Rick Dean of the Topeka Capital-Journal, who covered Szott throughout his career in Kansas City, called him “the best guard to have never played in the Pro Bowl.” Szott was another of GM Carl Peterson’s and Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer’s discoveries when the Chiefs’ staff coached the annual Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.
After seeing him, working with him, and beginning to understand the man that he was, Peterson drafted him in the seventh-round of the 1990 draft. He immediately became a starter and missed just two games in his first eight seasons before suffering a torn biceps in 1998. Szott’s play was a product of technique and instinct.
He had been a reserve offensive guard his freshman year at Penn State, but the coaches moved him to defensive line the next year, and he eventually started every game as a nose tackle as a junior. Finally, in his senior year, Szott moved back to his preferred position at guard.
Never expecting to be drafted, he was about to go fishing when Marty Schottenheimer called on the last day of the draft, saying, “It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.”
Playing alongside Will Shields and Tim Grunhard for most of his career, Szott and his teammates on Kansas City’s offensive line defined the way Marty Schottenheimer wanted to play. “Marty-ball” it was called, and it was highlighted by a tough-as-nails ground game with big backs propelled by a grind-it-out offensive line. Even when Schottenheimer introduced a “West Coast” style of play, his line play still shined as his teams in Kansas City counted 100 wins over a decade.
Szott handled some of the biggest names on the league’s defensive lines during those days — John Randl, Cortez Kennedy and Chester McGlockton. “He isn’t the biggest guy in the world,” said Schottenheimer of Szott, “so he has to be clinically sound. But he’s also a tough-nosed guy who’s willing to stick his hat in there and go war.”