New Chiefs TE Leonard Pope: 'Man I love Todd'

One of the newest members of the Kansas City Chiefs was introduced to the media today in the locker room after practice.  Leonard Pope sounded excited to be here and "blessed" to have the opportunity to play for his old coach Todd Haley.

"Man I love Todd," he began.  "He's the type of guy that's going to push you and get every inch of everything out of you.  A lot of guys have to learn that about him.  Some may think he's someone else but you gotta have thick skin with him.  That's the kind of coach he is."

"Like I said, when you have other options, sometimes those options don't go through, at the end of the day you want to be somewhere you know you'll be loved and you've got coaches that you know and have already played for."

He's happy to be playing for a coach he's familiar with and ready to get started with his new team.

"Man just happy to be here," he said when asked how he felt.  "Just being embraced by the coaches and the players.  We're just going to try to turn things around."

We talked earlier today about Pope being more of a receiving tight end. His size (6'8", 264 pounds) brought back memories of Jason Dunn for many of us.  But according to many folks, including Haley, it's his speed that figures to be an attribute with the Chiefs.

"Hopefully I can get out and show my strengths with stretching the field and blocking," he said.  "Basically anything I can do to help."

The Arizona Cardinals released him a few weeks ago.  Since then he's been out of work but still working out for other teams, including the Chiefs.

"I just had to wait out my options," he told reporters.  "And when I got the call a couple weeks ago all my worries went away.  And when I got it a couple days ago I was happy so I'm just really blessed to be here."

It's over now for the fourth year tight end.  He's found a home (for the time being) and is glad there's an aura of familiarity with it.

"Like I said, when you have other options, sometimes those options don't go through, at the end of the day you want to be somewhere you know you'll be loved and you've got coaches that you know and have already played for."