Your Monday morning firings watch. I’ll try to keep this updated through the day.
Bruce Allen out as Redskins president. The team already fired head coach Jay Gruden earlier this year.
Update 1: the New York Football Giants have fired head coach Pat Shurmur. Two seasons, a 9-23 record, and the worst record in the NFL since 2017.
Update 2: Miami fired their offensive coordinator (Chad O’Shea) and two other guys.
…also known as “the NFL firings that couldn’t even wait until Monday”.
So far: Freddie Kitchens out after one season in Cleveland, during which the team went 6-10 (and lost to the Bengals today).
Death doesn’t take a holiday, but I do.
Now that I’m back…
Chuck Peddle. He was a key designer of the 6502 processor for MOS Technology.
One key reason for this is that the 6502 sold for $25 in 1975. The Motorola 6800 sold for $300.
Edward Aschoff, college football reporter for ESPN. The ESPN tribute makes it sound like he was a genuinely fun and well thought of guy. He was only 34 years old, and died after a short illness:
Junior Johnson, legendary NASCAR racer. NYT. ESPN. News and Observer. NASCAR.
“The Last American Hero Is Junior Johnson. Yes!” by Tom Wolfe.
In the Korean War, not a very heroic performance by American soldiers generally, there were seventy-eight Medal of Honor winners. Thirty-nine of them were from the South, and practically all of the thirty-nine were from small towns in or near the Appalachians. The New York metropolitan area, which has more people than all these towns put together, had three Medal of Honor winners, and one of them had just moved to New York from the Appalachian region of West Virginia. Three of the Medal of Honor winners came from within fifty miles of Junior Johnson’s side porch.
Detroit has discovered these pockets of courage almost like a natural resource, in the form of Junior Johnson and about twenty other drivers. There is something exquisitely ironic about it. Detroit is now engaged in the highly sophisticated business of offering the illusion of Speed for Everyman—making their cars go 175 miles an hour on racetracks—by discovering and putting behind the wheel a breed of mountain men who are living vestiges of a degree of physical courage that became extinct in most other sections of the country by 1900. Of course, very few stock-car drivers have ever had anything to do with the whiskey business. A great many always lead quiet lives off the track. But it is the same strong people among whom the whiskey business developed who produced the kind of men who could drive the stock cars. There are a few exceptions, Freddie Lorenzen, from Elmhurst, Illinois, being the most notable. But, by and large, it is the rural Southern code of honor and courage that has produced these, the most daring men in sports.
Randy Suess. He and Ward Christensen built the first computer bulletin board system in 1978.
Two quick, mostly throw away items:
1. I was reading Serious Smith & Wessons the N- and X-Frame Revolvers last night, and ran across something interesting: according to Mullin, S&W designed the X-frame revolvers so that the cylinder was long enough to chamber the .223 Remington cartridge.
Beyond the fact that a revolver in .223 is a wonderfully silly idea (and I’d probably buy one): overall length of the .223 Remington is 2.26 inches. Overall length of the .221 Remington Fireball: 1.830 inches. At least one of my ideas doesn’t sound so silly now…
(And a long overdue thanks to Ygolonac for weighing in. I like your idea, and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.)
2. More on the Tom Coughlin firing: it may have been motivated in part by Jacksonville’s record. But another part of the motivation may have been that Coughlin managed to make a lot of people upset.
Like the NFL Player’s Association.
Coughlin changed the clocks because his philosophy is, if you’re not five minutes early to a meeting or commitment, you’re considered late. It’s one of the ways he emphasizes accountability. Another way he does that is by fining players for rules infractions, including for missing doctor and rehabilitation appointments during the offseason.
That, however, is prohibited by the NFLPA, which released a letter on Monday that said former player Dante Fowler Jr. had won a grievance against the Jaguars after being fined 25 times for more than $700,000. The letter also noted that more than 25% of the grievances filed by NFL players over the past two years have been against the Jaguars and that “you, as players, may want to consider this when you have a chance to select your next club.”
Obit: legendary college football coach Hayden Fry.
Firing: Tom Coughlin out as “executive vice president of football operations” for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Yes, I know this is a lazy post, but I just don’t have much to say about either event.
Jim Montgomery out as head coach of the Dallas Stars (who are apparently a hockey team).
The wowser here is not that he’s out, but the reason: it wasn’t his won/loss record.
[Stars GM Jim] Nill told reporters at an 11 am news conference that he was made aware of a “material act of unprofessionalism” over the weekend. The incident occurred last week and he received a phone call about it on Sunday.
He said there was an internal investigation into the incident and that it was he made the decision to fire Montgomery after consulting with general counsel.
