Steelers' Haley worried about Chiefs, not revenge

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Todd Haley is over it, he swears.

The sting from getting fired as Kansas City's head coach last December has faded, replaced by the peace he feels in Pittsburgh, where he's quickly molded the Steelers into one of the most diverse attacks in the league as offensive coordinator.

Haley insists there will be no extra motivation Monday night when his new employer faces his old one. The coach known for his sometimes explosive temper and innovative approach maintains his reaction when the final gun sounds will be no different than any other week.

"I'm always excited if we win," Haley said. "I'm always depressed if we lose."

Something that happened with a little too much frequency during his two-plus-year tenure in Kansas City. Haley went 19-27 with the Chiefs, engineering a remarkable turnaround in 2010 when he turned a team that finished 4-12 the season before into AFC West champions.

The next step never happened.

Injuries to running back Jamaal Charles, safety Eric Berry and tight end Tony Moeaki sent Kansas City into an early season tailspin from which it never recovered. The team sent Haley packing after a 37-10 loss to the New York Jets on Dec. 11, a game in which Haley received a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that seemed to erase what backing he may have had inside the organization.

Haley found a safe landing in Pittsburgh, where he was tasked with diversifying the offense and taking some of the pressure off quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. It's working. The Steelers (5-3) are streaking and Roethlisberger is in the midst of the finest season of his career.

"I'm really happy to be part of this great organization and really what is a tight-knit family," Haley said. "It's a unique environment that's hard to find."

One that Haley apparently never discovered in Kansas City, where his abrasiveness was at odds with one of the league's more even-keeled organizations.

"Todd was a guy, he stayed on you," Chiefs wide receiver Dexter McCluster said. "He had a sense of humor, but if you were doing good, he'd let you know. If you were doing bad, he'd let you know."

A trait that made Haley's hiring in Pittsburgh an eyebrow raiser because of the close relationship between Roethlisberger and Bruce Arians, the man Haley replaced.

There was an early feeling-out process between coach and quarterback, with Roethlisberger taking his time to fully embrace Haley's scheme. Any concerns about their ability to get along, however, have disappeared. There are no visible signs of discord between the two and Roethlisberger understands how important Monday's game is to the guy calling the plays.

"Without him saying it, you can always see it," Roethlisberger said. "Any time you have a guy on your team that used to play for another team, there's always a little extra incentive to try to win for that guy. As offensive guys, yeah, you want to pull for your guy, get it for him."

Haley acknowledges there may be a "minor" advantage to facing a team he helped build, even if the Chiefs (1-7) have taken on a distinctly different personality under new head coach Romeo Crennel.

The Chiefs opted to stick with Crennel after the team went 2-1 in the three games he coached following Haley's ouster. Yet any momentum the franchise gained has evaporated this fall under an avalanche of turnovers.

Kansas City is tied for the league's worst record with an offense so inept Crennel shed his duties as defensive coordinator to help shore things up. There are so many things the Chiefs are trying to address, sticking it to their old coach doesn't even register.

"I'm not going to really get into that whole situation. I'm not going to touch it," quarterback Matt Cassel said. "You know, Coach Haley has gone in there, he's done a good job. Their offense is going well, but we have to get ready for a great defense. That's what we have to concentrate on."

Likewise, don't expect Haley to make an impassioned plea in the pregame huddle.

"Todd's not going to stand up and give any grand speeches about their personnel or things of that nature," Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. "If anything, he provides a nugget or two or some clarity when we get mixed signals in terms of what we see on tape or maybe what we perceive they're capable of."

Haley is more concerned with the potential of his new offense. At the moment, that appears to be plenty.

Roethlisberger is on pace to set career highs in every major statistical category, including yards and touchdowns. The running game has found its legs behind backups Jonathan Dwyer and Isaac Redman, and the jumbled offensive line is keeping Roethlisberger's jersey clean.

There's plenty to be happy about at the moment. No need to sully it up with notions of revenge.

"I'm proud of my players from that time and have a lot of really good feelings toward all of them," Haley said. "They're good memories."

NOTES: Dwyer, who sat out last week's game against the New York Giants with a strained right quadriceps, practiced on Thursday and is expected to play against the Chiefs ... RB Chris Rainey (ribs) and K Shaun Suisham (ankle) also practiced and will play ... WR Antonio Brown (ankle), S Troy Polamalu (calf) and LB Sylvester Stevenson (hamstring) all missed practice and have been ruled out while T Marcus Gilbert (ankle) and RB Rashard Mendenhall (Achilles) were limited.

