Mellinger:Joining media won’t fix Scott Pioli’s NFL reputation

[Tribal Warfare]

Joining media won’t fix Scott Pioli’s NFL reputation
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
Scott Pioli’s new life will require a microphone and makeup and there are a million jokes we can make here, some of them funny, all of them missing the point.

We can kid about how Pioli will begin a six-minute answer on live TV by asking to go “10,000 miles off the record,” or filibuster every segment by taking credit for the Patriots’ Super Bowls and continuing to blame his struggles with the Chiefs on Carl Peterson. But all of this misses the point.

Pioli’s name is a virtual curse word for many in the place he still calls home. The man who never saw much use for the media is now a member of the media. But if we can get away from jokes about candy wrappers and vitriolic banners flying at Arrowhead Stadium on game days and the “Right 53,” we can see what is happening here.

Pioli is making the predictable career move to join NBC’s Sunday night NFL studio show after being fired as Chiefs general manager in January.

And he’s kidding himself if he thinks this is the fix to a diminished reputation around the NFL.

“Evaluating in my old job the things I did well and the things I did not do well, I certainly believe understanding the media and what their job is was something I did not do a good job of,” Pioli told Sports Illustrated. “I thought this was a good opportunity to learn and grow, and get better in a lot of different areas.”

Pioli said those words in an SI.com piece that broke the news of his new career, which also will include appearances on NBC Sports Network. He didn’t respond to a message for this column, but if his goal is to get back into an NFL front office, his evaluation needs to go beyond how he dealt with the media.

Pioli is smart, driven, prepared, intellectually exhaustive and a hundred other things that could make him a productive part of a team’s front office. But he’ll remain a creation of Bill Belichick if he doesn’t understand what truly sunk him in Kansas City.

It’s true that Pioli was generally awful with the media, especially in his last year with the Chiefs. Usually, he just wouldn’t talk. When he did, his answers often alternated between condescending, defensive, rambling and amazingly self-unaware.

Pioli was awkward in interviews, overthinking every word. He was also obsessed with everything written or said about him, often quoting columns in the paper old enough that the links had expired.

But football people can be bad with the media and good at their jobs. Pioli knows this well after spending nine years working for Belichick in New England. But Belichick is good at his job. If Pioli is honest with himself, he’ll see he could’ve sent bags of manure to every reporter in town and kept his job as the Chiefs GM if he was good at it.

As much as he’d like to blame the media for his problems here — and Pioli started pushing that narrative to friends around the league months before he was finally fired — if he wants another chance, he’ll have to understand he was a rotten GM in ways that had nothing to do with media.

For starters, he hired two bad head coaches, blew way too many draft picks, and did precious little to strengthen the roster other than sign guys he inherited to long-term contracts.

But mostly, Pioli spent way too much time on things that had nothing to do with winning football games or bringing in better players.

Pioli talked a lot about creating “a championship environment” with the Chiefs, but mostly it turned into an environment where too many people were scared for their professional lives. Insecurity is why he spent so much time bad-mouthing what he took over from Peterson, tried to run the team’s communications department, and surrounded himself with too many yes-men to get honest self-evaluations.

Going on TV is a smart career move, considering that interest from NFL teams was apparently tepid. He’ll have the platform of network television every week, and if Pioli finds comfort in front of a camera then the football world might remember New England more and Kansas City less.

He’s a smart guy with a lot to offer in the right situation, and as a holding cell until something inside the league materializes, joining the NBC crew is a good move.

But to really prepare for another NFL job, Pioli needs to focus on the problems that surfaced in his four years running the Chiefs. The problems that matter have nothing to do with the media.

[Tribal Warfare]

the link is ****ed up because of the word filter

[Hammock Parties]

I didn't know mellinger had a flying war mech.

[TribalElder]

he is just doing this to troll us

feed him to the beast!

[OrtonsPiercedTaint]

Lost interest 1/3rd the way through.

[BlackHelicopters]

Optimus Prime

[BossChief]

I really love this paragraph:

*****’s name is a virtual curse word for many in the place he still calls home. The man who never saw much use for the media is now a member of the media. But if we can get away from jokes about candy wrappers and vitriolic banners flying at Arrowhead Stadium on game days and the “Right 53,” we can see what is happening here.

[Hammock Parties]

Does Pioli still live in ****ing Kansas City?

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by Branden Albert's Huge Balls

Does ***** still live in ****ing Kansas City?

Sure does. Lives right next door to Andy. I hope Andy shits on his lawn.

[The Bad Guy]

The hatred I have for Pioli is really immense and unhealthy.

[RunKC]

I wonder if Pioli will ever get a job in the NFL again? Who in their right mind would hire him to be the GM?

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I wonder if ***** will ever get a job in the NFL again? Who in their right mind would hire him to be the GM?

He will get one no question. There's enough dicks he will suck this year to get one.

Pioli is the biggest fraud in sports.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

He will get one no question. There's enough dicks he will suck this year to get one.

Pioli is the biggest fraud in sports.

He probably will, but it will probably be as an assistant. No way he gets another GM job. Maybe years from now he might get a GM job, but he was exposed so badly here.

I don't see how any owner can read Arrowhead Anxiety and think for a second that this guy would even deserve an interview to be a GM for their team.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by The Bad Guy

The hatred I have for Pioli is really immense and unhealthy.

Eh....He's history.

I have John Dorsey and Andy Reid to bitch about now.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

I honestly don't believe this at all. I think he's a complete Bellichek coattails rider. He probably still believes he did nothing wrong in KC. I never saw one ounce of humility in him.
Posted via Mobile Device

This. Times a billion.