One of the most surprising moments of a pretty eventful Chiefs off-season was the night-before-training-camp announcement that Priest Holmes would be showing up at camp and attempting a comeback.

For 3 years, there wasn’t a running back in Kansas City who has ever been more beloved than Priest Holmes. He ran hard, broke tackles and scored a record 27 touchdowns in 2003. Everyone love Priest Holmes, particularly his coach, Dick Vermeil, who seemed to get choked up every time his name was even mentioned.

Just under 2 years ago, Holmes was sidelined in a game against the San Diego Chargers when he was tackled in the backfield by roid-head Shawne Merriman (P.S. Note to Nike…couldn’t you choose someone classier than this “lights out” clown?). Holmes went down with a neck injury and there was pretty universal speculation that Holmes would never play football again.

So when he returned this season, it was a pretty big surprise. Now, granted, he didn’t show up in “football shape”, but he showed up, which is more than can be said for the Chiefs starting running back, Larry Johnson. Holmes came to camp, started working out by himself, and tried to get healthy enough to be taken off of the Physically-Unable-to-Perform (PUP) List so he could start practicing with his teammates. We know all this because we have HBO’s Hard Knocks to tell us what was happening in River Falls on a day-to-day basis.

What we don’t know is where was Priest Holmes for the previous 22 months?

I was checking ESPN.com this afternoon – trying to take a break from looking at dump trucks – and I saw this article that was written by Elizabeth Merrill. I was drawn to it for a couple of reasons besides the obvious one (it was about the Chiefs) – it was featured in the premium space of ESPN.com’s front page and when I clicked it, it took me almost completely out of the ESPN site altogether and the whole article was set on a foreboding black background.

It’s an interesting article and it certainly starts to wipe some of the dust off of the mystery of Priest’s disappearance and sudden comeback attempt, but what the article proves more than anything is that it is still possible to keep the public out of your life. Very few people are certain as to what Priest has been up to for the past couple years. And they aren’t really talking.