&#8220;Sports is not news!&#8221; read the subject line of an e-mail I received from a reader in mid-January, reacting to <em>The Kansas City Star&#8217;s </em>Page A-1 coverage of new Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli. That got my attention.</p><p>&#8220;Two days in a row of the new Chiefs&#8217; GM on both the front page of the main section and the front page of the Sports section?&#8221; asked the reader. &#8220;Unless the Chiefs win the Super Bowl or the Royals win the World Series, there should not be a sports story on the front page of the paper. I understand the deep love for the Chiefs in this town, but again that should be relegated to the Sports section and does not deserve front-page coverage. &#8230; Please keep sports news in its proper section and leave the front page to more pressing issues, of which there are many.&#8221;</p><p>This is a sentiment I&#8217;ve heard many times over the years, and with even more frequency over the past few weeks. After a disastrous season, the Chiefs underwent a massive management shakeup, and that news has made it to the front page of <em>The Star </em>in 10 separate stories and columns so far.</p><p>After the Feb. 6 story about Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley being hired as the team&#8217;s new coach, one caller summed it up fairly emotionally: &#8220;I just want to say, &#8216;Stop it!&#8217; I don&#8217;t care about football, and I don&#8217;t care about who&#8217;s in charge of the Chiefs. I want news, not sports, in my paper.&#8221;</p><p>It goes without saying that a lot of people don&#8217;t follow sports. (I&#8217;m one of them.) Of course I understand that many readers sense Chiefs overkill on too many covers, and not just over the past few weeks.</p><p>Part of this is one of daily newspapers&#8217; great contradictions: They try to be all things to all people, but instead usually end up as a lot of things to many, but not enough to some. I hear all the time from readers who tell me they get <em>The Star </em>for one section alone.</p><p>For some it&#8217;s the national and international news or the Local section, while others turn straight to the comics, and many just want Sports Daily. Page A-1, with its mix of subject matter from throughout the paper, is a rich target for criticism of its subject choice.</p><p>One important devil&#8217;s advocate point, though, about sports or any other aspect of the entertainment industry: I know a lot of readers consider any coverage of movies, TV or football too fluffy for the news sections, but I think it&#8217;s important to remember that these are immense business concerns, regardless of how trivial some people find their products.</p><p>Sprint or DST Systems Inc. have a greater impact on the Kansas City economy than the Chiefs, but you don&#8217;t see thousands of people wearing jackets emblazoned with those companies&#8217; logos.</p><p>In the case of Haley, the biggest local sports franchise has hired someone who just coached in one of the most-watched Super Bowls in history. To me, that&#8217;s news.