NASHVILLE, Tenn. The saddest, angriest, most frustrated and stunned locker room in the NFL has been open for 14 minutes and Damien Williams is not moving. Tears slide down his right cheek. The mechanics of a sports failure play out in front of him.
The Chiefs had this thing won, wrapped tight, right up until the moment they gagged it up and lost 35-32 to the Tennessee Titans at the gun here Sunday.
The loss could end up a footnote, could simply be the placeholder for the adversity every team loves to talk about after an ultimate success. Right now, though, it feels like something bigger. Something worse. The structure of this season was supposed to include improvement down the stretch, both from a defense gaining familiarity and an offense gaining health.