Do the Kansas City Chiefs have a problem with morale?

From no-shows at OTAs to Tamba Hali’s recent tweets, are the Kansas City Chiefs dealing with a morale issue in the locker room?

The Kansas City Chiefs have had their flaws for as long as I can remember. All teams have them, even the Super Bowl winners. No team is perfect. When Andy Reid and John Dorsey came to town in the wake of the turbulent Scott Pioli/Romeo Crennel/Todd Haley years, there was an instant change throughout the organization. Yes, they instantly won a lot more games on the field, but it was more than that. It seemed like all the “drama” disappeared.

The Chiefs may have not been a perfect team, but as recently as the end of this past season, I would have listed morale as one of the strengths of the Chiefs organization. I thought the coach/GM relationship was good and I thought the locker room was in great shape with strong team leaders that got along great with the coaching staff. Fast forward to the present and a lot has changed—unfortunately, not for the better.

It started with the releases of two big name players: Jamaal Charles and Jeremy Maclin. Now, we can debate (and we have) if their losses will have a huge effect on their on field production this season, but what can not be debated is the way they were treated left them both feeling disrespected by the organization. We know this because they were both upset enough to speak out about it (and these weren’t the type of guys to normally air things out in public).

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It was also notable that several big name players—Eric Berry, Justin Houston, Marcus Peters—skipped OTAs this spring. Berry and Houston were especially surprising, because they are two of K.C.’s on and off the field leaders and both recently received huge contracts, so you wouldn’t think they would be unhappy with the organization. Then we had the shocker of the offseason: when GM John Dorsey was fired. Clearly things behind the scenes weren’t as harmonious as many of us believed. One belief after this happened was that Dorsey’s firing could have been related to these issues. Perhaps Dorsey was driving a wedge between the players and the organization?

If this was true, his firing would smooth things over, right? I mean the players all get along and they love Andy Reid and his coaching staff, so maybe now that Dorsey is gone, the Chiefs will go back to being the harmonious team that we thought we had before this offseason. At least, this is what some like myself thought before Tamba Hali took to Twitter for a Festivus style “airing of grievances” (if you don’t get that reference, then Frank Costanza and I are very disappointed in you). In his long tenure with Kansas City, Hali has been about the best role model the Chiefs have ever had. He keeps his head down, works his tail off, has been productive on the field and has even renegotiated his deal a few times to help with cap situations. I literally can not think of a single time in his career he has been anything but the very essence of a team player. That is why it really got my attention when Hali basically but both the coaching staff and team on blast this week when he tweeted:

That is calling out the coaching staff and organization. Why do they have him around if they aren’t going to play him? The other tweets that really stood out to me were these:

That has to be in reference to guys like Berry, Houston, and Peters not being around this offseason. Now, it could be that Hali is calling those players out because he thinks leaders should be there. OR, it could be less about them and he is simply pointing out his dedication to what the team wants and yet he still isn’t getting on the field. OR, he could be stating that the way the Chiefs are running things these days (either coaching or management-wise) is making those players not want to come to work. If it’s bad enough that a let-your-work-do-the-talking guy like Hali has to say these things, it’s not encouraging as a fan, regardless the reason.

If it’s bad enough that a let-your-work-do-the-talking guy like Hali has to say these things, it’s not encouraging as a fan, regardless the reason.

Perhaps this is just one player, Tamba Hali, feeling frustrated that his role is diminishing as he gets older and the rest of the team have little to no problems with Reid and his coaching staff. Perhaps the players that missed camp did so more out of frustration with Dorsey than Reid. Perhaps things will be harmonious once the entire team comes together as training camp starts this week. I don’t know the answer to these questions but I think there is definitely reason to ask them after everything that has transpired this offseason.

Could the Chiefs have a major player morale problem?

Is this team still fully united behind head coach Andy Reid and his staff?

Should the locker room still be considered a positive for this team as it has been in recent years?

I wish I had answers to give you Chiefs fans. I’m usually a positive and solution-oriented person, but as camp gets started all I really have are questions. Could Tamba be 100% justified for his recent tweets? Yes. Could the organization be 100% justified for what they’ve done this offseason? Yes. I’ll admit I just don’t know, but the fact that I have questions about morale on this team is a story in and of itself I believe because that hasn’t been the case since Reid arrived in Kansas City.

So what do you think Chiefs fans? Are you concerned about the morale of this team? Do you think there is/was a major problem and that could be a large part of why Dorsey was fired? If so, do you think his firing helped things and they are still behind Reid or are Tamba’s tweets a sign that there is still more unrest bubbling below the surface? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!