Archive for February 8th, 2009
Kansas City Chiefs Hire Todd Haley As Head Coach
Sunday, February 8th, 2009 | NFL, Sports | No Comments
After leading one of the most potent offenses in the NFL in 2008, Arizona Cardinals Offensive Coordinator Todd Haley was in high demand. On Friday, at the ripe young age of 42, Haley was rewarded with his first head coaching position – that of the Kansas City Chiefs where he was hired by Scott Pioli, the newly hired General Manager of the Kansas City team. Scott Pioli worked under Dick Haley (Todd’s father) with the New York Jets, and Haley and Pioli became friends through that relationship. Pioli considers Dick Haley one of the best personnel men in the NFL, and he took that into consideration when he went after Todd Haley for his vacant head coaching position (after he fired Herm Edwards with a few weeks of taking the GM job in Kansas City).
Todd Haley thanked his father for everything he had done for him over the years. Todd’s father was instrumental in creating the Pittsburgh Steelers dynasty of the 1970′s, where he was the personnel director from 1971 through 1990. His father had held other front office jobs in the NFL since then. Haley is known to be a hard-worker and very strong-willed. Haley got into arguments with Kurt Warner and Anquan Boldin during the Cardinals NFC Championship win over the Philadelphia Eagles. He also got into an argument with Terrel Owens when he was a coach with the Eagles a few years back – but who hasn’t? He did help the Cardinals put together one of the greatest offensive seasons of all-time – the 427 points scored was a franchise record, and the Cardinals finished 3rd in scoring in the NFL and 2nd in yards passing.
Haley is taking over a team that has won only 2 games in its last 25 games, so he will have his work cut out for him. Will his brash, aggressive style go over well where the current players are used to a more “player-friendly” environment under former coach Edwards. Time will tell. Congrats and good luck Todd!
