For a usually frigid time in late November, it sure is getting awfully hot in the NFL.
The only problem is that the scorching heat can be felt on many seats that support the behinds of team’s head honchos. This 2010 season is becoming remembered as a season of unfulfilled ambitions and disappointing leadership with head coaches either given the pink slip during the season or possibly getting their pardon papers in the near future.
The changing of the guard during the season is nothing new in the NFL; certain teams underperform in previous years and have sent head coaches home packing early. The difference is that many of those teams were sliding downhill in previous seasons as well.
This year, many of the teams that played well in 2009 started this year with big goals, but were never even close to reaching them as 2010 progressed. Some franchises have already cut ties with their head coaches, while others are nearly ready to sever those bonds soon enough.
Dallas Cowboys: Started With Wade Phillips; Now With Jason Garrett
America’s team appeared ready to return to prominence after last season. With an 11-5 record and first place of the NFC East, the Cowboys rumbled into the playoffs with a big win at home over their rival Philadelphia Eagles, but would come up short against the Minnesota Vikings in the second round.
Owner Jerry Jones’s state-of-the-art stadium was selected to host the 2011 NFL Super Bowl and his dream was to have the team become the first team to play a Super Bowl at home.
That dream soon turned into a nightmare.
Dallas would drop their first two games of the season before finally getting their first win just as their bye week came in week four. They would then go on to drop five in a row, prompting Jones to make a switch at head coach from four-year coach Wade Phillips to offensive coordinator Jason Garrett.
Since then, Garrett has appeared to adjust the direction of the ship back in the route Jones expected of his team to head prior to the start of the season. He has won two of the three games in which he’s been at the helm and is holding on to any slim chance of making Jones’s dream come true.
Minnesota Vikings: Started With Brad Childress; Now With Leslie Frazier
After losing an overtime heartbreaker in the NFC Championship game in 2009, this season became Super Bowl-or-bust for the Vikings. With virtually the same team returning from a year ago (including the age-less Brett Favre), Minnesota felt it was their year to be greater than last year and never lose in the playoffs.
The only problem is that they had to actually get through the 2010 regular season first.
The season began with the Vikes playing the first game of the season against New Orleans, the team that beat them out in the overtime championship game, and then against the Miami Dolphins. Both would end in losses. They would finally beat out the Detroit Lions for their first win just before they headed into their bye week.
That week produced a trade for WR Randy Moss, a move that looked to be a shot in the arm for a team in need of a boost. The trade instead became a virus of what was wrong with the Vikings as they would go on to lose three of the next four they played and the waiver of the superstar wideout after only acquiring him a month earlier. They would then go on to win only one of the next three outings and owner Zygi Wilf decided it was time for a change.
That change came in the form of canning head coach Brad Childress and promoting Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier as the interim head coach. Although they won their first game with their new leader, it appears that the Vikings took the bust road for the 2010 season with the hope of a title riding farther off into the sunset.
Coming Up Next For Possible Fired Coaches
San Francisco 49ers: Mike Singletary
Since becoming the coach of the 49ers in 2008, Singletary has become the face and voice of the team with his proclamations and domineering antics. He professes that this team, as well as his ability to coach, will continue to improve and progress with 2010 being the year that they would return to the promise land the organization once owned during the 80s and 90s.
Yet, as the 2010 season got underway, it appeared that the 49ers season appeared to reflect a year in their history that was not a part of those glory decades. San Francisco lost their first five games and got off to their worst start since 1979. A complete 180 for a team that not only believed themselves to be a division winner before the season started, but also a squad others picked as preseason NFC West favorites as well.
Now the 49ers are 4-7 and are hanging on to the ledge of the worst division in football with just a few fingers. Although they were shut out at home for the first time since 1977 against Tampa Bay, they have bounced back with a big win on the road at Arizona.
Will they ownership of the 49ers keep their faith in their extremely vocal leader, or will they kick him to the curb with the feeling that he is just all talk and no substance?
Cincinnati Bengals: Marvin Lewis
The hot seat is nothing new for Marvin Lewis. The eight-year head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals has been the in this same discussion topic since after the 2005 playoff run with no returns to the postseason since. He erased all those doubters with a 10-6 record in 2009 and finally getting back to the playoffs.
During the offseason, the Bengals acquired controversial WR Terrell Owens with hopes of capitalizing on last year’s success with a deeper playoff run this season. With another talented, but loud mouthed WR in Owens on one end, wideout Chad Ochocinco labeled the both of them Batman and Robin.
Except the only similarities that both receivers have is being a part of a bomb like the 1997 “Batman And Robin” movie.
After a 2-1 start, they have lost eight in a row including losses to 3-7 Cleveland and 2-8 Buffalo. It doesn’t get any easier for the team many thought would be a contender for the AFC North champions as four of their last five games are against teams with winning records.
Now that he is returning back into the hot seat discussion, Lewis can only hope the real Batman and Robin could come in to save this disastrous season and his job.
