I don't know the answer to this, so I was wondering if anybody had thoughts (or facts) on the matter.  Will the NFL's decision to do away with the $100 million per year supplemental revenue sharing program affect the Chiefs in any way?  The old revenue sharing plan is still in place but do the Chiefs receive any money from the SRS fund?  I know some of the smaller market teams are going to struggle even more because of this.

Does the reaction of Chiefs players to Coach Haley's first win put to rest any of the Haley haters who insist Haley will lose the team with his emotional coaching style?  There was a Gatorade bath and the players seemed genuinely happy for their coach getting his first win.  If they hated the guy's guts I can't imagine they would have rallied around him like they did.  This is just my opinion, but it looked to me like this team is very supportive of their head coach, which was just as positive to see as the win was.

Just something I was thinking about:  we've been debating Haley's coaching style a lot this week and I was reading posts written in response to the Mike Lombardi piece about Haley.  People are defending or condemning Haley showing so much emotion openly and it made me think of Dick Vermeil.  Vermeil also wore his emotions on his sleeve, but in pretty much the opposite way as Haley:  Vermeil cried.  He cried a lot.  And perhaps there was criticism of it that I don't remember.  But, I don't remember Vermeil being under this kind of a microscope for his emotional outbursts.  

I think this is an interesting idea to discuss.  Are Haley's emotional outbursts really that different than Vermeil's?  Was Vermeil "unmanly" for being so weepy?  Did players lose respect for Vermeil?  Is there a double standard when it comes to Haley?  

I don't know the answers to those questions.  Any thoughts on the subject?

I really loved Paddy's "Damn Todd Haley" post (especially the ending:  "kiss my ass").  But in the comments there was that usual complaining about how Haley is a mean man and yells too much.  This was way too long to post there, so here it is.

I used to coach sports and I used to teach a class on sport psychology, so allow me to defend Haley's intensity with a little bit of information about arousal.  First of all I am not talking about sexual arousal, thought that would be fun to talk about.  In sport psych, "arousal" refers to a person's readiness to perform physically in competition.  Sorry to disappoint.

According to arousal theory, increased levels of arousal lead to greater performance in competition and there is an optimal level or arousal that equates optimal performance*.  The level of arousal needed to compete at the highest level depends on the intensity level of the sport.  Football is a very physically intense game so it requires a very high level of physical arousal to achieve optimal performance.  Conversely, playing a game of golf does not require the same level of arousal to achieve ultimate performance.  

This is why in warm-ups you will see football players butt heads or slap each other around -- they get to the place they need to be in order to perform at the highest level.  And, yes, this is why coaches will yell at players.  You know what happens when you get yelled at?  It affects the body, it causes your body to release adrenalin which leads to a higher level of arousal which leads to greater performance.  It induces fight or flight syndrome.  

Coaches yell.  They have for centuries and it turns out there is a scientifically provable positive on-field result from it.

Do people not watch other sports?  Or other football coaches?  I am not sure how people how arrive at  this place of delusion where they think Todd Haley is the only coach (or supervisor, for that matter) who yells.  

I went to Chiefs training camp in River Falls back in the early 90s and heard Al Saunders call a player a "son of a fuck" loud enough everybody in the stand could hear it.  First of all, I'm not sure I know what a son of a fuck even is.  Second, he yelled.  He swore.  In public.  Loud enough spectators could hear it.  Third, does anybody really want to debate Al Saunders' value as a football coach?

When Marty coached the Redskins for a season, the players bitched that he was way too intense with them.  Anybody want to argue Marty's value as a football coach?  Also, Dan Snyder fired Marty so he could hire Steve Spurrier.  Dan Snyder is the stupidest man in the NFL.

Anybody remember Hal MacRae's locker room tirade?  If I remember correctly he invented swear words and threw a telephone.  Anybody remember that right after that incident the Royals went on the longest winning streak in franchise history?  And of course the Royals did one of the long line of recent stupid decisions by firing MacRae because he wasn't liked by the fans.  

One of the coaches I used to work with would tell players to worry if he stopped yelling at them.  He said if he stopped yelling it meant he had given up on them and wasn't going to waste the energy on them.  By yelling he was showing that he cared about them being the best they could be.

Coaches yell.  Get used to it, folks.  

*There is also a drop off.  If an athlete is overly aroused, performance decreases.  Coaches and players must be wary of this.  And I think Haley has shown he will turn the dial down when he needs to and take the team bowling.

I know I've read a lot of people lamenting the Cheifs' difficult schedule, particularly the run of NFC East teams that we have in the first half of the season.  If you really look at a rebuilding team that is trying to change a losing culture, this is the best possible thing that could ever happen.

I have written about this before, but I am a former high school coach and I had the opportunity to attend a wrestling coaches' clinic at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.  While we were touring the facilities, they mentioned that the swimming pools have a harness that will literally pull the swimmers through the water at world record speed so they can tell how far off world record pace they are.  It gives them a physical measuring stick by which to judge themselves.

