Mark it down: Chiefs buck trend, show yen to lose pounds

Albert, who Haley said "looked like a mess" when he started the program, passed all his rigorous conditioning tests last week.

"It's just a huge transformation," Haley said. "He's put himself into a position to compete and potentially be great."

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Anger management

Haley isn't always a hothead. But he plays one on TV.

One of the enduring images from the NFC championship game was of Haley calling a string of excellent plays against Philadelphia while angrily arguing with receiver Anquan Boldin, who pulled off his helmet and was briefly restrained by teammates.

"That changed everything for me," Haley said. "I couldn't go anywhere in Phoenix after that. I used to be able to hide against the wall, but then everybody knew me all of a sudden."

He doesn't mind players thinking he could blow a gasket at any moment, whether it's true or not.

"You'd much rather have that than to be glad-handing and patting somebody on the butt; you don't want that as your reputation," he said. "I'm going to be about pushing you hard and not pulling any punches."

And, hey, Haley made the right calls -- against a Philadelphia defense designed by the outstanding Jim Johnson, no less -- and the Cardinals wound up winning.

"Here I'm trying to call plays to win a championship and I've got somebody yapping behind me," Haley recalled. "It took us to the Super Bowl, and then all of a sudden it became the perception of, 'What's this player doing? Is he an idiot? This coach is trying to call plays.' "

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Watch for this

Now that Comcast and the NFL Network have come to an agreement, other cable operators presumably will follow suit. Watch for the league to reach out to Time Warner within the next couple of weeks.

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And this too

Something you might have missed about the NFL's four-year, $4-billion deal with DirecTV: For the first time, the league licensed the right to stream entire game broadcasts online. That will happen no later than 2012 and figures to be a boon for people who want Sunday Ticket but can't get the satellite signal. Hello, New York apartment dwellers.

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Call him Bogey

In the week before the U.S. Open, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger shot an 81 at Bethpage Black, with birdies on two of the tougher holes, Nos. 10 and 15. Hey, Big Ben should hold off changing his middle name to Crenshaw, but that's not bad.

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Tweets of the week

(@tomweir_usa2day) "Just asking: Can some legal expert explain why Michael Vick (dogs) got 2 years and Donte' Stallworth (human being) got 30 days?"

(@steverushin) "Depending on viewpoint, Brett Lorenzo Favre is an anagram of 'Frozen-Over Battler' or 'Rot, Brazen Leftover.' Which is it, Viking fans?"

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sam.farmer@latimes.com

Twitter.com/latimesfarmer