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Five-Orite Friday: Tragedy puts Kansas City Chiefs center stage

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Jovan Belcher's murder and suicide puts the entire Chiefs organization and the city in the national spot light.

By Craig Brenner
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Ed Zurga

This past week has been one of the most interesting weeks I have experienced since I have worked in and around Kansas City sports. I am not going to spend the entire column discussing the events that happened last weekend in Kansas City but this is the first real chance I have been able to discuss it for bare with me.

1. Javon Belcher Murders and Suicide:

Last Saturday morning seems like an eternity ago. It was a little bit after 9am and I was being very lazy and lying in bed refusing to get up and become a real grown up when my wife came upstairs to tell me something. She told me that the Facebook page for Sports Radio 810 had a post saying that a Chiefs' player had shot and killed his girlfriend and then drove to the Arrowhead practice facility and took his own life.

My first response was disbelief. I told her she means a fan or something like that. At first it really didn't register with me that a current player on the Chiefs roster would do something like that. After that I was glued to Twitter and Facebook and begin texting friends and coworkers to see exactly what had happened. There are a few moments and events in my life where I will always remember where I was and how I found out about them. For me those moments are Columbine, 9/11, President Obama winning the 2004 Presidential election and now the Jovan Belcher tragedy.

A lot has already been said about the events that unfolded on that Saturday morning but I will offer a few of them. I have never been the biggest fan of Chiefs' GM Scott Pioli and the work he has done in his four years in Kansas City. I am also not the biggest fan of Scott Pioli the person and the way he treats the people who work for him. Saturday was the first time I truly had sympathy and felt bad for Scott Pioli the human being. I can't even begin to imagine what last Saturday was like for that man. To witness what he did and having to be in the middle of those events is something you truly can't un-see no matter how hard you try. I begin to wonder who does he talk to about what he experienced? Does he lean on his wife or a close personal friend? It had to be an utter nightmare for Pioli and coach Romeo Crennel.

There has been a lot of discussion about the action of the players after the events caused by Belcher's actions and whether or not they were right or wrong. Here is the only thing I will say about that and I will quote a good friend and coworker T.J. Carpenter. Grieving is a very personal thing and everyone grieves in their own way and you can't judge them for it because it is not the way you would do it.

It has been almost a week and since this is a sports site I am looking forward to discussing more sports topics. Which is where we start number two on the list...

2. Will The Real KC Chiefs Please Stand Up?

The Chiefs played their best game of the season. I did not see that coming at all after the events that unfolded on Saturday. When the Chiefs scored at the end of the 1st half I tweeted that the Chiefs offense vs the Panthers is the offense we all thought we would see this season. It was an offense that ran the ball very well and used that to set up big gains in the passing game. It was effective and efficient and most importantly it protected the football.

Brady Quinn played the best season of his career. Let me say that again BRADY QUINN PLAYED HIS BEST GAME IN THE NFL EVER!!!! The defensive secondary was banged up yet their play didn't show it. If it wasn't for the late penalty then the Chiefs would have played a flawless game.

Now to pee all in your corn flakes. With all of those awesome things the Chiefs did last Sunday they were only up six points and a TD away from losing the game to the 3 win Panthers. The Chiefs are far from perfect. Hell, they are far from a decent team. But for one Sunday they were able to over come everything going on around them and play a really good football game.

All of that being said I do not like the chances of the Chiefs pulling out a win this Sunday vs. the Cleveland Browns. After having a week to slow down and process everything that happened last weekend it is going to catch up to them. I like the Browns and the points.

3. Payroll Blues:

It might be best for Royals owner David Glass and the higher ups with the club to just quit talking about payroll because every time he does it goes poorly. It all started Thursday afternoon when K.C. Star Royals beat writer Bob Dutton published a story that the Royals' payroll figure of $70 million that was discussed by Glass last week includes all of the money spent on the amateur draft players and signing bonuses, international signings and the entire 40 man roster. Meaning that the payroll for the actual 25 man roster that you will see on opening day would actually be around $56 million.

Seriously.....$56 million for the 25 man roster? Am I being punk'd right now? I mean this can't be real?

So that happened in the afternoon then around about 3 hours later Dutton tweeted out this gem.

So...yeah....there is that. There are some very smart people working on the baseball and business side of the Royals but moments like this I feel like the higher level members of the Royals organization are clueless.

4. Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow:

Missouri football found a way to get into the news cycle this week when long time coach and current offensive coordinator David Yost resigned from his current position on the team. The curious thing about this announcement is that it appears to be all Yost's decision. It wasn't one of those situations where he was forced out and the team spins it as a resignation to save face. According to all of the people who follow the program closely it really does seem like this was truly Yost's call from beginning to end.

So what does David Yost do now? It does not appear that he is going to be taking another job for next season so what do you think Yost is going to do with his free time? I imagine it is kind of a culture shock when you go from being employed as a football coach and going to work day after day to suddenly having nothing to do. How do you think he fills all of his free time? Do you think he grows his hair out even longer now? Does burn through all of those seasons of Mad Men he has on his Netflix queue? My guess is he finally finishes that zombie novel Z Is For Zombie.

5. Thunderstruck:

Now to end on a lighter note. This week Kevin Durant's feature film debut Thunderstruck came out on Blu Ray and DVD and it looks cheesetasticly awesome! I love that KD is in this movie and I love that he and the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to get seen by many young kids all across the nation. This is a great thing for him and the team. Its great publicity for all parties involved.

Seeing this movie being released does make me think back to a time when people worried that being in a small market like OKC was going to hamper the national appeal and ability of Durant to land any big time sponsorship. Looking back it is clear that was a very silly thing to work about. Durant is a superstar and one of the faces of the NBA. If you can ball stardom will find you no matter where you call home.


Follow me on twitter @craig_a_brenner and until next week peace out.

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