The Kansas City Chiefs have signed free agent running back Thomas Jones, who was the NFL’s third-leading rusher last season with the New York Jets.

Jones helped lead the Jets to the AFC championship game with 1,402 yards and 14 touchdowns last season. The Chiefs announced the deal on Tuesday but they have declined to release any of the terms of the contract at this time.

Jones, 31, was a 2008 Pro Bowl selection with 1,312 yards and 13 touchdowns with the Jets.

With the Chiefs, Jones is expected to compliment third-year running back Jamaal Charles, who was Kansas City’s MVP last season with 1,120 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.

Jones was drafted seventh overall in 2000 by the Arizona Cardinals. He was traded to Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2003. One year later, he signed with the Chicago Bears as a free agent and helped lead them to the Super Bowl in 2006.

Jones was traded to the New York Jets in 2007. Jones requested the trade from the Bears because he did not like sharing time with then Bears running back and first round draft pick Cedric Benson, who is now the number one running back with the Cincinnati Bengals.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas time.

For the teams and players that are fortunate enough to be playing for a playoff spot in December, it's definitely the most wonderful time of the year.

However, for those less fortunate teams and players that are not playing for a playoff spot, It's all about our pride and building on what we can achieve now for next year.

Because the Chiefs and myself are sadly one of the unfortunate teams who are not playing for a playoff spot at this time of the year, my focus this week is all about the love of the game. I want to just go out there and have fun and enjoy myself by taking advantage of every opportunity that may present itself on the field. I will still be out on the field trying my best on every play and doing what ever it takes to help my team win the game.

Hopefully, everyone else on the team will be as well so that we can give it our best with a total team effort and we can possibly enjoy beating the Browns this week. It is our last home game of the year and we want to give it our best on the field and come out of the game with a victory.

The fans deserve it, and we really want to give them something to cheer about. The coaches deserve it because they have been working hard week after week in trying to make us all better, not only as a team but as individual players too. And most importantly, we the players deserve it because we have been working hard all season and we really want to win this last home game.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Bobby Wade is a wide receiver with the Kansas City Chiefs. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.bobbywade80.com

If your NFL team is 5-7 or 6-6, you are probably finding reasons to despair.  Take a look at a team with only three wins and find some reasons to rejoice.

I spent my bye week in Arizona with my family. I had an event at Pendergast Elementary school, which I attended for a couple of years when I was younger. It was called Red Ribbon week and the purpose of the event was to spread awareness to the kids not to use tobacco, alcohol, or drugs, and making good decisions in life.

We had two assemblies in one day on the Friday before Halloween. The first assembly was for the first to sixth graders and the second assembly was for the seventh and eighth graders.

It went real well, and was a good event which was very successful. My brother and sister run my foundation and my brother put this one together and did a great job of organizing the event and booking guest speakers.

One of the guest speakers was Kenny Dobbs, who is a young mentor that started his own foundation called “Up Rise Movement.” Kenny puts on a show using his basketball skills and showing his talents on the basketball court while speaking to the kids about making good decisions in their lives. It was a really cool presentation and overall the event was a huge success.

I started the week off right today by doing a public outreach with the Chiefs along with President Clark Hunt and General Manager Scott Pioli who were both in attendance as well. It was for “Feed America,” a foundation that has partnered up with Tyson Chicken and Harvester to donate 38,000 pounds of food.

This week we are playing the Jaguars in Jacksonville. I am looking forward to playing Florida, it is always nice down there during this time of the year.

Everybody had a good bye week and the team is looking forward to playing this week.

We will start to get ready for the Jaguars on Wednesday and we are hoping to start fresh for the second half of the season. The team and everybody is refreshed and pumped up to start what we are calling a new season. We are putting the first half behind us and starting over for the second half and it all starts with the Jacksonville Jaguars this week.

Bobby Wade is a wide receiver with the Kansas City Chiefs. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.bobbywade80.com

Chiefs starting running back Larry Johnson was given a two-week suspension by the team on Wednesday for conduct detrimental to the team. He will not be permitted at the team headquarters nor will he be allowed to participate in any team activities before November 9.

Johnson and his agent, Peter Schaffer, are expected to appeal the decision.

 “We respectfully disagree,” Schaffer said. “This punishment doesn’t fit the action.”

