They lost to New England on Saturday.
And head coach Mike Mularkey was fired today.
He was 21-22 overall.
Archive for the ‘Firings’ Category
Remember the Titans?
Monday, January 15th, 2018An embarrassment of Rich.
Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018Rich Rodriguez fired last night as head coach of the University of Arizona.
Why? Would you believe…sexual harassment?
Arizona Daily Star (really obnoxious about ad blockers). NYT. ESPN.
Part of what makes this interesting is that RichRod was fired, but the university admits it wasn’t “for cause”: this means that they have to pay his contract buyout ($6 million) plus whatever the plaintiff wins (or settles for) in their pending claim against the university. So this could add up quick. And, as the Daily Star notes, this isn’t the only sports related problem the university has.
(Also: why does a university football coach need representation from CAA?)
“publicly traded units on the so-called ‘Longevity Fund'”? Have I just not had enough coffee this morning? Or did RichRod have some sort of weirdly structured deal?
Blood watch.
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018The Houston Texas have let several assistants go:
- special teams coordinator Larry Izzo
- secondary coach John Butler
- assistant special teams coordinator Doug Colman
Mr. Izzo’s departure is described as “a mutual parting of the ways” rather than a firing, while Mr. Butler’s and Mr. Colman’s are described as actual firings.
Running backs coach Charles London is leaving the staff on his own without being dismissed. London wants to pursue a quarterback coaching position.
Meanwhile, Texans director of football research Jim Bernhardt is retiring.
Dom Capers out as defensive coordinator for Green Bay. Also inside linebackers coach Scott McCurley and defensive line coach Mike Trgovac. It feels kind of crappy to fire guys after a season disrupted by a quarterback’s injury. But then again, as ESPN points out, the Pack’s defense ranked 22nd out of 32 teams: you can’t blame not having a quarterback for that.
Monday, bloody Monday…
Monday, January 1st, 2018It has begun.
Jim Caldwell fired as head coach of the Detroit Lions.
Give the man credit though: in four seasons, none of his teams went 0-16.
John Fox gone as coach of da Bears. He was 14-34 over three seasons, and 5-11 this year.
Edited to add: Not a firing, but Bruce Arians has retired as coach of the Arizona Cardinals, ostensibly to spend more time with his family. (Some coverage has also mentioned that Mr. Arians has suffered from various health issues, too.)
Snoop, call your office, please…
Sunday, December 31st, 2017Chuck Pagano out as head coach of the Colts.
The team was 4-12 this year.
Edited to add: And now, Jack Del Rio out as coach of the Raiders, according to ESPN. Haven’t found a good link for this yet. Rumor for the past couple of days has been that the Raiders really want Jon Gruden and are prepared to offer him everything, including equity in the team.
Gregg Easterbrook is going to be more insufferable than usual.
TMQ Watch: December 19, 2017.
Tuesday, December 19th, 2017Before we jump into this week’s column, we did want to make note of the not-technically-a-firing-but resignation of ESPN president John Skipper. We think it is appropriate to note this here because this is sportsfirings.com, and for reasons we will get into shortly.
We really don’t have much to say about this: we don’t care much for ESPN, or the way Skipper’s been running it. But substance abuse of any sort sucks, and we wish the man all the luck in the world.
After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
Your loser update: week 15, 2017.
Monday, December 18th, 2017NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cleveland
This isn’t working out too too badly. The Browns lost. The New York Football Giants lost again, and sit at 2-12. San Francisco won, and is now 4-10.
Cleveland’s next game is on the road at Chicago. da Bears are also 4-10: I’m concerned about this game, but Chicago will be playing at home, with an extra day of rest (they played Saturday) and has something to play for. Even a moral victory is still a victory.
And let us not forget the Colts, who are at 3-11, but don’t play Cleveland or New York or SF the rest of this season, so who cares? (Their last two games are Baltimore on the road and Houston at home.)
In “not exactly a firing, but…” news: Jerry Richardson is selling the Carolina Panthers.
