KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs are acquiring three-time All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins from the Tennessee Titans, replenishing a position group that has been ravaged by injuries, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the teams have not announced the trade.
The Chiefs are sending a conditional fifth-round pick to the Titans, according to NFL Network, while Tennessee is taking on some of Hopkins' salary.
The Chiefs lost wide receiver Marquise Brown, one of their top free-agent signings, to shoulder surgery prior to the start of the season. Second-year star Rashee Rice sustained a season-ending knee injury last month against the Chargers, and veteran wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster is out after hurting his hamstring in last Sunday's win over the 49ers.
Hopkins is the third high-profile wide receiver to be traded in just over a week.
Davante Adams was the first to move last Tuesday, going from the Raiders to the Jets for a conditional third-round draft pick next year and reuniting with Aaron Rodgers, his old quarterback in Green Bay. Hours later, the Bills acquired Amari Cooper and a sixth-round pick next year from the Browns for a third-round pick along with a seventh-rounder in 2026.
The 32-year-old Hopkins only had 15 catches for 173 yards and a touchdown in his second season in Tennessee. But Hopkins is a proven star — 943 catches for 12,528 yards and 79 TDs over a career spent mostly in Arizona and Houston — and has a versatile skill set that should fit well into Chiefs coach Andy Reid's complex offensive system.
Hopkins is also on an expiring contract, which means the cash-strapped Chiefs will not assume any salary beyond this season. That was crucial to any trade they made given the number of pending free agents they have on the roster.
The Chiefs will try to present Hopkins with enough of the playbook that he can help out as soon as Sunday against the Raiders in Las Vegas. But it could take several weeks before he is familiar enough with it to make a genuine impact.
That's not a problem for the Chiefs, though. The only unbeaten team left in the NFL at 6-0, they are eying a much bigger prize: Mahomes and Co. are trying to win an unprecedented third straight Lombardi Trophy come February.
The Chiefs won their second straight Super Bowl by beating the 49ers last February, despite a wide receiver corps that was among the NFL's worst. And while Chiefs general manager Brett Veach tried to solve the problem by signing Brown and drafting Xavier Worthy in the first round, their injury situation this season had left them in a familiar predicament.
The Chiefs still have productive tight ends Travis Kelce and Noah Gray, but they were preparing to play this week with Worthy alongside journeyman Justin Watson, Mecole Hardman and disappointing former second round pick Skyy Moore.
Hopkins provides a massive upgrade to that group for a team that has championship expectations.
Maaddi reported from Clearwater, Florida.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid speaks at a news conference after an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
Tennessee Titans' DeAndre Hopkins (10) makes a catch against Indianapolis Colts' Jaylon Jones (40) during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/John Amis)
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — When curators at the National Toy Hall of Fame learned last fall that the Fisher-Price Corn Popper had been voted in as part of the class of 2023, they knew they had some serious work to do.
With a formal induction ceremony approaching, they would have to figure out how to showcase the beloved toddler push toy with colorful balls that ricochet around a clear dome.
It isn’t as simple as going to Walmart and pulling one off the shelves: The hall, part of the The Strong National Museum of Play in upstate New York, aims to show how its toys have endured and evolved over the years — pieces go from wood to plastic, electronics are added.
That means digging through archives, auctions, the internet and garage sales to hunt for an original, or one close to it — a process repeated with each new hall of fame inductee.
“We want some recognizable things currently on the market, but we also want people to say, ‘Oh, I had one of those!’” said Christopher Bensch, chief curator at the Strong museum, which is a larger-than-life interactive toybox for kids and adults.
For example, when the jigsaw puzzle was inducted in 2002, they added one of the world’s first versions, a map of Europe pasted onto a thin mahogany board from 1766, alongside a child’s Donald Duck board puzzle from 1990. Not all of the toys inducted into the hall are specific products, either — 2021's inductee was simply “sand.”
In the case of the Corn Popper, the curators needed to find something recognizable to generations. The toy has been around since 1957 and more than 36 million have been sold, according to Fisher-Price. Nearly 650,000 visitors would arrive over the next year to view it and the hall of fame’s other vaunted toys.
After being voted in by experts and fans, many hall of fame toys are pulled for permanent display from the museum’s vast archives.
The honorees are usually so iconic — the Barbie doll, the teddy bear, checkers — that the odds are good there will be multiples among the half-million or so objects already in the ever-expanding collection.
But staff is always on the lookout for playthings worth saving — keeping an eye on eBay and garage and estate sales, especially if a toy is already in, or seems bound for, the hall of fame.
With new toys on the market all the time, curators can only guess what might be the next Etch A Sketch, a mechanical drawing toy that's still popular and virtually unchanged after 100 years, and which toys will fizzle.
“We want to be the repository for them, for the nation or the world," Bensch said. “That’s why we have 1,500 yo-yos in our collection, or 8,000 jigsaw puzzles,” he said, naming two past inductees.
