The Phenomenon of Dwayne Bowe
There are so many angles you can take on the emergence of Dwayne Bowe for the Kansas City Chiefs. Lord knows we've taken a few. But the bottom line is obvious: on an offense that struggled on a gargantuan level, for a franchise that has had a historical problem finding good WRs, even moreso with elite WRs, playing a position that statistically struggles in their first year, Bowe was a shocking revelation of talent, personality, and leadership.
There's not a lot you can do to spin that negatively, but the Bleacher Report sure tries, with an article this past Saturday titled The Tragedy of Dwayne Bowe, arguing that Bowe's immense talent is being squandered on a mediocre offense:
Bowe has the perfect body for football. He's 6-foot-2 and 221 pounds, big for an NFL receiver. He can go through the middle and take the most brutal hits. He has breakaway speed, running a 4.5 forty even in high school. He connected with 2007 top draft pick JaMarcus Russell on 23 touchdowns during their career, an LSU school record. All these things caused him to be a hyped draft pick.
Then all these things disappeared in one moment. The Kansas City Chiefs picked him with the 23rd overall pick in the 2007 draft.
No one predicted this would kill his career.
And on it goes:
A year of these two quarterbacks splitting time, plus the biggest o-line failure of all time caused the high scoring offense to drop to last place. They were 4-11. They had nine straight losses to end their season.Bowe, at least tried. He caught 70 passes for 995 yards. He had six touchdown catches. Those are remarkably good numbers for a receiver, and not usually the numbers of a failure.
Now with the Chiefs still looking to be horrible on the offensive end, Bowe will again underachieve. He won't play to his full potential until he is on a different team.I like the Chiefs, but I like Bowe more. I don't want them to pull down a career that could put him among the game's greatest. Please, Herm, do Bowe a favor and trade him. If this never happens, it will be the biggest tragedy since Romeo and Juliet.
I'm not exactly sure why this article's author, the pornstar-named Dallas Wilson, woke up Saturday morning with a Jonesin' for some serious Chiefs hatred, but this article is as fatalistic as the day is long.
A few responses come to mind, most notably an article by KcChiefs.com's Bob Gretz written exactly a year ago, titled What To Expect From Bowe. In that article, Gretz featured some impressive research detailing exactly how hard it is for rookie wide receivers to succeed in their first year in the league.
It included this chart, which features the rookie stats of twenty five of the best WRs in the NFL:
In case you've forgotten from earlier in the article, Bowe's rookie yardage tops that of 21 of the 25 best WRs that currently play in the NFL. If that's a rookie wide receiver "underachieving," Mr. Wilson, I'm sorry to disappoint...
In addition to that, I think it's incredibly premature to sign Bowe's career tombstone. Wide receivers have long shelf-lives in the NFL. Eddie Kennison spear-headed the Chiefs' receiving attack during the offense's heyday and he was well into his thirties. Scanning the list of the WRs above reveals that a large number of them are over 30. And Dwayne Bowe is 23-years-old. He's got a decade left to be a premier wide receiver.
And the Chiefs offense has plenty of time to catch up with him. There's no reason to believe that with a seasoned Croyle throwing the ball, a better offensive line, a better rushing attack, and an offensive coordinator who isn't among the league's worse, it can't.
There's some unwritten rule in Mr. Wilson's playbook that dictates that rebuilding teams aren't allowed promising superstars to build around. Perhaps we should dump Tamba Hali, Glenn Dorsey, Derrick Johnson, and Jarrad Page too, so they can have hopes of thriving on more historically successful franchises. Maybe the Lions, Cardinals, and Vikings should do the same. How dare these teams, forever destined for failure, be allowed superstar talent. Perhaps the Chiefs shouldn't have existed in the first place, and spared Mr. Wilson his devastating grief.
Or maybe this fatalist perspective is too cheap and cynical to take seriously. And maybe this rebuilding project could pay enormously successful dividends down the road. It is not hard to imagine Dwayne Bowe being a large part of that turn-around.
