The Chiefs' first foray into the NFL playoffs since 2006 didn't go exactly as they had hoped. And with the 30-7 embarrassment comes a blitz of depressing postmortems about what went wrong, grumbling about why the offense took the day off and babbling about what next season will bring.
But when you're done reading all that crap and need a laugh, turn to The Kansas City Star's fantastic piece of sports journalism documenting how rookie safety Eric Berry seems to have difficulty kicking the habits he acquired before becoming a super-wealthy athlete.
Writer Kent Babb reveals Berry as a thoroughly endearing 22-year-old with a contract worth a guaranteed $34 million who scours dollar stores for deals on jugs of Hawaiian Punch. It will cheer you up more than seeing Joe Flacco get buried beneath the Steelers' defense next week.
Berry's family, the story explains, didn't have much extra money lying
around, so they taught their oldest son to save and pinch wherever he
could. His mom, Carol, told the Star, "We've always taken the philosophy
of, 'If it's not broke, we could still deal with it.' " Looks like the
philosophy stuck. Babb writes that Berry tweeted: "Finally found the
dollar store in KC!" shortly after he moved here.
Scenes in the story include Berry exclaiming "a whole gallon!" as he
snapped up the punch, at a Family Dollar in east Kansas
City. He also perused the cheap body wash and
six-packs of toothbrushes. Berry even bought a bunch of cleaning
supplies because his maid told him that it would cost him more if she brought her own
Windex and 409.
The best quote of the story comes from Berry's teammate Brandon Flowers: "Man, I don't even think he realizes how much money he's got." That, and he probably doesn't want to end up broke, the way football players tend to do.
And just to ensure that you get your recommended daily dose of warm and fuzzies, the article notes that Berry has splurged a couple of times. He drives a $149,000 Camaro, and he bought his mom a Land
Rover to replace the banged-up SUV his folks drove from Georgia to
Tennessee to watch him play for the Volunteers in college.
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