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Gentler Todd Haley part of the recipe for Chiefs' winning ways

Jim Corbett, USA TODAY
Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley was painfully aware of his "crazy dude" coaching perception last season.

Player unfriendly? Let's just say Haley might have outdone his coaching mentor, Bill Parcells, by adding a level of hard-core, former Alabama legend Paul "Bear" Bryant to his demanding, change-the-culture approach as a rookie coach.

But the year-after dividends are tough to argue with for a 3-0 program built from the bottom up by Haley, general manager Scott Pioli and a more veteran, tight-knit coaching staff that includes Super Bowl-winning defensive and offensive coordinators in Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis, respectively.

The Chiefs had won just 10 combined games their three previous seasons. Now they're one win shy of matching their 2009 victory total.

"Last year was about one thing — Let the alarm clock ring, major wake-up call and a lot of pain and suffering," Haley says of laying last season's 4-12 foundation.

"But that's the only way it could be. I took a lot of flak for that. My image takes a hit because everybody thinks I'm a crazy dude, the public perception of me.

"This year I've really worked hard at the team-building aspect of things, showing movies, and just different motivational things to try to get us closer."

One new-school example of Haley's enlightened coaching about-face: He had seen multitalented rookie slot receiver/return man Dexter McCluster's video for a public service announcement against text messaging and driving. It showcased McCluster's impressive talents as a free-style rapper.

McCluster's video gave Haley the idea to have the rookie come to the front of the Chiefs' meeting room during last week's game-planning meeting for the San Francisco 49ers.

"As I went into our team meeting Wednesday morning, I told the guys as I went through all our keys, 'The reason I'm excited is because I knew how much room for improvement there was, that we're going to get better and better and better,'" Haley says. "To prove that point, I said, 'Dexter, get up here.'

"I put him up in front of his team. And I said, 'I hear you think you can free-style rap.' He started getting embarrassed. I said, 'No, stay here now. I want you to show you can free-style and I'm going to give you the subject matter.'"

Haley challenged the former Ole Miss rapper and singer to improvise an on-the-spot rap about where the Chiefs are as an offense now, and "how we're going to become good and then great."

Then, Haley told McCluster's teammates in the auditorium to give him a beat.

Haley and McCluster's teammates were blown away.

"He was unbelievable," Haley says. "That's an aspect to this kid that told me a lot about him when you can think fast like that. He just went at it and came up with some pretty incredible little quick lines with no preparation. I was impressed."

Haley impressed his players by turning this bye week into another team-building, players-take ownership exercise.

Since training camp, Haley had been soliciting advice from veteran players on what was their best bye-week experience.

Linebacker Mike Vrabel, a 14th-year veteran, growled, "All the bye weeks have sucked. Even if the coaches think they're throwing you a bone and you only practice three times, I'd rather just play a game. Because practice beats me up more than a game."

Haley took that under advisement and came up with another player-friendly brainstorm.

"I picked 12-14 veteran-type guys — Vrabel, Brian Waters, Thomas Jones, and some younger, developing guys, too, like Brandon Flowers, Tamba Hali— guys I want to become leaders at some point," Haley says. "I'm trying to have their best bye week.

"I've got coaching gear for them and I'm making them coaches for the week — trying to take care of their bodies.

"I was like, 'How can I most involve the guys we need and are going to need, but save the wear and tear on their bodies?'

"So I've got a player-coach list. They're going to dress in coaching gear. They're going to help run the meetings, coach out on the field. They're not going to practice. They're going to be coaches for the week. We'll see how that goes."

Rewarding players after the hard work and high-effort, disciplined play that led to Kansas City's surprising, 3-0 start goes a long way in the locker room.

"I told them, 'Since you guys have all the answers, we'll see how you do when the shoe is on the other foot,'" Haley says. "The Vrabels and the Waters are excited. I'm just trying to go outside the box and not be pigeonholed into one way of doing things."

The former Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator helped Ken Whisenhunt's Cardinals soar to third in scoring offense and reach Super Bowl XLII and has served on three other coaching staffs — Dallas under Parcells, Chicago and the New York Jets, again under a Parcells regime that reached the playoffs.

So he knows what it takes even if his no-nonsense, demanding style won't ever go away.

A prime example is third-year cornerback Brandon Flowers, who has two interceptions, including a touchdown return against Cleveland.

"I had Brandon Flowers' mom come up to me and say after the Cleveland game, 'Coach Haley, I want to say hello to you and I just want you to know how much you've meant to Brandon,'" Haley says. "I said, 'Mrs. Flowers, I appreciate that because sometimes I thing Brandon really doesn't like me because I'm on him all the time. I always text (Message) him and tell him (Jets cornerback) Darrelle Revis is so much better than you.'

"You want to be great, I'm always challenging him."

Those challenges are paying off from the sizable weight loss since last season by defensive end/tackle Glenn Dorsey and offensive tackle Brandon Albert that have allowed them more flexibility. And this April's dynamic draft class that Pioli, Haley and their coaching and scouting staffs added has been adding major contributions.

McCluster, nickel corner and return man Javier Arenas and even third-round tight end Tony Moeaki, who made that one-handed, Nerf-ball like 18-yard touchdown catch in Sunday's 31-10 trouncing of San Francisco, have all shown up.

"The whole group, it hasn't been too big for them," Haley says. "This may be one of those classes you look back on and say that was the catalyst for something special."

That and their second-year head coach's willingness to take a lighter, more enlightened approach that is playing well so far in Kansas City.

Fin.