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My spin on the coaching carousel Posted: Monday January 07, 2002 9:41 AM
ST. LOUIS -- This is always a tough time for coaches and their families. I'll never forget the year Wayne Fontes, midway through his fourth Merlot of the night, berated me -- raised voice, bulging vein in the neck, low eyebrows -- at the annual spring NFL meetings for a cartoon that had run in Sports Ilustrated a few months earlier accompanying a story I'd written about coaches on the hot seat. The illustration showed Fontes, and other coaches, being led to the guillotine. I never knew about the cartoon until I saw it in the magazine, but no matter. Fontes was furious. "Do you know how that made my family feel?!" he said. Well, that's life in the big leagues. But I was reminded of that Sunday, when, after I sat through the Rams' win against Atlanta that completed an NFL-best 14-2 regular season, I told St. Louis head coach Mike Martz : " Mike Shanahan may be taking the Florida job." Martz didn't even pause. "I'm not surprised."
You can figure why. The college job, if Shanahan takes it, would pay him something close to the $4.2 million he makes now as head coach/poohbah of the Broncos. Shanahan, who works as insanely as all these other head coaches, just finished a .500 season where his team was plagued by injuries and low performances of key players like Brian Griese. The college job, unless he turns into a complete rube, has seven wins on it named Louisiana-Monroe, Alabama-Birmingham, Vanderbilt and whoever else is bottom-feeding in the SEC these days. The NFL job is different, because even the Louisiana-Monroes have Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison and John Parrella on them. The college job has months off. The NFL job has less than a month. Martz, off a 14-win season, is totally spent; how do the Jim Moras and George Seiferts feel this morning? You saw how Mora felt on TV, most likely, on the highlight shows Sunday night. "I'm sorry," this solid man said, turning away from the postgame podium in Indianapolis at the end of the Colts' 6-10 season. He was crying. "It's the season ... the end of the season ... There are things I can't talk about ..." The game bruises these guys. And worse. Hey, I'm not passing out any sympathy pills for Shanahan or Martz, just reality pills. If the competition jones gets satisfied in the college game, and if the money's right, and if the media spotlight is less harsh, and you know a bad year is 8-3, why not take the plunge? I don't know that Shanahan's going. I haven't talked to him. But Florida would be foolish not to exhaust every possibility to get him to coach there. I've watched him run meetings and coach at close hand, and I've been with him in his coaches' locker room before a game. He is the best football coach in the NFL today. He has the best grasp of the whole picture -- the players, the strategy, the motivation, the cap, the draft. Should he stay in the NFL, it's not a question of if he'll win another his third Super Bowl. It's a question of when. The league would miss him immeasurably. I don't mean to be melodramatic here, but, if Shanahan were to go, losing him would be a huge hit for the league because of what it represents. The college job, for an established coach, is more civil. Battery-recharging time is plentiful. The pro job is lurching from one must-win to another, and then to free agency, and then to college scouting, and then the draft, and then to minicamps and passing schools and rookie orientation, with a break around the end of June, and then it starts up all over again in the middle of July for six months. Seven if you're lucky. I hope Shanahan stays, but I'm not optimistic. This has been as wild and woolly a coaching carousel as I've seen covering the league. Let's get to the coaching stuff, team-by-team: Minnesota: I said this Sunday on CNN/SI -- Brian Billick makes the most sense here. If owner Red McCombs really wants him, and if Baltimore -- which has spent the ungodly sum of $100 million on signing bonuses in the past two years -- would rather have a high first-round pick instead of eventually paying Billick big-time coach's money, a deal makes sense. I believe Billick is the only coach alive who could slap Randy Moss around and tell him to grow up and start playing hard all the time or he'll pull him out of the lineup. Billick, of course, was Moss' offensive coordinator in his rookie year. San Diego: Spurned by Jimmy Johnson ... Would love to have Bill Parcells, but Parcells prefers Tampa ... May have to settle for choosing from a group headed by Ted Cottrell, the Jets' defensive coordinator, though John Butler is aiming higher ... Norv Turner is not a candidate, and in an ideal world, the Bolts would keep him as offensive coordinator. Mildly surprising is that it doesn't look as if Miami will take a run at Turner to replace Chan Gailey. Looks like Dave Wannstedt will pay homage to the Don