Johnson was banned from the team on Tuesday because of statements he had made in the beginning of the week. During his suspension,  Johnson will not be paid, so he will lose about $660,000 in pay the next two weeks.

The Chiefs issued a statement on Wednesday night and announced Johnson’s suspension.  

Johnson called out the Chiefs and head coach Todd Haley on Sunday night on Twitter, when he blindsided his coach with a comment about Haley’s lack of football playing experience. Haley has never actually played football, not even in high school, yet he is a head coach in the National Football League.

Johnson has also posted a gay slur to one of his Twitter followers, and he said another gay slur in the team locker room on Monday.

Before being ineffective and the team losing, Johnson, a former Pro Bowler, was usually optimistic and happy. This season however, with the Chief’s having a 1-6 record and Johnson averaging only 2.7 yards per carry, the frustration is setting in and he turned to Twitter to vent those frustrations.

Here is the actual tweet, complete with misspellings, that has started this most recent controversy for Johnson, who has a troubled history to begin with.

 “My father played for the coach from “rememeber the titans. Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn. my father got more creditentials than most of these pro coaches…..google my father!!!!!!!”

Johnson was benched for three games during the 2008 season after he was arrested on assault charges for alleged incidents involving women, and the NFL for the altercation issued him a one-game suspension. It seems as if Johnson has worn out his welcome with the Chiefs coaching staff and front office.

The NFL could also hit Johnson with additional punishment once his team suspension expires. The NFL could also suspend him for anywhere from one game to the rest of the season.

Without Johnson, who has ran 132 of the Chiefs’ 204 running plays this season, the Chiefs are left with three young running backs in Jamaal Charles, Kolby Smith and second-year rusher Dantrell Savage.

Savage has primarily played this season as a kick returner. Smith, who spent the first six weeks of the season on the physically-unable-to-perform list, said that he trusts his knee enough to come back. The Chiefs have the next two weeks to decide whether or not to activate Smith, release him or place him on injured reserve. Smith is hoping that the coaches see that he is ready to go and able to take on 20 carries a game if needed.

The Chiefs are one of two teams in the NFL that has yet to score a rushing touchdown this season. The Rams are the other team.  

Haley said his coaching staff is spending the bye week installing what they hope will be a more effective offense. That could mean more attention on Charles and Smith, if he is healthy.

The Chiefs have the time and the options at running back, they will just have to adjust for the next two weeks and possibly even more, to the fact that it will be an offense that does not include Larry Johnson.

We got our first win this past week and it was a long time coming. It was a relief to get that first victory under our belts.
 

Getting that first win makes everyone on the team feel better and more confident in the season going forward.

This week we play the Chargers at home in Kansas City and it is a big game for many reasons. It is a divisional game for one, so it is important, and it is also the last game before our bye week. It is always better to go into your bye week with a victory. It is also a home game and we want to win one for the home crowd.

Going into a bye week with a loss is a bad thing because you have two weeks to think about it. It is much better to get a win before the bye so that you can come back in after the bye with confidence.

Tuesday is our day off and I just got back from speaking for Derrick Thomas’s foundation, “Third and Long.” It is about fighting illiteracy in today’s youth.  I did a guest speaker spot for them today here in Kansas City.

I talked about the legacy of Derrick Thomas and how important it is for guys in our position to commit themselves to the community and give back to the kids. It was very important to me, as it was my first community service outing here in the Kansas City community. I have always involved myself with the communities in every city I have played for and it is very important for me to do this for every city that I play in.

There were 4-5 kids there that stood up and read speeches, and it was great to see the results and the progress that this foundation is making with the kids in the community.

Bobby Wade is a wide receiver with the Kansas City Chiefs. His blog for www.playerpress.com runs at www.bobbywade80.com

 

 Great, I already got your attention.

 Lots has been written about Rush Limbaugh.  I heard an interesting opinion on the midday ESPN radio show.  What if Limbaugh was doing this for publicity?  It certainly is working.

Plenty of writers on Playerpress have weighed in with columns and comments.  RandolphC wrote his article "In a Rush to stop Limbaugh", and soon it became the most read article on the site with over 40 comments.  Stacey, also known as Bamababe2k9, wrote about why Rush won't get  a franchise.   Aquaman88 wrote questioned "What's the problem?", and it became an editor's pick, and there was a response to that by Carl Henegean, suggesting that it was selected to give the whole story more attention. 

