KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Minutes after celebrating their place in NFL history, they were scrambling in terror.

Every prominent member of the Kansas City Chiefs — Andy Reid and his coaching staff, general manager Brett Veach, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and their teammates — left the stage in front of Union Station and headed back into the grand hall. It was the city’s parade to honor their Super Bowl LVIII victory, the first NFL team to successfully defend a championship in almost two decades.

Minutes later gunshots sounded; the team and the thousands of fans celebrating on an unseasonably warm Valentine’s Day were plunged into chaos.

The 66-year-old Reid and a trio of players — running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire, right guard Trey Smith and long snapper James Winchester — were among those who ran toward children during the gunfire and tried to comfort those around them. According to a law enforcement source, granted anonymity for this story because he doesn’t have permission to speak publicly on the shooting, at one point police thought there was a shooter inside Union Station, where Chiefs personnel, coaches, players and their families had run for cover.

“I went to my grandkids and my family, like, Where are they?!” Reid said two weeks after the shooting. “Your instincts take over.”

Chaos has broken out at the end of the Chiefs Super Bowl parade. Police and military personnel just took off inside of Union Station pic.twitter.com/mqNeodS9r5

— Jacob Meikel (@Jacob_Meikel) February 14, 2024

Edwards-Helaire, who has a reputation as one of the Chiefs’ most jovial players, had his usual offseason training halted several times while he dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition he has grappled with since fatally shooting a man attempting to rob him in 2018; the parade shooting worsened his severe anxiety.

When the shots finally stopped, 22 victims — half of them under the age of 16 — were wounded and one person, Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a disc jockey at Kansas City radio station KKFI and mother of two, was dead. The shooting stemmed from a dispute between several people, two of whom were under the age of 18 when they were detained by the Kansas City Police Department.

That horrific scene was how the Chiefs’ offseason began. It barely calmed down over the next six months: a rising star became embroiled in legal issues stemming from a high-speed crash, a future Hall of Famer battled time and the scrutiny that comes with dating the world’s most famous woman, their kicker thrust himself into the culture wars and a 25-year-old teammate almost died at the team’s training facility.

Starting Thursday night against the Baltimore Ravens, Chiefs players, coaches and front office members will spend the next five months trying to accomplish an unprecedented feat: Win a third consecutive Super Bowl. But first, they had to endure an offseason unlike any other.

Rashee Rice’s rented Lamborghini SUV was approaching 120 miles per hour on a Dallas highway. He was part of a late-afternoon drag race on a busy stretch of the Central Expressway and, as he tried to weave through traffic, he slammed into a hatchback traveling in the left lane, setting off a chain reaction. The hatchback careened into the black Corvette that Rice was racing, sending the Corvette into a minivan before crashing into a retaining wall on the other side of the road. The minivan and a white SUV were sent spinning in the center lane. In the end, six vehicles were involved. In the immediate aftermath, Rice and four of his friends exited the two vehicles, made their way to the breakdown lane and walked away before police arrived, leaving behind the crash’s victims, baffled onlookers and two mangled luxury vehicles.

From Rashee Rice’s attorney, Royce West: “Rashee is cooperating with local authorities and will take all necessary steps to address this situation responsibly.” via @AdamSchefter.@dallaspd was reportedly looking for the Chiefs’ wide receiver following Saturday’s crash. @FOX4 pic.twitter.com/ubD0dBSBJ4

— Peyton Yager (@peytonyager) April 1, 2024

The March 30 crash involved Teddy Knox, a former SMU teammate of Rice who was the driver of the black Corvette. Two drivers of other vehicles were treated at the scene for minor injuries, and two occupants of another vehicle were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

On April 11, Rice turned himself in at the Glenn Heights (Texas) Police Department after the Dallas PD issued an arrest warrant. Records showed Rice, who was booked and released on a $40,000 bond, is facing one count of aggravated assault, one count of collision involving serious bodily injury and six counts of collision involving injury, although a trial date has yet to be set. Two crash victims, Irina Gromova and Edvard Petrovskiy, are suing Rice and Knox for more than $10 million; a trial is set to begin next June.

Rice made his first public comments about the crash through an Instagram story post: “I take full responsibility for my part in this matter and will continue to cooperate with the necessary authorities. I sincerely apologize to everyone impacted in Saturday’s accident.”

Less than a week after turning himself in to the police, Rice returned to work, participating in every aspect of the Chiefs’ offseason program. During training camp, he declined to share if he had been interviewed by commissioner Roger Goodell or anyone else from the league.

“The main thing for me is being able to be the best person I can be for my team so we can all come together and dominate,” Rice said in early August. “I’m just continuing to surround myself with the people I want to be like and continuing to surround myself with people who are going to allow me to grow to become a better person on and off the field. I’m going to continue to grow.”

Brian McCarthy, a league spokesman, said in a news video conference last week that Rice wouldn’t be placed on the league’s commissioner’s exempt list — which allows the league to remove a player facing felony charges from the playing field and take that disciplinary decision away from the team — “unless there is a material change in the case.”

