Snap Judgments (cont.)

• I maintain there is nothing in the NFL experience that hurts worse than losing in the conference title game. The so-close-to-the-Super-Bowl agony lingers even longer than a Super Bowl loss. That's what the Eagles are going through right now.

Make no mistake, losing the Super Bowl is a misery all its own too. But at least you made it to the game and experienced the entire surreal ride that a Super Bowl trip has become, and you have a conference championship to at least add some sense of accomplishment. But lose a conference title game and you're just a loser in the semifinals, and quickly forgotten.

• Good call by the Rams in landing Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo as their new head coach. Getting one of the league's most highly regarded head-coaching prospects to take a job when you can't even tell him who the owner of the team might be next week, next month or next year is no small accomplishment by St. Louis.

The Rams were no doubt feeling a certain sense of urgency to reel in Spagnuolo, perhaps fearing that their cross-state rivals, the Chiefs, might have a new general manager in Scott Pioli who was eyeing their leading candidate. But any way you cut it, from Scott Linehan to Jim Haslett to Spagnuolo is a definite upgrade.

• Think Al Davis has a happy smirk on his face this weekend? By upsetting Tampa Bay on the road in Week 17, his lowly Raiders single-handedly got Gruden and Bruce Allen -- two of his least favorite people -- fired. Had the Bucs beaten Oakland, they make the playoffs for the second consecutive year and third time in four years, and in all likelihood Gruden and Allen survive into an eighth season in Tampa Bay.

• Though the timing was a shocker, I get the Gruden firing when you consider that Tampa Bay owners Joel and Bryan Glazer were determined not to let another Mike Tomlin get away right from under their noses. For one of my midseason Coaches on the Hot Seat updates that I did this year, new Bucs head coach Raheem Morris was described to me as the league's next Tomlin, a 32-year-old position coach with a huge upside.

The Bucs saw Tomlin go from being their defensive backs coach in 2005 to Minnesota's defensive coordinator in 2006, to Pittsburgh's successful rookie head coach in 2007. Morris, of course, was the Bucs defensive backs coach last season, but had already been promoted to defensive coordinator once Monte Kiffin left for the University of Tennessee.

• I can't say it was anything more than stating the obvious, but on Dec. 28, the day the regular season closed, I wrote this about Gruden: "Speaking of Gruden, if his job isn't in jeopardy after the Bucs' 0-4 December meltdown, why exactly isn't it? Delivering a Super Bowl victory in his first season in Tampa Bay bought Gruden a reservoir of time and goodwill, but the last of that political capital has now undoubtedly been exhausted.

"It has been six long years since the Bucs' most recent playoff victory -- that Super Bowl blowout win over the Raiders -- and this season's collapse to a 9-7, non-playoff finish after a 9-3 start underlines the underachievement in Tampa Bay like never before. Gruden has always worn a protective coating of Teflon when it comes to coaching on the hot seat, but you have to figure that's over.''

Interesting that the coaches known as the Teflon Twins -- Gruden and Denver's Mike Shanahan -- not only felt some heat this season, but also succumbed to it.

• The moral of the story in NFL coaching these days is don't dare have a late-season slide to cost your team a playoff spot. The Jets' Eric Mangini did, and he was fired. Denver's Shanahan did, and he was fired. Tampa Bay's Gruden did, and he was fired. Only Dallas's Wade Phillips survived that type of scenario this season, and we're still not sure how.

• What a remarkable talent drain on the NFL coaching front in the past four offseasons, at least if you measure it by Super Bowl rings. Think about this: Dick Vermeil retired after the 2005 season. Bill Parcells and Bill Cowher leave the sidelines after the 2006 season. Joe Gibbs retires again after the 2007 season, and Brian Billick is fired. And this year, Tony Dungy and Mike Holmgren get out of the game, while Shanahan and Gruden are fired.

Those nine coaches have won a combined 13 Super Bowl rings, leaving New England's Bill Belichick and New York's Tom Coughlin as the only active NFL coaches who have won Super Bowls. That says it all.

• Morris is this year's Jim Zorn, a guy who went from position coach, to first-time coordinator, to first-time head coach in a span of what, about 12 minutes? That's a great career path if you can manage to find your way onto that particular fast track.

• Talked to Jack Del Rio on Saturday and asked him how it felt to now be the most tenured NFL head coach in Florida, now that Gruden's seven-year reign in Tampa Bay is over.

"It's a tough, tough league," Del Rio said, with a slight air of resignation. "A third of the league is going to wind up making a coaching change this year (it'll be a single-season record 11 teams if Kansas City's Herm Edwards is dismissed). That's crazy, but that's the way things are these days."

• With Rob Ryan being hired by Mangini as his defensive coordinator in Cleveland, both Rob and his twin brother, Rex, are in the NFC North. At least for now. I expect the Jets to hire Rex Ryan as their head coach as soon as Baltimore's playoff run is over.

• Coming to a TV screen near you: Jon Gruden, network television NFL analyst. We can all see that one from a mile away. And when it comes to the annual ex-head coach-turned-broadcaster set, Gruden will be the new and popular flavor of the month.

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