Shula legacy and give the job to Mike Shula. Carolina: I keep hearing Steve Spurrier here, even though that's news to in-the-know Panthers execs. Spurrier's a good fit for three reasons. One, he could sell some tickets for the most boring franchise south of the Expos. Two, he could give a rudderless ship some strong-willed direction, something Seifert couldn't do. Three, reportedly, there are some golf courses in the Charlotte area. If Spurrier isn't the man, I say Tony Dungy would be perfect. Washington: Getting a murky read here. Marty Schottenheimer, who I say got into this job partly for the Marty Schottenheimer Retirement Fund (and who can blame him, especially if he walks away this month with $7 million in Snyderbucks?) clearly is balking at having a strong GM come in. He refused to meet with owner Daniel Snyder on Sunday night. Firing Schottenheimer would be just this side of loony, seeing how he righted the ship and finished 8-3 in his last 11 games. "Would I like to come back?" he said. "You bet your tail. I love coaching. And you know what? If this is arrogant, so be it: I'm pretty good at it." Snyder will aggressively pursue Spurrier. They talked at least once during this season. And I hear Snyder offered him a deal last year for $3 million a season in base salary and $3 million more per year in incentives: $1 million for winning the NFC East, $1 million for getting to the conference title game, and $1 million for getting to the Super Bowl. Indianapolis: I hope Mora stays and shares a peace pipe with Peyton Manning. (By the way, here's the Last Negative Peyton Manning Note of All Time: With his 23rd interception Sunday, Peyton now has thrown more picks in a season than his father, Archie, threw in any of his.) The Horses might be getting in line for the 2003 Jon Gruden Sweepstakes, providing Al Davis doesn't push him out the door sooner. Jacksonville: Tom Coughlin goes nowhere. Well, he does go home for 15 minutes, showers, kisses his wife and says, "See you in June. I've got a franchise to tear down and reconstruct." ... Jags owner Wayne Weaver will meet with Coughlin this week to iron out a contract extension. The two men will slaughter their salary cap this year -- they should have done it last spring -- and position the franchise for a good run at the AFC South in 2003. Why not Spurrier there? "My analogy," Weaver said recently, "would be if you hired a COO in business, a chief operating officer. You bring him in and you have five magnificent years and all of a sudden, you've had one and a half down seasons. Do you throw the COO out with the staff? Or do you say, 'How can we retool and rebuild this and get things on the right road again?'" San Francisco: Steve Mariucci stays. Too complicated and too stupid for him not to. Did you know, by the way, that Mariucci has his parish priest on his home phone's speed dial? Denver: If Shanahan goes, I only know this: I don't think offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak succeeds him. I do think John Elway might get into this mix in some way because owner Pat Bowlen would love to get him involved somewhere in the front office. Atlanta: Met the new owner, Arthur Blank, in the bowels of the dome here Sunday night. "Who's going to be your coach next season?" I asked him. He said: "We have a good coach right now," and then he smiled and walked away. I must take a tea-reading class soon. I say Dan Reeves is back for one more year, unless the owner is a Spurrier fan. And that should cover things.
Kurt Warner said to his wife, Brenda, last week: "How could I ever win the MVP with Marshall Faulk on my team?" After last night's game, Warner urged me to vote for Faulk for MVP. Much mystery here. Who gets my vote? Read my SI column this week.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: St. Louis RB Marshall Faulk, for his masterful 168 yards rushing and 58 yards receiving in the 31-10 rout of the Falcons. "If he could throw," said Warner, "I might be extinct." What a great player. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: New England cornerback Otis Smith, who had five tackles, a sack and two interceptions in the 38-6, home-field-clinching win against the Panthers. He returned both picks for touchdowns, but one was called back by a penalty. Smith is a great example of how a bunch of okay players playing smart and hard can make a great team. SPECIAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Jets K John Hall, whose 53-yard field goal with 59 seconds left at Oakland sent New York into the playoffs with a 24-22 win. Clutch kicker. Clutch kicker. COACH OF THE WEEK: Washington head man Marty Schottenheimer. He knows he's history, barring something very freaky. But he'll go out with a Deionesque paycheck and his pride. The sad thing for Washington fans is that the players were buying into Schottenheimer over the last couple of months, even the ones -- Bruce Smith, Darrell Green -- who disliked him so much last summer.
