Within the first few months of the Todd Haley regime in Kansas City, quite a few reports sprung up that players weren't completely pleased with the way he did business. He was reported to be short with players, often yelling, and began to remove the star system that had crept its way into Arrowhead over the years.
Yesterday, Chiefs players filed out of the locker room closing the books on the first full season under Haley. At least publicly, they appeared to be content with the way the first year head coach went about his business.
"I think he did alright under the circumstances," veteran G Brian Waters said. Waters usually "keeps it 100 24/7" as Jason Whitlock says and said considering everything that went on, including the late change to the offensive scheme, Haley learned a lot as a head coach, and the players learned a lot about their head coach.
"He's very demanding," LB Derrick Johnson said. "He's a guy that's very motivated, hard-minded coach."
Johnson has learned this the hard way in his well-documented demotion.
LB Mike Vrabel told reporters, "Just like the rest of us on this team this year, I think everyone had their ups and downs. Todd has a great idea of what he wants to do. Admittedly, he probably knew this year wasn't going to be a 10-6 year."
The words from Waters and Johnson are encouraging because they probably got the worst of it from Haley, at least from our perception.
Vrabel tells it like it is as well and, with his contract expiring, didn't have any reason to hold back if he were upset at the way Haley went about his business. He took the opportunity to point out Haley's mindset of taking it day by day, slowly but surely.
I'm sure each of these players have feelings about the head coach that they wouldn't share publicly but many of them appear to be A) glad it's over and B) glad they went through the process this season.