Chiefs lend hands, hearts to Joplin

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) Players and staff from the Kansas City Chiefs are vowing to stay committed to Joplin’s recovery after spending a day helping clear debris from last month’s monster tornado. More than 130 players, coaches and front-office personnel traveled in buses Thursday to Joplin, where they put on dust masks and work gloves before hauling rubble to the street in one devastated neighborhood. Later in the day they signed autographs and posed for pictures with hundreds of Chiefs fans in a church parking lot. General manager Scott Pioli says there was dead silence on one bus when the Chiefs got their first glimpse of the destruction. Pioli says the Hunt family, which owns the team, has made clear the Chiefs will remain involved with Joplin for months and possibly years to come.