The organization that is the Kansas City Chiefs is operating in such uncertainty only the owner may know how the repair work will appear.
After the team's worst season in franchise history, head coach Romeo Crennel has been sent off to ponder his future. General Manager Scott Pioli is in a kind of netherworld. The players are keeping their own counsel.
Officially, Chiefs Chairman/CEO Clark Hunt is saying Pioli's future is undecided after the Chiefs brought home a 2-14 season. For Hunt, the first job is finding another coach, who will report to him and not to a G.M. Players agree, Crennel broke the word to them he'd been fired. Then Hunt spoke to the assembled team on Monday to say the decision was his, not Pioli's.
Players didn't want to talk much about what they heard. It was like being asked to talk out of school. Cornerback Brandon Flowers held to the confessional like secrecy.
"That's family business," says Flowers. "You keep family business in the family."
Defensive end Shaun Smith could see it was a terribly hard year for Crennel, ranking high, witnessing the suicide of Jovan Belcher at the same building where Smith was talking with reporters.
"He said he's going to take some time to himself, prop his legs up and enjoy some of the snow," says Smith. "I'm not mad at him."
And from what Hunt said earlier, Scott Pioli's role in the future Chiefs figures second to forming search committee for a new head coach.
