Yet another victim in the NFL’s impatience with coaching staff:
Norv Turner didn’t produce the quick turnaround expected of him in his two seasons as coach of the Raiders, so Davis fired him Tuesday — his third coaching change in five years.
‘We want to win. The Raider fans deserve it. The Raider players deserve it, even my organization deserves it,’ Davis said in a conference call after meeting with Turner earlier in the day. ‘You have to win and you have to win with a vision for the Super Bowl. That’s our passion here.
‘I just didn’t feel the fit was right, and I think he agreed with me.’
Let’s be blunt here. Short of Jesus Christ Himself, nothing is going to resurrect the Raiders. Not now, not next year, and not in the next five years.
Turner grew up in nearby Martinez rooting for the Raiders. His firing leaves eight coaching vacancies in the NFL.
Detroit fired Steve Mariucci in November and Kansas City’s Dick Vermeil retired on Sunday. Other coaches who have been fired: Mike Martz of St. Louis, Jim Haslett of New Orleans, Mike Tice of Minnesota, Mike Sherman of Green Bay and Dom Capers of Houston.
Eight coaches?! That’s ridiculous!
Take for instance Mariucci. Good coach, but terrible team and terrible team culture in Detroit. And guess what happens when he gets fired? The team *miraculously* bounces back! Short-sighted owners attribute their superior management skills in firing a coach, but whose staff is running the team? Whose players? Whose recruits? Whose training?
Same with Tice, Sherman, and Martz. Same with Coach Fassell a year before with the Giants. Same with Denver head coach Mike Shanahan a couple years back when the Broncos were experiencing their growing pains. The boo-birds and naysayers were floating then too, and now Shanahan is a genius once again. Steve Spurrier (yes, I’m a Run-and-Gun fan) is another great example of a great coach getting run out by owners who know the business end, but simply don’t know how to coach football.
All the vacancies should make the Redskins very, very pleased we were able to hold onto Coach Williams for the next three years. Still, Norv Turner had the last word:
“The No. 1 thing I’ve learned in this league, and what everyone’s looking for, is the quick fix,” Turner said. “I’m not sure there’s such a thing.”
Players and teams need time to develop. Cultures of losing that inspire backbiting and negativity can change, and they do, but only over time.
Case in point would be the Redskins, who burned through coach after coach until they settled on Gibbs return. But how many teams can draw on a great coach in their past to pull themselves out of the fire? Is it working in Dallas with Parcells? And what defensive or offensive co-ordinator is going to risk their reputation to work with hyperactive NFL owners? God forbid they go to college football for new coaches – Chan Gailey and Steve Spurrier have already been burned by NFL owners too impatient or obsessive to allow coaches to coach.
The NFL seems to have this collective amnesia about their players and their coaches and what they need to succeed. Three years is the amount of time any coach should have to turn around a football program (free from upper managment interference). 8-8 isn’t a bad year, neither is 6-10 in a rebuilding year. Nor (I’ll go this far) 4-12 in an organization so desperately in need of restructuring as the Raiders or the Lions.
Let the bad blood burn themselves out, get the young talent in, roll the dice, and build for the future. It’s going to hurt, but that’s part of building a culture of winning. If that culture isn’t there, then it doesn’t matter how good your players are (note the 2000 Redskins vs. the 2005 Redskins). Owners can do quite a bit to build that culture, and I’m glad to see that in Washington good ol’ Danny Snyder has finally gotten the message.