Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe claimed Thursday that he was misquoted in an ESPN the Magazine story about teammates arranging for women to travel to San Diego during his rookie season.
However, ESPN the Magazine editor Gary Belsky told Kansas City blog "The Pitch" that he has a tape of Bowe telling one of his writers the story. Belsky also said he offered to play the tape for Bowe or anyone in the Chiefs' organization who wants to hear it.
Calling it "importing," Bowe was quoted as saying the women were flown in three or four days in advance and took up the entire floor of the hotel where the Chiefs stayed in 2007. He said the women knew just about everything about the players.
But after practice Thursday, Bowe claimed he didn't actually say such a thing. He also said he didn't exactly remember if he was interviewed or made the statements in an e-mail.
"I'm going to say it one time and one time only: I apologize to the organization, the team, those guys who I put in a bind," Bowe said, according to *The Kansas City Star*. "My words was misunderstood and baseless and were said without malice. Everybody who knows Dwayne Bowe knows my personality, knows I'm a jokester, knows I like to have fun and stuff like that. Now, it taught me I got to take things serious and think before you talk because words can get you in trouble.
"I'm all about football now. That's over. That chapter is closed. I'm doing great in football right now, and that's all I'm looking forward to."
Reporters repeatedly asked Bowe about being misquoted, and he insisted that was the case. Bowe also said he wouldn't go after the magazine because "it's just going to open up another can."
"I just figured let it die down and squash it here and say I'm embarrassed that it got out, that it was misquoted, misunderstood and just go forward," Bowe said.
Bowe claimed his teammates weren't upset with him -- "the guys embrace me," he said -- and that coach Todd Haley told him to "get yourself out (and) do the right thing."
Haley said Monday that he considered the Bowe story "an internal matter."
"Dwayne and I did have a long conversation, and from this point on, we'll leave it that, that it was discussed, handled internally and we're moving forward," Haley said. "We're worried about making progress as a team as we go forward, and that's what's really important to me now."
Bowe already has been in Haley's doghouse several times.
Last year, Bowe showed up to offseason workouts out of shape -- a big no-no for Haley -- was benched for part of the preseason for lack of focus, continued to drop passes during the season, then was suspended four games for violating the NFL's ban on performance-enhancing substances.
Even before Bowe's latest incident, Haley called this a decisive year for the former first-round draft pick, who had just 589 receiving yards and four touchdowns last season after what seemed to be a breakout 2008 campaign (86 catches for 1,022 yards and seven TDs).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