Since Reid became their head coach in 2013, the Chiefs have been willing to bring in players with a history of off-the-field transgressions. That was true of Rice, who was taken off at least three teams’ draft boards due to character concerns, according to league sources, before Kansas City moved up nine spots to select him in the second round of the 2023 draft.

A common misconception is that Reid’s Chiefs employ a loose, fun-all-the-time culture. In reality, Reid runs one of the most physical training camps in the NFL and they maintain those grueling practice habits throughout the season. Reid has learned to micromanage less, but swap out sleeveless hoodies for Tommy Bahama shirts — and Tom Brady for Mahomes — and you have an organization that has much more in common with the Patriot Way than most outsiders think. And similar to New England, the winning encourages players to buy in.

“They trust their infrastructure,” a rival GM said. “(Reid) can handle just about anything and make sure the leadership is strong to absorb those players. … Talent is a premium, for sure, and figuring out where to draw the line can definitely be taxing on the assistants. Bill (Belichick) was the same way. It’s all about risk tolerance and at what cost.”

Despite a troubling offseason, the Chiefs still have extremely high expectations for Rashee Rice. (Emily Curiel / Kansas City Star / Tribune News Service / Getty Images)

Just a few weeks before the crash, Rice was in Fort Worth, Texas, training alongside Mahomes and Marquise Brown, the Chiefs’ newest veteran receiver. Mahomes, who spent a portion of his childhood in a Major League Baseball clubhouse, understands the need to use his voice to criticize Rice in a manner that is not solely punitive.

“There’s going to be punishments and stuff that they’re going to have to deal with,” Mahomes said of Rice last month. “But when you’re a guy on the team, you’re kind of like an older brother to the guy. You want to bring him up as best you can.

“Obviously, they know they’ve made mistakes. They own up to them. But at the same time, how are we going to be better now? How can you learn from that mistake and not make that same mistake again? That’s what you’re doing in every aspect of life, not just football.”

The Chiefs have a potential superstar in Rice. As a rookie last season he was the Chiefs’ best receiver, recording 79 receptions for 938 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns. Based on his on-field performance this summer, the 24-year-old is expected to not merely build on that success in 2024 but potentially establish himself as one of the NFL’s elite receivers. The Chiefs have proved, in the short term, they can win without great receiver play. For the long term, Rice could be the answer to one of the questions looming over the franchise: Who will become Mahomes’ next go-to target? After all, Kelce cannot play forever.

Kelce was emotional, almost choking up at one point during the short social-media video directed toward Chiefs fans. He thanked them for their support and reminisced about when he arrived in Kansas City. It was April 29, the Monday after the NFL Draft, and the tight end had just signed a two-year contract extension.

The news was significant for two reasons: It made him the NFL’s highest-paid tight end for the first time in his career; and it was the first public indication of what Kelce, who will be 35 in October, told Reid and Veach before signing the deal: He thinks he has at least two more good years left.

Kelce plans to help the franchise continue its success for at least a couple more seasons even as his fame in the world outside football grows exponentially after, last fall, his relationship with pop superstar Taylor Swift became public.

“I love playing in the NFL,” Kelce said in June. “This will always be my main focus. But outside of that, football ends for everybody, so (I’m) kind of dipping my toes in the water and seeing what (I) like in different areas and different career fields. I think the offseason is the best chance you can get to try and explore that and set yourself up for after football.”

Kelce spent much of the offseason in Los Angeles, his first step toward the acting career he plans to pursue after football. His first opportunity was in the spring; actress/comedian Niecy Nash-Betts revealed in early May that Kelce would be guest-starring alongside her, in an unspecified role, in “Grotesquerie,” an FX horror and drama show. Comedian and actor Adam Sandler shared last month that Kelce will play a supporting role in the much-anticipated “Happy Gilmore 2.” Kelce also flew to Europe several times — London, Dublin and many other cities — to attend as many of Swift’s concerts as possible, consistently shocked at the growing number of Chiefs jerseys he saw in each city.

WE HAVE A CLOSE UP NOW pic.twitter.com/BUnSTn5a4k

— line 🌙 (@nessianxx) June 23, 2024

Kelce’s life changed last season when he began dating Swift. His weekly podcast with his brother, Jason, “New Heights,” became one of the medium’s fastest-growing shows. Travis’s social media followers grew by more than 400,000. In less than a week, his No. 87 jersey rose to the top five in NFL sales, according to Fanatics.

Kelce’s life also changed in less desirable ways. For instance, as paparazzi descended on his suburban home, he learned the hard way that dating the world’s most famous woman requires a gated community; he moved in November.

In 2023, the Chiefs became the third team in NFL history to play 21 regular- and postseason games in a single season. In the first six years of the Mahomes era, the Chiefs played an unmatched 18 postseason games, for a total of 117 games during that span; Kelce played in all but four of them. And yet, the Chiefs are not worried about Kelce potentially slowing down. As he followed Swift’s Eras Tour around the world this summer, Kelce brought a small team of trainers along with him. The world saw his surprise on-stage appearance as a performer during Swift’s late-June show at London’s Wembley Stadium, but few saw the full-time football work he continued to put in while overseas. And, European tours and acting gigs aside, he didn’t miss a single Chiefs workout this summer, mandatory or voluntary.

