Former Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil told me today that he has not been, nor expects to be, contacted about returning to Kansas City in any front-office capacity.

Vermeil, who spent five seasons as Chiefs coach earlier this decade, said that talk centering on Vermeil being hired in a Bill Parcells-like football operations director position was nothing but a "big rumor."

Still, he wouldn't shoot down the idea that he might be interested in such a position.

"I don't talk about that," he said Thursday.

Was he saying he wouldn't be interested in such a thing?

"I didn't say that," he said. "I said no one talked to me about that."

Vermeil did say he had spoken to Carl Peterson, who resigned Monday, two games before the completion of his 20th season in Kansas City. Vermeil said Peterson, who hasn't spoken publicly since Monday, was in good spirits when they spoke earlier this week.

Vermeil and Peterson worked together when both were with the Philadelphia Eagles in the early 1980s.