Gotta love the NFL. It's such an incestuous, cronyism filled league.
The Chiefs hired seven coaches yesterday and all of them have a connection to either Kansas City Chiefs GM Scott Pioli, head coach Todd Haley or Bill Parcells. Or sometimes a couple of them.
We'll have more detailed info on every one of these guys tomorrow.
Steve Hoffman (Parcells)
Likely the Chiefs special teams coach, Hoffman was the special teams coach for the Dallas Cowboys from 1988 to 2004. He coached under Cowboys head coach Bill Parcells, who was with Dallas from 2003 to 2006.
Hoffman was also an assistant special teams coach with the Dolphins last year, which was Bill Parcells first year as Miami's VP of Football Operations.
Dedric Ward (Haley, Parcells and Pioli)
The obvious connection to Haley is that they were both coaches on the Cardinals staff last season. However, their relationship goes a little deeper. Back in 1997, Ward was a 3rd round pick out of Northern Iowa. The team who selected him? The New York Jets. Haley's employer in 1997? The New York Jets. 1997 was Haley's first season as a wide receivers coach and Ward was the first wide receiver the team selected that year. (Taken from Primetime's post )
Ward played under Parcells in both New York (1997-2000) and Dallas (2003). He also played for New England in 2003 while Scott Pioli was the Director of Player Personnel.
Pat Perles (Haley)
Perles and Todd Haley grew up together in Pittsburgh. Perles' dad George was a long time defensive line/assistant head coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers while Todd Haley's father, Dick, was the team's personnel director.
Clancy Pendergast (Haley)
This is an easy one. Pendergast was the Arizona Cardinal's defensive coordinator while Todd Haley was the OC.
Bill Muir (Pioli and Haley)
Muir was the New York Jets offensive line coach from 1995 to 2001 while Scott Pioli was the Director of Pro Personnel (1997-2000). Todd Haley also worked with Muir in New York. Haley was in the Jets scouting department and was an assistant/quality control coach from 1995 to 2000 while Muir was there.
Gary Gibbs (Parcells and Haley)
Gibbs was the Cowboys linebackers coach from 2002 to 2005. Todd Haley was Dallas' wide receivers coach from 2005 to 2006 and of course Bill Parcells was the head coach from 2003-2006.
Joel Collier (Pioli)
Collier worked as a secondary coach with the Patriots from 2005 to 2007. He was actually let go by the Patriots after the 2007 season. Scott Pioli was the Patriots personnel director for most of this decade.