Todd Haley says his autograph was a joke

On Wednesday, a picture of an autograph from Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley began to make the rounds on the internet. The autograph said “Go Steelers! Chiefs suck!” Haley was hired as the Chiefs head coach in 2009, but was fired in the middle of the 2011 season after the Chiefs struggled to a 5-8 start. In his three seasons as Chiefs coach, Haley had one playoff appearance and posted a record of 19-26.

“It was no disrespect to the Chiefs,” Haley told Scott Brown of ESPN.com Thursday. “I wrote what I did in jest. I’ve never at any time said anything negative about the team that gave me a chance to be a head coach. It was between myself and the [fan], and we laughed. That was it. There was no other incident.”

Haley, who was the offensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals in 2007 and 2008, was hired by the Steelers in February of 2012.

“I wrote something about my former team that I probably shouldn’t, so there was no incident,” said Haley. “I was very surprised when I came to work this morning that it was an issue.”