KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- By Aldon Smith standards, this was littering. Hell, by NFL standards, it was jaywalking.
Dwayne Bowe went for 48 last Sunday and got caught from behind. Sounds about right.
Look: This is not a marijuana thing, or a let's debate-whether-pot-should-be-legalized thing, or a speeding thing, or even a doubling-down-on-dumb thing.
It's a trust thing.
It's not the alleged deed, or deeds.
It's the timing.
Cripes, Dwayne. The timing.
Bowe, the Kansas City Chiefs' top receiver (in terms of salary, at least, having agreed to a five-year, $56 million contract in the off-season), was reportedly arrested early Sunday morning in Riverside, Mo., a KC 'burb some 14 miles northwest of Arrowhead Stadium.
According to a statement by local police, the Florida native was pulled over for driving 48 miles per hour in a 35-mph zone and for possessing more than 10 grams of weed. Dogs were involved, backpacks were involved, and a Dec. 18 court date has been set.
Bowe had some time on his hands, of course, given that it was the Chiefs' weekend off, their lone bye.
It was all going too well, wasn't it?
A 9-0 start. Magic finishes. New regime. New coach. New quarterback. New corners. New dreams. The Chiefs had built up this bubble of perceived invincibility, a fairy tale in red.
Tuesday morning, the carriage became a pumpkin again. The wicked stepsisters grabbed a bucket and woke Cinderella up by dumping ice water on her head.
Reality bites.
Spare the ivory-tower lectures. Bowe is a 20-something dude doing what some 20-something dudes do for fun. That neither condones nor excuses it. It just is what it is. As a veteran NFL scribe once said to a player a decade ago: "I don't care what you do with your life, your personal time, your entertainment. But if it's against the law, if it hurts people, if you get caught, I'm gonna be all over you."
To put it another way, dumb on your time is your business. But dumb on Chiefs time is everybody's.
Cripes, Dwayne. The timing.
The Chiefs roll off the bye into Broncos Week, Part I, the franchise's biggest single stretch of hype and football hoopla in at least three years. The Chiefs are 9-0 and labeled by almost everyone outside of their "Kingdom" as absolute pretenders. The Broncos are 8-1, at home, and smelling blood.
Now this.
We already figured the world would find out Sunday just how good the Chiefs really are. We're about to find out something about new coach Andy Reid and new general manager John Dorsey, too.
Reid walked into the locker room over the winter and extended a long leash. He treats us like men, the chorus sang. They embraced him, physically and otherwise.
Big Red sent everybody home for a week with, presumably, only two major goals: Stay healthy and stay out of trouble.
Fifty percent on that front is a failing grade.
Bowe failed his teammates. Failed himself. Failed his fans.
But he failed Reid most of all.
Bowe apparently practiced Monday, and there seems to be a solid chance that he'll play against the Broncos this weekend, regardless of the matter at hand. While he had already been zapped by the NFL for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs in 2009, this is believed to be the wideout's first strike under the league's substance-abuse policy.
Whether a suspension will be dependent on the legal process or if things will be handled in-house, it doesn't matter. The golden egg is dented.
Not broken, mind you. Not cracked. But dented.
Cripes, Dwayne. The timing.
Denver beckons, and insert your own Mile High joke here. Because they're going to be coming hard and fast for the next six days. And beyond.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter @seankeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
