DENVER (AP) – Every year, while a dozen NFL head coaches are preparing their teams for the playoffs, nearly as many coaches are called into their…
DENVER (AP) – Every year, while a dozen NFL head coaches are preparing their teams for the playoffs, nearly as many coaches are called into their general manager’s office and told they’re fired for not being one of those dozen coaches who are preparing their teams for the playoffs.
Eight coaches lost their jobs in 2018, including Mike McCarthy in Green Bay and Hue Jackson in Cleveland, long before the holidays rolled around.
A half dozen more finished the season before getting their walking papers, including Todd Bowles of the Jets and Dirk Koetter of the Bucs on Sunday night.
On Monday, they were joined by Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati, Vance Joseph in Denver, Adam Gase in Miami and Steve Wilks in Arizona.
Joseph drew an especially strong reaction in the Broncos’ solemn locker room, where players who had fought hard for him realized they had let down their beloved coach by not pulling out enough of those close games in a 6-10 season.
However, linebacker Brandon Marshall said out loud what was surely on plenty of players’ minds in Green Bay, Cleveland, New York, Tampa, Cincinnati, Miami and Phoenix, too.
Asked if the cold reality of the win-or-go-home NFL really hits home on the annual – in Denver’s it’s become semi-annual – day of reckoning for head coaches, Marshall said:
“I know how everything goes. I’ve been fired before a bunch of times. One of the saddest days in the NFL is cut day for the 53-man roster. That kind of sets in more. But don’t coaches get their full salary regardless? So, (shoot).