Yeah, I'm sure he is having many sleepless nights over facing the Chiefs. :rolleyes:

Steelers know that Chiefs game is huge for Haley
By RAY FITTIPALDO
Special to The Star
Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley walked off the practice field Thursday afternoon and headed toward a group of reporters for his weekly press briefing. As he approached, a Steelers spokesperson playfully asked if there were any questions.

Yes, there would be questions this week.

The Steelers and Chiefs play Monday night at Heinz Field in a contest pitting Haley against his former team for the first time since he was fired last December.

Haley downplayed the meeting, but his players told a different story.

“He’s a little geeked up; he’s a little juiced,” receiver Mike Wallace said.

Everyone associated with the Steelers knows this is a big week for Haley. Head coach Mike Tomlin sneaked behind the pack of reporters when Haley was talking and smiled widely as he listened in for a few moments.

It was Tomlin who took Haley’s phone call out of the blue last January after dismissing offensive coordinator Bruce Arians following a disappointing playoff loss in Denver. Haley and Tomlin didn’t know each other well, but Haley wanted the job.

Tomlin gave it to him even though Haley’s time in Kansas City had been marred by on-field failures and off-field drama that included accusations that Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli had bugged his office.

After a playoff appearance in 2010, the Chiefs were 5-8 last season when Pioli dismissed Haley. He left his first head-coaching gig with a 19-26 record and the embarrassment of not being allowed to finish the season he started.

“I’m very proud, No. 1, of the things myself and the players were able to accomplish,” Haley said. “I thought we made a lot of progress. Even taking the 2010 division win (into) the equation, last year is the year I’m most proud of because we had difficult circumstances, losing three really good players early in the year and starting as poorly as we did. We battled back and won four games in a row, which is hard to do in this league. We hung in there and beat Chicago on the road with our third-team quarterback.

“I’m proud of my players from that time. I have a lot of really good feelings toward all of them. There are good memories.”

Haley spoke glowingly of his former players, but did not mention anyone in the Chiefs’ front office during his 10-plus minute session with reporters. When asked if he would have done anything different to avoid his fate, Haley shifted the focus to his present-day employer.

“I’ve moved on,” he said. “I’m really happy to be a part of this great organization and what is a tight-knit family. It’s a unique environment that is hard to find. I know the Chiefs have moved on. I have a lot of fond memories and I’m proud of things that were accomplished. And I think we came a long way in three years from where we started.”

Haley went back to his roots when he landed in Pittsburgh. His father, Dick, is a western Pennsylvania native and served as the player personnel director with the Steelers from 1971-1990. Dick Haley oversaw the talented rosters that coach Chuck Noll led to four Super Bowl titles in the 1970s.

Todd spent his summers as a ball boy at training camps in nearby Latrobe, Pa. He traveled with the teams to Super Bowls and rubbed elbows with Hall of Famers.

Haley’s transition to the Steelers has been helped by the presence of at least one future Hall of Fame player on his offense. After a rocky start, franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has taken to Haley’s offense — even though he called it “dink and dunk” two weeks ago.

Roethlisberger, who had a close relationship with Arians, doesn’t have much reason to complain. The Steelers are riding a three-game winning streak and are in contention for another playoff berth.

Haley is receiving credit for his role in the team’s turnaround. The Steelers rank in the top half of the league in almost every statistical category.

After the running game was in shambles early in the season, the Steelers have produced three consecutive 100-yard games by running backs for the first time in nearly five years. Third-string running back Jonathan Dwyer rushed for 122 and 107 in back-to-back weeks before getting injured against the Redskins. Second-string back Isaac Redman returned from injury and carried the load against the Giants last week, rushing for 147 yards.

“Right now, he’s playing to our strengths,” Redman said. “He’s not stuck in his ways. When things weren’t working in the beginning of the season, he went ahead and started using the runs we used last year. So he’s not opposed to changing what he does to make our team better. I feel like that’s what’s making us a better team right now.”

Haley came to the Steelers with the reputation of being a fiery coach whose abrasiveness sometimes rubbed his players the wrong way. Roethlisberger spoke of one minor run-in with Haley in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last month. But there is no evidence of a rift with Roethlisberger or any of his other players.

In fact, Haley has acquiesced to them. Roethlisberger went to Haley early in the season and asked him to incorporate certain signals and plays from Arians’ offense into Haley’s playbook. Haley allowed their input and now fuses old and new into his play-calling.

“That was the question,” Redman said. “Were we going to bump heads like that if we needed to implement a couple of things that we were already comfortable with before he got here? He wasn’t opposed to it at all.”

The Steelers are 5-3 as they get set to begin the second half of their season against the 1-7 Chiefs. A strong finish is needed after some early missteps, when they blew second-half leads against the Broncos, Raiders and Titans.

