Schottenheimer Avoids Most Coaches' Fate
I like Marty Schottenheimer, but I was kinda hoping he was getting fired, just so I could title the blog "Schott Not!" I figured they would keep Marty just because the Chargers were so dominating this year with a rookie quarterback. However, he's had MVP LaDainian Tomlinson for six years and has only been to the playoffs twice with them and lost both times.
I figured their 14-2 season would save his season, but next year, he'll be on the hot seat big time. Schottenheimer didn't accept the 2008 option that was offered to him, meaning after next year, his current contract is up.
The Jets, Bills, Texans, Chiefs, Raiders, Lions, Packers, Vikings, Saints, and Rams all had new coaches this season. The majority of these new coaches were assistant coaches and many of the fired coaches had to take assistant jobs, except for Herm Edwards, who was traded to the Chiefs from the Jets, no head coach stayed a head coach. And none of these firings were unreasonable. These had been teams suffering.
The roulette wheel is already spinning this year. Jim Mora Jr. got canned from the Falcons, which is what you get when you openly say you'd prefer another job. Bill Cowher retired. Art Shell was fired. Rumor has it that Al Davis is considering promoting defensive coordinator Rob Ryan for next season. Dennis Green got fired, but the only surprise there is he didn't get canned after the "If you wanna crown them, crown their ass!" tirade. Nick Saban bitched himself back to college.
That's 15 coaches. Almost half the coaches next season will be different than last season. It's pretty amazing nowadays when a coach is on a team for ten years. Teams are too unwilling to give a coach the benefit of the doubt for a bad season. We think Al Davis is particularly bad, but how different is he from all the other decision-makers cutting coaches too early? With the lure of college and more money, it makes it even harder to keep a coach. Somewhere, these colleges are able to dangle more money than the NFL can afford to match -- that's boosters for you.
This isn't over either. There are already teams on the hot seat for next year. Tom Coughlin and Marty Schottenheimer are obviously. The Jaguars have been that darkhorse team for awhile but still haven't proven themselves so Jack Del Rio is on the hot seat as well. And this will be Romeo Crennel's third year and the Browns still haven't improved much. Who knows how much longer Parcells and Gibbs will stick around.
The NFL's landscape doesn't tolerate losing for long, which in essence, is good for the fans. Although teams that constantly win, so-called dynasty teams, are good for the sport because they create good storylines, constantly bad teams don't help anyone. The current "what have you done for me now?" attitude can get out of hand, and it has as of late, but all in all, it's good for fans. It just leaves coaches looking over their backs. But with what they're making, I don't really pity them.
