I’ve known Nick Athan of Warpaint Illustrated for several years, and I’ve never regarded him as a questionable source of Chiefs news.

But that might be a result of the fact that I don’t pay much attention to the Chiefs.

With Athan’s report that Chiefs owner Clark Hunt recently said that the team has complied with the Rooney Rule when in fact Hunt never has said any such thing, we’ve now got serious concerns.

Our concerns became even more pointed upon receiving moments ago the following IM from Jason Whitlock: “LEAVE NICK ATHAN ALONE. . . total assclown. ASSCLOWN.”

(You know, Whitlock’s career would really take off if he’d quit being so damned wishy-washy about his opinions.)

“[F]eel free to quote me by name,” Whitlock said, “belittling you for even responding to that assclown’s e-mail. [H]e’s the guy who sent NFL [N]etwork an e-mail saying the [C]hiefs’ deal for [S]hanahan was DONE and that [S]chefter was wrong. [A]than is an assclown.”

Whitlock’s opinions regarding Athan’s are Whitlock’s alone, primarily since I’ve never been able to identify a consensus definition of the term “assclown.”

That said, Whitlock has never steered me wrong in the past, so I probably will be heeding his advice.

http://www.profootballtalk.com/2009/02/04/we-get-chastised-for-citing-nick-athan/