http://www.kansascity.com/sports/chi...ry/523283.html
His pickup truck is splattered with mud from front to back, with empty foam coffee cups in the truck’s two front-seat cup holders and a few more on the floor, plus a well-used tin of dipping tobacco tucked somewhere between the seats.
The 24-year-old smiles big and has a mop of dark brown hair. He speaks with an Alabama twang and wears T-shirts and sneakers on work days and off days, the joy of youth and the comfort of home.
“There’s nothing big-time about me,” he says. “I’m just a starting quarterback in the NFL.”
Brodie Croyle is an average man with an oversized job. The Chiefs’ quarterback says all the right things and is trying his damnedest to do them, too. He and Kelli, his wife of seven months, bought a house in the Johnson County community of Stilwell and put down roots. Said they wanted to stay for a long time.
He could be in the South, enjoying the warm weather and his family’s company — at his parents’ ranch near Birmingham, Ala., or with Kelli’s family in Mississippi. Instead, he is here, where there are constant reminders that the Chiefs lost all six of Croyle’s starts in 2007.
So many of his teammates — at least half of them, a team spokesman says, but Croyle suspects it is more — blew town after the Chiefs’ last game. They headed to Las Vegas or Hawaii or wherever home is, anywhere that would wash away the memories of a 4-12 season, anywhere but Kansas City. But Croyle settled into Middle America, where he bundled up and braced himself for cold weather and criticism.
“If we’re going to play here, if this is going to be our team, we want it to be our city, too,” he says. “We don’t want to be going from here to there to there. We want to have a home, and we want a place to call home. Kansas City is it.”
Most days, Croyle rises before dawn, goes hunting in the Kansas woods and heads to Arrowhead Stadium. He spends three or four days a week at the stadium, he says, almost every hour spent as the only player there. Coaches have noticed his commitment and even admire it. They say more players should have Croyle’s drive.
But it might not be enough. The NFL draft is in two months, and the Chiefs have a prime choice at No. 5 overall. They have other holes, but coaches might be tempted to take an elite college quarterback.
This season will be Croyle’s third in Kansas City. He is neither a rookie nor a veteran; neither proven nor untested. Coaches have no idea what to think about Croyle because he has neither won nor lost the long-term starting job. He has no defined identity, and that has kept the Chiefs from fully embracing him as their long-term answer at quarterback.
Coaches say his decision to remain in Kansas City this offseason suggests he is committed. Now he must prove himself — one way or the other. Coaches hope Croyle shows he is anything but average.
“We’re really at a crossroads right now,” Chiefs quarterbacks coach Dick Curl says after thinking for a long time about Croyle’s future here. “We’re at that point that we still need — this won’t sound good, maybe — a little bit more time to see where we’re going to go. He’s certainly shown he has the ability to play. But this is a bottom-line business, plain and simple. It’s not about doing good things. It’s about winning. And he needs to win.”
Croyle sticks around KC to show he wants to stick as starting QB
Croyle sticks around KC to show he wants to stick as starting QB
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