Good morning, AP! Here's your Kansas City Chiefs news for today. We're going tweet free so I can make an early train to NYC. Read and enjoy.
There’s no surprise that maybe a Chiefs fan or two, or two thousand, enjoyed the sad news that came out of Oakland on Thursday with the Raiders release of QB JaMarcus Russell.
The move ended what has been an NFL soap opera for the last three years and established a new standard for failure in the NFL Draft. Russell is the poster child for the decline of the storied Raiders franchise, one that has made football proudest man a laughingstock among those that once feared him.
And the Loser Is … Weekend Cup O’Chiefs from Bob Gretz
Bulaga is not the only newly minted NFL mom in the Chicago area. Judy LeFevour and Sandra Kafka had sons drafted by NFL teams last month. Dan LeFevour, a Downers Grove resident and standout quarterback at Central Michigan, was a sixth-round pick of the Chicago Bears. Oak Lawn native Mike Kafka, who led Northwestern to the Outback Bowl last season, was selected in the fourth round by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Lose Moeaki's son, Tony, a former tight end at Wheaton Warrenville South High School and Bryan Bulaga's teammate at Iowa, was a third-round pick of the Kansas City Chiefs.
All of those interviewed are proud of their sons and excited about their futures. And, by now, they're used to seeing their boys thrown around like ragdolls or buried under mammoth piles of humanity.Football moms graduate to the NFL from The Chicago Tribune
If Merchut does get a call back and, eventually, a contract, he will be adding to an NFL legacy within the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. In 2008 Wheaton College defensive end Andy Studebaker was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles and later became the first alum from the school to score a touchdown in the NFL when he recovered a muffed punt for the Kansas City Chiefs last season.
Though Carthage and Wheaton are both a little off the radar as Division III schools, Merchut knows the quality of play is some of the best around.
Merchut has 'awesome experience' at Bears camp from MySuburbanLife.com
The 2010 class of the Joplin Area Sports Hall of Fame will include one of Missouri Southern’s own.
The Joplin Sports Authority announced last Wednesday that men’s basketball Head Coach Robert Corn is to be inducted into the hall alongside the Parkwood High School Bears 1980 football team, including Joplin product Jeff Tupper who played collegiately for the Oklahoma University Sooners, winning a National Championship there before being drafted into the NFL. Also to be honored is former women’s basketball star at Joplin High School, Treva Christian......Tupper, a defensive lineman in his career, is widely considered as one of the top athletes to come out of the Joplin area.
As is common for young athletes, his dream was to reach the NFL and have a career as a professional football player. After winning an Orange Bowl as a Sooner, Tupper played for the Kansas City Chiefs as well as the Denver Broncos is his career.2010 Joplin Area Sports Hall class includes Corn from The Chart Online
Fujita has had only one teammate he ever thought was gay: A walk-on his sophomore year at Berkeley. And despite the changing attitudes, Fujita thinks the NFL would still be a very tough place to come out. But he did say that a player who contributes in a strong way to his team on the field would have an easier time. And he said someone like himself, who is respected and has conviction behind his beliefs, could also make it through.
He also doesn’t agree with Sterling Sharpe, who years ago said a teammate coming out would be injured so badly by his teammates at the next practice that he wouldn’t make it into a game. At least, he doesn’t believe that would have happened on the three teams he has played with so far: Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints.
"No one’s going to come out and want to hurt somebody," Fujita said. "It’s an issue of alienation, where the player would feel like he is on his own, which obviously wouldn’t be fair."
Still, Fujita said he thinks after some initial pushback that the player could be fine, as long as he had support from management, the coaching staff, and the leaders in the locker room.
"People fall in line," Fujita said. "It takes one person to do something, like Jackie Robinson did, for everyone to fall in line. I hope to God that no one waits until everyone is ready."Linebacker says attitudes in the NFL toward gays are improving from OutSports.com
Manchester United, the world’s most valuable sports franchise, will inaugurate New Arrowhead Stadium with a match against the Kansas City Wizards July 25, the Wizards and the Kansas City Chiefs announced Thursday.
Rated the world’s No. 1 sports franchise for the second year in the row by Forbes, Manchester United of the English Premier League is valued at $1.87 billion. The NFL’s Dallas Cowboys are ranked second at $1.65 billion.
The game will be the first in the newly updated stadium, which underwent $375 million in renovations.
Manchester United will play match in Kansas City this summer from The St. Louis Globe-Democrat