It might not be TB12, but those in the Chiefs building say Kelce is obsessed with body maintenance. It’s cliché to insist that your best players are your hardest workers, but even Veach was surprised when, on his way out the door on Monday — after the team’s hardest practice of the week — he saw his All-Pro tight end doing band work in an otherwise empty weight room at 9 p.m.

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There’s no doubt that Kelce still has both feet in the football world, just like there’s no doubt that Swift is fully embracing her Chiefs fandom. It did, however, take everyone involved a little bit of time to find the rhythm to this dance.

For instance, Swift made her first appearance at Arrowhead Stadium last September. The lasting image of an otherwise forgettable blowout victory over the Chicago Bears: When Kelce caught a 3-yard touchdown to stretch the lead to 41-0, cameras caught Swift jumping, cheering and shouting three words: Let’s f—ing go!

Before the Chiefs’ locker room was opened after the game, players were asked to not discuss Swift with reporters, a request from Kelce that led to awkward interactions between players and reporters surrounding one of the game’s biggest storylines.

“It’s crazy that someone was at a football game, right?” defensive end George Karlaftis said, smiling, in response to a question about Swift. “I don’t know what you guys want. I’m happy for him.”

That day brought a new kind of stress for the Chiefs’ security operation, which had to coordinate with Swift’s team for her safe entry into and exit from the stadium. With the game winding down in the fourth quarter, security put its original plan into motion, ushering Swift out to a meeting point with Kelce. Only, Swift had a different idea: She wanted to watch the end of her boyfriend’s game. That meant plans had to change on the fly. Ultimately, the security detail had Swift wait in the suite after the game until Kelce was ready to meet her there. The couple later exited Arrowhead as if they were the homecoming king and queen, driving downtown in his burgundy convertible. Their first public date occurred at Prime Social in the city’s Country Club Plaza area, a night when more than a third of Kelce’s teammates joined the gathering with Swift’s friends.

At a practice the next week, Kunal Tanna, Veach’s assistant, made the usual rounds, asking those in each position room if they had any song requests for that day’s workout. That’s how one of Swift’s songs made it onto the playlist, making for a light moment during practice. Mahomes approached Tanna. “That was really funny,” he said, before adding, “don’t ever do it again” — a message for Tanna, and for the team, that outside noise stays outside the practice field.

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Swift was learning a new world as well. She attended her first road game a week later, a Sunday nighter against the New York Jets in East Rutherford, N.J. When Swift arrived at MetLife Stadium, rather than being greeted by a raucous crowd of paparazzi, it was a collection of sports journalists, as polite as they were unsure of what to do. “It’s so quiet in here,” Swift said after exiting her car; she then had a chance to enjoy the likely unfamiliar sound of her own footsteps echoing as she made her way through the tunnel.

Swift continued attending games, and as the season progressed, the rhythm became more familiar for everyone involved. The organization embraced her presence. She was on the field next to Kelce just minutes after the Chiefs won the AFC Championship Game in Baltimore. Much to the surprise of just about everyone, she was on the field in the chaotic moments after Super Bowl LVIII. (For those wondering, she will be in attendance for Thursday night’s season opener against the Ravens.)

This was the only sign of Taylor Swift this preseason, but things should be different on Thursday night. (Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)

Even with Mahomes, on a trajectory to become the greatest player in NFL history, as their leader, no one has generated more positive buzz for the Chiefs than Kelce. When 32 players took the stage in front of the Rose Garden with President Joe Biden in late May, it was Kelce who was given the opportunity to step into the spotlight.

After an invitation from the president, Kelce joined Biden at the lectern: “My fellow Americans, it’s nice to see you all again… I’m not gonna lie, President Biden, they told me if I came up here I’d get tased, so I’m gonna go back to my spot.”

The ceremony ended with owner Clark Hunt and Reid presenting Biden with the gift of a Chiefs helmet that featured three autographs in black marker, from Reid, Veach and team president Mark Donovan. When there was a pause during a photo opp, Kelce led a group of players encouraging Biden to put the helmet on.

Biden obliged. There were cheers and laughter. Even kicker Harrison Butker, stoic in the top row for most of the ceremony, couldn’t help but crack a smile.

Speaking to a packed gymnasium in Atchison, Kan., on May 11, Butker’s address to Benedictine College’s Class of 2024 started the way most commencement speeches do: He congratulated the graduates. Nothing else he said over the next 20 minutes was ordinary.

The 28-year-old kicker referred to Pride Month, the events in June demonstrating inclusivity and support for the LGBTQ+ community, as an example of the “deadly sins,” as he advocated for a more conservative brand of Catholicism. He criticized Biden on several issues, including abortion and the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, even questioning Biden’s personal devotion to Catholicism. Addressing a class that included hundreds of women, Butker said a woman’s most important title is “homemaker.”

