Kansas City Chiefs guard Brian Waters did not attend a charity event last night. The charity, First Downs for Down Syndrome, held an auction last night. The catch? Waters is an honorary co-chair of the organization.
On the surface it appears Waters' absence might confirm the incision between him and the Chiefs. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk is speculating that Waters' absence might be an indication that he won't be attending the Chiefs mandatory mini-camp this weekend.
According to Pro Football Talk, several other Chiefs, including all of the offensive lineman and quarterbacks Matt Cassel and Tyler Thigpen, attended the event. Rudy Niswanger is also an honorary co-chair.
Waters has been a mainstay in many Kansas City area charity organizations in addition to being the NFLPA representative for the Chiefs.
There could be a variety of reasons for his absence.
- Maybe he was out of town.
- Maybe he wasn't even scheduled to be there.
- Maybe he didn't want to deal with the possibility of folks asking about his reported issues with Chiefs management.
Or maybe the February 27th article by Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star was spot on. One thing is for sure, though, we'll know more about how deep his disdain for the new regime runs by tomorrow's mandatory mini-camp.
As Florio points out, there's no financial repercussions for missing out on a charity event (whether he was scheduled to be there or not, which we don't know) but missing the Chiefs mini-camp this weekend could cost him nearly $50,000 [Edit - It's actually around $8,000 maximum for missing a mandatory mini-camp and around $15,000 a day for missing training camp. -Chris].
This is so out of character from what we've heard and seen written about Brian Waters that I am still guessing he will attend the mini-camp. It's one thing to miss out on practice, it's another to miss out on a charity event, which is why I don't think this is an indication of anything.