Editorial -- Steve Breaston Distraction Costs Chiefs

One of the big problems with the Chiefs this year is the Steve Breaston soap opera. Breaston, who caught over 60 passes for the Chiefs last year, was benched for most of this year. The explanation by Coach Romeo Crennell was that Breaston doesn't know the system. However, we do not buy that because we fail to see how someone who can catch 60 passes the year before can somehow forget everything he has ever learned. We suggest that there was a lot more going on than what Coach Romeo Crennell was telling the media.

The Breaston soap opera was a major distraction to what should have been a promising season where the Chiefs were supposed to challenge Denver for the division title. Whatever the reason, Crennell and GM Scott Pioli let this matter hang around far too long. As a result, much of the focus that should have been on the team was instead wasted on whether Breaston would play or not. In other words, the focus was on a player and not the team. That is a sure-fire recipe for disaster.

There were three better ways that the Chiefs could have handled this better. They could have either put up with his shortcomings and played him just like they had been. It doesn't matter how high of a level you are at; there are always shortcomings with any player than you sign. That is an inherent risk of being a GM at any level. The second was to release him before the season. Tell him that he was not in their plans for 2012. That would have brought closure to both the Chiefs and Breaston -- he would then have been free to pursue another team and the Chiefs would have had one less distraction to worry about. The third would have been to release him in the middle of the season once it was clear he was a problem. Eat his salary and move on. For whatever reason, coaches and players part ways over philosophical differences all the time. That would have freed up a place on the roster for someone hungry to prove themselves on the field.

This is not the only time that GM Scott Pioli has let stuff hang for too long. The Larry Johnson soap opera lasted for over 2 1/2 years before the Chiefs finally let him go in 2009. Given the Steve Breaston soap opera, it is obvious that Pioli has not learned his lessons on how to handle personnel. There are always going to be people that are difficult to deal with in any walk of life. Pioli has had four years to leave his mark on the Chiefs franchise. We do not defend anything that Johnson or Breaston did or might have done that is harmful to a team. But dealing with people who are difficult to deal with separates winning teams from losing teams. Scott Pioli has not done that.