Mellinger: Pioli has time to reflect on where it went wrong
 

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/05...-headline.html

Pioli has time to reflect on where it went wrong

By SAM MELLINGER

The Kansas City Star

The truth set in at some point in Philadelphia. There is no way to get inside a man’s mind, of course, but Scott Pioli likely came to know his time in charge of the Chiefs had expired outside of a conference room at a Philadelphia airport. It must’ve been there that Pioli understood he was still the Chiefs general manager in technical terms, but no longer in practice.

Behind the closed doors in front of Pioli, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt ate up the biggest chunk of a nine-hour meeting alone with Andy Reid. If there was any remaining doubt about who would be in charge, it died in those hours. Pioli used to be the one in that meeting, the one asking the tough questions and making the big decisions.

Now, though, he was left sitting outside, waiting. Like everyone else.

Pioli – part of a five-man traveling party with Hunt, Chiefs president Mark Donovan, vice president Ted Crews and Hunt Sports Group executive Ryan Petkoff – got some facetime with Reid. But it was clear to everyone involved who was in charge. Hunt took the time. Hunt asked the important questions. Hunt would make the decision. Pioli waited to be told.

The first major football hire done without Pioli’s input would also be the last one done with him as an employee. Pioli was professional, but nobody could ignore the awkward setup. He sat outside, researching on his phone or computer, working on contingency options in case Reid did not agree to come to Kansas City – just like the others who would not be making the decision.

The next day, on Friday, the Chiefs announced what they called a mutual decision for Pioli to walk away from the biggest job of his 20-year career in professional football. The Chiefs went 23-41 in his time in charge, the worst four-year stretch since Hunt’s father founded the team in 1960.

Pioli, seen as an egomaniac by so many, left the Chiefs humbled. He thanked Hunt for the opportunity, and told people he was sorry for failing. One of the most dramatic, tumultuous, miserable, and at times tragic eras in franchise history ended in a thank you and apology.

The announcement of the inevitable end to Pioli’s rule included a short statement from both him and Hunt, but Pioli has not spoken publicly. Nobody knows for sure what is next for him, but indications are that he’ll take some time off. Right now, he is resting. Decompressing, as one person put it. It’s a lot to take in.

Pioli and his wife have a young daughter and a home in Nantucket, which he bought years ago in steps – first the land, then the construction – after an old football friend told him everyone in the business needed a place to stay after being fired.

The consensus among NFL people is that he won’t have trouble finding another job whenever he wants one, perhaps even another GM position in the future though, as one friend of Pioli’s put it, “he obviously made some mistakes and will learn from it like we all do.”

The friend made it clear that Pioli wanted to make it work with the Chiefs, even after this awful season, saying Pioli had grown to love Kansas City. He made friends here, many of them outside of football, and became involved in the local arts scene and an organization that promotes women’s sports.

What turned out to be the worst year of Pioli’s professional life began with such promise. He lost about 30 pounds in the offseason, enough that he had to buy new clothes, and in training camp publicly welcomed higher expectations. And why not? Four years into the job he had what he considered his best roster. He hired a new coach. Sports Illustrated, among other national outlets, picked the Chiefs to win the division.

But the bad news started, literally, as soon as the season did. Tamba Hali was suspended for the first game and Atlanta’s Tony Gonzalez, the Hall of Fame tight end Pioli traded shortly after arriving in Kansas City, dunked the ball through the goalposts after a touchdown in a blowout loss to the Falcons. The next week, Dwayne Bowe – the recovering knucklehead – pointed to the back of his jersey in another blowout loss that turned fan frustration from code orange to red.

Meanwhile, Pioli was dealing with personal stress. There was a report that he was offered a contract extension, which a source close to the Chiefs adamantly denied to the Star. He was deposed at least once in an age discrimination lawsuit stemming from ongoing intra-office drama, much of which was detailed by the Star. In what would later be seen as a tragic prequel, a team employee killed a woman and then himself.

Then, of course, Pioli was face-to-face with Jovan Belcher in the parking lot outside the Chiefs facility one morning, a few steps away when Belcher knelt behind a car and shot himself shortly after murdering his longtime girlfriend.

Pioli has always been fiercely private – even innocuous quotes would usually be given only off-the-record – but seemed to keep relatively good spirits until the end was imminent.

If his final season is remembered as the worst in franchise history – and it is – his final days will be remembered for confusion. Hunt announced Romeo Crennel’s firing on Monday, which led to many inside the Chiefs’ offices to wonder about Pioli’s. But Hunt is one of the few men more private than Pioli, so team employees expecting a fresh start had to wait.

