There were seven coaches fired in the NFL on Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. When football teams are not successful, the buck stops with the head coach. Owners and fans will only watch a losing team for a short period of time before they call for the head of the one who is responsible, at least in their eyes.
The Kansas Eagle had the story:
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
Five GM’s were fired, too, in this New Year's housecleaning: Tom Heckert of the Browns, Rod Graves of the Cardinals, A.J. Smith of the Chargers, Gene Smith of the Jaguars, and Mike Tannenbaum of the Jets.
Although often a sad parting for all involved, sometimes it is refreshing to see an institution that actually holds someone accountable for performance and results. USA Today has the statement made by Kansas City Chief’s CEO Clark Hunt about the firing of Romeo Crennel:
I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Romeo, both personally and professionally," Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt said in a statement. "He is an accomplished coach, a man of great character and he helped guide our football team through some extremely challenging circumstances this season. However, 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. I will immediately begin the search for the next head coach of the Chiefs."
Oddly, the NFL finds a way to demand efficiency that is still civil and even nice. It really goes without saying that our government officials and politicians could surely take a few pointers from the NFL. They pass the buck more than the players pass the football,
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