the bird is the word ...

Tuesday night, Channel 41 Sports Anchor (and crazy old coot) Jack Harry aired a 2 1/2 minute commentary on allegations that Coach Haley, responding to a fan yelling "You Deserve To Be Fired" at him after Sunday's latest Todd Haley authored debacle, responded by giving said fan the "single finger salute".

Wednesday, the rest of the Kansas City media began to run with the story. Of course, Coach issued a denial, saying he "might have waved" at some fans, but didn't recall flipping anyone off.

The money quote: "That's not how I behave. I have five children that I have to be a role model for, and its not something I would do".

Really Todd? Really?

"That's not how I behave". Bullshit. Every Chiefs fan knows how you behave. We have eyes. We can see. You verbally abuse your players on a daily basis. You scream, curse, and rant on the sidelines when things don't go your way. Your use of four letter words put Gunther to shame, and keep in mind, Gun dropped a "God f*cking dammit!" blast on national television over a call he didn't like.

"I have five children that I have to be a role model for". And you're doing a bang up job with that, buddy. Acting like a spoiled brat on the sidelines. Flat out quitting before kickoff on two separate occasions this year, just waving the white flag of surrender before even trying to win (at Philly, at San Diego). You refuse to "play nice" with your players, benching them for no obvious reason, cutting them because they make a mistake (seriously, the Bradley cut is indefensible. Yes, he dropped a couple passes on Sunday. He also made a remarkable catch to tie the game inside of 3 minutes to go, doesn't fumble punt returns, generally gets kickoffs out beyond the 20, and if you think Quinton Lawrence or Lance Long is more valuable or a bigger contributor to this team than Mark Bradley is, then Coach, you're even dumber than I already suspect you of being).

Role model? Role models generally don't make an ass of themselves on the sidelines.

"Its not something I would do". Again, really? Is it really that illogical a leap of faith to assume that a man who curses liberally, uses verbal abuse as a motivating tactic, plays musical chairs with his players just because he can, is it really a leap of faith to conclude he'd flip off someone who told him "you deserve to be fired" after a bad loss like the Browns loss was?

(Nope).

Look it, I have no problems with people who curse liberally. And its not like we haven't employed coaches before who have a swearing streak in them. But can you picture Dick Vermeil flipping off a fan? Can you picture Marty flipping off a fan? Can you picture Gunther ... well, never mind.

In the grand scheme of things, this is a meaningless incident. On a scale of one to ten, with one being "what's flipping the bird mean" and ten being "10 to 20 with no chance of parole" on the seriousness-o-meter, this ranks about a negative 5.

And its not a fireable offense in my book either. Everyone makes mistakes. You shrug off a meaningless incident like this and move on.

What is a fireable offense, however, is the job Todd Haley has done.

Whatever you think of the guy, the fact remains that Todd Haley has brought all of this on himself. It was Todd Haley who fired his offensive coordinator in training camp. It was Todd Haley who benched DJ for large portions of this season. It is Todd Haley who signed off on the horrendous fake punt against denver. It is Todd Haley who continually botches the clock and timeouts, and continually makes goofy decisions on 4th down.

It is Todd Haley who calls the plays. Rather than coach to our strengths (running game, vertical passing attack), he continually calls plays that accentuate our glaring weaknesses (crappy wideouts, no tight ends worth a damn, yet he continually calls 5-7 yard outs and flat patterns). Also remember, who's the quarterbacks coach? You guessed it, Todd Haley. Anyone think he's done a good job with Cassel this year? Anyone? (crickets chirping).

And so now, after a year of gross incompetence, inept management, and a roster that has regressed as the year went along, when a fan yells "you deserve to be fired", well, doesn't said fan have a point?

That's what so frustrating about this season to me. If the Chiefs had had any semblance of quality coaching, we'd be in the thick of the playoff race. You can point to six -- six! -- different games this year where a bonehead decision ruined any chance at victory:

* vs oakland: the roughing the passer call on oakland's final drive. You can argue that isn't Haley's fault (and I'd agree with you). What is baffling is why some dude named Wallace Gilberry is on the field on THE critical drive of the game? Its 1st and 15 at the raiders 40. The stadium rocking. Where's Derrick Johnson to rush the passer? (Sitting on the bench). Why is Wallace Gilberry on the field at THE defining moment of the game? That's idiotic defensive coaching. Coupled with idiotic defensive play.

* vs Dallas: oh Lord, where do I begin. Never once providing safety help for a clearly out-matched Maurice Leggett. As the nfl.com recap notes: "He (Austin) torched Kansas City for 250 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns by (wait for it ... wait for it ...) repeatedly winning one-on-one battles on the outside". There were other questionable coaching decisions as well. The blocked field goal that led to Dallas grabbing a 20-13 lead in the 4th quarter. It was 4th and 13 at the Dallas 35. On a bitterly cold day with the wind swirling. Uuh, maybe punt there and pin them deep? Especially since there was only 3:09 to go? Moving on.

