Todd Haley Believes The Chiefs Bugged His Phone

Telling You They're Listening

An extensive article in yesterday’s Kansas City Star details a culture of paranoia under Kansas City Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli. According to former Chiefs coach Todd Haley he thought Pioli was tapping his personal cell phone and bugging team headquarters and his cellphone. Haley stopped talking on his phone.

The Star described in great detail some of the franchise changes aimed at secrecy.

“Some of the first changes involved shutting off access and protecting information. Non-football employees, including those who had worked for the Chiefs for decades, were told that they weren’t allowed on certain floors, or in certain areas of the team facility. Business-side staffers with an office window facing the practice fields were made to keep their shades drawn during practices. The team president was no exception. A security guard made the rounds during practices, sometimes interrupting phone calls and meetings to lower shades.”

Their fears about being monitored were founded. The team had capabilities to monitor emails, phone conversations, and web browsing habits. Chiefs president Mark Donovan said in cases of suspected policy breaches or criminal activity, phone logs have been requested.

“I’m not going to say that we’ve never done it, but it’s not something we do,” Donovan said.

When employees wanted to speak with each other, they set times to meet outside the building and talk face-to-face.

CEO Clark Hunt dismissed the report, telling the newspaper, “We needed a culture that pursued excellence. One that valued honesty and integrity, one where the employees would be held accountable.”

As well to the spying three former department heads also sued the Chiefs in 2011 for age discrimination, including one who overheard Pioli telling a staffer he planned to “get rid of everyone who was with Carl Peterson, especially anyone over the age of 40.”

“The level of paranoia was probably the highest that I had ever seen it anywhere … If you make the wrong step, you might not be able to pay your mortgage.”