With Kansas City Chiefs QB Matt Cassel going down with a hand injury, Todd Haley will turn his offense over to journeyman Tyler Palko.  Since he has only attempted 13 passes in regular season action, the Chiefs will limit the playbook to help ease Palko into his first NFL start Monday night against the Patriots, right?

Not so fast.

Or at least that’s what New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is saying.

If you listen to Belichick tell it, the Chiefs offense shouldn’t change at all with Palko under center.  That’s because Belichick told reporters this week he only sees one major difference between the two Kansas City quarterbacks and it has nothing to do with their talent.

“I think Tyler is very similar to Cassel, except he’s left handed.  The same type of guy – a hardworking guy that is smart, that has a lot of confidence …  I think he can do all the things that Matt did.”

Just like Haley wasn’t going to cry about his options behind Cassel, no one expected the Pats coach to call Palko a bum.  At the same time, Cassel is a guy that made his name in this league by helping Belichick’s team win eleven games.

Even with Cassel’s struggles this season, it seems odd for Belichick to say there is no difference between these two except the arm they throw with.

Another national award voted on by the media and another member of the Kansas City Chiefs is mostly ignored.  Bill Belichick won the AP 2010 NFL Coach of the Year award on Wednesday, just hours after fans voted Jamaal Charles Ground Player of the Year.

For leading the Patriots to a 14-2 record, the best in the league, Belichick received 30 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the NFL.  That easily beat Raheem Morris, who led a turnaround in Tampa Bay and got 11½ votes.

Belichick has overseen a transition in New England to a younger team, particularly on defense.  Of course, he still has Offensive Player of the Year Tom Brady at quarterback.

Morris lifted the Buccaneers from 3-13 in his first season to 10-6 in 2010 and in playoffs contention until the final week.  He did it with the league’s youngest roster.

Also receiving votes were Kansas City’s Todd Haley (4½), whose team went 10-6 and won the AFC West; and four coaches with one selection apiece: Atlanta’s Mike Smith, Philadelphia’s Andy Reid, Chicago’s Lovie Smith, and St. Louis’ Steve Spagnuolo.

It’s easy to see how Charles and Tamba Hali have yet to find their way to the national radar, but how can Haley only get 4.5 points after leading such a big turnaround in just his second season as Chiefs head coach?

The snub would be a lot easier to take if Morris was the one taking home 30 of the 50 votes.  That’s not to say Belichick isn’t an all-time coach, but Brady and the Patriots weren’t exactly expected to finish in the cellar of the AFC East.  The Chiefs and Bucs weren’t considered to have much of a chance to compete for a playoff spot, yet Haley and Morris had their teams playing out of their minds all season long.

Pioli’s journey from obscurity to the spotlight begins decades ago in upstate New York, where his father tries as hard to teach his son about life as he does to provide a good one.

“The thing he and my mom always impressed on me was, ’I don’t know what you’re going to do. I don’t care what you do. Just be happy, Don’t come home from work like me.’ ”

Those are the words of a weary man who knows the meaning of working for a living.  The 60-mile drive into the city to work for Western Union, where he’d pull cables, wires and mainframes and haul them through soot and heat and dirt, brought no joy.

To impress on his son that this was not the life he should lead, Ron Pioli occasionally took Scott into his world.  A bring-your-son-to-work day meets “Scared Straight.”  It was dirty.  Hot.  Brutal.

“It explained why my dad used to come home at night like he did,” Pioli remembers quietly.  “Knowing that this is what you’re going to do for the rest of your life.”

It’s from this perspective — thoughts of soot and sadness and the words “don’t come home from work like me” — that Pioli lumbers from one looming influence to another.

“So I went to college. And I met Bill Belichick through a friend …”

Just an amazing read.  Click the link, print out the whole thing and read it start to finish when you have a while to finish it in one sitting.

When Pioli has given interviews he’s been very open, but this is the first time I’ve seen all phases of his life packaged into one story.  I mean, when you have Bill Belichick giving a lengthy interview, you know it’s worth your time.

The Chiefs have a large field of candidates with no clear favorite.  The list includes sixth-round draft pick Quinten Lawrence, former Arena League star Rodney Wright and Dantrell Savage, the Chiefs’ leading kick returner last year.  Haley said the team has a number of potential returners.

“Quinten Lawrence is a guy we targeted as a potential returner.  We’ve got a guy in Bobby (Engram) who’s returned a lot of punts in the league.  You can see there is a large number back there, and some of those guys have a chance.  I don’t think we ignored that area.”

The speedy Lawrence is the most intriguing possibility.  He was a part-time returner in college at McNeese State and took his only punt return 70 yards for a touchdown.  That lack of experience has showed at camp, where Lawrence is having trouble fielding punts.

“I didn’t spend too much time working on it back then.  That’s why I’m getting as much practice as I am now.  I’m doing OK, but I can do better, definitely.  I can judge the punts a lot better.  It’s way harder than it looks.  A lot of it is focus.  If you focus on the ball and use the right techniques, you’ll get it.  I’m getting a lot of help.  I’m going to get it right.”

Wright, on the other hand, appears to have distanced himself from a group of lesser-experienced wide receivers, which could give him an edge when the Chiefs make their final roster cuts.

If Lawrence or another candidate doesn’t step forward, Haley indicated the Chiefs could turn to Engram, at least on a part-time basis.  Engram hasn’t been a regular return specialist for several years but has experience from earlier in his career and would have no problem with that option.

“I’m trying to win games.  If I need to do it, I’ll do it.  But I don’t see (the need for) that.  We’ve got some young guys that can make plays.  They’ll shine and they’ll show what they can do.”

If Lawrence, Savage and/or Wright aren’t ready for primetime by the time Week 1 rolls around, I love the idea of having Engram temporarily handle the return duties.  This would take any pressure off the young guys, not to mention the coaching staff as they have much bigger fish to fry between now and kickoff in Baltimore.

The ideal lineup for me would be Lawrence returning punts and Jamaal Charles taking kickoffs.  Charles is probably not going to do much returning with his increased role on the offense, but I think he has the potential to do some special — pun intended — things for this team.

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick isn’t known for drawing laughs, but that’s exactly what happened when he was asked for his recollections of Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Thomas.

Belichick recalled Thomas as one of the fastest pass rushers to ever play the game.  However, Thomas wasn’t as fast as usual around the edge playing in Cleveland during Belichick’s first season as Browns coach.

“Must have been the moisture coming in off Lake [Erie], but it was real damp and wet.  I think the grounds crew wasn’t able to cut the grass.”

My memory is good, but it’s not that good.  So I went back to check the box score and the Chiefs not only lost the game Belichick is talking about (20-15), but they only had 2.0 sacks — none by DT.

I can only imagine some of the lengths that teams went to beyond “trying to get him blocked” that we will never fully know about.  I would wager that not mowing the grass and then soaking it would not even rank in the top 10.

Another story I had never heard about Derrick Thomas comes this morning from Bob Gretz about another member of the 2009 Hall of Fame class.

After DT’s auto accident and his move to a Miami hospital he had many visitors in the days before he passed away.  One was Bruce Smith.

“I went down there to see him and when I got there, he was trying out this wheelchair and he was racing down the hall and he still had that big smile on his face.  But it just broke my heart to see him that way.  We had a good visit and then a couple days later, he was gone. I still can’t believe that.  I miss him.”

We all miss him, Bruce.