National and local media alike have commonly used the terms Kansas City Patriots and New England Chiefs over the past couple of weeks.  But as Bob Gretz notes, the better connection to make is to Bill Parcells.

With the formal addition and introduction of Romeo Crennel as defensive coordinator on Thursday, the Chiefs believe they have the big pieces to their coaching puzzle in place.  And while there’s a definite look of the New England Patriots to the picture these days, it really has more to do with Bill Parcells, the Big Tuna, the two-time Super Bowl winning coach and current czar of football with the Miami Dolphins.

Call them the Kansas City Tunas.

It’s not just that Scott Pioli, Todd Haley, Charlie Weis and Crennel all worked for Parcells. With the exception of Pioli, it was Parcells that played a key role in the other three getting their first jobs in the NFL.

All three of those guys were with the Jets from 1997 through 1999, when Parcells left the sidelines and moved into the general manager’s role.  So was Pioli, who was the director of player personnel.  Two important parts of Haley’s offensive staff were there as well in assistant head coach/running backs coach Maurice Carthon and offensive line coach Bill Muir.  Carthon played for Parcells with the Giants, coached first with him in New England and then went to the Jets and ultimately the Cowboys.  Muir was with the Jets when Parcells arrived, but stayed there as the offensive line coach through his tenure.

Also part of that Parcells coaching tree with the Giants, Patriots and Jets was Bill Belichick.  When Parcells retired the second time, Weis and Crennel went to New England to work for Belichick.

When it comes to what happens on the football field, the Parcells influence is all encompassing.  He’s provided the top three with a common background and understanding of the game and what’s important.  When Haley talks about Weis and Crennel being the right fit, it all goes back to the time they spent together at the Parcells School.

Great stuff all the way around, as usual, by Gretz.

These connections are important to remember as people in the media want to make a huge deal about how Pioli is only tied to Crennel and Weis.  And how if the Chiefs struggle early on next season then he will be in a hurry to replace Haley with a “Belichick guy”.  In reality all four of them share a connections in Parcells.

He was drafted by the Chiefs as a 4-3 defensive end.  He played in nine games for the Chiefs in 2008 and made three tackles in that span.  But when KC hired Scott Pioli and then switched to a 3-4 defensive alignment, the team cut Johnston.

Well, now the Dolphins, a 3-4 team, are hoping Johnston can move well enough and not be exposed in space so much as to be a possible answer as an OLB.  We’ll see who’s smarter, Parcells or Pioli.

As the many Pioli-Haley cuts start circulating around the league it will be interesting to see which ones go the way of Will Franklin (nowhere), Bernard Pollard (impact starter) or somewhere in between.

In this case, do you think Parcells will needle Pioli if Johnston ends up working out for the Dolphins?  Y’know, in between OTAs and training camp when the Pioli family has a nice holiday at the lake and Scott is cooking some burgers on the grill when his father-in-law walks over to have a chat.

“Man, you should see this kid Johnston busting his butt, he could start for us.  He’s really tough as nails.  Your team sure could use a guy like that…  oh, wait.  Nevermind.”

Parcells has never been the type to overlook mistakes, whether a star player steps out of line or a grunt coughs up the wrong answer to a big question.  But back in the 90′s as coach of the Jets, not all of his targets were players.

The practice field is quiet and a man is running in the distance.  Players are watching as the man runs to a fence — coach’s orders.  Some of the players are confused that an assistant coach, a young Todd Haley, is in Parcells’ crosshairs this time.  Haley made a mistake, and he understood the hard way that there were no excuses and no compassion.  He messed up the Jets’ practice schedule, and carelessness has consequences.  So Parcells made him run, just another test for Haley.

“In front of the whole team.  I was the whipping boy. I think Bill did most everything he could to get me to quit or to see what I was worth.”

Other coaches did quit.  They couldn’t handle the abuse.  Haley admits that he sometimes questioned Parcells’ approach and whether he fit into this unforgiving game.  Haley’s dad, the legendary personnel man Dick Haley, might get a talking-to from his general manager if he missed on a draft pick.  But running to the fence while the boss watched and players cackled was never part of the equation.

Todd Haley craved validation in those days.  Later, when Parcells hired Haley to coordinate the passing game in Dallas, the old coach often walked off the field with anger on his breath, cursing the pass offense and muttering that it must be the worst group in the league.  Parcells said it loud enough for Haley to hear it, and that wasn’t an accident.

“If you coach for Bill Parcells, there is not one day you can take a breath.  It’s like dog years: One year working for him equals seven.  But it makes you better.”

Parcells was hard on his assistants, but he was harder on the ones with a future.  Parcells would find Haley in a quiet corner somewhere, drape an arm on the kid’s shoulders and tell him that he had something, and Parcells was being tough on him because he might be a head coach someday.  Haley says his experience is part of the reason he’s 42 years old and sitting in the top coaching office at Chiefs headquarters.  But the hunger for validation hasn’t weakened.  Haley says he wants to prove to Parcells, more than a decade after the old coach made him run, that Dick Haley’s kid knows a thing or two.

Todd Haley has been waiting for years for Parcells to call and tell him that he has made it.  That all the hard lessons paid off.  That Todd Haley belongs.  Then again, Haley says, it’s the pursuit of that call that kept him up all those nights, made him push all those players, and drove the young coach to unimaginable heights.  It’s the same reason he still arrives early, stays late and makes his players’ lives miserable.  Maybe someday that call will come.  Then again, maybe not.

“If I didn’t get a call after getting the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl I may never get a call.”

There isn’t a lot going on in Chiefs-land right now, so it’s the perfect time to get a piece like this from Babb.  If you click over to the article you’ll get three different stories on Haley.  I love hearing players talk about how hard things are under Haley, but I have a feeling that things are a vacation in Kansas City compared to a Parcells camp.  Also, for as much as Haley is a disciple of the tuna, I guarantee you we never see Chan Gailey running wind sprints during practice.