Former Kansas City Chiefs Coach Todd Haley Is Now In The USFL

When the USFL kicks off its second season on April 15, Kansas City Chiefs fans will notice a familiar face on the sidelines.

Memphis Showboats head coach/general manager Todd Haley was the Chiefs’ head coach from 2009 to 2011.

He went 19-26 during the regular season before getting dismissed in December of 2011, but Haley won the AFC West during his second year with the Chiefs.

Asked for his feelings toward his old team, Haley chuckled.

“I root for ’em,” Haley exclusively shared. “You get that special opportunity to be a head coach in the league in such a storied franchise.”

In one instance, though, he rooted for the opposition against the Chiefs. That was Super Bowl LVII.

He “leaned in the direction of the Eagles” over the Chiefs because Philadelphia was led by head coach Nick Sirianni, who received his first NFL job courtesy of Haley.

Haley hired Sirianni as the Chiefs’ offensive quality control coach in 2009.

Haley’s summer lake house is in Sirianni’s hometown of Jamestown, N.Y. And when Sirianni, who played wide receiver for the University of Mount Union, was back for the summer he purposefully planned his workouts at the YMCA to coincide with those of Haley, the then-Chicago Bears wide receivers coach.

Sirianni would become his protégé. And he’s proven to be a quick study.

By the age of 41, Sirianni already had led the Eagles to the playoffs during both his years as head coach.

“I’m not surprised by it,” Haley said. “I knew he was hungry and smart and into football.”

Sirianni reached his first Super Bowl this past season but ultimately, of course, lost to the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, who earned his second Super Bowl MVP award for Kansas City.

“I just wish I had Patrick Mahomes when I was there,” he joked. “I would’ve been a better coach.”

Instead, Haley’s Chiefs teams started Matt Cassel, Brodie Croyle and Tyler Palko at quarterback.

With the Showboats, Cody White is the likely starter. He starred collegiately in the same city, throwing for 10,949 yards, 90 touchdowns and 30 interceptions in 39 games for the Memphis Tigers.

Haley has embraced Memphis after spending the debut season of the USFL with the Tampa Bay Bandits, which went 4-6 last year. The Bandits were put on hiatus and replaced by the Showboats for 2023.

“I’m just really excited to be part of this,” Haley said.

He praised Memphis, which hosted the USFL’s original Reggie White-led Showboats in 1984 and 1985, as a sports town.

Haley and the team threw T-shirts to the crowd at a recent Memphis Grizzlies game, and the Showboats will play at historic Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, which has annually hosted the Liberty Bowl since the 1960s.

The coach is enjoying the culture of his new city, which is known for its blues music and barbecue.

“I’m gaining weight by the day,” Haley joked.

Memphis — along with Detroit and Canton, Ohio — were added as hubs for this season after the USFL played all of its regular-season games in Birmingham, Ala. during its debut last year.

Thanks in part to FOX having a major financial ownership stake — a reported $150 million over three years — the USFL is about to become the first major professional spring football league in nearly 40 years to complete a successful inaugural season and return for a second season. The last was the USFL in the 1980s.

In the latter part of that decade, the Chiefs’ head coach was Frank Gansz, whose son, Frank Gansz Jr., is the special teams/tight ends coach for the Showboats.

Clearly, the newly rebranded Showboats have quite a legacy of Chiefs coaching history on their staff.