That’s an actual headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (or, as we like to call it around here, the Startle Gram).
Other coverage: Dallas Morning News. ESPN. NFL.com.
I’d love to see Tony Dungy take the job, and interviewing him would be Rooney Rule complaint, but I suspect he’s too happy in his current gig.
How about Brad Childress?
And what will Wade do? Well, I suspect there’s an opportunity opening up in Buffalo soon, and hiring a former Cowboys coach isn’t unprecedented…
Sorry this is late. I wanted to hold off until this morning so I could work in the NBA loser update as well. Tragically, everyone at this point has won at least one game (yes, even the Rockets and Clippers).
So, NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Buffalo
In other news, do you hear that noise? The noise of drums? The constant drumbeat, pounding, pounding? “Fire Wade!” “Fire Brad!” “Fire Wade!” “Fire Brad!” The natives are restless.
Edited to add: Breaking! The natives have apparently gotten a sacrifice! More on this as it develops!
Lawrence pointed out this Don Banks SI piece speculating on which NFL coaches are likely to get fired sooner rather than later.
I’m actually wondering if Romo’s injury has saved Wade Phillips, at least for the moment. Changing coaches when your starting quarterback is injured? It might be better, much as Jerry would hate to say so in public, to write off the rest of the season, blame it on Romo’s injury, fire Wade after the season is over, and hope for a high draft choice that will draw fans in next year.
Banks also doesn’t mention Buffalo, and I wonder why. Coaching stability may be a good thing, but if the Bills finish 0-16 (hope, hope) does anyone think they’ll keep Chan Gailey around?
Links to obits, to keep the record straight: Bob Guccione, Tom Bosley, and Johnny “Boy” Sheffield.
The University of North Texas has fired football coach Todd Dodge.
(Thanks to A.T. for the tip on this.)
And our old friend Art Acevedo has made his decision; the Austin Police Department is standardizing on the Smith and Wesson M&P in .40 as their issue weapon.
I pretty much come down on the side of letting officers carry whatever they can qualify with, subject to minimum power requirements. And I find the argument that it’ll make it easier for officers to share ammo in a shootout somewhat specious; if officers are in a high volume firefight like that, they should be fighting their way to their patrol rifles. Or calling in SWAT. Or the National Guard.
On the other hand, I’m not an expert in police tactics, and I’m willing to acknowledge I could be wrong about this. On the gripping hand, it puts more money in S&W’s pocket (which, as an S&W fanboy, I appreciate), and it may lead to more high-quality former police weapons showing up at the gun shop.
I missed this yesterday, but the Minnesota Golden Gophers fired coach Tim Brewster. The Gophers are 1-6 so far this season.
(Hattip: FARK.)
Let’s just jump right into this week’s column again, shall we?
Something something pink. Something something Bill Belichick. Something something special teams. (Not in TMQ’s column, but WCD notes that the Dolphins fired their special teams coach this morning.)
Recruiting violations continue. The solution? Buy the ESPN Rise Recruiting Guide, with an introduction by TMQ himself, for only $4.95. You could also read TMQ’s “Thousand Word Guide to College Recruiting” for free.
WCD was initially tempted not to even comment on the thousand word guide. Then we were tempted to snark on it. But after reading it, we find that much of the advice is actually excellent; not just for high school athletes who might be recruited to play college sports, but for high school students period.
Okay, Gregg. Heather C. is a good choice.
Sweet and sour plays: St. Louis – Seattle, Chicago – Giants, San Francisco – Atlanta.
Creep. Easterbrook moves closer to dropping Christmas Creep.
TMQ remains the only sports column, to the best of our knowledge, that’s willing to talk about Gliese 581g.
If Jimi Heselden had been walking, he’d be president alive today. “The Segway is the SUV of the sidewalk.”
Offensive linesmen throwing passes and taking handoffs.
Christine O’Donnell is not a witch. We would, however, pay money to see her turn Gregg Easterbrook into a newt.
Jerry Rice, a great football player, or the greatest of all time?
