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So Much Talent, So Immature … Wednesday Cup O’Chiefs
November 18, 2009 - Bob Gretz

Dwayne Bowe’s four-game suspension from the NFL is just another step in what the Chiefs have to hope is the continuing maturation of the wide receiver.

Bowe better hope so as well. As he sits at home for a month, unable to spend time with his teammates and the Chiefs franchise, Bowe has a chance to decide what direction the rest of his career and life will take. He needs to do some very deep soul searching.

Over the years the Chiefs have had many players who had remarkable athletic talent, and the maturity of a 10-year old. Bowe is one of them. His story of being abandoned as a child by a mother and father distracted and in the clutches of drugs, being raised by his grandparents, running the streets and getting involved in crimes and fights left him without some very important blocks in a solid foundation of being an adult.

That background and then his success in football did lead him away from the drug culture. But there were some stains that could not be erased. Bowe was not suspended for taking illegal drugs or performance enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids. He is gone for four games because he tested positive for a diuretic.

The NFL considers the presence of a diuretic in a player’s urine sample the same as if it was steroids because it has frequently been used as a masking agent.

Bowe didn’t take the diuretic to mask steroids use. He took it to lose water weight; obviously he was in danger of not being at the prescribed weight he was given by Todd Haley and his coaching staff for training camp. There’s no other known reason for him to take a diuretic. A healthy, 25-year old professional athlete has no medical reason to be eliminating fluid.

Bowe wanted to take a pill and make his problem go away. It’s not exactly like running away from your life with the use of illegal drugs, but it’s the same mind-set, one that he grew up in during his formative years. In a situation of stress, he fell back on what he knew, not what he had been shown and coached over the previous six or seven months.

From the time he showed up for the off-season program some 25 pounds overweight, Haley has been all over Bowe. Just about every manner and method of motivation has been tried with him by Haley and his staff. There’s a reason that Bowe was put through the psychological ringer in attempts to change his behavior – he has talent. Haley would not have wasted any time on Bowe if he didn’t see something worth saving in a football sense. If Bowe was an ordinary player, he would have been sent packing long ago, probably the day he weighed in back in March.

Bowe fought the discipline. He didn’t like the heavy hand he was being dealt. His attitude was ‘I’m a No. 1 draft pick, I’ve caught 156 balls for 2,017 yards in two years in the NFL; I know what it takes.” He eventually learned that he wasn’t going to be able to change things by fighting the system. Whether or not he bought into the whole program remains to be seen.

His suspension is evidence that he did not. When Haley sent his players away for their five-week vacation in the middle of June, he told them several things. One was don’t give back all the hard work you’ve done by sitting on your butt and getting fat during the weeks before training camp. His need for a diuretic is a pretty good indication that Bowe wasn’t paying attention to that message.

Now, he has four weeks to think about that, and the fact he’s left his offensive teammates without their best weapon in the passing game. This isn’t just a penalty to be served by Bowe; it’s going to be served by the entire team. The 2009 Chiefs do not have many good players, and they certainly don’t have enough to lose one of their best.

The problem that the current coaching staff and the one that came before it had with Bowe was his reliability. He does not always do what he’s supposed to do on the field. He does not always get to where the route is designed for him to be. Everyone has seen that his hands are not reliable given the number of drops he’s had over his 41-game career.

And now, his availability has proven unreliable. It won’t happen in the next four weeks, but the Chiefs need Bowe to grow up. More importantly, Dwayne Bowe needs Dwayne Bowe to grow up. His talents would not be the first wasted because of immaturity.

But, he can do something about it

I gotta agree with everything stated here; Bowe must, and I believe has, taken full responsibility for his actions.