I met David Carr, the Fresno State quarterback who could be the first pick in the April draft, Sunday night. He was in St. Louis with his wife and his new agent, Frank Bauer. Mike Martz and fellow Californian Bauer are old friends, and Bauer was going to have Carr meet the Rams coach over pizza at the Martz house Sunday night. Interesting media note, maybe only to me: Carr is buddies with Fresno State softball star Vanessa Czarnecki; she had him meet a Make-A-Wish kid last week. Vanessa is the daughter of FOX information maven John Czarnecki, who makes the guys on the FOX set sound smart. (Except, of course, when they're talking about Brett Favre and Michael Strahan. See below.)
1. I think these are my regular-season-ending NFL thoughts: a. If I were a fan in Atlanta, I would go out tomorrow and buy two prime season tickets to the 2002 Falcons. Why? Michael Vick is worth the price of admission if he's playing 1-on-11. The Falcons will draft a wideout high in April and give Vick a fighting chance next summer. b. Nice to see Jim Haslett's Saints show up the last 15 days of the season. They allowed 48, 40 and 38 points the last three weeks. Average margin of defeat in those games: 32 points. I'd love to know what's going through owner Tom Benson's head right now. He's not thrilled that this is such a devil-may-care team anyway. c. That Ernie Conwell is one heck of a football player. He made a 47-yard catch-and-run that led to the Rams' third touchdown, exclamation-pointing it along the way with a head-butting straight-arm substitute of a Falcons defensive back, knocking him to the ground. d. Lately, it looks as if Vinny Testaverde is trying to throw it to the other team. I didn't think this before Sunday's game, but I now think the Jets have to dump him and his $9 million June bonus in the offseason. e. Beware the Pats. They scored on offense, on defense and on special teams Sunday in Carolina. They are the only NFL team without an injury (except, of course, Terry Glenn's sprained attitude) on the 53-man roster. "They're the toughest team we played all year," Martz tells me. f. Any doubt about your next move, Jerry Richardson? g. Any doubt you need that retractable roof, Seattle? 2. I think I understand why Brett Favre laid down for Michael Strahan's record-breaking sack late in the Pack's 34-25 win. Strahan is universally respected as a man who plays hard and with tremendous regard for the game. But that doesn't mean I like it. Strahan started the day with 21 1/2 sacks, a half-sack behind Mark Gastineau's single-season NFL mark set in 1984. He was held sackless through the game's first 57 minutes because of Favre's quick release and an ever-changing cast of Packers characters combining to shut down Strahan. Then, with the game out of hand, Favre went back from center and turned into an onrushing Strahan and took a dive. I like both men. But that was not a proud moment for either. The record was manipulated. "He gave him a gimme, is what he did," Troy Aikman said on FOX. And what was Cris Collinsworth smoking in the studio afterward? Collinsworth called it "a magical moment in the NFL." What? A quarterback lays down and a defensive player lays on top of him to break a respected 17-year-old record? That's magic? Imagine, for a minute that Sammy Sosa is tied with Barry Bonds for the home run record on the last day of next baseball season. Greg Maddux is pitching for Atlanta. Last of the seventh at Wrigley. Could be Sosa's last at-bat of the season. Maddux underhands a lob over the heart of the plate. Sosa hits it over Waveland Avenue for the record-breaker. Would that be magic? Or professional wrestling? I got into this with Marshall Faulk after the game. I told him the manipulation of records was a bad thing. "Peter," he said, "it sounds like it's been a long time since you played the game. Give it to him. He deserves it." No, I said, he'd deserve it if he got it legitimately. Then he said, "What about Mark Gastineau being helped by steroids when he got the record?" I didn't think of it at the time, but I am now reminded of what Kenneth King taught his four kids growing up in Connecticut: Two wrongs don't make a right. 