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
With the draft long done and most significant player movement now complete, it’s time to produce the initial ratings for the 2010 NFL season.
Frequent readers will note that I’m generally not a fan of these premature speculations, but it’s one of the more common questions I get asked this time of year...
26. Kansas City Chiefs: A great draft class helps, but still so many questions (pass rush, passing offense, OL, DL) and I’m not crazy about any of the answers currently in place.
This should spark some debate...
Since 1970, the AFC West division has cranked out many great players on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Each team's identity has came from their star players: from Elway and the Broncos, to Howie Long and the Oakland Raiders.
For this article, I gave my best shot at the Top 10 players to ever set foot in the AFC West.
AFC West: Top 10 Players in History from Bleacher Report
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
Talk about professional athletes and conversations lead to million dollar lifestyles, expensive cars, high-profile divorces and trouble with the law. Sadly, it seems true role models are a thing of the past.
But then there are those who rise to success from humble beginnings. These are the folks that remember where they came from, on whose shoulders they rose and how it is their responsibility to give back to the community...
...On June 18 the third annual T.E.A.M. Elam Charity Weekend featured a Celebrity Bowling Challenge at Jupiter Lanes. For this year’s event, Abram invited a star-studded cast of NFL friends, including: Miami Dolphins’ Brandon Marshall; Chicago Bears’ Devin Hester; Baltimore Ravens’ Anquan Boldin; Cleveland Browns’ Joshua Cribbs; New York Jets’ Darrelle Revis, David Clowney and Drew Coleman; Kansas City Chiefs’ DaJuan Morgan and Brandon Flowers; New Orleans Saints’ Heath Evans and Usama Young and more.
NFL stars bowl strikes to help youngsters from TCPalm
As a life long Chiefs fan I have yet to make the trek to the motherland. Go ahead and boo, I deserve it. I have always wanted to go but, believe it or not, I never had the chance (money, time, just plain laziness). No more excuses.
I won’t be going to Arrowhead alone though. I will have my fiancé and two best friends with me. It will probably be the 49ers game in September; I don’t feel like sitting outside in November or December. I want it to be special. I want them to know why I bleed red and gold everyday and that is why I need your suggestions.
My Chief Concerns: Planning an Arrowhead Weekend from Arrowhead Addict
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.
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.
