclined to give the award for the Rams get together ahead of the official vote (there’s a word for that but it slips my mind) and pick one specific Ram for whom to vote.And it could be Donald, especially if he surpasses Michael Strahan’s single-season* record of 22.5 sacks. But even if Donald falls short of that mark, he’s only 1.5 sacks away from the record for sacks by an interior defensive lineman, set by Keith Millard in 1989.Rams coach Sean McVay was less pessimistic about Donald’s prospects that Phillips.“I think if the voters determine that that’s the case, then certainly it could happen,” McVay told reporters on Thursday. “If it happens to be somebody that we’re working with, no one would be more excited and happy for Aaron than we would as an organization. But Chris Jones Jersey , for us, the best part about it is our guys are focused on what they can do to contribute for our team. Certainly, he’s made a huge impact on the game. I think a lot of it really goes back to just playing good football, getting better every single day. He certainly has done that, but a lot of it is an interpretation thing, ‘Most Valuable Player.’ Do you deem that based on the impact you’re making on the game? Are you saying that somebody that touches the ball every single play is the most valuable based on the nature of the position? So I think it’s really left for interpretation, but I know this: Aaron Donald is playing outstanding football. He has been instrumental in a lot of the big plays that have occurred as a result of us winning football games because of the defense coming through in some crunch-time situations. It’s not by coincidence that 99 is usually in the middle of all of that and it starts with his preparation. He sure is a talented player as well.”The current favorites for the award are Drew Brees and Patrick Mahomes, not necessarily in that order. The reality is that, with 25 percent of the season still to play, the winner won’t truly come into focus until the season ends, the stats are finalized, and the playoff seedings are set.Vikings defensive tackle Alan Page won the MVP award in 1971, and Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor captured the prize in 1986. The year Strahan racked up 22.5 sacks, Rams quarterback Kurt Warner won his second MVP award in three years.