Conflicting Reports On Pioli Extension Rumor

Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

Yesterday we brought you news that the Kansas City Chiefs offered embattled GM Scott Pioli a two-year contract extension earlier this season.

The report came from Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports shortly before the Chiefs kicked off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. La Canfora, who used to work for NFL.com, is usually a very credible and reliable source of NFL information.

By the time the Chiefs were finished getting their butts kicked by the Bucs, the Kansas City Star was on the story. Chiefs beat reporter, Adam Teicher, filed a report contradicting the La Canfora report.

Later last evening, Peter King of Sports Illustrated backed Teicher’s report on Sunday Night Football Night In America.

So who are we to believe?

Here is how I am looking at it:

La Canfora, who works for CBS, looked into the rumors from last week that Pioli was offered an extension and found that where there’s smoke, there’s fire. He felt confident enough in his info that he reported it.

Teicher, the local guy, followed up to see if La Canfora’s report was true. According to Teicher’s source, the CBS report is false.

Who do you think Teicher’s source was? Someone from the NFL office or someone in Kansas City? Maybe somebody that works for the Chiefs? Maybe Hunt, Pioli or Pioli’s agent?

Hunt has gone on the record as saying the Chiefs don’t talk about contract talks between front office employees.

But that doesn’t mean he didn’t go off the record with Teicher.

Later, King backs the Teicher report. That must mean it is false, right? One national guy and one local guy are saying Pioli was never offered the deal.

I don’t buy it.

Kings comments came on NBC’s Football Night In America. He contradicted a report from rival CBS.

If I were a betting man and I’m not because I lose at every game of chance (or skill) I ever attempt to engage in, I’d say King’s sources were also local.

That’s King’s jam. He goes around to all the training camps every summer and buddies up with head coaches and team employees. Then throughout the season he uses those relationships to drop interesting little tidbits of information in his popular Monday Morning QB column.

I’m not knocking King here. I love those little inside bits of information and I think MMQB is terrific. I read it every week.

But that doesn’t mean that King’s sources, especially if they are sources from inside the Chiefs organization, are reliable.

Normally that wouldn’t be the case but after the last few years, would you trust anything anyone in the Chiefs front office told you? Cause if so, I’ve got some swamp land I’d like to sell you.

King isn’t an investigative journalist. Guys like La Canfora and Adam Shefter, this is what they do. They get the scoops.

My opinion, which I realize counts for absolutely nothing, is that Hunt did offer Pioli a two year extension early in the season as a vote of confidence move. The two years make sense because they keep Pioli from being a lame duck GM next year. If the reason it wasn’t signed, as La Canfora indicated, was buyout language, well that makes sense too. A fire started early this season and Hunt probably wanted to put it out by standing behind his GM publicly.

Teams do this all the time. How many times has a head coach given the vote of confidence to their starting QB only to replace him a few weeks later? The New York Jets gave QB Mark Sanchez an extension this past offseason. How many of you think he is any safer from losing his job now than he was in July? All the extension did was get the heat off of the organization for a little bit.

I’d be willing to bet the extension was offered and has now been rescinded. Now that things have gone from bad to worse, a Pioli extension no longer sends a message of stability within the organization.

Now it would just send a message of incompetence on the part of Clark Hunt.

This as soon as the report broke, the Chiefs dispatched their PR army to refute it.

With all due respect to Teicher and King, I’m choosing to believe La Canfora until he comes out and admits he was wrong.

What do you think, Addicts? Was Pioli really offered an extension?