Arrowhead Adventures With The Kansas City Chiefs! Control….

Player salaries are through the roof. Talent is hard to come by, especially at the quarterback position.

The days are gone when a player had to sell used cars in the off season to make a living. Marquee players out earn marquee head coaches by millions of dollars a year. The obvious result for some teams is the convicts eventually rule the prison.

My observations from the sidelines during the Dick Vermeil days in Kansas City were that towards the end Vermeil began to lose control. I was a big fan of the Eagles when Vermeil was there, he ruled with an iron fist in Philadelphia. Dicks rather advancing age coupled with his perception of a limited future in coaching seemed to sap the control right out of him.

In came Herman Edwards.

Herm in my opinion never had it. Sure he was well liked by the players, but I have always thought that my favorite teachers in high school were probably not the most effective. My favorite teachers let me get away with things, hoping that a great personal relationship would result in positive academic performance and positive behavior. It never worked, at least with me. The classroom air was frequently filled with paper wads and airplanes, the lectures drowned out by laughter and casual chatter.

Herms lack of control eventually cost him his job.

Enter Todd Haley.

Haley was new to the head coaching game, coaching a young team with new talent. A perfect combination to succeed.

Haley had nothing to lose and everything to gain by getting in a players face when called for, benching marquee players that needed to be benched, weeding out the Larry Johnsons who just were not going to be on board, and finally . running the players into the ground in camp .

My trips to the training camp in St. Joseph resulted in a post questioning the harshness of Haley’s methods, especially in the extreme heat, and a general pessimism that these methods would motivate.

And I was dead wrong.
My seats near the player bench at Arrowhead last year opened my eyes to a coach that has control of his team and his players. And it shows with a division win after only his second season in Kansas City.

Sure Haley had is failures but overall I see real forward progress.

Indeed, I see a man in control of his team from my seats at Arrowhead but obstacles loom on the horizon. Young players become seasoned players, who may eventually become the NFL version of Lebron James.

Will Todd Haley be able to keep control?