“It is you, the women, who have had the most diabolic lies told to you,” Butker told them. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”

Hours after the speech was posted to YouTube, the backlash began. GLAAD, a non-profit LGBTQ advocacy organization, denounced the speech. So did the order of nuns affiliated with Benedictine College. Jokes started rolling in. At the 2024 ESPY Awards, which Butker attended, tennis legends Serena and Venus Williams discussed the year in women’s sports onstage with “Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson. Venus told the audience to “go ahead and enjoy women’s sports, like you would any other sports, because they are sports.”

Serena added the punchline: “Except you, Harrison Butker. We don’t need you.”

“At all. Like, ever,” Brunson added.

The Williams sisters made a joke at Harrison Butker’s expense at the 2024 ESPYS.

Venus: “So, go ahead and enjoy women’s sports like you would any other sports, because they are sports.”

Serena: “Except you, Harrison Butker.”

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🎥 @awfulannouncing pic.twitter.com/3LWmIQqfkd

— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) July 12, 2024

There were also those who rallied in support of Butker. Within a week of the speech, the women’s version of Butker’s jersey was out of stock in the official Chiefs Pro Shop, and his men’s jersey was listed among the top sellers on NFLshop.com. A fan made a large sign in support of Butker, placing it alongside the highway near Missouri Western State’s campus, where the Chiefs held training camp: “Thank you Harrison Butker for having the courage to speak the truth.”

The NFL released a statement distancing itself from Butker’s comments, saying his views are not those of the league. Mahomes and Kelce expressed their disagreement with Butker’s comments, too, but voiced their respect for him as a teammate.

In the days after Butker’s speech, those in Chiefs leadership felt all they could do was wait to see what happened when Butker returned for OTAs. They were surprised, not only by the amount of attention the speech drew but that Butker had agreed to make a speech at all. While the Chiefs know Butker is devoutly religious, he has never been especially aggressive in sharing his beliefs. For Butker’s part, when Benedictine College asked him to be its commencement speaker just days after Super Bowl LVIII, he initially declined before reconsidering.

“I try to protect my privacy as much as possible, but I’ve been in the league seven years and I do have a platform,” Butker said. “With that comes people who want me to state what I believe to be very important.”

All eyes were on Butker, and his interactions with his teammates, on that first day back in the locker room. He did crossword puzzles in the training room with some of the defensive linemen. He chatted with other teammates. And for the Chiefs, it seemed clear that, while this was an understandably big issue outside their facility, it wasn’t going to be a problem inside it.

“Ever since that speech, there’s been tons of conversations in the locker room, guys connecting and trying to understand each other,” Butker said. “It’s been a beautiful thing to see. That’s what’s so special about sports. There’s not many sports where you have 50 to 100 guys with a bunch of different beliefs and we’re all fighting together to win.”

Sitting in a special teams meeting on June 6, Butker heard a commotion behind him. Then he felt the jolt of someone kicking his chair. “I turned around,” Butker said, “and B.J. wasn’t doing well.”

The kicker sprinted out of the meeting room and to the Chiefs’ training room, alerting assistant trainers Julie Frymyer and David Glover. By that point, B.J. Thompson, a 25-year-old defensive end, was in the throes of a seizure.

Within minutes, vice president of sports medicine and performance Rick Burkholder and his staff — Frymyer, Glover, Tiffany Morton and Evan Craft — and Dr. Jean-Philippe E Darche, a former center who played nine seasons in the NFL, worked together to resuscitate Thompson, who fell to the floor after going into cardiac arrest. He was taken by ambulance to the University of Kansas Medical Center and was placed on a ventilator under heavy sedation.

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The NFL requires every team to practice its emergency action plan before every game and during the workweek at its training facility.

“We practiced on (that) Monday with a group called Walters Incorporated, who comes in and educates us and goes through scenarios like we went through,” Burkholder said.

Thompson woke up in a stable condition and was responsive within 24 hours. A week after being released from the hospital, he rejoined his teammates, making his first public appearance for the Chiefs’ Super Bowl ring ceremony at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.

📹VIDEO: #Chiefs BJ Thompson walks the red carpet ahead of Thursday’s ring ceremony– just one week after going into cardiac arrest during a team meeting @KSHB41 pic.twitter.com/gyAbJXTLkH

— Aaron Ladd (@aaronladdtv) June 14, 2024

Thompson, a second-year player who was selected in the fifth round of the 2023 draft, was working to contribute as a role player on defense and special teams after appearing in only the regular-season finale as a rookie. After his release from the hospital, he spent several days watching practice. He’ll start this season on the non-football injury list, which will give him more time to go through several medical evaluations before he can be cleared to participate in football activities again. Reid said Thompson could return to the practice field as early as November.

The Chiefs’ offseason drama extended beyond their football operations. Two weeks after the parade shooting, Hunt spoke publicly at a news conference inside Arrowhead about the future of the 52-year-old venue. The Chiefs unveiled renderings of what they hoped would be the next major renovations — changes included enhanced suites, video boards and club lounges. The renovations were projected to cost $800 million; Hunt said he and his family would contribute $300 million.