Some of the stored board games, stuffed animals, doll houses and other molded, cast and carved reminders of childhood have been donated by manufacturers. Others come from private collectors following a death, divorce or move. A parent recently donated a collection of 1,600 American Girl dolls and accessories after their child outgrew them.
Some items are pursued at auction, the way a fine art museum might acquire a masterpiece. That's how The Strong landed one of its most prized possessions, an original Monopoly set, hand-painted on oil cloth in 1933 by inventor Charles Darrow before the game went into mass production. With Monopoly in the hall of fame since 1998, the winning $146,500 bid at Sotheby's in 2010 was over budget — but worth it.
“We’re the National Museum of Play. If we were the Henry Ford Museum and we didn’t have the first Model T, we would kick ourselves ever after,” Bensch said.
Babies have been toddling behind Fisher-Price Corn Poppers for more than 60 years, but finding a “historic” one in pristine, museum-display condition proved challenging.
“Those are toys that get used pretty hard,” Bensch said, “especially early versions with that plastic dome and the wooden balls hitting against it. Those did not survive in great condition.”
What eventually went on display were two versions. One is a 1980 model purchased on eBay from a woman in Canada, who likely has no idea her castaway — its wear and tear evident in its dinged-up and slightly cloudy dome — is now a museum piece. The other is a shiny new version that is still on store shelves for about $12, with a sleeker blue handle and beefier red wheels that reflect slight design changes over the years.
“It was hard to find a photogenic one that went back more than a few decades,” Bensch said. “I’m not sure we eventually got one that was as old as we wished for, just because they had been so well loved.”
Each year, a new class of toys makes it into the hall of fame, the culmination of an annual process that invites anyone to nominate their favorite toy online.
Museum staff culls the nominees to 12 finalists before a panel of experts votes in the winners. Eighty-four toys have earned the honor since the hall opened in 1998.
Nominees can be as lasting as steel erector set creations, inducted in 1998, or as fleeting as bubbles blown through a plastic wand, honored in 2014.
Many inductees are a reminder that the true value of a toy isn’t necessarily in the price, but the play. In 2008, an ordinary stick from a tree — but a no-cost sword or magic wand to a child — was inducted into the hall, but Flexible Flyer sleds and the Rubik’s Cube did not make the cut that year. The Easy-Bake Oven was bypassed in 2005 — by the cardboard box it might have shipped in.
The museum received 2,400 nominations for 382 different toys for the class of 2024.
This year’s 12 finalists include Apples to Apples, balloons and the trampoline. Also: “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, Hess Toy Trucks, remote-controlled vehicles, the stick horse, Phase 10, Sequence and the Pokémon Trading Card Game, and two perennial nominees, My Little Pony figures — a seven-time finalist — and Transformers action figures.
From them, a chosen few will be announced and honored in November, and the curators will begin their hunt all over again
Large scrabble letters line the outdoor Hasbro Game Park at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Oliver Jin of Toronto walks through the outdoor Hasbro Game Park at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Christopher Bensch, chief curator at The Strong National Museum of Play, stands among shelves of toys and games in a storage area below the museum, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Elliot Drury, exhibits fabricator and designer at The Strong National Museum of Play, works on a new exhibit, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Katie and Henry Liggett play with an interactive game while visiting The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Travis Skadberg watches as Jacob, 6, plays a giant game of Donkey Kong at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Visitors walk through the Toy Hall of Fame inside The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Christopher Bensch, chief curator at The Strong National Museum of Play, closes a storage locker of porcelain dolls Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
A visitor takes a picture of an original Monopoly set on display at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Jesse and Lydia Xu of Toronto play a game of Jenga with their kids Casper, 9, and Lydia, 8, at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Visitors walk through the Toy Hall of Fame inside The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
One of the world's first jigsaw puzzles from 1766 is displayed in the Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Suellen Sues puts together a Potato Head with her granddaughter, Isla, 2, while visiting The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
A visitor walks through the outdoor Hasbro Game Park at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Ryan, 4, and Camryn Nielander, 2, shop at a play grocery store at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Twins Josh and Zach Alli, 6, of Toronto play racing games at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Rita Wilks plays a game of Bingo with her grandson, Oliver, 2, while visiting The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Christopher Bensch, chief curator at The Strong National Museum of Play, holds one of the games that is a finalist for the 2024 Toy Hall of Fame, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
The Fisher-Price Corn Popper toys on displays in the Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Christopher Bensch, chief curator at The Strong National Museum of Play, holds one of the toys that is a finalist for the 2024 Toy Hall of Fame, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
The Toy Hall of Fame inside The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Christopher Bensch, chief curator at The Strong National Museum of Play, takes out toys and games that are finalists for the 2024 Hall of Fame, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
A display of baseball cards inside of the Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Large scrabble letters line the outdoor Hasbro Game Park at The Strong National Museum of Play, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Rochester, N.Y. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
