On one weekend every year, four highly-significant football games land on the NFL’s center stage. This year, as we were still digesting the epic Saints-49ers finish and a Broncos-Patriots game that never really got started, and while we were anticipating Texans-Ravens and Giants-Packers, the Kansas City Star nearly slipped a potential four-alarm story through the national five hole.
According to Kent Babb of the Star, former Chiefs coach Todd Haley believes that the team bugged rooms at the facility and “tampered with” Haley’s phone. (The team denies the accusation.)
That’s the most compelling takeaway from a lengthy article that details many of the actual and/or perceived idiosyncrasies of the Scott Pioli regime. Much of the information comes from former employees who naturally aren’t happy with the changes that were made, no matter how unreasonable or reasonable or necessary or unnecessary they may have been.
But the most potentially powerful nugget, as culled by Peter King in his latest Monday Morning Quarterback, comes from Haley’s allegation of wiretapping.
Like Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men, it’s unwise to accuse the Nathan Jessups of the world of serious misconduct absent, you know, facts. If Haley believes that the Chiefs are bugging rooms and/or tapping phones, Haley needs to provide chapter-and-verse evidence.
If he’s right, people won’t simply lose their jobs; they’ll possibly land in jail, and for good reason.
The allegation is so inherently troublesome that we think the league should launch an immediate investigation. This is a far bigger issue than brazenly videotaping defensive coaching signals during games, the foundation of the “Spygate” scandal in New England. If Haley is right, the Chiefs have been violating state and federal law in the name of truly spying on their employees.
That’s why accusations of this nature shouldn’t be tossed around recklessly.
We’ll give Haley the benefit of the doubt and assume that he’s not embellishing, exaggerating, and/or fabricating. If the league reacts the same way, the investigation will have already begun.