Super Bowl XLIV: Chiefs Players To Hoist Lombardi Trophy

Okay, so the headline is a bit misleading. However, Sunday night, at least one Chiefs player will raise that beautiful sterling silver football high in Miami.

Unfortunately, he'll be doing it while wearing another team's uniform.

The Chiefs have had a number of great players who've come into Kansas City via free agency and made their former teams regret watching them leave. Priest Holmes and Marcus Allen are probably two of the best examples.

However, this is certainly a shared pain. The Chiefs have let big-name talent like Neil Smith and Donnie Edwards leave the land of tailgating and BBQ to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Edwards was the cornerstone of the Chargers defense for years, and Neil Smith found his pair of Super Bowl rings with Denver.

Plus, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Nick Lowery. As I mentioned this article to my mother last night, I was yet again subjected to her tirade of how the Chiefs let the most prolific kicker of all time walk after he refused to take a $60,000 pay cut. The Chiefs found themselves needing a bit more cap room to accommodate Joe Montana's salary.

Lowery spent another three years with the Jets before retiring, and some part of my mother has yet to forgive the Chiefs. She carries around that torch like it was yesterday. Of course, if you'd watched Lin Elliott shank those three field goals in the 1996 playoffs, so would you.

The real sting, however, are the players Kansas City missed out on entirely. Joe Horn spent his career as a special teams player until signing with New Orleans in 2000. His first year meant 1,340 receiving yards and eight touchdowns for the Saints.

Then linebacker Kawika Mitchell and placekicker Lawrence Tynes were both a part of the Giants's Super Bowl upset victory against New England. Mitchell landed the first of New York's five sacks on Tom Brady.

And now we come to this Sunday. Both the Colts and the Saints have Chiefs castoffs in their starting lineup.  Scott Fujita, a fifth round pick in 2002, currently starts at outside linebacker for New Orleans, while hometown product Ryan Lilja holds down the left guard position in Indianapolis after signing as a rookie free agent with Kansas City.

How has Kansas City not only blown so many picks in the last decade (ref. Sylvester Morris, Junior Siavii), but missed out on solid players they could have certainly used?  Horn's last season with Kansas City came to the total of 586 yards and six touchdowns in only 35 catches.  Mitchell, his aggressiveness questioned after two mediocre years, came around and produced two solid seasons before being let go.

Even defensive end Vonnie Holliday, a free agent bust from Green Bay to Kansas City, later found his niche as a 3-4 end, having put together five solid seasons in Miami and now Denver.

Then Fujita, who in 2002 was said to be "the smartest player in the draft", was a solid if unspectacular player for three years before moving on. 

Lilja spent less than five months with Kansas City before being waived in 2004.  Indianapolis picked him up and he started six games that season. And other than missing the 2008 season due to injury, Lilja has not been out of the starting lineup since. He also already has one Super Bowl ring from Indianapolis's victory over Chicago in the 2006 season.

No team can expect to make every draft pick a winner, and there will always be those "under the radar" players just waiting for the chance to shine.

However, if Scott Pioli and his new coaching staff cannot break the cycle of Kansas City letting talent leave town (if not missing out on them entirely), the next ten years will be much like the last ten at Arrowhead - a couple years of promise, but mostly just heartache.

And jealousy. Because like a girl who dumps a guy only to find him with someone better, Chiefs fans will be watching Fujita and Lilja Sunday night and wondering why they didn't see something great in them.