During the news conference, the NFL Players Association released the findings of its second annual survey, team-by-team report cards that assess players’ working conditions and environments. The Chiefs ranked 31st among the NFL’s 32 teams. The bad news kept coming when, a month later, voters in Jackson County, Mo., rejected an extension of the three-eighths-cent sales tax on a ballot initiative that would have funded stadium renovations for the Chiefs and Kansas City Royals. The margin of defeat was overwhelming: 58 percent voted no.

None of that stopped Hunt from investing in the on-field product. He signed Reid, Veach and Donovan to contract extensions through the 2029 season, with Reid earning $25 million per year, becoming the league’s highest-paid coach. Having already signed Mahomes to the longest contract in the league (which runs through the 2031 season), Hunt authorized Veach and Reid to sign Kelce, Butker, pass rusher Chris Jones and center Creed Humphrey to new deals, each one becoming the highest-paid player at their position. If the Chiefs fall short of a three-peat, it won’t be because the organization didn’t invest in its upcoming mission.

As he left the field after Super Bowl LVIII, there was one thing on Travis Kelce’s mind. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

The Chiefs endured an offseason that required unique resilience. Perhaps the most meaningful sign of that resilience came not in the days or months, but the minutes after Super Bowl LVIII in February. Kelce, exhausted after the overtime victory that ended the longest season of his career, took a moment to celebrate on the field.

Then, during a long, slow walk back to the locker room, he delivered a simple message: “We’re doing this again next year.”

(Top photos, left to right: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images; Courtney Culbreath / Getty Images; Michael Owens / AP)

The crowd was roaring like it’d just seen a knockout in a heavyweight fight.

But this was not that. It was Week 1 of the 2018 season, and the New York Jets were at Ford Field in Detroit to play the Lions. The matchup was highly anticipated, a prime-time game on national television, because of the Jets’ new quarterback.

Wearing a white jersey with dark green trim, Sam Darnold crouched under center, turned his head and looked left down the line of scrimmage. He tapped his left foot backward. Once receiver Quincy Enunwa motioned across the formation, Darnold’s voice pierced the crowd noise.

“Ready, set!”

Immediately, the ball was snapped. Darnold faked a handoff and bootlegged to the right, focusing his eyes near the right sideline. A Lions pass rusher wiggled past his blockers and chased Darnold, who climbed forward, surveyed the field from right to left, reset his feet and launched a pass diagonally across his body back to the left.

The ball floated for what felt like an hour. It lingered long enough for Lions safety Quandre Diggs to stop backpedaling and sprint forward. Diggs snatched the ball out of the air for an interception, then raced the other way 37 yards for a touchdown.

The camera panned to the raucous crowd, mostly clad in Honolulu blue, and liquids spouted from cups into the sky. A horn resembling a freight train sounded through the stadium speakers. The camera then found Darnold, who gazed up at the video board for a replay and, for a second, presented such a self-deprecating facial expression that he looked like he might laugh.

The play and what happened after have a chance to be emblematic of Darnold’s entire career.

So what happened after? Darnold reached the sideline and felt the muscles in his arms, which had felt like taut bungee cords, loosen. Well, it can’t get worse than that, he thought, then proceeded to complete 16 of his next 20 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns en route to a 48-17 victory. It was a preposterous amount of adversity, then an inspiring response.

To this point, though, Darnold’s career contains much more of the former.

Still only 27, Darnold’s chance at turning the tide might ultimately hinge on his current opportunity. The Minnesota Vikings signed him to a one-year, $10 million contract this offseason, thinking he still has untapped potential but needs the right environment after three seasons with the Jets, two with the Carolina Panthers and one year behind Brock Purdy in San Francisco.

Minnesota’s skill players are exceptional. The play-action, rhythm-and-timing-oriented offense suits Darnold well. Throw in the deep bond between Darnold and Vikings quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, and the optimism sweeping the TCO Performance Center hallways makes sense.

But Darnold’s window of opportunity may not be open for long. This spring, the Vikings drafted Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy (who suffered a season-ending meniscus injury) to be their quarterback of the future. That plan remains, meaning Darnold’s 2024 season could be a de facto tryout to start elsewhere in 2025.

Still, many of Darnold’s former teammates and coaches are paying close attention. For one, they’re rooting for a guy who seems to be universally liked. But they also think Darnold’s story represents a broader issue: why so many top college quarterbacks fail in the NFL.

“Even the highly drafted guys need the perfect cocktail a lot of times for them to shine,” said former Jets center Jonotthan Harrison, “and very few of them get a sip of it.”

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The night before the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, Jets staffers swiveled in their chairs in Florham Park, N.J., tapping away at their phones for intel. Multiple agents and rival team executives provided the same tidbit: that the Cleveland Browns were leaning toward Baker Mayfield with the No. 1 pick.

Some of the Jets scouts preferred Mayfield to Darnold. Others liked Darnold. Even those who wanted Mayfield agreed: Darnold was a safer bet.

