Eric Fisher, from Central Michigan, holds up a team jersey after being selected first overall by the Kansas City Chiefs in the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday. Associated Press

Before the Thursday night start of the NFL draft, Texas A&M tackle Luke Joeckel expressed a desire to go to the Kansas City Chiefs as the first overall pick. Instead that distinction went to Central Michigan tackle Eric Fisher, who reacted as if he'd won "The Bachelorette."

"Going to Kansas City" isn't something people always sing, especially when the invitation comes from Arrowhead Stadium, the stage last year for a season that was historically ignominious, even for a team whose last playoff win came in 1994. After failing to take a lead in regulation in the first eight games of 2012—a low unequaled in professional football since 1929—the team unraveled off the field, first when an offensive tackle who had failed to protect the quarterback held a blame-deflecting news conference to blast Chiefs fans, then when a linebacker fatally shot himself in front of team officials, only moments after he'd murdered the mother of his baby.

In that tawdry light, you couldn't have blamed Joeckel or Fisher for wanting no part of the Chiefs, especially considering that the second pick would go to the Jaguars of Jacksonville, an ocean-side locale in a state with no income tax (compared with 6% in Missouri). Gratitude, after all, isn't required from a first overall pick, as Eli Manning proved by refusing to join the San Diego Chargers.

Maybe Joeckel and Fisher had watched tapes of the glory years, when two Super Bowl appearances in four years yielded a Chiefs championship. But considering that that era ended two decades before the young men were born, credit likelier goes to owner Clark Hunt, whose patience had seemed unending until—Bam!—he fired the general manager, head coach and loudmouthed offensive tackle. Suddenly, last year seems like last century. New head coach Andy Reid is experienced (career record 140–102-1), but irritable, his hunger for a championship ring unsatiated (Super Bowl record 0-1). Newly acquired quarterback Alex Smith (first overall pick in 2005) is similarly eager to prove himself: A year after leading the 49ers to the NFC West division title in 2011, Smith lost the starting job last year to the unheralded (at the time) second-year player Colin Kaepernick. Reid and Smith—and now Fisher—join a team that sent six players to this year's Pro Bowl, the same number as the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens.

So there's the pitch, delivered in a city whose attractions usually exceed modest expectations. The city is large enough to fill 80,000 seats at Arrowhead on Sunday afternoons, yet small enough to feel forever grateful to those who wow the nation in a Kansas City uniform, explaining why long-retired Len Dawson and George Brett still live there. Maybe Fisher will become a local hero. Just a long pass from Arrowhead Stadium, after all, is Kauffman Stadium, a monument—however fleeting—to the idea that anything's possible. Kauffman, of course, is home to the current American League Central leaders, the Kansas City Royals, a team that hasn't made the playoffs since 1985.

Write to Kevin Helliker at