Coaches
It's official: Bill Cowher has left the Steelers. To "spend more time with his family." Can people still say that with a straight face? Is it permissible to pretend to believe that excuse any more? Please. That's so 1998.
Anyway, that opens up a few slots around the league. Atlanta fired their wunderkind Jim Mora. Arizona fired re-tread Dennis Green. And Art Shell was ejected from his second time around Oakland. Nick Saban made a graceless exit from Miami.
And there are a few coaches on life support. I'm happy that Romeo Crennel gets to have another crack at the Cleveland problem. Jon Gruden is holding on by his Super Bowl trophy. In New York, amazingly, officials are waiting for their team to lose in the playoffs to fire their bum, Tom Coughlin.
In Detroit, it's shocking that Matt Millen and company are still in place. How does this guy keep his job? He has failed to make the team even mediocre in six years. Six years! In NFL years, that's like six thousand. It's like a whole epoch. It's like the Egyptians saying: "we'll keep the pharaoh around for another millennia, just to see if the pharaoh system really works."
Cowher and Saban both quit for the money. In Saban's case, Alabama just kept adding zeroes to their offer until he said "yes." Cowher wants to get paid as a Super Bowl winner.
Which, let's face it, he's not. The Steelers were far from the best team last year. They were the recipients of what had to be Mafia-induced officiating. I can see Tony and the boys lighting up fat Cubans down at the Bing every time the refs threw another Steeler flag. It was pathetic.
He reminds me a bit of Little King Georgie in the White House. The presidency was stolen from its rightful winner by his daddy's cronies in 2000, but he's always acted like he got a banana republican 99% of the vote. George, you didn't win. Chin, you didn't win, either.
But I'll be glad to see Cowher out of the league for a year, at least. I'm so sick of the chin and the family and the spit - I tell you, Pittsburgh fans are going to start realizing how painful he was to watch by next September and start sending him thank-you cards.
Saban is the guy I'm really glad to lose. I don't know if he would ever have made the playoffs, but he sure knew how to play against his old buddy Belichick. The Pats had their worst games against Saban and the other mini-B, Eric Mangini.
It's as though the Belichick system is too hard for other coaches to figure out, but the guys who came up in it really get it and know how to play it.
But for all these vacancies, I hope they start going to the Romeo Crennels and the Charlie Weis's out there. Those two won multiple Super Bowls as Coordinators and proved that they deserved a shot (Notre Dame's Weis is still waiting for his). In the last few years, head coaching spots have been going to less deserving guys - Sean Payton (okay, he was good this year but only 10-6 good), Rod Marinelli, Jim Mora, Mike McCarthy, Jack Del Rio, Brad Childress, Scott Linehan, Mike Nolan.
Those guys never won anything (and I didn't even include Herm Edwards, Tony Dungy, and Lovie Smith who never won Super Bowls but had the reflected glory of the Tampa defense to cling to).
NFL Head Coaches should come from one of two groups:
1) Coordinators of Championship offenses or defenses.
2) College head coaches who have had top five BCS programs and Bowl wins.
Word is that GM's don't want to bring in guys like that because they end up wanting total control of the franchise. That's tough - you can't blame a GM for not wanting someone who will push them out of a job. But rarely does an entrenched GM get pushed out by the coach. Usually, if there is out-pushing, it's by the owner and would have happened anyway.
So there it is. Let's play some football!
Anyway, that opens up a few slots around the league. Atlanta fired their wunderkind Jim Mora. Arizona fired re-tread Dennis Green. And Art Shell was ejected from his second time around Oakland. Nick Saban made a graceless exit from Miami.
And there are a few coaches on life support. I'm happy that Romeo Crennel gets to have another crack at the Cleveland problem. Jon Gruden is holding on by his Super Bowl trophy. In New York, amazingly, officials are waiting for their team to lose in the playoffs to fire their bum, Tom Coughlin.
In Detroit, it's shocking that Matt Millen and company are still in place. How does this guy keep his job? He has failed to make the team even mediocre in six years. Six years! In NFL years, that's like six thousand. It's like a whole epoch. It's like the Egyptians saying: "we'll keep the pharaoh around for another millennia, just to see if the pharaoh system really works."
Cowher and Saban both quit for the money. In Saban's case, Alabama just kept adding zeroes to their offer until he said "yes." Cowher wants to get paid as a Super Bowl winner.
Which, let's face it, he's not. The Steelers were far from the best team last year. They were the recipients of what had to be Mafia-induced officiating. I can see Tony and the boys lighting up fat Cubans down at the Bing every time the refs threw another Steeler flag. It was pathetic.
He reminds me a bit of Little King Georgie in the White House. The presidency was stolen from its rightful winner by his daddy's cronies in 2000, but he's always acted like he got a banana republican 99% of the vote. George, you didn't win. Chin, you didn't win, either.
But I'll be glad to see Cowher out of the league for a year, at least. I'm so sick of the chin and the family and the spit - I tell you, Pittsburgh fans are going to start realizing how painful he was to watch by next September and start sending him thank-you cards.
Saban is the guy I'm really glad to lose. I don't know if he would ever have made the playoffs, but he sure knew how to play against his old buddy Belichick. The Pats had their worst games against Saban and the other mini-B, Eric Mangini.
It's as though the Belichick system is too hard for other coaches to figure out, but the guys who came up in it really get it and know how to play it.
But for all these vacancies, I hope they start going to the Romeo Crennels and the Charlie Weis's out there. Those two won multiple Super Bowls as Coordinators and proved that they deserved a shot (Notre Dame's Weis is still waiting for his). In the last few years, head coaching spots have been going to less deserving guys - Sean Payton (okay, he was good this year but only 10-6 good), Rod Marinelli, Jim Mora, Mike McCarthy, Jack Del Rio, Brad Childress, Scott Linehan, Mike Nolan.
Those guys never won anything (and I didn't even include Herm Edwards, Tony Dungy, and Lovie Smith who never won Super Bowls but had the reflected glory of the Tampa defense to cling to).
NFL Head Coaches should come from one of two groups:
1) Coordinators of Championship offenses or defenses.
2) College head coaches who have had top five BCS programs and Bowl wins.
Word is that GM's don't want to bring in guys like that because they end up wanting total control of the franchise. That's tough - you can't blame a GM for not wanting someone who will push them out of a job. But rarely does an entrenched GM get pushed out by the coach. Usually, if there is out-pushing, it's by the owner and would have happened anyway.
So there it is. Let's play some football!
posted by fiduciary at 3:29 PM
1 Comments:
I completely agree about the coaches - give some of the assistants their shot. I would stay clear of the college coaches though, even the succesful ones. They get so spoiled in college and usually only consider the NFL for the cash, but once they get to the NFL and see how much work it is and how different the lifestyle is, I think 9 out of 10 times they regret it immediately. Look at Pete Carrol - why would that guy ever leave college again? The NFL assistants are the ones who know what the NFL is really about so there is no surprises. If you get an assistant who learned from someone who knows how to run a team (Belichek, Reid, Shanahan) then chances are that they will build a decent team.
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