3. I think I don't buy for a second the way Dan Reeves allowed the man who is not the quarterback of his future, Chris Chandler, to dictate the handling of the man who is, Vick. Reeves had a great idea at the start of the season, to give top draft choice Vick a series or two a game in relief of Chandler. But Reeves let Chandler's unhappiness with the idea make him dump his plan. Entering the final game of the year, Vick had played in three of the Falcons' previous eight games, all because of injuries to Chandler. "It didn't work out work out," Reeves said. "It disrupted the flow of the game as far as Chris was concerned. Early in the season, we found out that really didn't give us the best chance to win the game." But when you make a decision to play an inexperienced kid, you should expect growing pains. Reeves should have stuck to his guns and given Vick more playing time. 4. I think there are two players this year who lead in the league in Respect Gained, Peter King Division: Kordell Stewart and Tiki Barber. Stewart for obvious reasons. He grew into a quarterback this year. He was smart enough to take the great coaching of Steelers aides Tom Clements and Mike Mularkey and parlay it into the best year of his life. And Barber, well, he's the toughest guy, pound-for-pound, playing today. The megahits he took all season and he just kept on ticking ... amazing. Last week against Philadelphia, Barber took the biggest pounding I've seen a player take in the league this year and he just kept getting up and patting Eagles on their helmets. "In my book," Eagles cornerback Troy Vincent told me a few days ago, "Tiki's in the same league as Marshall Faulk. We just pounded him, play after play. I say you put him the backfield with Bruce, Hakim, Warner and those guys and he'd put up the same numbers." That may be going overboard. But you get the point. 5. I think these college football thoughts in the wake of some god-awful bowl games: a. The Miami Hurricanes are the Rams. They don't lose unless they turn it over excessively. b. Canes tight end Jeremy Shockey will be a better pro than Shannon Sharpe. c. Joey Harrington looks hauntingly like Peyton Manning to me. What a player. d. Someone please explain to me how Florida lost twice. And how pathetic the ACC is, if that Maryland team is the best it had to offer. e. Attention NFL scouts, GMs, personnel directors: If one of you doesn't take Major Applewhite by the sixth round and make him your heady second or third quarterback, well, you're watching a different game than I am. f. Now for the first mock draft of the year (top five picks only): 1. Houston -- QB David Carr, Fresno State. 2. Carolina -- OT Bryant McKinnie, Miami. 3. Detroit -- OLB Julius Peppers, North Carolina. 4. Buffalo -- OT Mike Williams, Texas. 5. Washington (trade up) -- QB Joey Harrington, Oregon. 6. I think I like this description of the Dolphins, from an AFC pro scout: "They're like a heavyweight that wears down in the late rounds of a 15-round fight. What do they ever have left at the end of the year?" We'll find out on Sunday. 7. I think these are my personal thoughts of the week: a. Coffeenerdness: The grande white mocha is the way to go these days. If the Starbucks barista pulls a couple of bad shots (an epidemic in the Starbucks chain), the white chocolate can disguise it. b. Saw a half-hour on Ma Barker on the History Channel, which I've not been watching nearly enough. Great show and channel. c. Funniest line in the press box about all the coaching stuff Sunday, from a fellow laying out the pregame food: "I hear Spurrier's going to Dallas. That's the word on the street. It's a done deal." You've got to love this time of year, except if you have to sort all the crap out. 8. I think Armen Keteyian did a heck of a job pointing out the continuing dangers of diet supplements Sunday on The NFL Today. Half the league using them against the NFL strictures, though? Sounds like an exaggeration to me. 9. I think I'm glad my daughter doesn't date Sebastian Janikowski. 10. I think 49ers-Packers has a chance to be a game for the ages.
Now that Mike Tice might be coaching for a shot at the Vikings job -- though I sincerely doubt it -- and now that the Ravens have to win to make the playoffs, this is an interesting game. But not a good one. Baltimore, 27-10. Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL and appears
regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's NFL Preview. Click here to send a question to his
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