Kansas City Chiefs Three Deep: Clancy Pendergast

The Kansas City Chiefs revamped the entire organization from top to bottom after, yet another, disappointing season in 2008. 

New general manager Scott Pioli was hired away from New England after playing a major role in building the Patriots into a perennial powerhouse. 

Pioli patiently waited for the Arizona Cardinals' postseason run to end before hiring offensive coordinator Todd Haley to be the next head coach of the Chiefs.

One of the pair's first moves was to hire the Cardinals' defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast for the same job in Kansas City. 

The purpose of these series of articles is to give fans of the Kansas City Chiefs, some insight to where and from whom the members of the new coaching staff honed their craft.

Most have heard of the Lombardi, Walsh, and Parcells "coaching trees" right? 

This information is intended to provide the lineage of the men that will be calling the shots at Arrowhead in 2009 and beyond.

Pendergast has spent the past five seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Cardinals. In 2008, he turned one of the notoriously worst defenses in the NFL into one good enough to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl.

Here's a list of head coaches who Pendergast has worked for in his career and the head coaches they spent time with as well.

Let's Go "Three Deep":

Pendergast started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Mississippi State, USC, Oklahoma and UAB.

NFL:

1985: Houston Oilers -  Jeff Fisher (Mike Ditka, Buddy Ryan, George Siefert, and Jack Pardee)

1996-'99: Dallas Cowboys -  Barry Switzer (Frank Broyles and Chuck Fairbanks)

2000-'02: Dallas Cowboys -  Dave Campo (Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer)

2003: Cleveland Browns - Butch Davis (Jimmy Johnson, played for Frank Broyles)

2004-'06: Arizona Cardinals - Dennis Green (Played and coached for Bill Walsh)

2006-'08: Arizona Cardinals - Ken Whisenhunt (Played for Don Henning, Marion Campbell, Joe Gibbs, and Bruce Coslet.  Coached for Ted Marchibroda, Chris Palmer, Al  Groh, and Bill Cower.)