The Chiefs' 2009 schedule will do the exact same thing -- it will give the team a measuring stick to see how much they have to grow and get better.  I hope McNabb is healthy when we play the Eagles.  As a coach I would want these teams to be full strength when we play them.  It's all about competing and if you are going to change the culture of the organization you have to compete against the best the NFL has to offer.  If you want to be a Superbowl team you need to play the Superbowl champions.  As a coaching staff we used to find the best possible competition for our kids, even if we had to travel to find it.  It makes them better.  The AFC West is in a downturn at the moment, a shell of what it was in the 90s.  Getting the NFC East and the AFC Central is the best thing that could have ever happened.

I was writing a response to another fan post and it was getting pretty wordy, so I am posting it here.  I have been reading some readers bashing Haley's demeanor and his "my way or the highway" attitude.  I want to defend the way that Haley has handled the Chiefs so far; I think he's done a pretty remarkable job and I expect the team to win between 5 and 7 games (which would put Haley on the same level as Vermeil and Schottenheimer in their first seasons in KC).  With the exception of not dismissing Chan Gailey during the winter, I think Haley's made all the right moves.

I was wondering how many readers on AP are coaches?  I am not meaning to say that people who have never coached are not entitled to an opinion, but I have some insight into this.  I coached high school football and wrestling for ten years.  I have been a head coach and run my own program.  I also taught a class on sport psychology.  I never approached coaching at the pro level, but ultimately the psychology of it is the same.  You have a group of people you are trying to motivate, teach and get to maximize their abilities.  I coached wrestling but had never wrestled in school (I only played football).  If you know your shit, nobody will care that you didn't play the game.  

Toddy Haley is taking over a program that was a loser.  Mediocrity was acceptable.  Lack of discipline was the norm.  The reason Haley made the team lose weight was when watching game film from last season, the players were noticeably getting fatter as the season went along.  The Chiefs were losing games due to conditioning, they lost games as professionals because they were fat and out of shape.  As a high school coach, that's just mind-boggling.  You never lose because of conditioning because it's too easy of a factor to control.  That Herm's team couldn't finish games because of too many trips to Krispy Kreme and not enough time running and lifting is simply an embarrassment to the Kansas City Chiefs organization.  We were lucky to win 2 games last year.

The head coach of a team runs a program.  That's the job, if it's high school or the NFL.  The head coach of a team has a philosophy about how he thinks teams win.  When Marty was in KC, he believed in ball control, defense and protecting the football.  The games were boring as hell, but the Chiefs were in a position to win in the 4th quarter almost every game.  Herm's philosophy was pretry similar to Marty's.  A coach's philosophy isn't up for a committee to vote on.  It is truly his way or the highway.  It's up to the head coach to tweak his philosophy if it fails.  And if that doesn't happen, then the coach should be terminated -- if his way doesn't work then you gotta find the guys whose way does work.  Example: If a coach believes in running the football, then that's the way it is.  If everybody isn't on board that and buying into it, then the team will fail.  I think the Raiders are a fantastic example of allowing the inmates to run the asylum.  That's their deal, that's their "mystique."  And in the modern age it's a complete and utter failure.  Literally, Al Davis can't get anybody to take his head coaching job.  Three years ago Art Shell took it as a favor to Davis because no one else would take it.  Davis had to hire Lane Kiffin (who had never coached in the pros or been a head coach at any level in college or high school) because nobody would take the job.  It has to be the head coach's way or the highway.  A good coach learns from his mistakes.  If he's wrong then fire him.

Haley has a pretty daunting task in front of him -- he has to change the culture of a losing organization.  He has to take a bunch of fat (they lost almost 800 pounds in the offseason) undisciplined players and make them into a disciplined unit, also called a "team."  And he is trying to do this in as fast a period of time as possible.  I don't think he gives a shit if he's hurting anybody's feelings.  As fans we'd better hope he doesn't care if he's hurting anybody's feelings or this boat ain't every going to turn around.  His job is to win games, not be a guidance counselor.  His job isn't to make sure Brian Waters is comfortable.  If Haley puts being likable above winning, well,then he's Herm Edwards and we all know how well that movie ends.  I think we will see Haley start to dial back on the attitude as he gets his guys in and as the current guys start to buy into the program. Mike Tomlin did the same thing in Pittsburgh.  Right now he is trying to change the culture as fast as he can.  And the Chiefs culture sucked. 

Coaches have to work within the parameters of their personalities.  I haven't met Todd Haley.  But, it's highly possible that his personality is that of a hardass.  Tony Dungy is a nice guy and he was able to make his nice guy personality work as a coach.  However, I do tend to think that coaching is a career field in which nice guys do normally finish last.  Dungy is the exception rather than the rule.  Most head coaches are taskmasters.  That's their job and I can tell you it isn't always fun.  

