Nick Wright of 610 Sports had some good words for Chiefs head coach Todd Haley yesterday afternoon indicating that Haley had "turned a corner" as a head coach.
Wright also had some not-so-good words for the Chiefs.
He reported that the Chiefs would be making players bring their own TVs and refrigerators for training camp and if they wanted a queen-sized mattress, they would have to pay $300 and another $200 for a memory foam mattress.
"They're charging the players $300 for a queen-sized mattress? Fine, you don't want TVs and refrigerators in the room, whatever. I don't know the dorm situation in St. Joe. I get that. That's fine. But you're telling me that the Kansas City Chiefs brass can't afford queen-sized mattresses for their players? You're telling me they need to nickel and dime Brian Waters for a few hundred bucks for a mattress?"
My question would be: Is this normal throughout the league? Implicit in Wright's words are that this is something the Chiefs haven't done in the past.
"How can anyone defend the Chiefs, with the lowest payroll outside of the Bucs in the NFL...You're going to charge the guys $200 or $300 hundred bucks for a queen-sized mattres? Come on."
Agree? Disagree?
Frankly, I don't have a big problem with this. As callers later pointed out on Wright's show, it's not uncommon for employees to have to pay for "extras" in their job. Some have to buy uniforms, for example.
I also don't think this particular incident is a sign that the Chiefs are a "cheap" organization. I think an earlier argument Wright made -- that the Chiefs have been in the bottom third of payroll the last three years -- is the argument that should be used. That the Chiefs have been toward the bottom of payroll the last few years is indisputable.
Anytime your team isn't winning and they're in the bottom of the league payroll, they're going to be called cheap. If they're in the bottom of the payroll and they're winning, then they're the Patriots.
The Chiefs just need to win some games -- regardless of that means spending more money -- and they won't be called cheap.