Reification: making something real, bringing it into being, or making something concrete

It is common when browsing ESPN.com or ProFootballTalk.com to find stories that seem to appear out of nowhere.  Bill Williamson, the AFC West blogger for ESPN printed such a story on April 4th.  The title of his article was AFC West Draft: Beyond the First Round.  The article does not appear to sight any other sources and gives the appearance that Mr. Williamson is connected with the teams and received information not available to the public.  This type of article reifies the names of listed players in the mind of a casual fan and it influences the mind of the casual fan by supplying a  certain cache to a specific name without performing any actual player evaluation that might put the writers reputation in jeopardy.  In reality, Mr. Williamson simply took a list from ProFootballTalk.com and inserted those players listed as visiting KC for private workouts into his story without revealing where his work originated. 

Here is the complete list of players scheduled to perform workouts for KC as of March 29, 2012. 

Name	Pos	School	Projected
Michael Brockers	DL	LSU	1st
Kirk Cousins	QB	Michigan St.	2
Juron Criner	WR	Arizona	3 or 4
Bruce Irvin	OLB	West Virginia	3 to 5
AJ Jenkins	WR	Illinois	3 to 5
Trumaine Johnson	CB	Montana	2
Drew Novak	DT	Western Michigan	5 to 7
Brock Osweiler	QB	Arizona St.	2 or 3
Mitchell Schwartz	OT	California	3 or 4
Ryan Tannehill	QB	Texas A&M	1
Brandon Taylor	S	LSU	4 or 5

I haven't been able to locate a list of players the Chiefs brought in for private workouts prior to the 2011 draft in order to figure out to compare that list to the list of players they actually drafted.  I hope this list is not reflective of the direction the team is planning on heading in the draft.  The only players on the list worthy of a 1st round pick are Brockers, Tannehill, and maybe Trumaine Johnson.  Do KC fans really want another underachieving LSU defensive end in the 1st round?  At least Dorsey was a beast in college; Brockers was mediocre at best for a majority of his college career.  Johnson could be had 10-15 slots lower and Tannehill will most likely be gone by the time the Chiefs pick at number 11.  Even more curious is the number of middle round grade receivers the team is taking a look at while there is no mention of a single running back as of yet.

I will try to keep this list updated up to the draft at the end of the month, and it will be easier to reference in future seasons because I will know where to find it for comparison sake.