Haley insists this game holds the same significance as any of the other seven remaining games on the schedule.

His players know better.

“Yesterday he spoke a little bit,” Redman said. “You could tell he had a little extra. He really wants to go out there and get this win. You know it means a lot more to him.”

I would LOVE to have Haley back as our head coach. He is everything that people here say they want in our future head coach. He just got a bad rap around here because people expected him to be able to consistently not only replicate 2010, but improve upon it. Its clearly evident that he got the MAX out of this team.

He got something out of the team. It just looks like a lot because they're now getting nothing out of it.

If Haley had a QB in KC, he would have been a 15 year coach here. Some team is gonna make a GREAT hire if he is given another chance.

Too bad that wont be us.

Here's the problem with Romeo as a coach...

"Todd was a guy, he stayed on you," Chiefs wide receiver Dexter McCluster said. "He had a sense of humor, but if you were doing good, he'd let you know. If you were doing bad, he'd let you know."

Haley called Palko "third team QB"

LMAO

I miss haley.

**** pioli.

Todd Haley is a good OC, but not HC. So often people forget that Todd Haley didn't have anyone on this team prepared when the season started last year. It wasn't just the QB. EVERYBODY looked like shit. He also yelled at the players so much that they tuned him the **** out. Branden Alberts tweet the day Haley was fired is complete proof of that.

He's had success with 2 of the best QB's to be in the NFL in the last 20 years. That will make any OC look better then they really are.

It was a lockout you dumb ****.

I'm sure Haley's flag football training camp had nothing to with this huh?
And how many other teams did the "no tackle training camp" regiment?

We ran a pussy training camp and sucked. We ran a pussy training camp again this year and what do you know! We suck! ROFL

But yet come week 9 the chiefs were in first.

He gambled with his training method that year specifically and got burned ( the ACL crew)

He beat such great teams as the Colts, Vikings, Faiders and we somehow won a game Rivers ****ed up.

The AFC West was a dumpster fire last year and we played one of the easiest schedules I've ever seen this franchise play.

I hope the Steelers lay a 60 spot on these rejects.
....and I hate the goddamn Steelers.

Haley went through a lot of growing pains when he was here. Lots of stupid mistakes. A little more seasoning won't hurt him, that's for sure

On.

The.

Mark.

bleh, didnt know it was from last year. haha

Haley is the reason why D Bowe and Derrick Johnson are who they are. He got the most out of his players. He was a damn good coach. Just couldnt do anything because ***** tied his hands together.

IMO Bowe and DJ would have been good players either way, but I DID like Haley, would have been interesting to see what could have been.

Any GM that gives you ****ing Matt Cassel when your in rebuild mode is just destined for failure. It doesnt matter who it is.

Quite possibly, but He was hard with these 2 guys and they responded in a big way. DJ had been in the league for a little while and was NEVER close to what he is now. He made such a HUGE leap with Haley.

That's a good point actually. I always liked Haley, but I guess we'll never know if he could have taken the team any further than the Wildcard round.

We play the Steelers this year?

Yeah the **** right. Bowe was a beast before Haley and I attribute DJs rise to Crennels defensive coaching.
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The Haley love around here is ****ing hilarious

So is the hate.

Neither side will let go.

Haley with two elite coords was a good mix. He brought toughness, discipline, and accountability to this team. Of course, and as pointed out, with Simple Jack at QB, it was never destined to amount to shit. I thought about this last night; the Chiefs need to stop blowing through coaches and especially coordinators. If the coaches and coords are effective and show promise, the FO needs to pay these fools and give them incentives to stick around. Only with some continuity will the Chiefs have a legit chance of competing in a Championship.
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your and idiot

Pretty sure the Haley ball washers bumped this, but w/e.

And yet DJ, berry, bowe... Most everybody got worse when haley left.

Here's what we know. Pioli didn't let haley pick his players. He forced the 2-gap 3-4 and haley was furious about it. Haley wanted a new QB and was vetoed. Pioli led a toxic atmosphere that most coaches have vocally said they wanted no part of.

In the end, haley was fired for not being better than. 500 with cassel and Palko at QB and without jamaal Charles. As I've said before, I don't know what coach we had in haley. I think he at least deserved a say in the schemes he wanted to run, his QB, some not all draft decisions, and at least one more season with a healthy jamaal Charles. Isn't that reasonable before saying he was good or bad?

This makes me laugh.

No, he was fired because he was a complete buffoon and in over his head as a Head Coach.

This is all very silly.

He's STILL swinging from Haley's nuts like mini Tarzan I see

irrelevant thread = irrelevant conversation. bad bump, hang him by the nuts on the 'ol aides tree

wait...didn't he try to do that last season??