“Why?” you may ask.
The announcement came just hours after a Sports Illustrated report outlined allegations of sexual and racial misconduct by Richardson toward former Panthers employees.
The team announced an investigation into the alleged misconduct on Friday evening. The NFL said Sunday that it would take over the investigation.
This is still a developing story. Does Richardson selling the team cut off the NFL investigation? Could the Panthers move if they were sold? If so, where? And should I ask for a Magic 8-Ball for Christmas?
Shocked, shocked I am!
Thursday, December 7th, 2017Really!
We have a firing. In the Cleveland Browns organization.
But not head coach Hue Jackson.
Sashi Brown, the “Executive Vice President of Football Operations” was fired earlier today.
But wait, it gets better! The Browns are bringing back Jackson as head coach next year!
Noted:
Brown’s signature move was trading the No. 2 pick in the 2016 draft to the Philadelphia Eagles for a boatload of picks. The Eagles drafted Wentz, and are now 10-2. They’re Super Bowl contenders, and the Browns are trying to avoid becoming the second team in NFL history to go 0-16.
With picks acquired in that trade, Brown selected receiver Corey Coleman, right tackle Shon Coleman, quarterback Cody Kessler, receiver Ricardo Louis, safety Derrick Kindred, receiver Jordan Payton, offensive lineman Spencer Drango, Jabrill Peppers and DeShone Kizer.
We have a firing!
Monday, December 4th, 2017Actually, two: New York Football Giants head coach Ben McAdoo and general manager Jerry Reese.
From what I’ve read (somebody please correct me if I’m wrong), it wasn’t just the 2-10 record, though that was a big part of it. The team had previously said they weren’t going to fire McAdoo before the end of the season.
But then the whole Eli Manning thing blew up. Rumor has it that the Giants ownership are big, big Eli Manning fans, and they were not pleased with the benching and how it was handled.
I think we have a photo of that:
In other news, ESPN has their predictions for every bowl game up. I don’t care that much about the predictions, but this is a handy list of every bowl game (as far as I know): it’s fun to go down the list and pick out the silly ones.
For example, the “Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl”? The what? (“Cheribundi” is apparently some sort of bottled tart cherry drink that the makers are trying to position as a Muscle Milk/Gatorade competitor.)
And there’s the “Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl”, which, it turns out, is actually the reincarnation of the old Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, which in turn became the Bitcoin St. Petersburg Bowl for one year (and I guess hasn’t had a sponsor between 2015 and now).
I was thinking the list of bowl sponsors is awfully heavy on chicken: I still do, but research tells me that Popeye’s stopped sponsoring the Bahamas Bowl this year. Darn shame, that: we need to get them back into the bowl game swing. And I still want my Beef O’Brady’s Bowl, too.
At least I have the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on the 22nd.
He failed to curry favor.
Friday, December 1st, 2017Question #2: does athletics director John Currie quit, or get fired?
Answer: he got fired this morning, according to “reports”. The press conference is at 4 PM Eastern.
ESPN reports that Currie was in LA yesterday, interviewing Mike Leach (!).
And I don’t have another good place to put this, so I’ll stick it here:
The discovery on this case has the potential to be interesting like a train wreck. I can smell the popcorn now…
Unbearable.
Monday, November 27th, 2017David Fizdale out as head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. I do believe this is the first coach firing of the NBA season.
He was 50-51 after a little more than a year with the team. The big problems seem to be that he was 7-12 so far this season, they’ve lost eight games in a row, and Mr. Fizdale got crosswise with Marc Gasol (one of the team’s star players).
In other news, Ty Detmer is also out as offensive coordinator for BYU.
A firing, for sure.
Monday, November 27th, 2017David Bailiff out as head coach at Rice.
He’d been there for 11 seasons and was 57-80 overall.
He also took Rice to four bowl games.
After going 3-9 in Bailiff’s first season in 2007, Rice rebounded with a 10-3 year and won the Texas Bowl in 2008. But since winning the Owls’ first outright conference title in 56 years in 2013, Bailiff’s teams have done progressively worse.