Which comes back to the theory on ESPN, maybe this was just a publicity stunt, and Rush is trying to get ratings.  One of the winners in all of this?  Nobody wants to talk about Michael Vick anymore.  There's a lesson to be learned there about "Living in the Limelight".  Oh, wait, that's a different Rush of course.

All this fuss over the Rams?  Seriously?

But as Bill Parcells used to say in his Boston days "doesn't anyone want to talk football?"

Last week, I wrote about the 7 undefeated teams before week 4 and the 7 winless teams.  Going into week 5, there were still 5 undefeated and 6 winless.  Coming out of week 5, two teams won for the first time while there still are 5 undefeated teams.

First a look at the 6 down.  Two teams come off the list.  The Browns beat Buffalo and the Panthers walked by Washington.  The Bills are doing what they can to help spread wins around the league.  The Bills lost to the 0-3 Dolphins before bowing to the 0-4 Browns.  The Redskins seem to have a schedule of winless teams.  Besides giving the Panthers their first win they ended the long losing streak of the Lions.  The Bills and Redskins each have a win against the Buccaneers, raising the question if Tampa Bay will ever get off this list.  The Redskins also beat the Rams.  Why would anyone want to own the Rams?  The list...

1) Cleveland Browns, beat the Bills 6-3 to escape this list.

2) Tennessee Titans, got destroyed by the Colts 31-9 and next face the Patriots.

3) Kansas City Chiefs, lost to Dallas 26-20 in OT, the good news is they have the Redskins.

4) Carolina Panthers, beat the Redskins 20-17 to escape this list.

5) Tampa Bay Buccaneers, lost to the Eagles 33-14, now host the Panthers.

6) St. Louis Rams, lost to the Vikings 38-10, now going to Jacksonville.

Looking further ahead for the final four, if they still lose this week...

The Titans have a bye, then the Jaguars, then the 49ers.

The Chiefs have the Chargers, the bye, then the Jaguars.

The Buccaneers have the Patriots, the bye, then the Packers.

The Rams have the Colts, then the Lions, then the bye.

At the other end of the football world, 5 teams remain undefeated.  This is the latest into the season that the NFL has had 5 unbeaten teams.  Something has to give, as the Saints come out of their bye and host the Giants.  Eli Manning will take on Archie Manning's old team.  Meanwhile, Peyton Manning's team is still unbeaten, as are the surprising Broncos, and the Vikings with Brett Favre.  Remember when Favre was all the controversy and not Rush?

1) New Orleans Saints, defeated one undefeated New York team before the bye, now try for another one while hosting the Giants

2) New York Giants, destroyed the Raiders 44-7 now face the Saints.

3) Indianapolis Colts, beat the Titans, go to their bye, then go to the Rams.

4) Minnesota Vikings, beat the Rams, now host the Ravens.

5) Denver Broncos, beat the Patriots in OT, 20-17, now go to San Diego.

Matt Cassel has the money, but money doesn't make the player. He must show what he's made of by leading the Chiefs.

The Kansas City Chiefs recently reported that the club had come to terms with unrestricted free agents WR Bobby Engram, LB Monty Beisel and free agent WR Terrance Copper.

Penn St. grad Engram played in a 171 games during his career with Chicago.  Engram caught 645 passes for 7,690 yards with 35 TDs and rushed five times for 19 yards. He has added 102 punt returns for 1,059 yards with two TDs and 30 kickoff returns for 643 yards.

Beisel is a K-State grad with 110 games played in his 8 yr career.  Beidel has played for the Chiefs before along with New England and Arizona.  Monty has 7 postseason appearances and a a start in Super Bowl XLIII.

Copper has seen action 63 games during a 5 yr NFL career with Dallas, New Orleans and Baltimore.  Terrance also has two postseason games to pad his resume.

I'm glad to see we're adding some talent with some experience.  Youth is fine, but you have to have some leaders in the mix.

Join the KC Chiefs at their annual NFL Draft Day Party on Saturday, April 25th 2009 at the Chiefs indoor practice facility located at the Truman Sports Complex.

The doors will open at 11:30 am and the event will start at noon with MC Mitch Holthus, as well as other Chiefs personalities throughout the day.   Other guest appearances by KC Wolf and the KC Chiefs Cheerleaders!  So come on out to Arrowhead Stadium and participate in the 2009 KC Chiefs NFL Draft Day Party!!!

