Coaches Should Stick To Coaching

Mike Shanahan is just the latest example of a coach turned vice president/general manager that didn't work out.  

Granted, he was fired because of his team's inexplicable collapse to end this past season.  The Broncos held a three game lead over the once left for dead Chargers.  While San Diego surged to the finish line, the Broncos lost each of their final three games.  That included a 52-21 drubbing in San Diego in season's final regular season game.  

Yet Shanahan was a great coach during his fourteen year tenure in the Mile High City.  He won two Super Bowls with John Elway.  He was called a mastermind for his amazing running offense that could allow seemingly any running back to rush for one thousand yards.

But couple his coaching responsibilities with all player personnel moves, and he becomes much more ordinary.  While there still is promise on the offensive side of the football (i.e. Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Eddie Royal), the Broncos defense was abysmal.  Denver allowed an average of 28 points per game, which ranked 30th in the NFL, and 29th in yards allowed, giving up a dismal 374.6 each week.

And, just look at that defense.  The personnel Shanahan is running out there couldn't be much worse.  What happened to the signature Broncos defense of a few years ago which featured skilled and speedy linebackers, a ferocious interior line and outstanding cornerbacks that dictated the passing game of their opponents?  It seems that the mastermind ignored that side of the ball, and it cost him his job in the end.

Not to mention the fact that his once vaunted running game, often considered the NFL's gold standard over the time Shanahan has coached in Denver, had Peyton Hillis lead it this year with a grand total of 343 yards rushing.  (For more on this, check out Scott's post on Shanahan's firing here.)

Shanahan was spread too thin, like many of the great football minds before him who have taken on too many football responsibilities with one team.  Despite his genius on the field, he couldn't translate that intelligence off of it, because it's nearly impossible for these men to juggle two extraordinarily exhausting jobs effectively.

He's not alone.  It didn't work out for Mike Holmgren in Seattle.  It has been up and down for Andy Reid in Philadelphia, as his team has had successes and disappointments during his tenure in both spots.  And don't forget what it has done for his troubled children.  Joe Gibbs was a phenomenal coach for the Redskins, who won three Super Bowls with three different quarterbacks under his tutelage in the 80s and early 90s.  But when he took over the Redskins from 2004-2007, he was a pedestrian 30-34 over those four years as coach and president of the team.  Bill Parcells was once coach and general manager at the same time.  But both times he won the Super Bowl with the Giants, George Young was his GM.

It's just too much work.  NFL coaches spend 365 days a year working towards a successful season.  How can anyone expect them to be good general managers at the same time?  Those around football know how many hours these coaches spend watching film, scheming game plans and coaching players.  How can they have time to make every player personnel decision as well?

Usually, they don't.  Or at least, they don't have enough time to do it well.  That's why coaches should stick to coaching.  Let general managers be general managers. 

Hump Day Headlines: New Years Eve Edition

In this week's Hump Day Headlines, we discuss fired NFL coaches, coaches who don't want to be hired, prima-donna Brett, and a look back at a crazy 2008.

