Whitlock:Haley shows some courage

[Tribal Warfare]

Haley shows some courage
JASON WHITLOCK COMMENTARY

Rookie head coach Todd Haley has a big pair.

You could see that Tuesday afternoon when he opened his news conference with a brief apology to the media for a postgame inconvenience orchestrated by Chiefs general manager Scott Egoli.

“Apologize for after the game, being out there late,” Haley said. “Rookie head coach here, rookie mistake. Unaware of the time limit and how that makes it harder for you guys to do your job after the game.”

And you could really see Haley’s courage when he talked about the play of his quarterbacks, The Sixty Million Dollar Man and Brokie Croyle.

Despite Matt Cassel’s hefty price tag and the stake Egoli has in Cassel’s success, Haley appears quite determined to make Cassel earn untouchable-franchise-QB status.

“You gotta ultimately do what you think gives your team the best chance to win,” Haley responded to a question about his QB philosophy. “If that means another quarterback being in there other than Matt Cassel, then sign me up.”

That was the money quote. Haley set it up by reminding reporters that as an NFL assistant in New York, Dallas and Arizona, he participated in the process of Glenn Foley, Drew Bledsoe and Matt Leinart getting demoted in favor of Vinny Testaverde, Tony Romo and Kurt Warner.

Haley’s Tuesday news conference was absolutely fascinating. It was Bill Parcells-esque, not Bill Belichick-esque.

You understand the difference? In dealing with the media, Parcells is real, honest, straightforward. Belichick is intentionally bland, mysterious and worthless. Haley was groomed by Parcells. Egoli was groomed by Belichick.

Parcells has been successful everywhere he’s coached. Belichick built a dynasty in New England after flopping in Cleveland.

We’re two weeks into the Haley-Egoli regular-season marriage, and I believe we’ve just seen our first public sign these guys might be unequally yoked. There are definite signals they disagree about Egoli’s Sixty Million Dollar Man.

Monday afternoon, I was mesmerized listening to 610 Sports as former Chiefs player and NFL broadcaster Bill Maas explained his opinion that Haley wanted to start Brodie Croyle against the Raiders and that Egoli objected.

I thought Maas was crazy, but he sounded very convincing.

Tuesday, as I listened to Haley discuss his QBs, I had to admit Billy Bob knew something.

Haley was asked if he could envision Cassel not being the starting quarterback this season.

“I wouldn’t speculate on that,” Haley said. “There were a lot of positives in Matt’s performance.”

Haley then added that in a typical football game, there are seven critical plays a quarterback can make that will be the difference between winning and losing.

“There were clearly seven in (the Raiders) game where we’d probably like to do something different,” Haley said.

In case you missed the connection, dude just said Cassel went zero for seven on game-deciding plays. That pretty much answers how Haley feels about the end-of-half debacle, the sack Cassel took on third and 1 at the end of the game and an assortment of other offensive calamities.

As for Croyle, Herm Edwards’ quarterback of the future, Haley had nothing but good things to say about Kansas City’s opening-day starter.

“I’m excited about Brodie’s progress,” Haley said. “I think Brodie getting to play in the first game, got his feet under him a little bit, started to gain some confidence, and I think that was clear in last week’s practices.”

Haley later relived Kansas City’s close loss at Baltimore: “I thought Brodie Croyle went into a very difficult situation, hostile environment, against a very good defense, and he looked like an NFL quarterback. He gave us a legitimate chance to win. He executed the game plan the way he was asked to execute it.”

So what do I think?

Croyle’s too injury-prone to be my starter. And Cassel was way too unproven to be anybody’s Sixty Million Dollar Man. Haley is in a tough position. I’m impressed with the way he’s handling it. He’s attempting to be true to the message he’s delivered to his players — every position is open to competition.

I haven’t made up my mind about Haley. I’ve had only one opportunity to really talk with him, and that sitdown was ruined by Egoli. He talked over the top of Haley the whole night (a three-hour dinner). Seriously, questions were asked directly to Haley, and Egoli drowned out the rookie head coach with fury, arrogance and rants about championship teams being built by playing secrecy games with the local media.

I was embarrassed for Haley and in awe of Pioli’s ego. I’ve covered professional sports for 16 years, wrestled with King Carl Peterson, stood toe to toe with drunken, delusional, hostile millionaire athletes, battled Mike Lupica and irritated billionaire owners.

None of them can touch Scott Egoli.

I like the fact Kansas City has a football coach with a pair big enough to try.

[smittysbar]

Originally Posted by Raptor

Thanks Brother. Enjoying the dialogue. Been reading for a long time. Just decided to start participating.

Keep it up. Not very often we get good n00b posters around here.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by milkman

Jim Rome sucks ass, and Whitlock has been on as a guest or guest host too numerous time to count over th elast two years, and he sucks even more ass than Rome.

No shit. Listening to him is about as awesome as fingernails on a chalk board while chewing tin foil.

[chiefsfan1963]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

Win 2 games? Hell, they could win 2 games with 22 guys off the street....

I will be very excited if they can win 5 games this season. Don't get too cocky about Chiefs easily winning more than 2 games this season. It's not the no brainer that you think it is.

[chiefsfan1963]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

As usual, you're out of your ****ing mind.

How in the hell did your rep turn green?

WTF?

curious how many games you had them winning last year?

[DaneMcCloud]

Two, Douchebag.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Two, Douchebag.
Posted via Mobile Device

PS- The idea of you having breakfast and posting this via your iPhone with a grumpy face from the table at IHOP is hilarious. Although you probably have breakfast at some really nice place, not IHOP. There are probably hot celebrity babes in breezy sun dresses there, sipping French lattes and puking up Eggs Benedict in the bathroom.

Or you might be laying in bed, or enjoying a morning shit. Either way, peck peck peck, grumpy face.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Or you might be laying in bed, or enjoying a morning shit. Either way, peck peck peck, grumpy face.

I'm just glad you used the word "or".

There are some in Hollywood that like to lay in bed AND enjoy a morning shit.

[soundmind]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Because he's sports columnist for a major new organiztion (Knight-Ridder).

He's required to have journalistic integrity.

I don't think there's any way in the world Knight-Ridder is going to print lies or fabrications and if they unwittingly did, he'd be fired.

Wrong.

Print is dying and dying fast, they'll print anything if they think it will spark readership, even for a day. They may not stoop as low as say, the inquirer, but they'll dig pretty deep before they worry right now.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by soundmind

Wrong.

Print is dying and dying fast, they'll print anything if they think it will spark readership, even for a day. They may not stoop as low as say, the inquirer, but they'll dig pretty deep before they worry right now.

The reason they can't outright lie is not because of journalistic integrity. It's because they can be sued if they're lying, especially if the lie was made in an effort to undermine another person. That'd be a real easy thing to track down. The restaurant, I'm sure, could confirm if those three actually sat down to eat.

Saying you don't like Pioli is an opinion. Saying you had dinner with him when you didn't is a lie, and it would never pass. That being said, no idea what was said at the table. Whitlock has a tendency to exaggerate, but frankly, I think there is something to the fact that the new administration might have a bit of an ego.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

bump for the OP.