Chiefs offensive coordinator Charlie Weis is packing up his ruby red Rascal and hitting the road to take the exact same job at the University of Florida. He plans on staying with the team through the playoffs. It was fun while it lasted.
When Weis was hired in January, it appeared that the team general manager, Scott Pioli, was assembling the Bill Belichick Coaching Tree Dream Team, with head coach Todd Haley running the show, Weis calling the offensive shots, and Romeo Crennel guiding the defense. And it worked well, because the team put together its biggest single-season turnaround ever. But along the way, there were some curious events. Let's look back at a few of the odder highlights.
Heading into training camp last summer, Weis was not a well man. Injuring his knee before camp started, Weis used a red motorized
scooter to prowl the sidelines while his team
drilled for the upcoming season. At the time, he described the injury as
"a piece of it broke off." He said it would require surgery to fix, but
not until after the season, "hopefully in mid-February." What optimism!
Weis further cemented his reputation as the Bionic Football Coach in
September, when he underwent emergency gallbladder surgery. His
gallbladder had been infected for a few days, but Weis elected to suck
it up and lead his offense to a 31-10 rout of the 49ers.
And then there was Weis' entrance into the most mudslinging
election of the political season. In July, as Kansas Republicans
Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt were in the midst of a vicious cat fight to be nominated
to run for an open U.S. Senate seat, Weis joined the likes of Sarah Palin and
Glenn Beck disciples to throw their support behind Tiahrt's losing
campaign.
Finally, the seemingly odd choice to bail on the Chiefs after a pretty
awesome season has fired up the rumor mill. Why would an experienced
coordinator and former college head coach leave a sweet NFL gig with a
sharp offense to return to the NCAA? The Kansas City Star's Sam
Mellinger says if you cut through the Chiefs' spin, you find that Weis'
departure might be more personality driven than professionally driven.
Today, even as he's a legitimate candidate for NFL coach ofthe year, Todd Haley looks like an impossible man to work for, ego and
insecurity driving two veteran offensive coordinators away in a 16-month
span.
If that's true, it might be hard for Haley to sustain the kind of
success he has found this season.
There is a little silver lining of Weis announcing his departure before
the end of the season. Last time he pulled the NFL-to-college maneuver, when he announced that he
was leaving the New England Patriots to take over as head coach of Notre
Dame, he helped the Pats win the Super Bowl before departing. We demand a repeat performance.
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