The Sports Xchange

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Head coach Andy Reid was clear in his thoughts about preparing for the Kansas City Chiefs’ first trip to play a regular-season game Sunday in London.

Guide books and tourist tips were not necessary; this is a business trip.

“It’s not a vacation, that’s not what this is,” Reid said. “They can do that another time. I want to make sure we have maximum preparation right here and understand why we’re going there.”

Reid decided to have his team arrive Friday morning in England. That’s three days after the Lions touched down in the United Kingdom0 from Detroit.

The Chiefs will have a short practice Friday afternoon and then their normal Saturday walkthrough before Sunday’s kickoff at Wembley Stadium.

“I looked at the win-loss; it’s about 50-50 on who goes Thursday, who goes (before that),” Reid said. “Not that I don’t like England, but I just let the guys practice here, sleep in their own beds, familiarity. We’ll get ourselves over there and we’ve got it pretty well-mapped out.”

Any tours or tourist type stuff for the players, Andy?

“No, I’m not really into all of that,” Reid said.

–Generally coaches don’t want to see their offensive linemen downfield, picking up 15-yard penalties for unnecessary roughness. But Andy Reid appeared to have no problem with the penalty his left tackle, Eric Fisher, picked up last Sunday against Pittsburgh.

Fisher went after a Pittsburgh defender at the end of a seven-yard run by Charcandrick West. There appeared to be an attempt to unscrew the running back’s leg like one might a peanut butter jar.

“Listen, we don’t want the penalty, that’s not what we want, we want to stay disciplined,” Reid said. “But at the same time, the guy was twisting Charcandrick’s leg right in front of the official, so somebody has to do something about it.

“He probably could have handled it different, but at the same time, you’re going to stick up for your guys. You’re going to try to tweak the ankle of one of our guys, we better be coming to the rescue as an offensive linemen. I was proud of him for that.”

–Wide receiver Jeremy Maclin (concussion) was a full participant in the Chiefs practice on Wednesday and appears to be ready to return to the field Sunday against Detroit. Maclin passed all the NFL testing before last Sunday’s game vs. Pittsburgh, but the Chiefs training and coaching staff felt he was not quite recovered, so they held him out.

–Defensive end Mike DeVito (concussion) did not practice with the Chiefs on Wednesday as he continues to work toward passing all the league’s concussion testing. DeVito suffered the head injury in the Minnesota game and did not practice going into the Pittsburgh game last Sunday and was inactive on game day.

–Inside linebacker Ramik Wilson (knee/ankle) did not participate in the Chiefs practice on Wednesday, and head coach Andy Reid provided a bit more detail on his problems. Wilson’s right leg was rolled up on during the game in Minnesota, and although he returned to the game, he has knee and ankle injuries. Reid said the knee is “doing pretty good,” but that the injury to his lower leg is the dreaded high ankle sprain that normally has a recovery time of three to four weeks, sometimes longer.

–Left guard Ben Grubbs (neck) did not take part in the Chiefs’ practice on Wednesday because of a stiff neck. No word on if that stiffness was from last Sunday’s game or not. Head coach Andy Reid said Grubbs was having his neck “evaluated”, but he would not project how long he might be away from the field.

–Outside linebacker Tamba Hali (knee) did not take part in the Chiefs practice on Wednesday because of continuing inflammation in the knee. Hali was been dealing with this problem for several years and offseason surgery was expected to provide some relief. But in the last three weeks, Hali is getting some days off in the preparation week, but playing on Sunday.