• What do Mike Shanahan, Romeo Crennell, Eric Mangini, and Rod Marinelli all have in common?  You guessed it!  All were fired by their respective NFL teams in the last three days.  So on our fired coaches in the last couple months of 2008 ticker, that makes 10 head coaches who have been pink slipped, if you include the NBA head men as well.  2008, to say the least, has not been a good year for coaches.  That is, unless your name is Tom Coughlin, Doc Rivers, Charlie Manuel, or Mike Babcock.  You can also throw the names Les Miles and Bill Self onto that list.  Other than those six men, coaches had a tumultuous year, with countless firings in every sport (i.e. Denis Savard, Barry Melrose, Phillip Fulmer, Greg Robinson, etc.).  Adding to the list of coaches that should have been fired in 2008, look no further than Bills coach Dick Jauron, who was retained by owner Ralph Wilson on Tuesday after completing his third consecutive 7-9 campaign with the Bills on Sunday.
• Since there are obviously many vacancies now in the NFL head coaching fraternity, the most logical choice for any team that's looking for a new head man would be former Steelers coach and current NFL Today analyst Bill Cowher, who was pegged as the next coach of the New York Jets.  Problem is, Cowher apparently doesn't want the job, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen.  Cowher has apparently also turned down other NFL coaching vacancies, but he would be the best option of any coach currently unemployed.  If someone could woo him away from the CBS Studios, Cowher is the one man out there that could bring stability and success to an NFL team in the near future.  
• Brett Favre's excuse for his abysmal performance over the last five weeks for a Jets team that failed to make the playoffs after starting the year 8-3, (Favre threw two touchdowns and nine interceptions over that stretch) is that he had pain in his throwing shoulder.  Turns out the reason for this, according to doctors, is he has a torn biceps tendon in that right shoulder.  Doctors say Favre's injury can be corrected by avoiding arthroscopic surgery, but it is suggested.  Now, in addition to Favre's retirement watch, the national media has a new topic to cover...Brett Favre's Injury Watch!  WOO I'm psyched.
• 2008 was a wild year in sports.  Here are just some of the crazy things that happened:  Ohio State, a college football powerhouse that seems to reach the BCS title game yearly, was walloped once again by an SEC team in the championship game, losing in January 38-24 to LSU.  Two consecutive years, the same team crushed in the title game.  The Patriots nearly completed the first perfect season since the '72 Dolphins.  Instead, the Giants upset them in the Super Bowl, with a miraculous catch by David Tyree.  Bill Self won his first national championship as an NCAA coach, and the first for one of the winningest programs in college hoops history in twenty years.  The Boston Celtics, a 24 win team in 2006-2007, added Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.  Along with Paul Pierce the Celts ripped off a league high 66 wins and won the NBA title for the seventeenth time in team history.  Michael Phelps won EIGHT gold medals at the Olympics.  Eight.  And he's my age.  (Edit: Thank you, B.Stein) The Tampa Bay Rays won the AL East.  They reached their first world series in franchise history.  The Chicago Cubs had the best record in the National League.  Then they promptly lost three straight in the playoffs to the Dodgers.  The White Sox and Cubs made the playoffs at the same time for the first time since 1906.  The Philadelphia Phillies ended a twenty five year drought for the city of brotherly love, winning the first championship for Philadelphia since the '83 Sixers.  The Mets blew another playoff berth.  The Brewers made the playoffs for the first time in twenty five years.  The New England Patriots missed the playoffs.  The Broncos had a three game lead with three games left and missed the playoffs.  Tampa Bay lost four straight to miss the playoffs.  The man Brett Favre replaced, Chad Pennington, made the playoffs.  Brett did not.  And, Chad beat Brett to get there.    The Blackhawks lead the NHL in attendance.  The same Blackhawks who didn't have their home games televised until this year.  
• What a crazy 2008.  Here's to hoping for a great 2009.

You Know It's A Recession When...

It's not hard to lose your job when you lose every game on your schedule.

It's not hard to lose your job when your team starts of 8-3, and tanks the rest of the way out of the playoffs.

It's not hard to lose your job when your team doesn't score an offensive TD in the final 6 weeks and fails to live up to expectations after the first good season in what seemed like centuries.

And, as Mike Shanahan found out today, it's apparently not that hard to lose your job when you're the first team since 1967 and divisional play to blow a three game lead with three to play.

I'd imagine most people finding this news out found it shocking. After all, Shanahan had been head man in Denver for 14 years and won two Super Bowls.

However, he's also gone 24-24 his last three seasons.

He's only won a single playoff game since Elway retired in '99.

And that vaunted Denver rushing game, known for mass producing 1,000 yard rushers like something from I, Robot? Tatum Bell, 2006, was the last guy to have over a G.

Other big name coaches, most notably Jon Gruden and Wade Phillips, could also be on the way out in the coming days.

To paraphrase an expression I've heard in today's tough economic times, it's a recession when the coaches in your division get fired, it's a depression when you get fired.