Rice went 8-5 in 2014 and won the Hawaii Bowl. They ended 2015 with a 5-7 record and finished 3-9 in 2016.
And they were 1-11 this year, which is not a good look.
Not quite a firing, but…
Monday, November 27th, 2017…I think this is the strangest football story (college or pro) I’ve seen so far this season. I didn’t know anything about it until this morning when I checked my phone: Mike the Musicologist had pinged me overnight, but the media wasn’t covering this when I wrote last night’s loser/firings update.
But I digress. As you know, Bob, Tennessee fired Butch Jones a few weeks ago. So they’ve been looking for a replacement, and found one…
…Greg Schiano, current defensive coordinator with Ohio State.
The name “Greg Schiano” may ring some bells with longtime readers. Gregg Easterbrook had serious issues with Mr. Schiano during his previous coaching tenures, which include a stint at Tampa Bay (where he was fired after going 11-21) and at Rutgers for 11 years before that (where he was 68-67). Most of Easterbrook’s issues seemed to be with Mr. Schiano’s alleged lack of “sportsmanship”: Mr. Schiano famously bragged about telling his teams to disrupt kneel-down plays.
Anyway. The university apparently signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Mr. Schiano, and word got out on Sunday.
Hilarity ensued. If by “hilarity” you mean “a massive s–t fit”.
Tennessee students, fans, and some political figures did not like the idea of hiring Mr. Schiano. At least part of the objection seems to be that Mr. Sciano’s previous coaching stints also include a stop at Penn State during the Sandusky era.
Schiano was known in the NFL as being a domineering leader with a challenging personality.
Giggle. Snort.
Now Tennessee has apparently backed out of the deal. USA Today. ESPN.
Question 1: does Tennessee owe Mr. Schiano money? And if so, how much?
There are reports that TN will owe Schiano $20 million in a buyout for a contract that was signed but TN backed… https://t.co/fouiHHZmjl
— Brad Jones (@BradJonesBBBTV) November 27, 2017
I think Brad Jones knows more about this stuff than I do, but $20 million seems unlikely to me. I can see this costing the university some money, maybe even in the seven-figure range. But it looks like Mr. Schiano still has his Ohio State job, and the contract was “subject to approval” by the board of regents…
Question #2: does athletics director John Currie quit, or get fired?
Look, national media can think what they want about us, but at no point in history has every member of #VolTwitter AND the Tennessee media agreed on something. That's how big of a deal this Schiano thing is.
— Brian Rice (@briancrice) November 26, 2017
Your loser update (plus bonus firings): week 12, 2017.
Sunday, November 26th, 2017NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cleveland.
I remain cautiously optimistic. The Browns play the woeful Chargers next Sunday, and the Chargers are the team that ruined Cleveland’s shot at a perfect season last year. But: the Browns are playing in LA, those Chargers are 5-6, and they just beat Dallas at home (on Thanksgiving, yet, so those Chargers will have a few extra days to get ready and healthy).
Firings watch: in a move that was speculated on before Thanksgiving, Texas A&M fired Kevin Sumlin. He was 51-26 over six seasons, and the team is 7-5 (4-4 in conference).
As one of the articles I read put it: they were paying Sumlin %5 million a year, and just finished renovations to Kyle Field. They want and expect better than 7-5.
As much as I dislike linking ESPN, here’s a handy chart of coach firings for you.
Quickies: November 25, 2017.
Saturday, November 25th, 2017What do we always say, folks?
That’s right: don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.
Mike Riley out as Nebraska head coach. 19-19 over three seasons.
And this isn’t sportshirings.com, but that soft wet sound you heard recently? That was the sound of Gregg Easterbrook’s head exploding. (For those who don’t remember, Easterbrook had some sort of grudge against Chip Kelly during his NFL coaching career, and wasn’t hesitant to advance that grudge in his column.)