The Kansas City Chiefs hired Romeo Crennel on January 13th (officially introduced on January 14th) after he had been on their radar for nearly a year. The story goes that the Chiefs were pursuing him hard and it caused some folks, particularly Adam Schefter of ESPN, to report that Crennel-to-the-Chiefs was nearly a done deal earlier in January.
Crennel maintains that he was weighing his options but the scuttlebutt around the league was that the Chiefs were the No. 1 option all along.
Curiously, a day after Crennel was hired, it was reported that New England Patriots defensive coordinator Dean Pees would not have his contract renewed with the club.
That led to a natural question:
If Crennel had known the Pats job was opening, would anything be different today?
"I was waiting until the end of the year to see what opportunities were available, and then once you make a decision, you can’t say, ‘What if,’ " Crennel said. "Make a decision, go forward. You don’t have time to look back and say, ‘If it had come open earlier or if it’d come open later.’ It wasn’t open when I made the decision. You go forward."
Speaking to Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald, Crennel didn't completely dismiss the idea that he could have landed with the Pats. However, he did stress the familiarity of the project in Kansas City was important to him - something he's pointed out plenty of times.
Charlie Weis declined an interview with Rapoport.