Scott Pioli Says He's Happy To Be Rid Of Todd Haley In The Most Passive-Aggressive Way Possible

This story was published Friday evening, so it fell a bit below our radar. But it's still worth sharing because, well ... you'll see. It involves Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli, and his take on training camp now that Todd Haley is no longer the team's head coach. Oh, wait. Pioli doesn't really say that. Right. OK.

This is what Pioli actually told the :

"Chaos is a waste of energy," he said. "There's a difference between pressure and chaos. Pressure-filled situations don't need to be (chaotic). There's pressure here right now. There's urgency. There's competition. There are all of those high-level, important things. It's just being done without (chaos).

"I want us to embrace pressure. Pressure is great. There are guys on this team fighting for their jobs. There is pressure in practice. There is pressure for them to perform because there are only 53 that are going to make it.

"But it doesn't need to be chaos."

That's a lot of chaos! But, The Star adds, "Pioli declined to discuss former coach Todd Haley or cite specific incidents from Haley's three camps with the Chiefs." Right. Because this isn't about Haley. There might have been a lot of chaos under Haley, but Haley's gone now. There's no reason to even mention his name. The conversation instead shifted to new head coach Romeo Crennel:

When asked about Crennel's role in this, Pioli became passionate.

"He has a critical role in this," Pioli said. "Look at Romeo and how he is. People misunderstand Romeo's calmness and his kindness and the fact he's so genuine for a guy who's a flat-line guy. He is not a flat-line guy. He is not non-competitive. He is not Joey Chuckles. He is all business.

"People don't understand the hours Romeo Crennel works. Even when he was the defensive coordinator he was the last guy out of the office every single night. Every single night. So he's responsible and teams tend to take on the personality of their leader."

Joey Chuckles. Pioli doesn't want a guy like that around. And while he doesn't need to say it, we all know what happens when Pioli doesn't want a guy around.

Pioli sees fewer distractions, more competition at camp [Kansas City Star]