That included Pioli, who by all accounts handled his final few days of employment with class, even amid an air of inevitability that he would soon be gone.

Pioli came arrived in Kansas City with the Chiefs in a terrible place. They had just gone 2-14, fans fed up with years of falling behind. The new coach Pioli hired unwittingly set a new hard tone when he told a respected Pro Bowler he could win two games with “22 guys off the street.”

Four years and four drafts later, the Chiefs again won just two games. A rough, overly dramatic, and ultimately alienating time ends with the team in the exact same spot, accomplished men on all sides left to reflect on what went wrong.

Cassel and a massive ego.

February 28, 2009

RIP

****ing AWESOME EVEN BETTER better than fireing him on monday. He had to sit his ass outside the meetings with his thumb up his ass Ha HA!

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...lson_haha1.jpg

Who cares? I hope this was Clark to Pioli--

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5...q0c0o1_500.gif

RIP Pioli.

Where did it go wrong?

1. Stubbornly sticking with Cassel despite the obvious and completely ignoring the QB position.

2. Creating a culture of fear and intimidation within the franchise, alienating former players, current staff, and ultimately the fans.

3. Two horrible head coaching hires.

4. Losing Brandon Carr, missing on Routt, and using Arenas, who he gave up a legend to draft.

5. Blowing the '09 draft.

6. Horrible FA acquisitions.

Bye dickhead. Go **** yourself.

"Scott Pioli likely came to know his time in charge of the Chiefs had expired outside of a conference room at a Philadelphia airport"

awesome.

I'm thinking March 31, 1965. It was a bad day for the planet earth!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ChildBirth.jpg

I'm sure you mean June 30, 1964.

mostly this ....

I have been in two board meetings when someone was asked to wait outside for awhile. It always ended badly for the excluded party.

But it's one of the most hard-ass things you can do in business; look a grown executive in the eye and tell him to give you some time alone with the "important people" and watch him slink out the door with his buttocks clinched like a fist.

Clark has a mean streak in him, I'm telling you. He didn't have to invite Pioli along for that interview. Then, to purposefully exclude him from the main talks? Ouch and damn.

FAX

That bitch and bassturd!!!

Fitting though considering how Fat Scott by all accounts bullied many employees... especially lower level employees within the Chiefs organization.

Pioli has absolutely no dignity. If it's true that Clark wanted him out all along and tried to convince him to resign and he still went along on these interviews, it speaks of his character...and not in a good way.

It was clear last Monday that Pioli was toast. Clark even slipped once in his interview with Petro. And yet Pioli dragged it out.

Want to share some of your wealth? I mean, you must be insanely rich to say "No thanks" to 20M dollars.

Prolly just told him to go look for gum wrappers.

I don't feel sorry for him. I'm not saying that. I don't. He caused sufficient pain that it's nothing more than justice in my view.

I'm merely reflecting on just how unbelievably embarrassing a moment like that can be. It's probably the most humiliating, humbling experience any person can go through ... particularly if you're a prideful egotist.

I've seen a similar situation bring a grown man to tears.

FAX

It was probably the most comfortable he had been in his 4 years in KC since it allowed him to revert back to his role with the Patriots... standing outside holding Belichick's briefcase as Belichick made all the important decisions.

Good point.

Clark neutered him in public just days prior. Eviscerated the stupid bastard. Repeatedly.

Then Pioli "tags along" on these interviews?

What kind of person does that? My God. Any prideful human would have told Clark to shove it and left under his own steam.

Pioli must be some kind of weird.

FAX

Just pisses me off!!!!

He came in with such promise but absolutely destroyed the organization very soon after. Sure there were some things he came in and had to clean up on and off the field but there were also big parts of the organization that were working very well (namely relations with the fanbase). He choose to destroy everything... even the stuff he thought was good. There was literally a dark cloud that hung above KC and for sure Arrowhead. The day Pioli was fired, it was like the dark cloud went away, much like in a movie.

In the end the Chiefs franchise turned into the one thing every fanbase hopes they never witness or a part of. I'm sure it is the way the Lions fans felt with Millen in charge. It is the lowest of lows and the only way to fix the mess is to completely clean house and start over... we are doing that right now.

Pretty much everything that Pioli did in 2009 royally ****ed this franchise.

It was only a matter of time before this team imploded.

