And the award for the shortest fuse in the NFL goes to: Todd Haley. Seriously what is up with this guy? The situation with Josh McDaniels last season looked like a little much at first, but it became more understandable when the talk of cheating came into play. Then, we heard rumors that Haley and Charlie Weis used to scream at each other in the locker room before Weis left the Chiefs. Only two preseason games into 2011, and Haley has already outdone himself.
John Harbaugh’s Ravens scored to touchdowns in the final two minutes of Friday night’s 31-13 win over Kansas City. In the regular season, piling it on at the end of the game like that could be looked at as running up the score. In the preseason, every second counts for players who are trying to earn a spot on the roster. As Pro Football Talk pointed out Haley sees it a bit differently.
“I want to apologize to the Chiefs if they feel like we were not doing the right thing at the end of the game,” Harbaugh began his press conference after an awkward exchange with Haley after the game. “That wasn’t the mindset, OK? The mindset was – this is the preseason. If this had been the regular season, we would’ve been on a knee. The idea in that situation is to give those young guys who work hard and who are trying to make a football team – this football team or another football team – to play the whole 60 minutes and give them a chance to show what they can do. Offensive line, running backs, everybody.”
Isn’t that common knowledge? Every coach in that NFL hates losing. I think Haley just takes it a step further. Accusing someone of running up the score in a preseason game is a huge reach. Careers are at stake in the fourth quarter of a preseason game. Haley will either have to keep the score closer or learn to deal with it — or take some Ativan.