The Jets had studied every aspect of these quarterbacks’ backgrounds for more than a year. They knew Darnold’s mother was a P.E. teacher at Shorecliffs Middle School in San Clemente, Calif. They knew Darnold’s father oversaw the plumbing at several medical facilities in Orange County. They knew Darnold’s grandfather, Dick Hammer, was a part-time actor who played the role of the Marlboro Man on billboards.

Jets executives attended Darnold’s rainy pro day. At the combine, they peppered him with questions about the New York media environment. He was not a perfect prospect — many flagged his tendency to turn the ball over — but he was young and easy-going. Several on the Jets staff joked he was a Southern California native with a Midwestern vibe. Late nights? Tabloid-filled headlines? No, sir. Just hard work.

On draft night, Cleveland proved the Jets’ intuition correct. The Browns took Mayfield, leaving Darnold to Gotham. The Jets’ executives and coaches collectively cheered the pick, which, mind you, is not always the case. After one of Darnold’s first practices, coaches and executives filled a meeting room and settled into their chairs. One of the coaches blurted out, “This guy is going to be pretty damn good.”

“I remember us talking about it, like, it’s so easy for him out on the field,” said Jimmie Johnson, then the Jets’ tight ends coach.

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The early impressions traveled upstairs and reached ownership, which had already created a troubling dynamic. It was widely known internally that the coaches, including head coach Todd Bowles, needed to win to keep their jobs. But the staff knew that for as impressive as Darnold looked, and as much as ownership and the fan base wanted Darnold to play, he needed time to develop.

This created a dilemma: Do right by the kid? Or appease the bosses and the fans?

“Just because you’re drafted high doesn’t mean you’re ready to play,” Johnson said. “It just means you were drafted high because of your potential. But everything has to be instant in the NFL … and in the world.”

Darnold started in Week 1, threw the interception on his first pass and responded well. But in the ensuing weeks, his performance oscillated. The Jets had a subpar offensive line and an unimpressive receiving corps. Darnold threw three interceptions in an October matchup against Minnesota. Several weeks later, he threw four picks in Miami and sprained his foot. At that point, the Jets were 3-6.

When he injured his foot, Darnold was able to sit and learn from NFL journeyman McCown, a confidant who was then his backup. Walk past the quarterback meeting room late at night that season, and they were likely in there together, chatting about defensive structures and scribbling notes about where to throw and why. Their relationship kept Darnold afloat through the early shakiness, and when he returned in Week 14, he pieced together an effective four-game stretch, completing 64 percent of his passes and producing a 6:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.

It was not enough to save Bowles’ job. He was fired at the end of the season, and the Jets replaced him with longtime offensive coordinator Adam Gase. When the news first surfaced, many of Gase’s former players, including Peyton Manning, publicly stated their belief in Gase as a top-notch offensive mind. A bolt of excitement flowed through the facility. Here was the perfect person to help Darnold fulfill his promise.

During his time with the Jets, Darnold developed a close relationship with backup quarterback Josh McCown, who is now his QB coach in Minnesota. (Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)

It did not play out that way for the 2019 Jets.

“No joke,” said Ryan Griffin, a longtime NFL tight end. “I would come home and be like, ‘More (crazy) Jets stuff today.’ We just had no direction.”

By August of Darnold’s second season, the initial excitement surrounding Gase’s hiring had faded. Seemingly everyone clashed with everyone: coaches, players, executives, even the training staff. Griffin had previously played for the Houston Texans and felt for players like Darnold who were dropped into the environment randomly.

“I just always felt I needed to help him out because it felt like he felt he had to do it all himself,” Griffin said. “That’s just not a recipe for success and growth.”

Then there was the subject of Gase’s offense. Five of his former players who spoke to The Athletic for this story agreed: Gase is a smart football mind. The issue lay in uploading those smarts to a second-year quarterback who was still only 21 years old. Gase was constantly hunting for the perfect play. This meant a bevy of motions and shifts, which meant lengthier verbiage for Darnold to spit out, which meant more time in the huddle.

“They were trying to fit a square peg in a round hole,” Harrison said. “I’m not saying the offensive philosophy at that time was garbage. It’s nothing negative. But it wasn’t for Sam.”

Adam Gase’s offense with the Jets was not particularly well suited to Darnold’s strengths. (Steven Ryan / Getty Images)

Center Ryan Kalil had played 12 NFL seasons in Carolina before that year. The Jets signed him as a backup, and on the practice fields in Florham Park, he quickly realized how much he’d taken system continuity for granted. He thought the longer he played, the easier it’d be to pick up any scheme. He was wrong.

The experience also fostered a deeper appreciation for the way the Panthers coaching staff had responded after drafting Cam Newton. They studied Newton’s Auburn tape, identifying the passes Newton read well and the plays where he appeared most comfortable. They played to his strengths. Newton benefitted from something totally out of his control.

“There’s so much luck that goes into this game,” Kalil said. “People don’t realize it. Lots of guys ended up being busts, and the biggest reason was because they were unlucky. They weren’t in the right system. They didn’t have the right coach. And vice-versa. Like, for every Tom Brady story, there’s a whole bunch of guys you never heard of.”

