From The Mouth of Todd 10/26
From the Truman Sports Complex
Boy, the room was pretty crowded Monday afternoon for Todd Haley’s weekly meeting with the media.
Lots of mini-cams, lots of sports talk types, lots of scribblers. We don’t normally see this kind of crowd for a 1-6 football team.
But then these Chiefs like to do things differently. Larry Johnson’s Twitter blast at Haley’s credentials to be a head coach was on everybody’s mind. So too, apparently were homophobic comments and tweets that have now been removed from Johnson’s Twitter.com account.
Haley had little to say about the situation, commenting only that the organization was looking into the situation. As much as the media tried, Johnson would not budge from his stance. The head coach handled himself very well in this situation, maybe better than he did in the first quarter of Sunday’s game when he called for a fourth-and-one play at his own 41-yard line.
This meeting with the media lasted 28 minutes, the longest of the season to date.
Here are the highlights:
On his background of getting into coaching without playing college or pro football.
I’m very proud of the route that I took to get to where I am right now. I’m very proud to grow up around one of the best football people there are, and to be around the team and players that I was around on a daily basis. I think that has given me great insight as I’ve progressed in the coaching field to know what good and great is supposed to look like.
“I think I’m here for a reason. I think I’ve earned what I’ve done in the NFL through hard work, through execution and results. I’m here to coach. I’m not here to play. That’s the bottom line.”
Would he be offended if someone questioned his coaching ability because of his background?
“Never. I would never be offended.”
On whether the Chiefs are making progress.
“The results don’t show it, but I believe we are making progress … we obviously have a long way to go, but I’m encouraged with the direction the team is going when in week six or seven you can have your best week of practice. That’s usually in my experiences as a coach is a good sign.
“I’m not trying to sound like an idiot. We are 1-6, you are what you are. But at the same time I think there’s been progress made. There are more and more guys that are starting to get it and understand and it will only help us as we go forward.”
On whether he’s happy with the timing of the bye week coming his week.
“I was looking forward to the bye. The circumstances we are in as a team, most specifically offensively, we need the time. We need time without having to game plan or get ready for an opponent. We need to work on us.”
On whether the Chiefs inability to transfer a good practice week to the field of play on Sunday is a sign that this group of players has not yet become a team.
“That’s a sign that this is a process. I knew coming into this that there were a bunch of broke players, broke parts of the team that had to get fixed one way or another. That’s why this job was open. That’s I’ve gotten this phenomenal opportunity that I relish every day. A big part of my job is to try to fix it and that’s what I intend to do.”
Is he happy with the play calling he sees on the tape from Sunday’s game?
“No. Any time we lose I’m not happy with the play calling. I’m just like anybody else. There’s always things that you feel you could have done to be better. It’s something I have to learn from and understand the players that we have. As a coach and as a play caller, you have to understand what your players’ strengths are and what abilities they have and how you can best put those to use. If we lose the way we did yesterday … I’m very disappointed with my performance.”
Haley’s response to whether the Chiefs are making progress is flat scary, sort of fitting for Halloween. Does anyone out there believe that coachspeak??.
At least he was kind enough to wear a KC Chief’s hat, really sick of this love affair with the Dallas’ Chiefs, the sainted memory of Lamar not withstanding.
Yup,
LJ did/is doing Haley a great service. This is the first week where Haley’s game management could, and was legitimately being called into question. He even went where No Coach should ever go, by seemingly defering blame that fiasco at the end of the half on some unnamed entity.Unless that unnamed person was Hunt or Pioli, that crap doesn’t wash Coach! That was disappointing and embarrassing to me.
BUT, being the consummate TEAM guy, LJ bailed him out.
LJ, is just being misunderstood, his actions were calculated. He felt sympathy for his Head Coach and was only trying to ummm distract the fans and media. Yeah that’s it!
Yea , Larry’s a good team guy !
Another thing , I don’t like it when someone called him fall down Larry .
Those big old lineman just trip him all the time .
Not nice .
