FanHouse John Welbourn

Every offseason for the past several years, Chiefs' fans have clamored for change. Changes on defense. Changes at wide receiver. Changes within the coaching staff.

But never the offensive line. Why would they have to? For years, the Chiefs boasted the best offensive line in the league, made up of veterans who were still in their primes.

Last offseason was a taste of something slightly different. There were worries that Will Shields would retire, but not many people seriously expected him to retire. It wasn't until training camp that we all of a sudden learned Willie Roaf would not return and John Welbourn purported to retire.

This offseason is completely different. The offensive line was not particularly dominant, and was downright bad at times. The only surefire starters are Brian Waters and Casey Wiegmann, and Shields' potential retirement is more realistic now.

By most accounts, left tackle is the most worrisome position. Although I felt that Jordan Black played fairly steadily for most of the year, he is certainly not Willie Roaf, and his performance in the playoffs was, shall we say, regrettable. Further, I have opined previously that the Chiefs did an awful job this year of picking up blitzes; one has to wonder if that was the case because there was more help assigned to Black, rather than in detecting blitzers. The Chiefs appeared to have been grooming Will Svitek for the job, but Svitek was extremely raw as a rookie and missed most of this year with injuries. Kyle Turley simply cannot be an option anymore.

Ever heard of Murphy's Law? The theory states that "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."

The 2006 Kansas City Chiefs are a good football team, but they are cursed. CURSED! According to the Palm Beach Post, the Chiefs will now have to play without Tony Gonzalez, who will miss 2-3 weeks with a strained shoulder.

This could be the Chiefs' most devastating injury to date. Gonzalez is a critical blocker for Larry Johnson, he is the main reason for Damon Huard's most recent resurgence, and he draws attention from linebackers and safeties that would normally be focused on LJ. With two upcoming rivalry games against Oakland and Denver, the Chiefs really did not need to lose these two players.

Let's review the Chiefs' woes to date:

• John Welbourn retires suddenly. He claims he wants to become a lawyer; truthfully, we find out he probably needed a law degree to defend himself from a 6-month suspension.
• Pro bowl left tackle Willie Roaf retires on extremely short notice.

The Chiefs' offensive line situation just got very interesting. First, a supposedly un-juiced John Welbourn returned to practice on Wednesday. Then, in a very surprising move, the Chiefs signed oft-troubled Chris Terry to the team.

These are interesting moves for an offensive line that is just starting to cohere as a unit. It can't be too much of a coincidence that these moves came at the same exact time as Trent Green's return.

It makes you wonder what chess moves the Chiefs have in mind. The offensive line could see a major shake-up in the coming weeks or, perhaps, it's just a move to prepare the Chiefs for the future. Before Terry's off-the-field problems led to a lengthy absence from football, he was a solid right tackle. Then again, John Welbourn was also a solid right tackle before he juiced himself out of the first half of the 2006 season. But then, Welbourn has been mostly seeing reps at left tackle.

Huh? Who's job is in jeopardy? What are the Chiefs' long-term goals with these moves?

When it rains it pours. The Chiefs can't buy a break this season and it's all happening up front.

• The Chiefs don't re-sign standout blocker Tony Richardson
• Starting right tackle John Welbourn "retires" out of the blue
• Starting pro bowl left tackle Willie Roaf suddenly retires
• The Chiefs lose starting right tackle Kevin Sampson to injury for the season opener
• Trent Green misses half the season with a concussion (forces KC to go into a completely run-centered offense)
• The Chiefs lose Kyle Turley for an extended time because of back problems

Now, it's reported that starting fullback Ronnie Cruz will miss the entire season.

Larry Johnson has to be asking himself what he's done wrong. Perhaps he is a real version of Earl Hickey from the NBC sitcom My Name is Earl. Perhaps LJ should start preparing a similar karma list. Either way, the odds keep stacking up against him.

That means that in the course of one half-year stretch, Larry Johnson has lost two Pro Bowl blockers, two starting left tackles, one starting right tackle, and now two fullbacks, in the process of earning a new role as the Chiefs' lone hope on offense.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am an attorney. I graduated law school in 2004, so I still remember my law school experience fairly vividly.

Thus, I believe I am in a position to offer John Welbourn some advice-- Crim Law won't teach you how to avoid NFL suspensions. Common Sense 101 will, though.

There was always some mystery around Welbourn's decision to retire in order to attend law school. The timing was suspicious, to say the least, and Carl Peterson's comments confirm the suspicions:

"Obviously I knew about this for some time," Peterson said. "I guess you could say we anticipated this."

AP Sports. Within that article, we also find out that Welbourn applied for reinstatement.

Suspicious? Yup. Dumb? Yup. Surprising? Nope.

Obviously, most professional athletes who suspect they will be suspended for substance abuse will be less than forthcoming even when the suspension becomes official. But did Welbourn really think that "retiring" would remove all suspicion that maybe, just maybe, he had a second substance abuse violation instead? Did he think, "If I announce my retirement, perhaps I can quietly apply for reinstatement, come back in seven games, and nobody will notice?"

The Chiefs were prepared for the suspension, as every team probably should be after a player has been suspended once. At this point, they know that they simply cannot depend on John Welbourn anymore. For his sake, here's hoping his LSAT score is higher than his IQ.

P.S. One more word of advice, John-- you may want to work in a state that doesn't scrutinize bar applications that closely.