Top o' the morning, AP. Please read and enjoy today's Kansas City Chiefs news from across the internet. Not a lot of Chiefs news today, but there are a couple of interesting articles on the life of a scout, and medical malpactice suits in the NFL.
This season the Chiefs have signed 11 college free agents who will return on May 17th and work with the team in the OTAs and June’s full-team mini-camp. Most will go to training camp in St. Joe and take their shot at one of the most difficult tasks in the pro game – making the roster after all 32 teams passed you by in the NFL Draft multiple times.
As we’ve dug through the list of Chiefs signees, one player in that group stands out – OLB Justin Cole out of San Jose State (above).
Checking around the league in the 10 days since the Draft, we found that Cole was on most team’s boards as a draftable player. Some had him rated as high as a fifth-round choice. Others had him in the sixth or seventh-round. At least one time labeled him a "desirable signee" as an undrafted free agent.
A Free Agent Find? … Thursday Cup O’Chiefs from Bob Gretz
This is the life to which LaPoint, 34, and his wife Jenny have grown accustomed over the last 12 years, from the beginning of his career as a scouting intern with the Kansas City Chiefs through the move to Dallas in 2005.
"I've got a lot of Marriott points," he says. "That's just kind of how it works. It was the same with the Chiefs. You're out two weeks, then you're home for a weekend. I'll come home on Thursday, pay the bills, do my laundry and stuff, hang out with my wife. I'm just married, no kids, but it's not easy for those four months. It's pretty intense. It's hard. It's stressful.
"More than anything, it's just the travel that weighs on you. The job is fun. You're watching football, you're talking to coaches, you're going to practices. But when you're done you know you've got a two- or three-hour drive to get to the next place, because that next morning you've got to go to another school. That's the toughest part."
A Scout's Life from DallasCowboys.com
These types of suit, some team doctors say, could cause the best doctors to avoid working for NFL teams out of fear. In an Outside the Lines report in 2001, NFL Physicians Society president and head doctor for the Kansas City Chiefs said, "What if you’re treating Randy Moss with his $80 million or so contract? There’s no insurance contract that you could buy that would cover the potential liability."
When it comes to choosing medical care, the league allows for players to seek a second opinion at the cost of the team, but many have said teams pressure players not to do so. Why? Money and power. Teams don’t like medical costs on top of what they already pay team doctors, they also don’t like that non-team physicians who are not protecting the interests of the team are often far more conservative in when players should return.
McDuffie Suit Raises Issues for NFL Players, Medical Staffs from The Biz of Football
Fifth-grader Wesley Jones got more than he bargained for when he raised his hand to volunteer Tuesday afternoon.
Before Jones knew it, he was dressed in the Kansas City Chiefs' mascot uniform and wiggling his 85-inch hips before the students and staff at Washington Elementary School.
K.C. Wolf and his portrayer, Dan Meers, visited five Hays elementary schools Tuesday, ending his day at Washington, to spread his message about the importance of reading.
"Maybe you don't feel like you're a very good reader yet, and that's OK," Meers said. "Because reading is kind of like playing football. ... If you guys want to get to be better readers, you know what you're going to have to do -- practice, practice, practice."
In a wolf's clothing from HDNews.net
Player Tweets
almighty31 Why is it that a man that's always in the community makes one mistake and people turn on him as if he was a felon? It makes no sense.
GlennDorsey72 Hands hands hands! Nice workout!!!
berry1429 Signed with @adidasUS ... Feels good to still to be wearin the three stripes in the NFL!
Media and Fans
mortreport RT @ScotlandSaint: @mortreport Who are your dark horses for the 2010 season? > Can I call Bengals darkhorses again? KC, maybe.
WhitlockJason Put Hasselbeck in her Survivor bikini and Sideline Barbie in her DWTS costume put em an MMA octagon. It would redefine Human Cockfighting.
ChiefsPR Great day here at Arrowhead. Got a chance to see a trio of Chiefs HOF inductees today: Fred Arbanas, Nick Lowery and Lenny the Cool.
espn_afcwest AFC West rookie of the year odds - http://tinyurl.com/28sokdh