Good morning AP. Today's another tweet-free edition so I can get to work early. It's going to be a long day. Today's Kansas City Chiefs news includes a nice write up on Thomas Jones and a list of the AFC West's Top 10 Players in History (HIV might not want to look).

If you want to know how a 30-plus running back can defy the odds and still be a productive offensive weapon, then welcome to Thomas Jones and his work ethic. In his short time with the Chiefs, he’s shown his new teammates, the coaches and Kansas City fans what it means to be a dedicated professional. You don’t get biceps like his with a minimum amount of weight on the bar.

"Never," is what G Brian Waters said when he was asked if he’d ever played with a running back who had bigger biceps than his own. Let’s remember that Waters is a good 100 pounds heavier than Jones.

But when it comes to slinging the iron around, nobody in the Chiefs locker room tops Jones. That’s especially true for the six-week, so-called vacation that the players are working through since the end of the team’s off-season program.  

T.J.’s Work Never Stops … Wednesday Cup O’Chiefs from Bob Gretz

"This stuff is hard," acknowledges Parrish, the reigning Interscholastic League Defensive Player of the Year at Northeast High School who will attend Missouri Western this fall on a football scholarship.

"This stuff" is the 10 o’clock morning strength and conditioning session — the first KC districtwide offseason training program, which has former Chiefs assistant coach Long running the show.

The initiative started by Kansas City School District athletic director Kimble Anders was just a pipe dream a couple of months ago. Anders, who recently completed his first school year in the position, had never heard of a summer program for the district athletes and feared that if he started one, 10 kids — maybe 12, if he were lucky — would come. Now in its fifth week, that many typically show up 15 minutes before the start of the first session and stay through the rest of the day for the remaining two workouts.

The idea was Anders’ vision, but the program belongs to Long.

Former Chiefs strength coach Long building up kids in KC school district from KC Star

Is the great Matt Cassell experiment about to be officially deemed a failure?  Not yet.  The Chiefs are going to give him one more shot at proving that he was worth all the trouble that they went through to get him.  If Cassell fails however, who do the Chiefs have to step in and try to right their ship?

Much like the Buffalo Bills, the Chiefs don’t have any standouts at the quarterback position.  Looking at their roster (and the group that they will be taking into training camp with them at the end of this month) we see that they have Brodie Croyle, Ingle Martin, and Tyler Palko.  None of these guys are really what anyone would like to see in a starting quarterback although Croyle does have some talent and could step in and start if needed.

Five NFL Teams With Budding Quarterback Issues for 2010 from Bleacher Report

Former longtime University of Notre Dame football offensive backfield coach Tom Pagna died late Tuesday morning of congestive heart failure at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Ind. He was 78...

...Before coming to Notre Dame in '64 with Parseghian, Pagna served five seasons on Parseghian's Northwestern staff from 1959 through '63 (freshman coach from '59 to '61 and backfield coach in '62 and '63) - with the Wildcats putting together a 27-18 combined record in those years (including four straight wins over Notre Dame from '59 through '62). Pagna coached at Akron (Ohio) North High School in '57 and '58. After leaving Notre Dame he spent two seasons as the offensive backfield coach for the NFL Kansas City Chiefs in 1978-79 under head coach Marv Levy.

Former Notre Dame Football Assistant Tom Pagna Dies at Age 78 from The University of Notre Dame website

It's no secret among Kansas City's forlorn sports fans that the local teams are less than stellar. ESPN's annual team rankings are out, and KC's clubs didn't get very high on the list, but they're not bottom feeders, either.

ESPN The Magazine's "ultimate team rankings" rate every organization in the four big sports in a handful of mostly intangible categories. The package attempts to determine how much the "the franchises give back to the fans in exchange for all the time money and emotion the fans invest in them."

The Royals and Chiefs didn't fare all that well.

ESPN: Chiefs, Royals are sad but not among the very worst from The Pitch