* vs San Diego: trailing 7-0 with 50 minutes of football left to play, Todd Haley decides to go for it on 4th and a long one at his own 40. Coach? 50 minutes of football left to play. As bad as the decision to go for it was, the playcall was worse. A straight QB sneak. Right into the heart of the San Diego defense. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

* at oakland: yeah, I know we won this game by 6, but many, many baffling decisions that should have caused us to lose. Consider:

1. Right before the half, the Chiefs stop the raiders on 3rd down, and out comes the punting unit. The 3rd down play was an incomplete pass. There are 52 seconds left in the half. THE CLOCK IS STOPPED! Todd Haley calls timeout after the play. The Chiefs get a drive going, but run out of time because they needed that timeout to stop the clock.

2. First drive of the second half, Chiefs have 3rd and 7 at the raiders 34. The play call send NOONE to the first down marker. Haley didn't even try for the first down, he was content to try a 52 yard field goal. (The kick was no good).

3. Leading 13-10, next drive. Chiefs have a 4th and 1 at the raiders 14. Rather than take the sure points, in a defensive struggle, against a team you routinely beat by less than a touchdown at their place ... Haley goes for it. A horrible pass to Cottam that falls incomplete. After this play, Haley and Cassel engage in a shouting match on the sidelines. But wait, we're not done yet.

4. Next possession opens at the oakland 48. Still up 13-10. Cassel has looked like dog shit all day. So how does Haley open the drive? Cassel in the gun, raiders blitz, and Cassel loses the fumble when he's hit. You're starting a drive in enemy territory, in a field goal game, and you open four wide in the shotgun? When the ONLY offensive option that's worked all day is Charles running outside the guards? Idiocy.

* vs denver: the fake punt. Lord have mercy. I have never, and I mean NEVER, been as enraged as I was at that play call. I literally thought about storming the field just to kick Todd Haley in the nuts, I was so pissed. (The sad thing is, you're nodding your head and thinking "I'd chip in $20 for Steve's bail if he'd done that). I called it "the worst play call in franchise history". That might have been a slight exaggeration, I'm sure something from the Frank Gansz or Paul Wiggin eras was worse. But that play call definitely was the worst of the season. It turned a touchdown game into a 30 point blowout almost immediately.

* vs Buffalo. Let's examine, again, a laundry list of idiotic decisions in this one:

1. Late first quarter, its 4th and goal at the Bills 1 in a scoreless game. Haley decides to NOT take the gimme points (which would bite him in the ass later), and decides to go for it. Going for it there, I wasn't happy with, but I can live with it. Provided you don't f*ck up the playcall. After calling a timeout to think things over, Haley calls a Cassel rollout, with no receiver bailouts. Disaster. You not only don't score, but you give the Bills some room to work with, instead of having them operate out of their end zone. Go figure, Buffalo scored on the ensuing drive.

2. Midway second quarter, again, its 4th and 1, this time at the Bills 3, but trailing 7-0. This time, Haley kicks. Which begs the question, why? There's no consistency, no synergy, no rational thought into how Haley decides when to kick and when to go. If you went for it before, why wouldn't you just call a better play (like pounding Leonard Pope up the middle) and go for it again?

3. Even worse, prior to that field goal, it was 3rd and 3. The pass to Chambers was complete for two yards. Haley challenged the spot. You rarely, if EVER, win a spot challenge in this league. I can only think of one time I've seen a spot overturned, and that was "The Stand" against denver. Other than that, I have never seen a spot call changed. Because its a "spot call", its a highly inaccurate science and if you whiff by an inch, so be it. (Why the NFL needs to go to smart chip technology 101). Because now we've blown through two timeouts, we can't stop the clock to save time to mount a late first half drive after we get the ball back with a minute to go. (We had it at midfield with :33 left, but no timeouts to stop the clock).

4. Go back to point one. Had we kicked the field goal, when we got to the Bills 21 on our next to last possession, we could have tried the field goal to tie. Or on the last drive, again, we got to the Bills 37, and could have tried to tie the game. Instead, we had to throw it both times, and both were INTs.

* vs Cleveland. My only b*tch is kicking it deep to Cribbs a second time. Burn me once, shame on me. Burn me twice, I'm a mother f*cking idiot. That, and another horrendous timeout called before the half that gave the Browns (potentially) a time to tack on more points.

Haley's coached 14 games so far. In 6 of them -- 6! -- he's made questionable decisions that screwed the pooch. In two more games (at Philly, at San Diego), the Chiefs didn't even try to win. They surrendered in the locker room. Over 50% of the games this year Haley has coached, have resulted in losses due to decisions made by him, either to not even try, or stuff he's f*cked up during the game.

Its time for a change on the sidelines at One Arrowhead Drive.

Again.

If only to hold onto whatever is left of the season ticket base. I didn't even really get into that, but good grief. The announced attendance for Cleveland was 53,000. You have to figure some of those 53,000 purchased this game as a single ticket. I'll be generous and say 5,000 did that. You also have the 2,500 out of town allotment that went about half sold, so we'll say 6,500 of the 53,000 were single game purchasers.

Which means the STH base is below 50,000 tickets. I know of four season tickets that aren't getting renewed. I'm sure others can think of friends and family that aren't renewing either.

I'm not sure how much worse its going to get. But we haven't hit rock bottom yet. For that, we have Todd Haley and this waste of a season to thank.