The Kansas City Chiefs are traveling to New England to face the Patriots on Monday Night Football and, as we noted in our connections post, there are a lot of ties between these two organizations. That starts between Chiefs GM Scott Pioli and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who worked together for much of their NFL careers.
Belichick met with the New England media on Tuesday and was asked if he sees Pioli's fingerprints on the makeup of the Chiefs. In Belichick style, he answered the question by saying a whole lot without really saying anything at all.
"That's a tough question," Belichick said. "I'm not really sure how to answer that one. They've obviously added players in the last three drafts, so they have some you ger players on the team along with some of the guys that are already there.
"You know, Todd Haley, I coached with him at the Jets and many of the other people on that staff whether it be Romeo, Anthony Pleasant on the defensive side fo the ball, Otis obviously, Richie Anderson, Bill Muir on the offensive side of the ball along with Todd Haley, and Scott.
"I think it's a mixture of all those things. There are certainly some similarities that were with the Jets in the 1997, 1998, 1999 years when many of us were together. There are some things that maybe you could relate to the Patriots. Romeo and I go way back to the Giants, the 3-4 defense and some of the things they do defensively. Some of the players that they have, you know, going back to whether it's Maurice Carthon, Otis Smith or Anthony Pleasant, those guys, we were all together with the Jets one time. There's a lot of inner-twining there.
"Certainly, you know, Scott as the top guy in the organization has implemented his philosophy but again that's sort of....I think, all those people have a high degree of that philosophy together. Sure, you see all that in the team."