It's baaaack! AP's long overdue comeback of the Where Are They Now? series is back for the 2008 off-season. I managed five or six of these last year and I can already tell this year it's going to be much tougher to find interesting stories. Without further adieu...

Back in the mid-1990s, my school class has some sort of fundraiser/drawing where a lucky student won lunch with a Chiefs player. I don't remember the exact set up or circumstances of the contest but it turns out my friend Gabe won the contest and subsequently lunch with a Chiefs player. But not just any Chiefs player -- Dale Carter. To be fair, Carter had only been in the league for a year or two and a first round pick is a first round pick.

The first lunch date came and went. "Hey Gabe, weren't you supposed to be at lunch with Dale Carter today?" Gabe said, "He canceled."

A couple of weeks went by and Gabe had another lunch date set up with Dale Carter. But again, when it came time to sit down at "our" lunch table, there was Gabe. "Dale Carter canceled again."

Obviously, Dale Carter wasn't cutting it. He had better things to do or other substances to abuse. The Chiefs, being the class organization that they are, didn't give up. Within a couple of weeks, Gabe had his lunch date with a Chiefs player.

With Joe Valerio.

Now, in hindsight, to go from Dale Carter to Joe Valerio is like going from the club to church. But from then on, Joe Valerio was a hero to us all for having lunch with our good friend Gabe. Well, not really, but it was still pretty cool to see a Chiefs player in our cafeteria.

Not every NFL player becomes an analyst or starts their own clothing company. Some, like our very own Joe Valerio, didn't get paid a nest egg in signing bonuses. Therefore, he has to work like us regular joes.

Fast forward to 2008. Joe Valerio, after amassing four catches for four touchdowns in his five-year career as an NFL offensive lineman, is now working in an insurance office. At Wells Fargo, Valerio is "responsible for the overall growth, leadership and implementation of Wells Fargo’s strategic goals and objectives for the Philadelphia area." Joe even has his own Linked In page, emphasizing his distance from the field.

Joe hasn't completely left the football world though. Joe still emphasizes his NFL life through his company Gridirion Concepts that promotes Joe as a motivational speaker. I'm impressed that Valerio, in a time when retired NFL players are demanding more compensation from the league, is still getting a regular paycheck through his own hard work outside of the NFL.

When I think of Joe Valerio, I think of Joe Montana and those dominant Chiefs years when I was most proud to be a Chiefs fan. The days of the SI covers predicting a Chiefs Super Bowl. That seems so far away now, doesn't it?

Since we've been talking about what the Chiefs should do in the draft, I figured it was only appropriate that we follow up on one of the biggest, if not the biggest, Chiefs draft bust of all time- offensive tackle Trezelle Jenkins. Drafted 31st overall by the Chiefs in 1995, Jenkins only played 9 games in 3 seasons for the Chiefs, before going on to become an even bigger bust with the Saints and Vikings. Jenkins was even drafted by the San Francisco Demons in the XFL draft but was apparently too into his next venture to make the team.

Today, Trezelle Jenkins and his wife own a Harold's Chicken Shack franchise outside of Detroit. And I'm pretty sure he is in the University of Detroit Mercy Business Admin program. At least I hope that picture is of him.

Trezelle Jenkins related links:

Fox Sports Best and Worst First Round Picks

What will an autographed Trezelle Jenkins rookie card run you on eBay? $1.86.

Basically this guy was one of the worst draft picks of all time. Nothing else to say.

(Photo source)

Dave Krieg was the Chiefs QB in '92 and '93, helping us win the 1993 division title. Sandwiched between Steve Deberg and Joe Montana, Dave Krieg can easily be forgotten unless you remembered he is in the top 15 of most passing categories in NFL history.

Unbeknownst to me, Dave Krieg has quite the following. There is even a Dave Krieg memories page on Dave Krieg Rules. Here's a sample:

Classic Dave Krieg? Okay lets move on. Today, it seems like Dave Krieg is doing what most retired NFL players who don't make it onto television do- use their celebrity status to get paid for motivational speaking events and public appearances. All this and more at DaveKrieg.org. From the info I've been able to gather today, it seems like Dave Krieg is a real stand up guy, just like the type of guy described in the above story.  The more I searched the interweb the more pages I find dedicated to just talking about the times people have met Dave Krieg and what a nice guy he is. There are rabid Dave Krieg Seattle fans out there. Google at your own risk.

You never cease to amaze us Louie. (Photo source here)

Has there been a bigger badass to play the position of punter? Louie Aguiar only had one punt blocked his entire career and my memories are filled with him drilling would be touchdown returners. I'm sure we are well familiar with his bout with testicular cancer. Today, Aguiar is busy running the Aguiar Kicking Academy, which he bills as a "instructional camp/combine". His camp sounds pretty cool.

The other cool thing about his website is that it appears at least that Aguiar writes a lot of the content himself. I'm fully aware that it is a common occurrence for somebody else to write stuff and then attach somebody's else's name to it but I just get that feeling that Louie sits in front of his computer and churns out this content.

Also, Louie seems to be doing pretty well with the ladies, considering he married a woman who was not only Miss Teen Illinois in 1990 but Miss Missouri in 1999 as well. Currently, Aguiar is the special teams coach of the Waterloo Bulldogs, an Illinois high school that barely has a functioning website. Overall, it seems that Louie is doing pretty damn well for himself. Congrats to him and I'm sure he's happy that Dustin Colquitt has taken over his reign.

From the NFL to...Mid America Nazarene? (Photo source here)

Kimble Anders, who played for the Chiefs from 1991 to 2000, earned three trips to the Pro Bowl during his tenure. Anders was a pretty quiet and as far as I can tell a private guy so it was encouraging to find out what he is up to today. Anders is the running backs coach for the Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, KS. Anders couldn't even get his own email address and has to settle for athletics@manc.edu. He has to share it with the QB coach, Jonathan Quinn. What a crappy deal.

Kind of creepy this is about the only photo on the web of him. (Photo source here)

[editor's note, by Chris] Since the off season is upon us and we'll need many a topic to carry us through it, I decided to start a new feature on AP where we highlight a forgotten, old or just plain random Chief player to see where they are now. This process will consist of me (or anybody else that wants to) simply googling a player that comes to mind and see what comes up. Enjoy.

Today's player is JJ Birden. Birden was a WR for the Chiefs from 1990-1994 and while he had some fantastic catches if I recall correctly, he was certainly never a #1 WR. We get this from Wikipedia:

Two sons named LJ and Dante? You have to be kidding me. Is this a crazy coincidence or is JJ still that crazy for the Chiefs?

It also looks like Birden owns a fitness company:

So, to sum up the first "Where are they now?", JJ Birden lives in Oregon and owns a fitness company with another NFL player. Boring I know but trust me, they'll get better.