| The Chiefs will not postpone their Week 13 meeting with the Panthers. (US Presswire) |
Hours after linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend and then took his own life, the Chiefs decided to move forward with Sunday's home game against the Panthers.
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| Mike Freeman Agree or not, Chiefs and Panthers will play on |
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The team released this statement Saturday afternoon: “After discussions between the league office, Head Coach Romeo Crennel and Chiefs team captains, the Chiefs advised the NFL that it will play tomorrow’s game vs. the Carolina Panthers at its originally scheduled time."
Earlier Saturday, the Charlotte Observer reported that the league had advised the Panthers to travel as planned in preparation for the scheduled 1 p.m. ET kickoff.
CBSSports.com's Mike Freeman reported that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLAPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith spoke at length about whether the Chiefs should play Sunday. The union had extensive talks with the Chiefs' union reps and the general sentiment was the the game should go on as scheduled.
"A source close to the situation said that the prevailing notion among those players was that football would be a cure to the pain, not a distraction," Freeman wrote late Saturday afternoon.
Before the team officially announced the decision to play, Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan quoted Kansas City mayor Sly James as saying the Chiefs "think there should be a game tomorrow."
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