I think I can honestly say now that I would have preferred Carl and Herm for 4 more years over the Scott Pioli regime. That's sad.

You know what was the first moment I knew this franchise was f**ked? It was when I saw the banners go down inside the stadium on gameday. The moment I no longer heard much about player charity stuff publicly. When I saw Gonzo wanting out shortly after the hire and the whole Brian Waters ordeal. We should have known right then something horrible was going on and about to happen in a grand scale.

I really hate myself for saying this but I agree with you... I would have taken four more years of Herm over this mess. At least I was entertained in defeat.

Hopefully we have paid our restitution for hiring Herman. 4 years should be enough. Hopefully the NFL gods will forgive our stupidity.

Hiring Herman is devastating to your franchise.

Hiring Herm was devastating but not even close as bad as Pioli imo. Herm had some redeeming qualities, Pioli had none.

It was time for Herm to go. That was the right decision. Pioli was a reasonable choice for GM. Turned out bad, and we got rid of him at the first reasonable opportunity. Stuff like that happens. It doesn't mean we should have kept Herm. I dare say...

















It's a process.

:clap: No $hit. I wonder if somewhere in the back of his mind he thought he would survive and keep his job with simply losing some respinsibility? I hope that was the case

Herm left us with some real good players. Can't say the same for Scott.

I will say this for Pioli. He got the Berry pick right, and seems to have found a steal in the third with Houston.

He kept Charles, DJ, Flowers, and Hali around.

Other than that? Abortion.

He's not an idiot. He got out of bed every day, thought about the millions of $ difference between resigning and sticking it out for a few days and said "I can do this."

The only thing that might have been better is if Clark had just said "Yeah, we decided to take the charter straight back to Dallas, not KC. Here's a ticket Scott, we'll drop you off at the bus station on our way to the airport."

Dwayne Bowe, the recovering knucklehead? WTF?

I'm praying that Poe becomes a player, and Allen and Hudson work out on the line. Other than that, yeah...

Most likely the case.

That Baldwin pick my God. You should be able to judge a persons attitude and killer instinct. He doesn't even fight for balls and he is slow as hell.

cHunt sounds like a ****ing little prick.

There was another murder suicide besides Belcher?

Yeah I didn't understand that part either.

Not exactly. Mid-September a guy tried to kill his girlfriend who was a parking attendant for Royals games. She lived. He was successful in killing himself. I played ball with him. Didn't know him well. Everybody was completely shocked because he was supposedly a good guy.

Oh yeah, forgot about that. The article said she was killed.

It wasn't a very well written article. Reading the words "team killer" so many times was tiring. :D

Nice

The author wanted to make a clear point, I presume.

In triplicate.

Let's see, 4 years of Herm got us:

2 starting CB's
Pro Bowl, leading '12 AFC rusher
Left tackle of the future
Starting right tackle for another team
Pro Bowl OLB
Pro Bowl ILB
Pro Bowl Punter
Former Pro Bowl WR
2 starting tackles on other teams
A kicker
4 year starter on our D line



TK Peehole's stand outs:

Safety
OLB

Clark "face-raper" Hunt FTW

What was the purpose of this article?

Rub some dirt in it?

Evidently to say Pioli about 78421133 times. I think Mellinger had some pent up aggression.

Edit: Oh Mods, I was wondering why I kept getting a dup on team killer. LMAO

Clark was playing games w/ Pioli. Basically stripping him of all his power, but still making him travel w/ them only to sit outside in the waiting room while the owner selects the new HC. ****in love it. Clark was obviously seeing if Pioli would just say "screw this - I'm just going to walk away".

Haha just saw the filter CP now has on Scott Pioli. <=== LMAO

Probowlers ILB and Punter came from Dick Vermeil

I don't think Clark is nearly the dick people are making him out to be. I think he's a business guy, plain and simple. I don't think he did what he did to humiliate Pioli. He just wanted to stay consistent with the process he laid out, and as part of that process, that meant figuring out if the head coach interviewed would have chemistry with Pioli (even if he already knew the answer... it's part of the process to make sure).

