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Hot assistant The time is now for Ravens' Marvin Lewis
And so another NFL head coach lost his prime parking space in the team complex parking lot Thursday. This time it was Cleveland's Chris Palmer who was asked to turn in his pass card, after just two seasons on the job. Now the Browns need a new head coach, as do the Jets, Bills and probably the Lions. That's more than enough openings for Marvin Lewis, wouldn't you think? Or at least it should be. If there's a sense of fairness and conscience in the league's 31-member body of ownership, the talented Baltimore defensive coordinator won't be in his current job for too much longer. Thursday was a good day on the Lewis job-watch front. More and more it looks like he might wind up being the leading candidate in both Cleveland and Buffalo, where his reputation is already well known by key members of those organizations. He may even wind up having his choice between jobs. But for now, Lewis can do nothing about it. While head coaching jobs around the league surprisingly open, and sometimes quickly close, even before his Ravens are done in the NFL playoffs, he sits and waits his turn to interview. He bides his time, concentrating on the opponent ahead in Sunday's AFC title game at Oakland, trying to block out the rumors and reports that swirl around him. Lewis is No. 1 on the "hot assistant" list. But that guarantees little. Marc Trestman was too, once upon a time.
Make no mistake, Lewis' time is now. He will never be hotter. If one of the time-tested paths to power in the NFL is to have been a successful coordinator, how much more successful can Lewis get? A Super Bowl would certainly add luster to his resume, but already his Ravens defense has finished No. 2 in the league two years running. And this year, Baltimore set modern-day records for fewest points allowed and fewest rushing yards surrendered. A bevy of Ravens defenders will go to the Pro Bowl. But it will take some patience on a team's part to hire Lewis. Somebody willing to wait for and invest in a young coach with the look of a winner, rather than an old, proven commodity. Please, NFL owners. No more Schotteheimers. No more Vermeils or Parcells. Spare us the comeback of another three-time head coach, who left the game for his own reasons a scant few months ago. Are you as dizzy as I am from the now-familiar pattern of veteran coaches who say their good byes, write their books, land their TV gigs, only to return again and again to the job market? Can it be long before Mike Ditka gets the itch again? Hopefully this time there's no one there to scratch it. Every time a Dick Vermeil-like saga unfolds in the league -- and commissioner Paul Tagliabue is getting pretty quick at divining these two-team contractual tug of wars, thanks to all the practice -- it gets a little tougher to believe anything that anyone says on their way out the door these days. When does farewell mean farewell? Lewis has repeatedly said all the right things this year about his head-coaching candidacy. It is a goal, not an obsession. He wants the opportunity some day, but he doesn't wake each day dreaming of it. But image this: Lewis as a head coach for Cleveland in the AFC Central, a division he knows like the back of his hand. Lewis returning a defense-oriented Browns to respectability, and into contention with the Baltimores and Tennessees of the football world.
If not now, when?Could it happen? It appears so. It's early in the process, but according to a league source, Lewis' name shot to the top of the Browns' wish list Thursday afternoon. The most appealing part of his resume are those nine seasons spent in the AFC Central, the last five as the Ravens defensive coordinator. Some in the Browns front office might push to hire another head coach with a background on offense. Somebody like New Orleans offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy. But as one league source said: "They went that way last time, and where did it get them?" Palmer, a former offensive coordinator, won all of five games in his two seasons in Cleveland. In Buffalo, new team president and general manager Tom Donahoe might fill the bill, so to speak, with either Dom Capers or Chan Gailey. Both are highly qualified and well respected coaches who are currently coordinators.
But wouldn't it be refreshing, if Buffalo took the riskier path of looking past the familiar names, opting instead for Lewis or Bills defensive coordinator Ted Cottrell, who has a track record with the team and the support of many of the players? Lewis worked as the Steelers linebackers coach in Pittsburgh during Donahoe's tenure, and he has the new boss's respect. The Bills, too, have Lewis high on their short list. It'd be nice to make it all the way through this column without mentioning that Lewis and Cottrell are both African-Americans. But that is sadly relevant. Not in terms of their qualifications, but it terms of their chances of being hired. The numbers are the numbers. The league's "progress" on the issue of minority hiring among head coaches has been virtually non-existent in recent years. It may not be based upon anything resembling discrimination, but pressure still needs to be applied on behalf of qualified men like Lewis and Cottrell. In the Not-For-Long business that the world of NFL coaching has become, the question that still applies is this: If not now, when? Marvin Lewis, and others like him, have more than done their part. Don Banks covers pro football for CNNSI.com.
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