Is ESPN getting better about reporting concussions?
“I prefer my salads defused.”
Jacksonville fooled Indy into thinking they were just going to run out the clock and go into overtime. Indeed, Jacksonville may have fooled themselves into thinking that as well, until Indy called a late timeout.
Consider the case of Larry Coker, fired from Miami because he wasn’t winning by large enough margins. Now he’s building a new program at the University of Texas – San Antonio, and already has teams lining up to schedule his program as a cupcake.
Wacky disclaimer: “The Last Airbender”.
“Trailing Washington 17-6 with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Eagles punted on fourth-and-5 from the Redskins’ 44. TMQ wrote the words ‘game over’ in our notebook.” WCD is amused by this statement, as we were also watching the game at that time, saw that punt, and wrote in our notebook, “TMQ wrote the words ‘game over’ in his notebook.”
TMQ meta-analyzes the NYT analysis of the Baltimore Ravens’ opposition to changing the overtime rules.
Eschewing the punt; how’s that working for you? Plus more on the 3-4 fad.
Texas Lutheran 28, Sul Ross State 11. Saint Scholastica 41, Crown 21.
Reader comments: police escorts, stupid targeted advertising for services you already subscribe to, great nicknames, “this is Tuesday Morning Quarterback, I don’t need a reason”, under-12 tackle football, machismo as a factor in head injuries, trick plays, and the Trojans play in the Coliseum.
The “Single Worst Play of the Season – So Far” returns, with the Lions punting on 4th and 9 from Green Bay’s 37, down by two points late in the 4th quarter. It figures that this would be a preposterous punt.
If TMQ did bring up the O.J. situation with Ralph Wilson, he does not discuss their conversation in this week’s column.
Tune in next week when, if we’re unlucky, Gregg Easterbrook will drag out his autotext about the 1972 Miami Dolphins.
And now the Mets have fired executive vice president and general manager Omar Minaya, and officially announced that Jerry Manuel is not returning in 2011.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, who, as you may recall, went 57-105 this season, have fired manager John Russell.
Not since the mid-1950s have the Pirates been as bad as they were under Russell, who had records of 67-95 in 2008, 62-99 in 2009 and 57-105 this season. Only the 1952 Pirates, who went 42-112, lost more games in baseball’s modern era than Russell’s final team, which was the National League’s worst in batting, pitching and defense.
The Seattle Mariners (43-70) fired Don Wakamatsu, their manager, yesterday. As the Seattle paper notes, this took place right before the Mariners’ celebration of Japanese heritage day, and Wakamatu’s firing was just the latest in a long string of odd incidents this year.
Missed this on Sunday, but the Pirates fired their pitching coach and bench coach.
And the city of Maywood (remember Maywood?) is considering firing the city of Bell, due to the ongoing salary scandal in Bell.
Not exactly a firing, but I’m going to throw this in anyway: LA County Sheriff Lee Baca is refusing to release records involving the death of Ruben Salazar. Salazar was a television journalist covering an anti-Vietnam war rally in East LA on August 29, 1970; he was killed when a sheriff’s deputy fired a tear-gas grenade into a bar and hit Salazar in the head.
The LAT doesn’t mention this aspect of Salazar’s life, but I will. I’ve been interested in Salazar ever since I read The Great Shark Hunt
Edited to add: Whoops, I was mistaken. I had Salazar confused with Oscar Zeta Acosta. That’s what I get for relying on my memory while I was at work, and not waiting until I got home to check my sources. HST did write about Salazar in The Great Shark Hunt, though.
The Florida Marlins (34-36, .473 winning percentage, 4th in the division standings) have fired their manager, Fredi Gonzalez, and two of his assistant coaches.
Lawrence is fond of pointing out that the Astros are not the worst team in baseball (at the moment). That honor goes to the Baltimore Orioles, who are 15-39.
And they just fired their manager, in what I believe is the first firing of the baseball season. (I welcome correction if I am wrong about that.)