Nill clarified there was no criminal investigation involved and that the incident didn’t involve any current or past players. But he also reiterated that he won’t discuss specifics of the incident out of respect for everyone involved. Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and John Klingberg all told reporters on Tuesday that Stars players were not told what happened with Montgomery.
By way of Lawrence, breaking news: David Fizdale out as head coach of the 4-18 New York Knickerbockers. He was 21-83 overall in less than two seasons.
His .201 winning percentage goes down as the worst of any coach in franchise history.
Interesting pair of obits from the NYT:
Wayne Merry has passed away at the age of 88. Mr. Merry, Warren Harding, and George Whitmore were rock climbers:
…
They subsisted on cheese, raisins, canned fruit and sardines. They carried water in an old paint-thinner can, and drank wine. “We trained on red wine, if anything,” Merry told The Yukon News in 2015.
They relied on improvised implements, including pitons that they fashioned from the legs of old wood stoves and tools from a hardware store that they repurposed for climbing.
“I wouldn’t hang a picture from them today, but back then we hung our lives on them,” Merry told Yukon North of Ordinary magazine in 2016.
Brad Gobright passed away last week at 31.
Mr. Gobright died in a fall while rappelling with a climbing partner in Mexico.
In non-rock climbing related news, this is a nice tribute to Tim George. Dr. George was a pediatric neurosurgeon at Dell Children’s Hospital:
In 2006, Bill Dollahite’s son Scott was badly hurt playing football for Cedar Park High School in Waco. Doctors told him Scott was paralyzed. The family decided to move him closer to home.
“We took about a three-hour ride in the worst weather in the world … following an ambulance,” Dollahite said. In the middle of the night, the ambulance pulled into what was Brackenridge Hospital, “and here comes Dr. George.”
George was still new to Austin; Dollahite is not sure if he even had an office. Dell Children’s was under construction.
“Dr. George looked at him and goes, ‘You know, let’s not give up everything just yet. Let me take a look at this, because everything looks too perfect,’” Dollahite said. “Long story short, Scott went into Brackenridge quadriplegic. A couple of days later, he walked out. No ill effects after that. By the miracles that Dr. George did, he gave him his life back.”
Dr. George went on to take up racing as a hobby. He was competing in an endurance race at Sebring in Florida last month (as part of a team with Scott Dollahite) when he suddenly became ill, pulled into pit row, and collapsed.
I never watched “Will and Grace”, but Shelley Morrison had a long career before that show: “Laredo”, “The Flying Nun”, “240-Robert”…
Ron Rivera fired as head coach of the Carolina Panthers.
76-63-1 in regular season games, 3-4 post season.
I’m approaching the end of my work day and am about to leave. I might have more to say later, but I kind of doubt it.
Matt Luke fired as head coach of Ole Miss. They went 4-8 this year, and 15-21 over three seasons.
Steve Addazio gone at Boston College.
44-44 over seven seasons.
UT fired and reassigned a bunch of folks. Fired: defensive coordinator Todd Orlando and outside receivers coach Drew Mehringer. Reassigned: offensive coordinator Tim Beck (now quarterback coach) and inside receivers coach Corby Meekin (reassigned to “an administrative role”).
Frankly, I expected Herman to be fired last week. Looks like I was wrong about that. (I also expected Jason Garrett to get canned.)
Apparently, 4-8 does not accurately reflect how bad the Jets are.
There’s “bad” and then there’s “lose to the Bengals” bad. But on the bright side, we don’t have to worry about the Miami game on the 22nd any longer.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
None.
That’s a wrap for 2019, folks. We plan to be back next year.
Unai Emery fired as manager of Arsenal.
Barry Odom fired as head coach of Missouri. 25-25 overall, and 13-19 in conference over four seasons.
This isn’t exactly a firing, but: Josh Shaw, cornerback for the Arizona Cardinals, has been suspended by the NFL through the 2021 season. He can appeal, but if the appeal is unsuccessful, the earliest he can apply for reinstatement is February 15, 2021.
Why? He was betting on NFL games.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cincinnati
Next Sunday, the Jets. ESPN is calling it 57% in favor of the Jets right now.
In other news, my Spider Sense is tingling: I’m expecting some firings this week.
Gahan Wilson, one of the greatest cartoonists ever.
Michael J. Pollard, character actor. Among his roles: “C.W. Moss” in “Bonnie and Clyde”, “Jahn” in the “Miri” episode of “Star Trek: Original Recipe”, “Fauss” in “Little Fauss and Big Halsy”, and a lot of assorted 60s and 70s TV.
NYT obit for Fred Cox. (Previously.)