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9 comments
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also read that one
Yeah. I read that article too, the whole thing even though it made me sick with every word. After reading it, I had a thought. That writer really seems either bias towards the colts or against the chiefs. I mean seriously I love the Chiefs but I love the NFL so much, because of the ability to turn things around. I like to see bad teams improve, the competition of this league is what makes it great to watch and cover. As a sports writer that guy seems like he let’s his bias for teams or even players themselves get in his way of being fair to a league with a rags to riches mentallity that has made all of us fall in love with it.
by Simon from KC on May 25, 2008 8:46 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Leadership
From what I’ve heard this year, D-Bo has stepped up his confidence and team leadership so far this year. It would be great to have a wide receiver step up and be a team leader and avoid whatever draws too many of them toward becoming self-centered. D-Bo’s got a chance to be a true leader with Tony G and Donnie Edwards setting the example in the club house.
Good write up, Direckshun! There are plenty of top athletes who choose college programs that are down, just to be part of the rebuilding process and feel like they’re making more of a difference.
by sunny D on May 25, 2008 9:25 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Sports Writers are Dumb
I mean not all of them, but most. Why do we even have sports writers? What service do they provide exactly? Do we really need them to analyze and break down the sport. This stuff is not rocket science and sometimes I wonder how high their IQ is. We just read their articles because we are board not entranced. This writer is an obvious joke who doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. “Please Mr. Edwards trade Bowe! Wah Wah Wah. Give me a break. Ok Mr. Sports Writer your right lets trade the best rookie WR of last year just because we’re holding him back and intentionally ruining his career. Hell he only got about 1000 yards last year!!!! This guy makes me want to vomit.
by chiefsfan1384 on May 25, 2008 10:48 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
To be clear
The Bleacher Report is basically like our diary section—user generated content. Except the Bleacher Report shows up on Google News, making us believe it has more legitimacy than it really does.
by Chris Thorman on May 25, 2008 11:27 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Sounds like a Chiefs "fan" wrote that
In psychiatry they call them “Self-Haters”. There have been judges that were known to be especially tough on child molestors in court only to find out later that the judge himself had been a pedophile.
The same phenomenon appears amongst Chiefs fans. They claim they love their team “more than anyone” and lash out at anyone who questions their fanhood, but at every opportunity dinegrate the team. There is never hope amongst these people, everything is always on the brink of catastrophe. Every decision made is the wrong one, even if they had suggested it themselves weeks before.
The writer of this article is a particularly annoying kind. The Selfless self-hater. They love their players so much that they don’t want to see their careers ruined by such a horrible horrible team, their beloved Chiefs. They are so selfless that they would rather see Tony Gonzalez playing for the Chargers if it meant he could finally get away from the Chiefs who have been holding him back for so many years, despite that he holds nearly every tight end record in history. So selfless they wish Dwayne Bowe could be on a different team so he could flourish, despite his phenomenal rookie season.
Don’t be a self hater. Just watch football and enjoy it.
by ChiefDJ on May 26, 2008 12:35 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Interesting...
Not to give that pointless article any more press, but I’m thinkin’ you just don’t care for the kid, Sir, because he uses your favorite sports commentary technique: “Brodie Croyle was a third round choice in 2006 and was not meant to be anything but the next Damon Huard.” [wink, grin]
by sunny D on May 26, 2008 2:20 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
In his defense
The kid’s getting obliterated in the comments section, and is actually open to the criticism.
He’s just a fan with a wonky opinion. His article may as well have been on his myspace page.
by Ochophosphate on May 27, 2008 9:25 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
It will be fun
I will have so much fun this year watching D-Bo improve right along with our entire offensive team. Guys like that will just choke on their words. Many of the “experts” don’t seem to have a clue how powerful morale, teamwork, and respect affect production. In my mind, we had solid quaility players last year, but due to the lack of chemistry, injuries, lack of ingenuity in play calling, holdouts, and the sense of futility, the multiple negative factors were just too much for the team to bear. This year, as seen and felt by those who are around the players, all of those negative factors are gone.
This looks to be the most high quality and strongest “rebuild” of a team that I’ve seen. This season brings a great blend of high quality veterans with high quality rookies and solid young early career pros to back them up. What a season this will be and what a better season next year will be! I am proud of our management, coaches, and players! Let the run to dominance begin right now! Go Chiefs!!
by TXChiefan on May 26, 2008 10:27 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

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