Update (2:33 p.m. May 27): ESPN The Magazine editor Gary Belsky told The Pitch this morning that he has a tape of Chiefs receiver Dwayne Bowe telling one of his writers about veteran players flying groupies in for road games. Belsky even offered to play the audio file for Bowe or anyone within the Chiefs organization with a vested interest in hearing it.
That's bad news for D-Bowe. This afternoon, Bowe broke his silence. He told a group of reporters that he was "misquoted" and "misunderstood" in the ESPN The Magazine piece. Bowe contradicted himself though, claiming at one point that he couldn't remember talking to the writer. So how did he know that he'd been misquoted and misunderstood? a reporter asked. Bowe dodged the question.
The Kansas City Star's Kent Babb has a transcript of Bowe's comments to the press. If you can decipher what Bowe is saying, the more power to you.
Original story (1:15 p.m. May 27): Kansas City Chiefs
receiver Dwayne Bowe hasn't talked about his ESPN The Magazine
interview, in which he
claimed veteran players used Facebook and MySpace to find groupies to
"import" for road trips. But now one of Bowe's former teammates is
claiming Bowe denied ever doing the interview with the magazine.
Former
Chiefs wideout Eddie Kennison told WHB 810's Steven St.
John and Nate
Bukaty that he called Bowe after hearing the story, and
Bowe told him that he never made the importing comments (listen
to the Kennison interview here).
"He said, 'Eddie K, I've never talked to this guy before. I don't know
where this is coming from,'" Kennison said. "My question, I guess is to
the writer who wrote the article. He quoted Dwayne in this article and
to me that raises the question, if you quoted the guy, then that means
the guy said it. So that leaves me a little bit skeptical about
whether Dwayne really said it or not. Dwayne said he didn't. I believe
Dwayne. I don't know the writer. I'm not saying that it's not true, but I
believe Dwayne Bowe on it because he told me he did not say it."
Kennison
may be skeptical of whether Bowe really made the comments, but ESPN
The Magazine editor Gary Belsky isn't. Belsky tells The
Pitch that he has an audio file of Bowe's phone interview with
senior writer Eddie Matz.
Belsky wouldn't comment on Bowe's conversation with Kennison, but did
offer to play the tape for Bowe, Kennison or anyone with a vested
interest in hearing it.
"If Eddie Kennison wants to come to my
office, I will play him the
tape
from that conversation," Belsksy says.
Belsky wants to be clear.
He doesn't have a beef with Bowe. He
thinks he's a good guy. He just doesn't know what Bowe said to Kennison.
All he can speak to is Bowe's conversation with Matz; he says he's read
the transcript and listened to the audio file.
"We have no
reason
not to believe it," Belsky says. "He
was being honest. Players are honest with us and they know that we will
deal with them fairly. We quoted him at length. We didn't cut out
anything that was significant or that would have changed the nature of
the comments."
Interview highlights:
"My rookieyear, we were playing in San Diego," Bowe says. "You hear
stories about groupies hanging out in hotel lobbies, but some of my
teammates had it set up so there was a girl in every room. The older
guys get on MySpace and Facebook a week before we go to a city; when a
pretty one writes back, they arrange to fly her in three or four days in
advance. They call it importing.
"Younger guys don't have the money to do
it," Bowe added. "Anyway,
these girls had the whole top floor. They know everything about us --
first and last names, sisters and brothers, salary. This one girl was
talking to me like she'd known me for years. 'Hey, D-Bowe, how's
Grandma?' I'm like, 'How do you know my grandma?' She knew that I talk
about her every time I'm interviewed for a story.
"I told her I had a girlfriend, but she didn't care. She was wearing my
jersey, sitting in my lap, making it look like we knew each other.
Then she took a picture and put it on Facebook. That almost got me in
trouble."
Chiefs players on the 2007 team have claimed Bowe's anecdote isn't true.
Bowe hasn't publicly refuted his comments. He also hasn't contacted ESPN
The Magazine, Belsky says.
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