All of it affected Darnold. His sinuses flared up early in the season and his energy waned. He was diagnosed with mononucleosis. When he returned, he threw four interceptions against the New England Patriots and exited the game to find that a microphone had picked up a comment he made on the sideline: “I’m seeing ghosts.”

In the back half of the season, at the urging of offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, the Jets simplified their passing concepts and leaned into more no-huddle. Behind Darnold, New York won six of its last eight games.

Darnold’s success did not carry over into 2020, however, and after a 2-14 season, the Jets traded him to Carolina. In his introductory news conference, he thanked the Jets for the opportunity and shouldered his own struggles. He spoke excitedly about the potential of a fresh start with the Panthers.

Yet familiar issues soon arose.

A few weeks after the Panthers added Darnold, former quarterback and 2002 NFL MVP Rich Gannon received a phone call from then-Panthers head coach Matt Rhule, who wanted to talk about his new signal caller. Gannon, who himself had gone from castoff to first-team All-Pro, had never met Darnold. But Rhule wondered if Gannon, in watching Darnold, saw a bit of himself.

“There’s a lot to like there,” Gannon told Rhule. “He’s athletic. He’s got good feet. He can extend plays. Big, live arm. Toughness.”

Rhule connected Gannon with Darnold so he could offer up his backstory as a vision for what Darnold could become.

Gannon relayed to Darnold how he’d begun his career in Minnesota and how his first couple of head coaches, Jerry Burns and Dennis Green, treated him poorly. Not until Jon Gruden’s car picked him up at the Oakland International Airport did Gannon feel like a coach truly believed in him.

The first day at the Raiders’ facility in Gruden’s offense, Gannon heard the words, “You’re my guy. We can do great things together.”

“It was the only time I felt that in my career,” Gannon said. “And you can feel that.”

Darnold’s first season in Carolina got off to a great start. The Panthers won their first three games as Darnold completed 68 percent of his passes and averaged 304 passing yards a contest. In Week 3, though, superstar running back Christian McCaffrey injured his hamstring, and the wheels began to fall off.

Darnold threw two interceptions in Week 4 against the Cowboys, three the following week against the Eagles and another in Week 6 against the Vikings.

“The weight starts to feel like it’s on his shoulders,” said one former Panthers staffer who requested anonymity to speak freely about Darnold’s experience in Carolina, “and people internally are starting to ask questions: ‘Why’s he not throwing the ball downfield? Why is the offense not explosive?’”

Coach Matt Rhule tried to cater the Panthers offense to what Darnold did well. (Jim Dedmon / USA Today)

The Panthers implemented a different approach in Week 8 against the Falcons. Darnold went just 13-of-24 passing for 129 yards but ran eight times for 66 yards, which spurred Carolina to a gritty win but also led to a shoulder injury.

Darnold didn’t practice the next week, but he played the following Sunday against the Patriots and threw three interceptions. He was then held out for the next six weeks as the shoulder healed. The Panthers finished 5-12, compelling Rhule to fire then-offensive coordinator Joe Brady and hire longtime NFL coach Ben McAdoo, who installed a system more similar to Jeremy Bates’ from Darnold’s rookie season.

Re-energized, Darnold met with McAdoo and dedicated himself to a rigorous offseason training regimen focused primarily on footwork and eye placement. During this process, the Panthers traded for quarterback Baker Mayfield, which many saw as a sign of their lack of belief in Darnold.

“You can say what you want,” the former Panthers staffer said, “but it wasn’t a fair competition. Signing a guy like that right before camp? We knew. Sam knew. And he didn’t bitch one time.”

Darnold sprained his ankle in the final preseason game, cementing the Panthers’ decision. But Mayfield struggled, and by Week 12, the coaches turned back to Darnold. McAdoo called the resulting six-game stretch, in which Darnold went 4-2, “some of the most fun I’ve had coaching football.”

In Week 17, Tom Brady erased a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit, essentially ending the Panthers’ season and Darnold’s time in Carolina. Darnold entered free agency, where he chose to move to one of the most trusted quarterback environments in the NFL in San Francisco. He spent a season behind the scenes there and surfaced this offseason in a similarly well-regarded infrastructure.

“I just believe in him,” McCown said. “I saw it. I know what he’s dealt with. He’s been through the wringer.”

Darnold was very hit or miss during his two seasons in Carolina. In 17 games as a starter, he went 8-9 and threw for 3,670 yards with 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)

In May, during an otherwise ho-hum news conference at the Vikings’ practice facility, a reporter asked Darnold a question: What did you find out about being a young quarterback in the NFL that’s hard to understand if you’re not in that position?

Darnold listened and nodded.

He looked away, then back at the reporter and deadpanned: “Umm … I mean … How much time you got?”

The reporter laughed, which made Darnold laugh. He looked away again, then back at the reporter and said, “No, it’s a great question,” before offering a general answer. Darnold remained positive, didn’t throw anybody under the bus and moved on.

Even this is part of the NFL apparatus that contributes to young quarterbacks failing.

“We’re all glorified German shepherds in the NFL,” Harrison said. “We have to be loyal. Because if you’re not loyal to the team you’re on and if something were to slip out or you speak up, that could be your career. We’re almost sworn to secrecy if we want to get paid.”