The KC Chiefs announced they had signed QB Matt Cassel and LB Mike Vrabel of the New England Patriots.

The KC Chiefs announced recently that they had acquired QB Matt Cassel and LB Mike Vrabel, both of the NE Patriots.  Castle played 30 games and started 15 during his 4 years with New England.  Vrable played 176 games and started 110 during his 12 years with the Patriots.

While I'm glad to see we grabbed a decent quarterback I have to wonder about the acquisition of a 13th year linebacker.   Either way I'm sure many Chiefs fans will echo my sentiments that it's nice to see Pioli actively doing something... anything. 

After 3 years with Herm, any type of activity at all will be a positive and welcomed occurrence.

Hardcore Chiefs fans are waking up this morning with a bad hangover I would assume. Why? Celebrating a little risk blockbuster trade that sent them Cassel and Vrabel, for the 34th pick in the draft. After 2 seasons in which the Chiefs had a total of 6 wins, this is exciting news. Obtaining Cassel is great. But when you also throw in that Chiefs still have the number 3 pick in the draft, it gets even better. Considering they play in a very weak AFC West, this makes them a contender for the playoffs literally overnight. Irony also plays a big role in this story. If the Chiefs hadn't have hurt Brady in week 1 of last year, Cassel wouldn't have got the chance to start and put up the immpressive numbers he had, and wouldn't be headed to Arrowhead. In that crazy league known as the NFL. There are no  guarantees that the Chiefs will be a contender next year, But they have put themselves in a great posistion to. So break out the Beer and Brawts Chiefs fans. Your team just might be back.

The KC Chiefs say that the fans have always been the foundation of the organization.  The Customer Relations Department created the Fans First stadium policies in 2008.  Fans First booths are located on each level of Arrowhead Stadium.   Fans can communicate confidentially with stadium officials via text messaging to 816.679.7555.

Fans can report problems, unruly fans and the like before, during and after the game.   I wonder how that went over this past season.   Did you have to text the "rat line" due to problems or issues?  Or were you one of the unlucky ones who were ratted out for being an "unruly" fan?  I wonder if you actually have to prove someone is being obnoxious.  Say I saw a co-worker I don't particularly care for...  can I just whip out my iPhone and fire off a quick text message and have that person removed?  Can I ruin his day just because I can?

For those questions and more, I reckon we should contact Anita Bailey.   There is also a downloadable Chiefs Fan Guide.  The Chiefs Fan Code of Conduct as well as the Pat-Down Policy and a list of allowable items and prohibited items can also be found on the KC Chiefs website.

How to contact the Kansas City Chiefs

Kansas City Chiefs
One Arrowhead Drive
Kansas City, MO 64129
816.920.9300

The Kansas City Chiefs on Tuesday announced they had terminated the contracts of three veterans.  LB Donnie Edwards, QB Damon Huard and CB Patrick Surtain. 

The Chiefs also waived TE Michael Merrit.  Merrit you may or may not know, was busted on February 5th 2009 in Orlando for possesion of marijuana.  "All this for a little bit of weed?"  You should have thought of that before you tried to roll a joint sitting in your car moron.   There's a time and place for everything and that ain't it.  Obviously.

This will be a wild off-season Chiefs fans.  The shake-up has begun with Peterson going, Pioli arriving, Edwards going, and Haley arriving.  Sounds like someone piping the Admiral onboard.  Haley, arriving!  Expectations are high with the exit of old not-so-comfortable shoes, and the arrival of new penny shiny talent packing proven records from other cities. 

Haley to the Chiefs!  Todd Haley comes off an impressive season as the Phoenix Cardinal's offensive coordinator culminating in an NFC West division title and a trip to the Super Bowl.   Haley's and Pioli's paths first crossed in 1999 when Haley was a QB coach for the Jets, and Pioli was Director of Pro Personnel.

Haley's first job is to assemble a competent coaching staff.  As of today Chan Gaily has been named offensive coordinator and Coach Haley has added Bob Bicknell, Joe D’Alessandris, Tim Krumrie, Brent Salazar and Cedric Smith. 

Assistant coaches Joel Collier, Gary Gibbs, Steve Hoffman, Bill Muir, Clancy Pendergast, Pat Perles and Dedric Ward have also been hired by Haley to round out his coaching staff.   Coach Haley formerly coached with Pendergast and Ward as part of the Cardinals organization.

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