Brodie Croyle is Zach Grienke?

For those familiar with the Kansas City sports scene, the Royals (baseball) have been a mediocre at best team for the last 18 or so years. The last winning season was so long ago I can't recall off the top of my head, but let's just say at the time I was a cub scout. For some infuriating reason, the Royals have decided that an excellent strategy is to bring up great players from their farm program, teach them the ropes and then trade them right before they get good. The Royals also like to keep old, mediocre players much longer than is wise. It's led to 100-loss seasons, and a lot of disappointment and apathy in KC baseball fans.
On ESPN they commonly joke about "once a Royal, now good," and then they show footage of Johnny Damon or one of his former-Royal counterparts on another team.

Enter the Chiefs post-Dick Vermeil. The Chiefs have aggressively sold off talent, losing Patrick Surtain, Jared Allen, and others to other teams in exchange for draft picks. If there is one thing history shows in the NFL, it is that talent cannot usually be predicted (see 6th round draft pick Tom Brady). Now the Chiefs have become a "rebuilding" team, and look to trade off their last remaining dinosaur of a bygone (13-3) era: Tony Gonzalez.

The Chiefs continue to place false hope in Brodie Croyle, which has echoes of the Royals continuing to hope Zach Grienke becomes a legendary hall of fame quality pitcher.

Another similarity is the Royals spending big money for Gil Meche, who does a decent job, but isn't spectacular, and the Chiefs keeping Damon Huard around, who does a decent job, but is very ordinary.

The problem is that the Royals have proven you can't be a contender with young talent. If the Chiefs hope to grow into a good team, they need to keep all their young talent around, and not trade any of them off. I wish Tony G the best in a new city (he has 3 hours left to find one) but I hope the Chiefs don't throw away good, young players and continue, season after season, to rebuild.