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| FILE - Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid during the first half of an NFL football game against the New York Giants Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 in East Rutherford, N.J. Reid has been fired after 14 seasons coaching the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles made the announcement Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. |
Quite a day for NFL sacks.
Seven
coaches and five general managers were fired Monday in a flurry of pink
slips that were delivered the day after the regular-season ended.
There could be more, but so far the sent-packing scorecard looks like this:
Andy
Reid in Philadelphia, Lovie Smith in Chicago, and Ken Whisenhunt in
Arizona, all coaches who took teams to the Super Bowl, Norv Turner in
San Diego, Pat Shurmur in Cleveland, Romeo Crennel in Kansas City and
Chan Gailey in Buffalo.
Three teams made it a
clean sweep, saying goodbye to the GM along with the coach - San Diego,
Cleveland, Arizona. General managers also were fired in Jacksonville and
in New York, where Rex Ryan held onto his coaching job with the Jets
despite a losing record.
Reid was the longest
tenured of the coaches, removed after 14 seasons and a Super Bowl
appearance in 2005 - a loss to New England.
Smith spent nine seasons with the Bears, leading them to the 2007 Super Bowl - a loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
Turner
has now been fired as head coach by three teams. San Diego won the AFC
West from 2006-09, but didn't make the postseason the last three
years.
"Both Norv and A.J. are consummate NFL
professionals, and they understand that in this league, the bottom-line
is winning," Chargers President Dean Spanos said in a statement.
Whisenhunt
was fired after six seasons, including taking the Cardinals to a Super
Bowl loss to Pittsburgh after the 2008 season. He had more wins than
any other coach in Cardinals history, going 45-51, and has one year
worth about $5.5 million left on his contract. GM Rod Graves had been
with Arizona for 16 years, nine in his current position. A 5-11 record
after a 4-0 start cost him and Whisenhunt their jobs.
Gailey was dumped after three seasons with the Bills; Shurmur after two; and Crennel had one full season with the Chiefs.
Reid
took over a 3-13 Eagles team in 1999, drafted Donovan McNabb with the
No. 2 overall pick and quickly turned the franchise into a title
contender.
He led them to a run of four
straight NFC championship games, a streak that ended with a trip to the
NFL title game. But the team hasn't won a playoff game since 2008 and
after last season's 8-8 finish, owner Jeffrey Lurie said he was looking
for improvement this year. Instead, it was even worse. The Eagles
finished 4-12.
"When you have a season like
that, it's embarrassing. It's personally crushing to me and it's
terrible," Lurie said at a news conference. He said he respects Reid and
plans to stay friends with him, "but, it is time for the Eagles to move
in a new direction."
Shurmur went 9-23 in his
two seasons with the Browns, who will embark on yet another offseason
of change - the only constant in more than a decade of futility.
Cleveland has lost at least 11 games in each of the past five seasons
and made the playoffs just once since returning to the NFL as an
expansion team in 1999.
"Ultimately our
objective is to put together an organization that will be the best at
everything we do," Browns CEO Joe Banner said. " On the field, our only
goal is trying to win championships."
Crennel
took over with three games left in the 2011 season after GM Scott Pioli
fired Todd Haley. Kansas City will have the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft
as a result of having one of the worst seasons in its 53-year history.
The only other time the Chiefs finished 2-14 was 2008, the year before
Pioli was hired.
"I am embarrassed by the poor
product we gave our fans this season, and I believe we have no choice
but to move the franchise in a different direction," Chiefs chairman
Clark Hunt said in a statement.
Gailey, the former Dallas Cowboys coach, compiled a 16-32 record in his three seasons in Buffalo, never doing better than 6-10.
"This
will probably be, and I say probably, but I think it will be the first
place that's ever fired me that I'll pull for," Gailey said.
Smith
and the Bears went 10-6 this season and just missed a playoff spot. But
Chicago started 7-1 and has struggled to put together a productive
offense throughout Smith's tenure. His record was 81-63 with the
Bears,
and he took them to one Super Bowl loss and to one NFC championship game
defeat.
Receiver and kick return standout Devin Hester was bitter about Smith's firing.
"The
media, the false fans, you all got what you all wanted," Hester said as
he cleared out his locker. "The majority of you all wanted him out. As
players we wanted him in. I guess the fans - the false fans - outruled
us. I thought he was a great coach, probably one of the best coaches
I've ever been around."
The fired GMs included
Mike Tannenbaum of the Jets; Gene Smith of the Jaguars; A.J. Smith of
the Chargers and Tom Heckert of the Browns and Graves of Arizona.
"You
hope that those guys that obviously were victims of black Monday land
on their feet," Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. "You've got guys that have
been to Super Bowls and won championship games and all of a sudden
they've forgot how to coach, I guess."
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