GO DEEPER

How NFL journeyman Josh McCown is a key facet of the Vikings’ QB development plan

Players take coaching, even bad coaching, so as not to be seen as uncoachable. They portray a sense of being bulletproof, even when they’re struggling internally, to avoid being seen as weak. Narratives are often devoid of this context, breeding laziness.

“It’s just easier to say, ‘Well, he’s bad,’” McCown said. “But you don’t really know.”

This is not to say that Darnold is faultless. In private conversations with former coaches, he would chide himself for his turnover frequency. Some of his former coaches admit that Darnold’s processing speed is lacking at times. But while that may be a hindrance, they also agree it’s on the coaching staff to construct a play style and strategy that suits Darnold’s athletic traits and feel.

Maybe that means implementing more half-field reads. Maybe it means leaning heavily into boot-action plays that allow Darnold to use his athleticism. McAdoo did that in Carolina. Gase, with the Jets, did not. Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell likely will.

That’s how this would end if it were a Disney movie: with Darnold finally taking a sip of the perfect coaching cocktail, and the whole world understanding the recipe. There’s the innate talent, yes, but a whole heck of a lot more.

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Penny Hardaway has been an OK basketball coach through six seasons with the Memphis Tigers, but his program is nationally relevant only in its ability to generate embarrassing headlines.

The middling hoops product no longer justifies the off-court turmoil — the latest of which includes four members of Hardaway’s staff dismissed just before the start of preseason practice and the university confirming the existence of an anonymous letter alleging major violations, which has been turned over to the NCAA.

The next coach of this program may not be able to rally the fans, bring in top-notch players or reach 20 wins the way beloved Memphian and NBA legend Hardaway has. But it’s about time to find out. It’s not a Holy Grail quest to find a coach who can approximate Hardaway’s bottom line — two NCAA Tournament bids and one win in those six seasons — while also not keeping the lights on at NCAA Enforcement.

This program has a championship heritage with legendary players and teams in the not-so-distant past. Scandal is part of that heritage, too, but that was back when people cared about NCAA scandals. It sometimes feels like Hardaway is trying to create optimal conditions for a sequel to “Blue Chips,” the delightfully tacky 1994 movie featuring Nick Nolte as a compromised hoops coach, Hardaway as a bought recruit and Ed “Al Bundy” O’Neill as an investigative reporter.

It’s been a steady stream of investigations, eligibility questions and suspensions for Memphis since Hardaway replaced Tubby Smith, whose two-season average of 20.0 wins wasn’t far behind Hardaway’s (22.2), and whose integrity was never an issue in his 31-year head coaching career.

Academic improprieties are the worst of what has been alleged. In this era of player empowerment and investment, programs that try to shortcut education are declaring they see these “student-athletes” as nothing more than a means to an end.

Even with all the player movement going on, and with NIL giving them an approved financial cut, emphasizing and fostering academic pursuits should be as important as ever for college athletics programs. Those that don’t conduct business as such should be called on it.

Some will call that naïve. No one can argue NIL and professional sports money will be lifetime money for more than a fraction of college athletes.

Academic violations involving multiple Memphis players are alleged in the anonymous letter, which has been viewed by The Athletic. The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported in February that Malcolm Dandridge was withheld from five games because of academic circumstances. The paper reported in March that men’s basketball academic advisor Leslie Brooks was fired the day before the school announced Dandridge would miss games.

It’s always possible a situation like this, if true, happens independently of the people who oversee a program. But that doesn’t absolve them of all responsibility.

And this is just the latest of many issues for Hardaway’s program, dating back to an 18-month investigation into the recruitment of James Wiseman. There’s been nothing terribly damning outside of the academics allegations. But the pattern is pretty clear at this point for a program that has employed at least 41 people — 17 in coaching or operations — since Hardaway was hired in 2018, according to The Daily Memphian.

The allegations in the letter include two improper payments. One of those, for $60,000 to a prospect, was alleged to have happened in 2022. Is it possible Hardaway didn’t realize that at that point you could take a few simple steps and legally pay a prospect through a third party? The overall sloppiness here, regardless of the veracity of that particular allegation, brings another major Tennessee sports coach to mind.

Jeremy Pruitt presumably learned how to conduct under-the-table business discreetly and professionally at various elite college football programs, then got to Tennessee and did all but hand out hundreds with stickers of his face on them. Pruitt, who would have been defended at all costs by UT if he were winning big, was instead fired for cause in 2021. As Memphis starts a new era with Ed Scott as athletic director, Pruitt’s demise comes to mind.

Hardaway, whose contract runs through 2027-28, has been an OK coach. He’ll always be a Memphis legend. Maybe his seventh team, with a virtually all-new roster and coaching staff, could find the magic for a third NCAA bid.

But it would be better for Memphis if this is someone else’s first team, even if that means an interim someone. The Tennessee administration turned a mess into an opportunity, and it worked out pretty well for them.

(Photo: Aric Becker/ISI Photos/Getty Images)