Kansas City fires coach; Niners interview Reeves

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Herm Edwards, the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs during the worst two-year span in team history, was fired Friday.

Edwards goes out with a three-year regular-season record of 15-33 and with one year remaining on a four-year, $12 million contract. As head coach of the New York Jets in 2001-05, he had a regular-season mark of 39-41 and was 2-3 in the playoffs.

Edwards had been waiting to learn his fate since president and general manager Carl Peterson abruptly resigned on Dec. 15. When Scott Pioli was introduced as Peterson's successor on Jan. 13, he was noncommittal and said only that he intended to speak with Edwards.

"This was not an easy decision. Herm is an outstanding football coach and a man of integrity. We appreciate his leadership over the past three seasons, and we wish him all the best in the future," Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said in a written statement.

Pioli said he has had several conversations with Edwards over the last week.

"After careful consideration, Clark and I felt that it was best to make a change," Pioli said.

Bob Moore, a spokesman for the team, said the Chiefs didn't have a timeline for replacing Edwards. He said all the assistant coaches still with Kansas City are under contract.

REEVES INTERVIEWS FOR NINERS COORDINATOR JOB: Former longtime Denver Broncos coach Dan Reeves interviewed for the San Francisco 49ers open offensive coordinator position on Friday. Reeves met with Niners coach Mike Singletary and general manager Scot McCloughan at the team's facility as the team tries to fill the gap created in their coaching staff by Mike Martz's firing Dec. 30.

Reeves was a head coach for 23 seasons in the NFL with Denver, the New York Giants and Atlanta. But he has been out of coaching since being replaced by Wade Phillips with three games left in the 2003 season with the Falcons.

Reeves, 65, had a 190-165-2 record as a head coach, making the postseason nine times and losing in all four trips he made to the Super Bowl.

LIONS HIRE LINEHAN FOR OFFENSE: For the second time in three years, the Detroit Lions have turned to an ex-St. Louis Rams coach to try to turn around their dismal offense. New Lions coach Jim Schwartz on Friday hired Scott Linehan as offensive coordinator. The Rams fired Linehan as head coach after the team opened the 2008-09 season 0-4.

"Scott brings a lot of experience, not only to the offensive coordinator position, but also coaching the quarterbacks, which is a job description for our offensive coordinator, and also head coaching experience in the NFL," Schwartz said at a news conference.