Dick Vermeil
P-Dustin Colquitt (probowler)*still w/ team but for how long?
ILB-Derrick Johnson (probowler)*still w/ team
OG-Brian Waters (probowler)*contract expired/not re-signed/now retired
C- Casey Weigman (probowler)*retired
DE-Jared Allen (probowler)*traded
TE-Tony Gonzalez* (probowler)*traded*left over from Marty era

Herm Edwards
WR-Dwayne Bowe (probowler)*still w/ team-but for how long?
RB-Jamaal Charles (probowler)*still w/ team
OLB-Tamba Hali (probowler)*still w/ team
OG-Wade Smith (probowler)*contract not re-signed
SS-Bernard Pollard (solid starter-borderline probowler)*released
CB-Brandon Flowers (solid starter-borderline probowler)*still w/ team
CB-Brandon Carr (solid starter-borderline probowler)*contract not re-signed
LT-Branden Albert (solid starter-borderline probowler)*still w/ team but for how long?

Scott 'Team-killer' 'Team-killer' Pioli/Todd Haley/Romeo Crennel
SS-Eric Berry (probowler)
OLB-Justin Houston (solid starter-borderline probowler)
RT-Eric Winston (solid starter-borderline probowler*Most RT's don't get any love in PB voting).

I think Clark played hardball for the cameras, but I still believe the guy had a man crush on Pioli. I think he was sweet as punch to him behind the scenes. And I don't give a shit. DING DONG PIOLI'S DEAD!

If that's true it actually makes me respect Clark more. A man in his position needs to be able to separate business and personal life. That means regardless of the situation Clark will do what is right to provide a winner in KC. Pioli couldn't help but get his buddies jobs, Clark is in it to win it. Results or get the **** out.

Absolutely. I've been dangling off of his nutsack for everything he's done, and I agree with you on this point. He put his personal opinions aside, and did what he thought was necessary for the team to be successful. That takes a lot of moxie to me.

Totally agree. Talk about a signal!

There's a difference between released and contract expired and not resigned.

After seeing Arrowhead 60% empty most of the season...if its one thing the Hunt family understands, its $$$.

Yeah, I'm really glad that Pioli is ****ing gone now. Now I can go back to hating Mellinger's stupid articles and his irrational hatred of Dwayne Bowe

well either way...they're not here. but if it makes everyone happy I'll go back and change it from the top of my head what I know.

you know why i don't feel bad for Pioli?

well, besides a team in a downward spiral?

probably around 20 million dollars, i figure.

This article is a much better read when you take all the 'Team-killer' bullshit out of it. I'm sure many of you liked it, but I found it unnecessary, especially for a writer from an actual newspaper.

We are all glad Pioli is gone, but my God, show a little class.

True, but beyond that, there is legacy. It had to kill Hunt to see that what his dad built had gone completely to shit. Yes, money is a lot, but to a rich successful guy like Clark Hunt, money isn't everything. He's not personally hurting financially that badly over this last season's (and really the last 4 season's) debacle. But to see banners, blackouts, public frustration with his pick of a GM so demonstrably shown...it had to kill the man. His actions over the last 2 weeks solidify that in my mind.

Filter

Pioli

i wish it was 'baby-raper 'Team-killer' 'Team-killer' Pioli'

'Team-killer' Pioli

try typing pioli

Where did it all go wrong? His mother didn't swallow.

All those things are samples of his failures, but for me what sealed it was the 2012 draft. Our mediocre starter got hurt during the 2011 season and we had to suffer with Tyler Palko. During the offseason he vowed to have competition at the QB spot. After passing on most free agents and NOT DRAFTING A SINGLE QB IN A QB RICH DRAFT, he brought in Brady freakin' Quinn as 'competition'. That was it for me. No way should he be allowed to pick a QB when he doesn't even acknowledge its importance.

thank god no more Brian Daboll.

I dont see how that turd gets another OC job in the NFL again anytime soon.

I don't want to hear any more stories about the "Ex". She's gone, and it's time to get things back on track.

Pioli won't learn from this. Bullies never stop until they think they beat you. They have to have their revenge at any cost. He won't get the last word because Clark made sure of it. So yeah, he is gonna have a lot of anger to deal with. He destoyed Clark's expensive football team and he is going to pay for it. What I never got was why he had to cut off all ties with the old players that built the franchise. You need to keep them guys around. The fans like them and the youngsters learn from them.

That about sums it up. Though he had a golden chance to redeem himself when he was going to "bring in competition for Cassel". That turned out to be lip service. Then the ****ing up on Bowe's contract can be added to the list. Allowing Breaston to be benched all season is another.

Ha ha he is trying to get something to stick, but he is no Jwhitlock with 'Egoli'.

You said it. Daboll was worse at his job than 'Team-killer' Pioli and Crennel were at theirs. Think about that...

FYP