Mellinger: Bowe needs to concentrate on catching ball, not attention
 

‘Show’ stopper: Bowe needs to concentrate on catching ball, not attention
SAM MELLINGER COMMENTARY

ST. JOSEPH | D-Bowe doesn’t work here anymore. It’s just Dwayne now, without the alter ego that he sometimes called “The Show.” That guy no longer exists. You can just call him Dwayne.

This is the new Chiefs policy, official or otherwise, a carefully monitored way of handling their good-natured but too often knuckleheaded receiver: Nobody is to call him D-Bowe anymore. Not coaches, not teammates, and especially not Dwayne.

The intent is clear. Dwayne Bowe needs to concentrate more on being a professional receiver and less on the sideshow that caused one league source to famously call Bowe “the single biggest dumbass in the NFL.”

It’s a good idea. The problem is that old habits are tough to break. Grown men don’t change easily. And so — regardless of team rules — Dwayne’s inner D-Bowe makes occasional guest appearances during training camp here, most recently on Tuesday after making a jumping catch during a drill.

“Y’all like that, huh?” he says to a small group of fans. “I’ll put a show on today because y’all are my people.”

The line gets some laughs from the fans, which is all Bowe wants, and all the rest of us need to be sure that separating D-Bowe the caricature from Dwayne Bowe the receiver is very much still a work in progress.

•••

D-Bowe took years to form, so it will take time to undo. The current Chiefs leadership — whose emphasis on scholars and team captains means they never would’ve drafted Bowe — is following the previous Chiefs leadership that helped cultivate the alter ego.

Before, then-coach Herm Edwards gave public permission for what became known as “The D-Bowe Show,” even saying Bowe would be counted on for a certain kind of leadership.

Now, coach Todd Haley is trying to reprogram the receiver he refers to as “Dwayne,” and relying on others such as Matt Cassel and Chris Chambers to provide Bowe with leadership.

The first-round talent is still there, but so are too many first-class mistakes. Like the four-game suspension for a failed drug test, which he blamed on his confused grandmother picking the wrong pill out of her medicine cabinet. Or the “importing” interview with ESPN The Magazine, which he apologized for while referring to himself in the third-person.

There are some encouraging signs. Cris Carter and Michael Irvin reportedly gave Bowe some “tough love” over the summer, hinting that the tail-kicking was approved by the Chiefs. Bowe handled it like a pro — like an adult — and even earned praise from Larry Fitzgerald over Twitter.

But there is more to it. This is not a neatly wrapped story of redemption. Not yet, anyway. There are layers to Bowe’s journey, tendencies he still must control.

Even as Haley and Chiefs players mostly talk nice about Bowe’s maturity, there are glimpses of D-Bowe, of a well-intentioned but misdirected young man still hungry for attention and prone to the kind of distraction that so far has contributed to him underperforming with his talent.

Like when he takes his jersey off and runs by fans. Or when he’s the one making rookie Eric Berry carry his pads. Or when he races by Brandon Carr for a long catch — Carr’s been getting beat like pizza dough, by the way — and then poses for a few seconds in front of fans.

These are the scenes that will continue to aggravate Chiefs coaches and executives.

•••

It’s impossible to know what Bowe himself thinks about this, because he hasn’t spoken to reporters since apologizing for the importing interview.

Officially, the Chiefs say that was Bowe’s decision, that he wants to be about football only. But if that was the case, he wouldn’t be talking to fans in the middle of practice, especially not just minutes after running the wrong way during a previous drill. More likely, the directive came from one of Bowe’s bosses and he’s being a good employee.

That in itself is a positive step, and the best thing for both the team and player. But it’s still an artificial cover-up for an issue that won’t go away immediately — no matter how often the Chiefs talk about a “maturity” that so far is more myth than reality.

If that’s as far as this went, it would be a fascinating character study and the kind of thing that would carry many Kansas City conversations into next year. But this is a football issue, too, because Bowe is a central figure in a supporting cast the Chiefs need to help Matt Cassel earn his $63 million contract.

Even missing four games for the suspension, Bowe had the most dropped passes for a team that dropped the most passes in the NFL last year. Bowe’s mistakes have always been more mental than physical, more bad routes and broken concentration than insufficient talent.

The connection to Bowe’s alter ego is too easy to make. Suppressing “D-Bowe” becomes not just good for everyone’s sanity, but also good for the bottom line.

It’s just that D-Bowe won’t go away quietly.

He wants to be like Ocho Cinco but instead of being funny, he's a dumbass.

the bowe show lol

He changed his name to Ocho Cinco. It's safe to say he's not only a dumbass, but a much larger one at that.

No, not really.

For all of his showmanship, Ocho Cinco produces on the field, and he doesn't draw any real negative attention to himself or his team.

Most find him entertaining.

The fact is, Ocho Cinco has done a better job of showmanship than almost any other player that likes putting himself in the spot light.

Ochoa Cinco is hilarious as shit. Funniest guy in the NFL but Bowe is just a clown.

Fair enough and he's definately played very well in his career, but I still think he's a dumbass :)

Everytime he says something to the fans, the fans need to tell him to just catch the ball and shut up.

Hell I told him that in River Falls after he made a routine catch and was talking to fans about it.
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Not only that but Chad does a ton of charity work off the field. I still don't understand how he gets a bad rap from some when by all accounts he seems like a great guy.

Ocho-Cinco is a great guy, great player, great teammate and a helluva entertainer. I'd love to have him on our team.

What has the guy actually done to be called an asshole or a dumb ass? Nothing. It's just a gut reaction that people have to players who draw attention to themselves. He ain't TO, he ain't Moss (of the old days) he's not Michael Irvin. He's legendary already and he's a genuinely good fun loving guy.

This....

CJ or OC is awesome.. I wish time and time again he was a Chief...

The more i read stuff like this, the more i think Bowe will never put it all together...

I didn't like OC at first, I thought he was another TO, but I've come to like him. He's cleverly funny at times.

Noooo stop being entertaining! This is football! Serious Business!

are they really giving him shit in the article for having Berry carry his pads? Are you kidding me? That's how you know when an article is just trying to pile shit on.