Dec 29 2008
Coaches Fired but to What End?
Romeo Crennel was fired today as coach of the Cleveland Browns. Eric Mangini was axed as leader of the New York Jets. Rod Marinelli will not return next season for the Detroit Lions.
The easy part–removing the coach–took just hours after the end of the year. The hard part is coming–finding a capable replacement.
The three men departing Monday coached their teams a combined 10 seasons. Cleveland won 10 games in 2007 under Crennel but slipped to 4-12 this year. New York won a surprising 10 games in 2006 in Mangini’s first season. After sliding to 4-12 last year, the Jets seemed poised for a playoff push by starting 2008 with an 8-3 mark. Instead, New York dropped four of last five games and will be watching the playoffs on television.
Perhaps the less said about Detroit, which has lost 23 of its last 24 games, has finished the worst eight-year stretch since World War II and completed the NFL’s first-ever 0-16 season, the better. The Lions didn’t quit; they simply lacked talent. Although quite a few squads in league history have had inferior talent and managed to win one or two games.
Bill Cowher, one of the few Super Bowl-winning coaches available, is being heavily courted. Cowher left Pittsburgh after the 2006 season to work in TV and be closer to his family. Even if some team is lucky enough to hire him, that’s only part of the needed makeover that organization will need.
The teams that don’t land him will likely hire someone you don’t know. Sure, that could be great. History says probably not. Constant turnover in personnel doesn’t help a business, whether it tries to sell shoes or win football games.
Melissa, I was surprised about Mangini too. Two out of three winning seasons doesn’t seem worthy of being fired. The stakes are high though.
Kevin, now that Mike Shanahan’s been fired about a decade about his consecutive championships, the clock is really ticking on Jon Gruden. Brian Billick, winner in 2000, was fired after last year. I think Gruden won his Super Bowl in January 2001. It’s been a long eight years since then.