The Morning Fix: Chiefs News From Around The Web

The Chiefs had just drafted Dontari Poe, a 346-pound man with uncommon athletic ability, in the first round and that move figured only to push Toribio even further down the depth chart at nose tackle. Toribio stuck around and the Chiefs, who return to the training camp practice field today after taking a day off, are thankful he did. Toribio surfaced to the top of the depth chart while the Chiefs bring Poe along slowly.

“Obviously, he’s a great player but they’re still giving me a chance to compete,” Toribio said. “That’s all you can ask for. I have a chance.”

Lamar Hunt was one to keep extensive notes even of the many speeches he was asked to give over his career. Never formal in the sense we think of speech-making today, they consisted of talking points that permitted him to expound as he spoke.

Probably no speech he gave would rival Churchillian proportions, but he was after all, a humble man and one whose actions easily outstripped any of his rhetoric. Not afraid to call himself, “basically…a fan” in a business whose leaders more often promote a know-it-all image, Hunt never trumpeted the pride he must have felt personally to have withstood the early trials of the American Football League and how his work as a sports entrepreneur helped it hang on when others were ready to disband.

Along the way Hillis, now a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, tugged at and pulled down the team. From not playing in a week three game against the Miami Dolphins because of strep throat, to difficult contract negotiations, to a lingering hamstring injury, Hillis was a divisive force behind the scenes.

There were plenty of reasons why the Browns were a dismal 4-12 in coach Pat Shurmur’s first year on the job, but it’s hard to argue that distractions surrounding Hillis didn’t top the list.

“I don’t know if anybody picked sides because I don’t know if anybody would have been on Peyton’s side,” five-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas said. “The way he handled it wasn’t the best. I think he knows it now. It affected everyone.

“Some of the time the pain is not really there,” Charles told the Kansas City Star’s Kent Babb. “Sometimes it’s just in your head.”

Charles continued: “In your mind, you’ve got to zone the pain stuff out and just go with your heart. If this is what you really want, you’ll come out and stop crying about it.”

A big test will be Friday when the Chiefs open the preseason against Arizona and Charles plays in a live game for the first time since Week 2 of last season.

“He still has to go out there in a full-contact situation and know that his knee has gotten stronger,” coach Romeo Crennel said. “Then he will know for sure: ‘Hey, I’m good to go.’ And then he’ll get back to what he was.”