Kansas City Chiefs, Do We Have A Problem?

When you start losing by a lot, like the Kansas City Chiefs have, there's blame to go around. You can blame the head coach, you can blame the GM, you can blame the players and you'd be right in blaming all of those folks when there's a total system failure like the one we've seen from the Chiefs to start the season.

Apparently, we aren't the only ones feeling the tension. In his latest piece at Yahoo! Sports, reporter Mike Silver paints a picture that is, frankly, reminiscent of the "toxic" environment at Arrowhead multiple people talked about during GM Scott Pioli's arrival in Kansas City two and a half years ago.

While Haley on the hot seat will strike most fans as odd - he was a legitimate coach of the year candidate in 2010, his second season in K.C. - people who know what's going on inside the organization are nodding their heads unremarkably. That there is a lot of tension between Haley and his boss, general manager Scott Pioli, is the worst kept secret in NFL circles.

Read the whole thing at Yahoo! Sports but it's not the first sign that there's trouble brewing in Kansas City.

Haley was considered by more than a few reporters to be on the hot seat entering this season. That's despite the Chiefs 10-win campaign in 2010.

You could see it in the game when Lions head coach Jim Schwartz decided to rub things in a little bit by going for it on fourth down in the fourth quarter while leading by 38 points. You could sense some tension between the Lions and Chiefs head coaches with that decision.

There's more. Chris McCosky of the Detroit News reported that, following Sunday's game against the Detroit Lions, Pioli called out to Lions GM Martin Mayhew to congratulate him on the victory, but Mayhew gave Pioli the cold shoulder and walked away. That, we suspect, is part of the tampering charges the Chiefs filed against the Lions.

Even the local paper is getting in on the act as Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star writes a story this morning saying the focus of the Chiefs poor start needs to be on Pioli.

Kansas City, do we have a problem?