Hot Seat?

Coaches get fired in this league. Coaches get fired mid-season. Coaches get fired mid-season after making the playoffs the year before. Coaches get fired mid-season after making the playoffs the year before and suffering major injuries during the season. Most recent example: Wade Phillips from the Cowboys last season (oh, and don't forget Brad Childress, although the Brett Favre situation was probably worse than sustaining injuries).

It's a sad but true fact. Coaches aren't given much time in this league to prove themselves before they are let go. Unless they win fast and consistently, their time in that destination is short lived. This is not the olden days when coaches are given a decade to figure things out, and pros and cons develop from that.

Todd Haley lead the Chiefs to a 10-6 record last year, but after how this season has started, Adam Schefter (who has never really been a fan of the Chiefs anyway) called Haley in Kansas City the most "volatile" head coaching situation in the NFL. Is that a fair accusation? Has the Chiefs lack of preparedness garnered such talk? With Haley's contract expiration on the horizon (after the 2012 season), high expectations after last season, and the fact that many organizations don't allow their coach to be a lame duck that final contract year (read this for more), will Haley be a victim of his own success?

NO.

Those people who think Haley should be fired this early in the season are people who have either always thought Haley should be fired or people or are extremely reactionary a la Cowboys, Redskins, Raiders.

When Clark Hunt and Scott Pioli brought in Todd Haley, they weren't just bringing him in to try him out. They were bringing him in to build a team with. If they had faith in a high-tempered offensive coordinator from Arizona, then they will have faith in a third year head coach who has had recent success. This isn't a Herm Edwards situation where there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel; the talent is here, the talent is on the team, and this group of guys knows what it's like to win.

When the Chiefs made the decision to go with Haley as their next head coach, Scott Pioli said at a news conference that Haley has a "strong understanding of players and the type of players that create championship football teams." At that same news conference, Clark Hunt said that the Chiefs and Haley were the "perfect match." When the Chiefs front office made the decision to go with Haley, they weren't making that decision for short term gain, in my opinion, they made that decision because they believed he was the best for the long haul. The Chiefs haven't been able to hold on to a head coach for more than five years (Dick Vermeil being that five) since the days of Marty. It was time to settle down, make a long term decision, and watch what happens. 

And the only evidence that reporters like Schefter can provide to prove that Haley could be easily replaced is that former head coach Romeo Crennel is standing there on the sidelines. I love Romeo, (I'll forget about the 89 points his defense has given up in two games) I love him as a part of the team and I love him as a defensive coordinator. I would absolutely hate the idea of him being the head coach. He went 24 and 40 in his four seasons as head coach in Cleveland. Schefter suggesting that Crennel would be a viable replacement is an insult upon a fan's intelligence.

And now reports are coming out that the situation between Haley and GM Scott Pioli is "toxic". So goes the "when it rains it pours" circumstance that is a head coaching position, even if what's being said is remotely true or not.

Now, I don't want to have an Al Davis "JaMarcus Russell is a good quarterback, get over it" moment defending Todd Haley. He is partly to blame for the lack of preparedness the team has shown so far this season, his strategy of treating the first three preseason games as training camp hasn't seemed to work out, and two blowouts don't help. As head coach, many people are going to be pointing the finger of blame at him, deservedly or undeservedly so. But for the local and national media to already be crucifying him, to be already contemplating replacements, well that's not football, that's not even common sense, that's just plain dumb.

I believe Haley will turn things around. As he said today on a KC sports radio station: "Go full steam ahead trying to be the best you can be and that usually solves a lot of problems."