Kansas City Chiefs Give Romeo Crennel Head Coach Position

After taking over as the interim head coach for the Kansas City Chief and going 2-1 with an upset win over the then-undefeated Green Bay Packers Romeo Crennel has been named the official head coach replacement for fired coach Todd Haley.

The move to promote Romeo comes after a failed head coaching position with Cleveland where he went 24-40 over four years before losing the job.

Speaking of the teams decision to promote Crennel general manager Scott Pioli said:

“The three games had a lot to do with where we arrived at this decision. Some of the things we saw was a great deal of accountability and consistency. There was also a different energy to the football team. A lot of it had to do with those last three games.”

The 64-year-old Crennel is known around the league as a “players’ coach” who often writes off player mistakes as “youthful indiscretions” however it was that “soft” attitude that helped lead to the loss of his job with the Cleveland Browns.

When asked about the “players coach” moniker Crennel told ESPN:

“I’m not exactly sure what a players’ coach is. Sometimes I think players think that a coach who is on their side is a players’ coach, who always rules in favor of them may be a players’ coach. I know that’s not always the case with me. I think that basically, I’m a good guy. And I think this is what players appreciate — players appreciate honesty. Players appreciate you telling them like it is. They don’t always want to hear it. But that’s what they appreciate. I try to tell them what I believe, what I feel and how I think it should be done.”

Speaking to the press corp. Crennel promised that his experiences have made him a better coach:

“Probably if I hadn’t gone through that experience, I wouldn’t be sitting here now,” he said. “When you’re in the seat for the first time, there are a lot of things that even though you’re an assistant and think you have all the answers and know exactly what’s going to happen, you don’t know what’s going to happen because things occur every day that you’re not quite ready for. That’s one of the things that helped me in these last three games.”

In the meantime Crennel is already left with some big decisions, for example should he keep veteran QB Kyle Orton who signed just before Haley was fired? Fans appear to want Orton competing with Matt Cassel for the top job which might be a distinct possibility. It’s likely Crennel will keep Orton around, noting:

“I’m probably not sitting here if Kyle hadn’t done the job that he did,” Crennel said. “And I’m very appreciative of that. I’m also appreciative of the fact he is an unrestricted free agent and we have to go through the process.”

Do you think the Kansas City Chiefs made the right decision in hiring Romeo Crennel as the teams official head coach?