I noticed somebody mentioning Herm had won more games than Haley.  Well, no shit Sherlock.  A guy with 8 years head coaching experience has won more games than a guy who has yet to coach a regular season game.  Following that logic we can report that Herm has also won more games than Liza Minelli and R2D2.  I think Haley will have a higher win percentage than Herm (.422) after 8 years. 

And one last thing, we are only privy to about 10% of what's going on at One Arrowhead Drive.  We have no idea what Haley's demeanor is like in meetings.  We know he gave the team a day off and took them bowling because he was so pleased with their efforts during OTAs.  Brian Waters appears to have gotten with the program.

As a guy with a coaching background, I like what I  have seen from Haley so far.  

I've been reading the Chiefs SB Nation blog quite a bit and just signed on to the Royals blog today, so this may be a topic that has been discussed here a lot.  I am a KC native relocated to Los Angeles.  I have been reading a lot of people on here talking about how fed up they are with the futility of the Royals organization.  I totally concur with that sentiment.  In fact, it's hard to not actively hate this team or to root for their demise.  I have tried to become a Dodger fan (the uniforms are almost identical after all), but having lived in KC for 30 years makes it hard to turn my back on the Royals.  I am, sadly, emotionally invested.

That said, the Royals are a horrendous organization.  There is no way around at.  The worst part of it all is there is no hope of them turning a corner any time soon.  They will not get better any time soon.  They are beyond inept at developing talent and have been for years.  Small market teams are going to have to be excellent at developing talent if they have any hope of every fielding a competitive team.

The common denominator in all this is David Glass.  I ask this as a serious question:  is there a worse owner in all professional sports than David Glass?  Bill Bidwell was always a good candidate, but he went to the Superbowl last year.  I would even expand the circle; is there a worse owner in worldwide professional sports than David Glass?  If there is I would like to hear about it.  Is there anything about Glass that makes you think he cares about the team.  Sure he says he hates losing.  But he doesn't go to the games.  Jason Whitlock doesn't go to the games either.  David Glass should be ashamed of himself for fielding a team that is that terrible and then expecting the fans of Kansas City to actually pay money to watch it.  And I think the team plays with no care or passion, and they are just like their boss.

So how can you get rid of the guy who is clearly the problem?

And that, to me, is the key to all this.  The fans have got to stop putting money into this team.  I am not asking people to be fairweather fans.  I am asking them to stop giving the Glass family their money.  Cancel your season tickets and tell the Lancers that you won't buy season tickets until Glass is gone.  Watch the games on MLB TV.  Like well meaning friends who give money to a meth addict, Royals fans are enabling this nonsense.  Because as long as Glass is making money, I don't think he gives a damn about what this team does.  His behavior backs me up -- not his words, but his behavior.  Maybe if he starts to lose money he would consider selling.  And I think that is best thing that can happen to baseball in KC.

I was just commenting about the NFL expanding the Draft to three days and broadcasting it in prime time and it makes me wonder if there is a point where fans start to get sick of it.  For years the league has exploited its popularity to increase its cash flow.  There's absolutely nothing inherently wrong with that.  But, is there a point where the league abuses the cash cow and starts to become so omni-present that fans start to get bored?  Or is the league so popular that no amount of over-coverage will start to turn fans off?  The Superbowl pre-game show starts at nearly 7:00 in the morning.  There are games on nearly every day of the week now, few of which are marquee match-ups.  The combine is on TV now.  The schedule will likely expand to 18 regular season games.  The league may expand with more teams, possibly in Canada.  The jury is out on Roger Gooddell, but it always seemed like Paul Tagliabue was way more interested in now much coin he could squeeze out of the league than protecting the integrity of the game. We were told that big banks and corporations were too big to fail and we all know how well that worked out.  Is the NFL too popular to fail?

I stopped watching VH1 when they abandoned cool shows like "Behind the Music" in favor of junk like "I Love New York," so I had no idea they were cooking up a T.O.-centric reality show.  Unless the show is like the Hostel films and depicts T.O. being slowly tortured to death in an underground easter European dungeon I am totally not interested in it.  Does anybody plan on watching this diva crap?

I am up late on the west coast and I just read Whitlock's column about Randy Moss and Matt Cassel's contract extension.  I realize Whitlock is a complete joke and writes outrageous things to get a rise out of people and further himself as a celebrity commentator, but suggesting that Tom Brady has ridden the "Randy Moss gravy train" is about the most moronic thing he could ever publish.  Brady without Moss = 3 Superbowl wins.  Brady with Moss = 0 Superbowl wins.  Yeah, poor Tom Brady.  He was a complete nobody until Randy Moss came to New England.  Oh, and Whitlock also manages to work a Jeff George reference into the piece as well.  Does Whitlock get a royalty payment every time he mentions George's name?