One week short of a year from being hired as the Kansas City Chiefs head coach, Romeo Crennel today learned he’d been fired.
Crennel had directed the team to its worst season performance in Chiefs history.
Some team members talked with reporters in the locker room at Arrowhead after the firing was announced and it was a somber room.
It had been a hideous season for Crennel and for his team, winning only two out of 16 games for the year. And it was a month before Crennel was let go, he’d tried, unsuccessfully, to talk his player Jovan Belcher out of killing himself after Belcher had killed his longtime girlfriend.
Some Chiefs players blame themselves for precipitating Crennel’s ouster. Defensive back Travis Daniels said, “Coach Romeo is a tremendous defensive coordinator. I think he’s a tremendous coach as well. I just think that this year ,for whatever reason, the nucleus of the team just all couldn’t get in sync. Daniels added, “And I don’t think it has anything to do with his leadership of anything like that.”
Daniels said,“You can’t wear your feelings on your sleeve because this is the way it happens.” Adding that he doesn’t read newspaper accounts of football so it “won’t pollute my mind,” and it’s been so, ever since he was in college.
Chiefs cornerback Brandon Flowers said, “ Romeo worked us hard, we had a nice team here. We just didn’t get the job done.”
Three of the last four coaches have had successful careers on the assistant coaching side but didn’t last in the top job.
Players would not say if they expect other firings.