(So why the Astros obsession? They’re the closest thing I have to a home team, to the extent that I follow baseball. Plus, I want to see how far off the HouChron prediction ends up being.)
The Cleveland Cavaliers have fired head coach Mike Brown, the 2009 NBA coach of the year, after five seasons.
Brown’s regular season record was 272-138, a .663 winning percentage that was the best in team history. Brown also set a team record for playoff wins, finishing 42-29.
I’ve registered for Texas Linux Fest on April 10th; look for me there.
Megan Abbot, a mystery writer I’ve heard a lot of good things about (but sadly, haven’t read yet; can anyone recommend a good starting point?) interviews Robert Crais, a mystery writer I have an enormous regard for, in the LAT.
Lawrence asks if Mike Dunleavy stepping down as coach, but remaining as GM for the Clippers, falls under the sportsfirings.com bailiwick. Beats me.
That does remind me of something I’ve been neglecting. Nets watch: currently 4-44, for a 0.083 percentage. That projects to 6.086 wins over the 82 game season.
The Columbus Blue Jackets (that’s the NHL, for all you non-hockey fans out there) fired coach Ken Hitchcock.
The NYT got around to running an obit for Lt. Colonel Archer. Their obit is interesting:
Mr. Archer ultimately maintained that he shot down five German planes — two on separate days in July 1944 in addition to the three in October 1944 — but said he had not been properly credited with one of those downings in July. Shooting down five planes would have brought him official designation as an ace, making him the only one among the Tuskegee Airmen.
In a 2008 review of wartime military records, Daniel L. Haulman of the Air Force Historical Research Agency found that Mr. Archer, while officially credited with four downings, was among the three leading Tuskegee pilots in shooting down enemy planes. His total was matched by Capt. Joseph D. Elsberry and Capt. Edward L. Toppins.
As you may recall, this directly contradicts the WP obit, which states he was credited with five victories by the Air Force.
Edited to add: The WP published a correction to their obit on February 2nd, which agrees with the NYT obit. However, the WP correction is not noted in the original article; I thought this was against WP policy.
From the “Thank you, Captain Obvious” department: Scotland has a drinking problem. The NYT sees Buckfast Tonic Wine as a symbol.
The drink is 15 percent alcohol by volume, a bit stronger than most wines. Also, each 750 milliliter bottle contains as much caffeine as eight cans of Coke.
From the “Art, damn it! Art!” department: I think I appreciate a good bit of art as much as the next guy, but this Giacometti bronze just seems to me to be really ugly. Maybe the photos are bad.
The “Hello Kitty” chainsaw. I want. (And Hello Kitty Hell gets added to the blogroll. Thanks to my great and good friend Commvault Bryan.)
James Arthur Ray, the Arizona sweat lodge guy, has been charged with three counts of manslaughter.
Did you know that Men at Work’s “Down Under” sampled a children’s tune called “Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree”? Have you even heard “Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree”?
Edited to add: I’m sure this will be blogged elsewhere, but it is too good to pass up. Sun CEO resigns. By Twitter. In haiku. (Hattip: Lawrence.)
Edited to add 2: Also from the “Thank you, Captain Obvious” department is this actual headline from the LAT home page: “Stew is better without jimsonweed hallucinogen“. (Link goes to actual article which has a different headline.)
Congrats, Warren St. John.
The Statesman has decided to share with us our local constabulary’s list of “most frequent bars for suspected drunken drivers“. I, personally, am a little bit shocked not to see my own favorite Austin bar on this list.
The Gilbert Arenas story is being well covered elsewhere, but I’d like to note that the NYT is all over this story like a hungry man on an all-you-can-eat buffet. Three stories today, in addition to yesterday’s coverage? For a non-New York team?
Firings: Jim Leavitt at the University of South Florida, who allegedly hit a player.
Breaking, by way of Lawrence Person, who provides the following:
When the GM says “Goodbye”
And everyone knows good and why
Edited to add: from the linked article, “Seattle was decimated by injuries and inconsistency and finished 5-11.” Really? The Seahawks lost one out of every ten players?
