Kansas City Chiefs: The Tragedy of Dwayne Bowe

Dwayne Bowe was born in Miami on Sept. 21, 1984. Thus begins the tragedy.

Bowe has the perfect body for football. He's 6-foot-2 and 221 pounds, big for an NFL receiver. He can go through the middle and take the most brutal hits. He has breakaway speed, running a 4.5 forty even in high school. He connected with 2007 top draft pick JaMarcus Russell on 23 touchdowns during their career, an LSU school record. All these things caused him to be a hyped draft pick.

Then all these things disappeared in one moment. The Kansas City Chiefs picked him with the 23rd overall pick in the 2007 draft.

No one predicted this would kill his career. The Chiefs had just come off their first playoff appearance in several years with a record of 9-7.

They had historically had a high scoring offense, always near the top. They had Larry Johnson, the surprise superstar out of Penn State, and Tony Gonzales, the best tight end to ever play the game of football. They also had quarterbacks Damon Huard and Brodie Croyle. Who?

You've never heard of Damon Huard, except that he is a quality backup. But he is a backup, nothing more. Brodie Croyle was a third round choice in 2006 and was not meant to be anything but the next Damon Huard.

A year of these two quarterbacks splitting time, plus the biggest o-line failure of all time caused the high scoring offense to drop to last place. They were 4-12. They had nine straight losses to end their season.

Bowe, at least tried. He caught 70 passes for 995 yards. He had six touchdown catches. Those are remarkably good numbers for a receiver, and not usually the numbers of a failure.

Just imagine this scenario. In the first round of the playoffs two years ago, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Colts, win the Super Bowl, and end up selecting Colt's wide receiver Anthony Gonzales. The Colts would have probably selected Bowe.

This would pair him with the best quarterback in the game, Peyton Manning, and two of its best receivers, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne. With Harrison getting hurt early, Bowe would have stepped into the starting role and flourished.

His numbers would have looked something like this: 1,500 yards receiving and 12 touchdowns off of 100 receptions.

But, sadly, the Chiefs lost and they drafted Bowe. Now with the Chiefs still looking to be horrible on the offensive end, Bowe will again underachieve. He won't play to his full potential until he is on a different team.

I like the Chiefs, but I like Bowe more. I don't want them to pull down a career that could put him among the game's greatest. Please, Herm, do Bowe a favor and trade him. If this never happens, it will be the biggest tragedy since Romeo and Juliet.