Chiefs Owner Clark Hunt Talks Scott Pioli, Todd Haley

Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt made the media rounds on Radio Row in South Florida last week. During a spot with Mr. Soren Petro and The Program on 810 WHB, he talked about GM Scott Pioli and head coach Todd Haley.

(Note: Petro and Co. had a nice week of coverage from South Florida, which you can listen to here. Every time I tried to go up and say hello, there was a Joe Montana or a Len Dawson sitting there.)

With Pioli, he said things have been great thus far and he is confident he made the right decision to hire him. As for Haley, he talked about his decision to tone down the "passionate" sideline behavior and and his use of four-letter words.

Quotes from Hunt on both men are after the jump.

Chiefs GM Scott Pioli

On the first year:

The reality has been better than the interview process. I think like anybody who enters into a relationship, when you date you find out a little bit about someone but when you get married you really get to know each other well. Scott is a fantastic human being, tremendous integrity and he's everything I expected out of him in terms of being a leader.

On drafting:

The number one factor in our decision to bring him here was his ability on the personnel side. I haven't been disappointed at all and I think he'll be successful in building a Chiefs team not just in the short term but in the long term.

On the 2009 draft:

I think he did a great job. Clearly last year he didn't have the preparation that he'll have for this draft class. We also didn't have a second round pick having made the trade like you mentioned. However, I think we got a good player in Tyson Jackson who will develop into a solid, if not outstanding defensive linemen. Then you look down the draft and lok for the hidden gems and this year that's Ryan Succop. He did such a good job as a rookie kicker this year.

***

Head coach Todd Haley

On releasing Chan Gailey:

I think the transition for anyone who has not been a head coach is a very big one, particularly in the NFL.Todd chose to put a lot of weight on his shoulders and when he made the decision to release Chan and be the offensive coordinator, we talked about that quite a bit.

He, I and Scott talked about it a lot. He was very upfront and said 'I know I'm putting a lot of responsibility on my shoulders and if it doesn't go well, I know it's going to be on me, but I'm willing to do it and I want to do it because it will put us ahead in 2011 and 2012 if we go ahead and make this transition to get this offense playing the system and blocking schemes I want to run instead of someone else who wants to run.

On "passionate" sideline behavior:

Todd has tremendous passion for what he's doing. And sometimes he wears it on his sleeve. Comign in, I think Todd was up front with us and explained that he was a passionate and fiery guy and he wasn't going to change who he was just because he was a head coach.

I think over the year, he learned when to use and when not to use that fiery personality, which can be used to his benefit.

On four-letter words:

Certainly I'm sensitive to our fans who have issues with four letter words. And Todd understands that, he has a beautful family, a young family, and he understands about having kids hear and see things on TV he wouldn't want his kids to hear as well.