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The Kansas City Chiefs got rid of the wrong man.
Todd Haley was fired last season after compiling a 5-8 record in his third season as head coach of a team ravaged with injuries. At the time of his ousting, I wrote a piece saying that Scott Pioli had made a major mistake and he would seriously regret it if his next head coaching choice didn't pan out.
An excerpt from that piece:
By the way, Scott, tell your boss Mr. Hunt that the Steelers - the team he keeps saying he wants to emulate - wouldn't have done something like this. They would've come together as a collective unit and been patient. Instead, we're back to square one.
I expected better out of you, Scott. You better be right about all of this. If you're not, I hope you don't expect better out of me.
Well, he better not expect me to take the losing that has followed the hiring of Romeo Crennel. It's been an unmitigated disaster, and for that I'm ashamed of this organization.
Haley had no business being fired. I'm not defending his decision to play Tyler Palko (which was insane and completely indefensible), but I will say the man could coach. He brought a very young team with no receiving core outside of Dwayne Bowe to a division championship, two years after it went 2-14.
Pioli has blood on his hands from the choice to remove Haley. Everyone says he did it because they couldn't co-exist. Well, maybe that's because Pioli sounds like the crazy one.
Our GM also deserves plenty of blame in the Palko mess. If Pioli was so upset that Palko was being played as it was reported, they the guy shouldn't have been on the roster.
Do your job better and that problem has no chance of existing.
The thing that bothers me more than anything is that the Chiefs don't ever show anger towards losing. Whether it's Herm Edwards or this regime, the notion of being terrible is so easily accepted. It makes me sick, and I'm to the point of total embarrassment.
I don't believe Clark Hunt is cheap or more interested in soccer than he is in football, but it'd be nice to see some fire out of him. His father created the AFL, maybe he should take a little pride in that. The trophy awarded to the AFC champion every year bares Lamar Hunt's name.
If I was Clark Hunt, bringing that trophy home would be a complete and utter obsession. That's our trophy, that's his trophy. I don't want the team to be competitive, I want to win. I hate losing.
When the Chiefs get brutalized on Monday night against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and by Haley's offense, the cleaning of this house should begin. I don't care if it won't accomplish anything for this year. As fans, show us you're fed up with this joke of a team.
Say what you will at Haley, but this season never would've never happen under his watch, especially the -20 turnover ratio. He would've benched everyone.
Crennel's too busy staring into space and not realizing who's getting the ball to do that.