“As a coach and as a play caller, you have to understand what your players’ strengths are and what abilities they have and how you can best put those to use.”
translation: The team sucks. I should know better not to trust these morons to pick up 1yrd on 4th down.
Haley is certainly a cool cat. I keep expecting him to go off on a reporter after all of these losses. Give him that, he is cool under scrutiny.
I don’t bash him much for saying they are making progress. I don’t see them at practice everyday, he does. Just need to translate it to Sundays. We did get a bye in the right place. Everyone could use a week to just get caught up on their assignments. Hopefully they will.
LJ should be gone by the end of the week, just hope he doesn’t fall down on the way out of the building.
Haley and LJ are getting all of the attention and all of the heat right now and they definitely deserve some of it. However, the blame for this season falls on Clark Hunt and/or Scott Pioli. Whether it be Pioli’s lack of aggressiveness on the free agent market or Hunt handcuffing him to save some cash while the renovations are under way, Haley and the rest of the staff were simply not given enough talent to work with. I am an eternal optimist when it comes to this franchise and at the beginning of the year, I predicted 6-10. As if that were some great thing to be!
So far as I can tell, Pioli has gotten us these impact players that will hopefully work out in the long term.
QB Matt Cassel (who is getting beaten to death)
DE Tyson Jackson (who has been invisible)
K Ryan Succop (who finally looked human)
Then of course there’s the traditional Pioli stopgap players like Wade, Engram, Ryan, Pope, Ndukwe, Alleman, O’Callaghan, Vrabel, Mays, Richardson, and Brown. All of whom are short term solutions more than likely. I’m never an advocate of over spending in free agency, but the Broncos went out and signed a load of players because they knew their roster needed a lot of help. I don’t recall any of their acquisitions getting stupid-big money. Just a bunch of solid signings. Pioli tried to do the same only cheaper and the results are bad.
Haley needs more to work with and I REALLY hope they give it to him next year. You get what you pay for Clark!
I completely agree Colby. When Haley goes for the 4th downs and onside kicks he thinks he still has the talented players of old. The blame for the Chiefs woes should start from the top down. I think Haley will learn from his mistakes, likewise for Cassel.
However, I hope Larry Johanson gets punnished for his. I got the opportunity to watch a game from the sidelines two years ago. I chatted with a security guard for about 45 minutes before the game. He said that L-gay’s teamates can’t stand him. I say let him go coach somewhere so he can show Haley what a player can do in that regard. His comments reminded me of a grade school argument….my dad is better than your dad. Go design some jeans and leave the football to those that like to pound on the other team and not the ladies.
Easy guys, Bob is a big supporter & fan of LJ’s.
As far I see it, LJ should have been gone years ago like stated above “it should have been LJ traded not Jared Allen”.
I don’t see how Hunt, Pioli or Haley can put LJ back on the field after this, besides he doesn’t deserve the Chiefs alltime leading rusher title.
Go (Kolby/Charles) Chiefs!!!
Launch LJ into the next plane out of town and get Kolby Smith back in the game!! i saw my very 1st game last yr and it was the game when Kolby went out with the knee injury, and I am rooting for him to come back strong!
Also, they should keep those old uniforms, they look sharp, minus the helmet logo.
JP says
“When Haley goes for the 4th downs and onside kicks he thinks he still has the talented players of old.”
Possibly, or he takes chances because he knows that his team isn’t good enough to win straight up so they have to do some unconventional things to get the upper hand.
It’s funny. When a coach of a bad team “goes by the book” he’s criticized for not taking risks. And when a coach of a bad team doesn’t go by the book, he’s criticized for taking too many risks.
Bottom line is the team isn’t very good, and is short on talent.
reference the Colby posting. Excellent overview and well stated. That’s one thing.
The other has to do with the Hunt family fortune, how liquid that money is for Clark Hunt to access and what kind of oversight is in place before it’s spent. Answers to those questions would be compellingly interesting, to say the least.
I saw this report on CBSsports. “Pollard has made 19 tackles in three starts and become a key piece of Houston’s improving defense.” Still makes me wonder what the H*ll they saw in Brown to be starting, He’s no Dawkins…