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.

Editorial -- Jovan Belcher Tragedy Has a Way of Changing Perspectives on Chiefs

It is really interesting how personal tragedy has a way of changing perspectives on sports and life. Throughout most of this disappointing season for the Chiefs, there was a growing disconnect between the organization and its fans. People were staying away from the stadium in droves, flying airplanes around the stadium demanding the firing of General Manager Scott Pioli and Coach Romeo Crennell, and the ones that were coming to the games were wearing black shirts out of shame at the team's struggles and propensity for turning the ball over. But it is really interesting how the Jovan Belcher tragedy, in which the well-liked Chiefs linebacker took his own life as well as that of his girlfriend's, had a way of changing peoples' perspectives on things. This Sunday, most of the fans wore red again, the stadium was full, and the noise was as loud as it ever was during the height of the Marty Schottenheimer/Derrick Thomas years when the Chiefs routinely were at or near the top of the league in sacks every year. The Arrowhead Magic was back as the Chiefs beat the Carolina Panthers 27-21.

The first thing we noticed when we listened to the radio while shopping at Hy-Vee was the totally different atmosphere at Arrowhead during the fourth quarter. We weren't even really concerned about the Chiefs at that point; we had a lot of other things to do at that moment. But we tuned in when we realized that they actually had a chance to win. It was a stark contrast to earlier in the year when the Chiefs were playing the Raiders at home and you could not tell whether the game was being played at Kansas City or Oakland.

It was only a matter of time before the Chiefs would have eventually won another game; they had started playing better football after Coach Romeo Crennell started making everyone accountable, starting with himself, when he sidelined himself from his defensive coordinator duties so that he could devote more time to running the team. They were doing better, throwing scares into Denver and Pittsburgh before losing.

Both Pioli and Crennell have come in for a ton of criticism this year for this disappointing season, in which the Chiefs were supposed to contend for a division title, but are now struggling just to win a game. There will be plenty of time to debate what changes need to be made in light of this season. After Belcher took his girlfriend's life, he drove to the Chiefs practice facility, where both Crennell and Pioli were and thanked them for standing by him, and then took out his gun and shot himself before anyone could stop him and before the police could get there. The Chiefs were faced with a difficult decision as to whether or not to play Sunday's game, especially in light of the fact that both Pioli and Crennell witnessed the shooting. But it was the right decision to play the game; the game had a way of bringing the team, the organization, and the fans together again.

It was a surreal game of football in which the Chiefs were unrecognizable as a football team for those who had followed this disappointing campaign closely. Playing against the always dangerous Carolina Panthers, the Chiefs only allowed one sack, did not turn the ball over once, and only committed one penalty, a delay of game penalty committed late in the game when they were trying to run down the clock. And when it was all over, Chiefs radio announcer Mitch Holthus was on the verge of tears on the air as he described how the team and organization had come together. Nobody involved in this tragedy will ever get completely over what had happened, but the healing has already begun. Owner Clark Hunt, who has been blasted by critics for being absent during the team's struggles, appeared on the radio pregame show and has been in the forefront of public view, pledging to do everything he can to help.

But when all is said and done, it is still only a game. The real victim in this case is a young infant daughter who was left an orphan by this senseless tragedy. She will grow up for the rest of her life not knowing a mother or a father. The best way to deal with this is for each of us to prevent these acts of violence before they happen. Below are numbers that you can call if you or someone you know or love is suicidal or involved in a domestic violence situation:

Nationwide suicide-prevention lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK or 1-800-SUICIDE. Both lines connect to a nationwide network that quickly routes calls to the nearest available mental health professional. It’s free, anonymous and available 24 hours a day. Nationwide domestic-abuse help: 1−800−799−SAFE (7233). Hotline advocates are available for victims and anyone calling on their behalf to provide crisis intervention, safety planning, information and referrals to agencies in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/12/01/3943932/suicide-prevention-resources-how.html#storylink=cpy