Fox Sports Jay Glazer: Chiefs Haven’t Paid Todd Haley
Jan 2, 2011; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley reacts during the game against the Oakland Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium. The Raiders defeated the Chiefs 31-10. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE
According to Jay Glazer of Fox Sports, the Kansas City Chiefs still have not paid former coach Todd Haley the remainder of his contract from when he was fired with three games remaining last season. There were reports at the time that the Chiefs were claiming that Haley was fired “with cause” which essentially voids the remainder of the contract. Once the Chiefs moved on and hired Romeo Crennel to replace Haley the issue was forgotten by most KC fans.
Now Glazer is reporting that the issue still hasn’t been settled.
On “Fox Sports Sunday” Glazer reported that the issue is now in arbitration. This would line up with Haley being “mum” on the upcoming match up with his former team and with reports that behind the scenes Haley is wanting to run things up on Kansas City when the teams meet on Monday Night Football. If this issue is still in negotiation, then Haley wouldn’t want to say anything that the League would disapprove of if they are going to have some say on if he gets his money or not.
The issue of Haley being upset with KC and wanting to embarrass them on MNF is a short-term issue. If the Steelers blow out the Chiefs, it will be just one more bad loss in a season with too many of them to count.
In my opinion, the bigger issue is how this makes the Chiefs look in the eyes of possible GM and head coaching candidates if/when KC has positions open again. Firing a coach “with cause” basically means that the coach didn’t just lose too many games, but did something that violated their contract. My guess would be (just speculating) that the Chiefs (or more accurately, Scott Pioli) was upset about comments Haley made to Kent Babb that ended up in his now famous “Arrowhead Anxiety” story for the KC Star.
The only other team that I can remember firing a coach “with cause” in recent memory is the Oakland Raiders while still under the control of the late Al Davis. That’s not great organizational company to keep.
I think the Chiefs would be well served to fire Scott Pioli ASAP and give Todd Haley whatever money he is owed in hopes that it would send a message to possible HC and GM candidates that this was a Pioli problem and not a KC Chiefs organizational problem. Otherwise, even if Clark Hunt does clean house, he may have a hard time finding anyone good that is willing to come to KC to fill his openings.
What do you think, Addicts?