While in Washington D.C. on Tuesday I made my way to Capitol Hill where a few NFL players and their families were talking to some political folks about issues facing NFL players including the safety of the game.
Also on the Hill (Yeah, I'm a Washington insider) with the NFL group was Chiefs safety Jon McGraw. Of course I couldn't let him get away without asking him a few questions about the Chiefs two new safeties, Eric Berry and Kendrick Lewis.
Right off the bat, you can add McGraw to the growing list of Chiefs players that are impressed with Berry.
"Besides being an incredible athlete, he comes across to me as extremely mature for his age," McGraw told me. "He came in very humbled. He just wanted to learn and to grow. You respect that about someone as the fifth overall pick coming in with a lot of clout. I think he's handled himself like a pro from the beginning and I'm really excited to get to play next to him."
I've been curious about McGraw's relationship with Lewis because the rookie was essentially drafted to take McGraw's job. On the one hand, you want to help out any rookies to help the team as a whole. On the other hand, you want to keep your starting job.
Quite the dilemma, no?
"I haven't gotten into that dilemma at all," he said. "I want to be the best player I can be and a lot of times becoming the best player, the way to get there is to be a better teacher. If you can really teach something well, you can actually help yourself and learn it better. It's a great way for veterans to get better at their skill to teach it to other guys. Guys that go into isolation mode, in the end actually hurt the team."
That's an interesting spin on things that I haven't really thought of before and, frankly, it makes a lot of sense. When you look at the Chiefs who seem to value those veterans that will teach the younger guys (think Zach Thomas, Mike Brown) it makes even more sense why they would keep McGraw on the roster.