ESPN's Keyshawn Johnson has been among the biggest Todd Haley supporters from day one and it seems any chance he gets it he praises Haley and the Bill Parcells influence. Johnson joined Kevin Kietzmann on 810 WHB's Between The Lines this week and showered more praise on Haley. What struck me -- and we've talked about this before with Johnson and Haley -- is the loyalty each side has shown. That loyalty is a common trait in the Parcells tree.
You can check out the full interview at 810WHB.com. Here are a few highlights:
"It's not for every player but it's for the players that want to be good. It's for the players that covet the playoffs and want to challenge for a Super Bowl year in and year out. It's for players that want to make their money. It's for players that want to go to the Pro Bowl. It's for players that want to be good. Plain and simple." He says playing for a Parcells team is "like dog years" because it'll take years off your career but it's worth it. The loyalty shown here is pretty incredible. You wouldn't expect someone like Keyshawn Johnson to be a fan of Parcells and Haley, but you'd be wrong.
"At the beginning of the year, I'm probably the only guy in America that picked them to win the division." He says he understood what the Chiefs were trying to do. He says he told Haley last year that they're a year away from winning the division. "He thought I was crazy," Johnson said but he says it reminded him so much of the Jets team he was on where they came back from nothing to win the division.
"Todd Haley will never be for everybody." Again, Johnson says you have to be a certain type of player to be in the Parcells tree. "They have all have this certain coaching thing about them," he says. It's not the easiest thing in the world, he says. but it's worth it in the end.
"If you don't block I can't reward you." He was quoting Haley here and this was part of what they needed to become a full time receiver. He says he brought in Richie Anderson, a former running back, to coach the receivers because Dedric Ward wasn't getting it done, and apparently it's worked.
"When I left New York, me and Parcells we still stayed in communication, he coached me from afar. Todd Haley, the Chicago wide receivers coach, I was in Tampa, and he was coaching me from Chicago about things he'd seen on film I was doing wrong that I needed to do better. When you look at all that stuff, you believe in that, and you're going to run through a wall for that." This is more of the loyalty we see from Keyshawn and from Haley. It's interesting that Haley would put his personal relationship with Keyshawn above his own interests and help him succeed, even if he was on a rival team.
"That's interesting. I'm going to have go online now and read it." Keyshawn said he hadn't read Jason Whitlock's latest column on the Chiefs but it sounds like Whitlock has a personal problem with Haley. Keyshawn says even he had a problem with Whitlock. Keyshawn and Whitlock are polar opposites on Haley.