FanHouse Bill Maas

Former Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman and Fox TV announcer Bill Maas gave two lengthy interviews to the Kansas City Star in which he discussed the drug and legal problems that ended his broadcasting career, and the most interesting revelation is that concussions suffered playing football have left him permanently brain damaged:

The frontal lobe of his brain is damaged. Doctors say it's a direct result of his NFL career and has caused him depression, minor speech problems and extreme loss of short-term memory.

It's one of the conditions that drove him online, buying hydrocodone and other painkillers from pharmacies he knew probably weren't legitimate. He says his drug use began when his broadcasting career went downhill; a source says it was the other way around.

Maas doesn't come across like a guy who wants to blame the NFL for his personal problems, but he does sound like a guy who wants to get back into the game he loves.

Former NFL player and broadcaster Bill Maas was sentenced to two years of probation and no jail time on Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of unlawful use of a weapon. Two counts of possession of a controlled substance were dropped as part of his plea, the Peoria Journal-Star reports.

That strikes me as an awfully good deal, considering that police found a bag of cocaine, a bag of ecstasy tablets and a loaded .22-caliber revolver in Maas' car in July. Then, three months later, Maas was stopped at Kansas City International Airport after federal screeners found a 9mm handgun in his carry-on bag.

Not only did police drop the drug charges in the first case, but he was never charged with anything when he tried to bring the gun on the plane. In fact, he was detained so briefly during that incident that he was actually able to get on the plane. Does it really make sense to let a guy get on a plane after he tried to bring a gun on board?

Maybe this is just the way the legal system works, but this sure smells like a case in which a guy who can afford a good lawyer got much more lenient treatment than an average citizen would receive.

Former Chiefs defensive tackle and Fox broadcaster Bill Maas has been arrested again.

Maas, who was arrested in July on felony drug and weapons charges, was arrested yesterday for trying to board a flight at Kansas City International Airport with a loaded gun in his carry-on bag. Authorities said Maas explained that he picked up the wrong bag, and Maas was released after being questioned for about an hour. Authorities said they weren't sure where he was traveling or whether he made his plane.

(Am I the only one who finds it amazing that the authorities would even contemplate allowing a guy to make his plane after he tried to board it with a gun? And who doesn't understand why Maas is keeping a loaded gun in a bag that could easily be mistaken for his carry-on bag?)

It's a sad story for Maas, who once was considered among the best announcers in the NFL. Now Maas's career as an announcer has come to an end.
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