Another upstart football league, a relaunch of the USFL (United States Football League), is slated to play their first game in fewer than 100 days. With the inaugural season so close, they’re now announcing head coaches for four of their eight teams across the league.
Kansas City Chiefs fans will recognize a familiar face as a head coach of the Tampa Bay Bandits. The USFL has enlisted none other than former Chiefs head coach Todd Haley to coach the Bandits in their inaugural season. Haley, of course, was the head coach in Kansas City during some of their darkest days as a franchise.
The Bandits tweeted out the news on Thursday, asking fans to welcome their first head coach. Check out the message down below:
RT to welcome the newest Bandit, head coach Todd Haley! pic.twitter.com/8G2rZ0GQcR
— Tampa Bay Bandits (@USFLBandits) January 6, 2022
Haley coached in the NFL from 1995 through 2018, beginning his career as a scouting assistant with the New York Jets before working his way up to become a wide receivers coach. From 2007-2008 he served as the Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator. After coaching the Cardinals offense in their trip to Super Bowl XLIII, he became a top candidate to become an NFL head coach. In 2009, he became the 11th head coach of the Chiefs. He’d spend three seasons in Kansas City, accumulating a 19-26 record during that span, struggling to find offensive consistency with Matt Cassel at quarterback.
After he was relieved of his duties in Kansas City in December of 2011, Haley caught on as offensive coordinator with the Pittsburgh Steelers for a few seasons. In 2018, he coached his last NFL season as offensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns and for the past two seasons, he’s been coaching the offense at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida.
Now, Haley will get a chance to build up his coaching career again with the USFL. Whether the fledgling league or the former NFL coach will be successful remains to be seen.
