Ring Around the NFL Rosies...

Welcome to Carousel...

Well, it certainly didn’t take long. The NFL Coaching Death March has already begun. If you are reading this, you already know about the first two to be fired. Dennis Green and Jim Mora Jr. Add that to the Bill Cowher retirement watch and the ongoing "I haven’t spoken to them," "I’m not talking about it any more" saga of the mealy-mouthed Nick Saban…and well, all that's missing is the circus music.

The 2 Sides of Mora...

The Jim Mora firing (reported on OSG moments after it happened) is one that I can personally speak on. I’ve covered the Falcons for all 3 of Mora’s seasons and let’s just say…well…they were interesting.

Like most people there were 2 sides to the guy. One was the coach and the other the human being. As a person, I got to spend time with Mora and his family when we did a long sit-down interview with them at their home this past summer. Despite what most of the Atlanta media thought, he was genuinely a good family man and I can respect that. He’s got a wife and 3 kids all who adore him and you can tell by seeing them interact that he feels the same way about them. On that level, losing his job was unfortunate.

On a separate level, there was Mora the Head Coach of the Falcons. Folks, as a Head Coach…he just didn’t get it. There is no other way to put it. He was in over his head and didn’t know how to get back above the water line.

Watch Out for that Bus!

For anyone who has played in, watched or covered Sports…particularly on a Professional level, there is a basic rule - your coach is not your friend. This is something that I don’t think Jim Mora Jr. understood.

With his players, he really...I mean really...tried to come across as one of them. He would listen to their music, try everything he could to get them pumped up. Heck, he would snort ammonia capsules with them before games (Not recommended for Kids or Normal Adults).

He was all about loyalty. No matter what they did, how they performed, win or lose - Jim always backed them up, stood behind them and deflected the blame.

In a lot of ways, that was admirable, but in the end…he would lose control of his team. In the end, the team tanked…they lost 5 of their last 7 games including the last 2 where they essentially mailed it in. This happened in 2005 as well - not a good sign for long term success.

There were other problems. The well-documented, stupid interview with the Seattle radio station, for example (also on OSG). There were incidents like throwing a radio headset after a game when the radio interviewer asked a question he didn’t like. There were some that weren’t publicized - he destroyed the cell phone of a Falcons PR staffer after he didn’t warn him about a going-off-the-field interview at halftime (I was going in the tunnel behind the team and heard him cursing him out as they went to the locker room). There was an alleged incident where he cursed out two ball boys (aged 12 and 13) when they came into the halftime lockerroom laughing after the Falcons were losing at the half (they were kids of a Blank family friend). There was also an incident - which he didn’t deny when asked about - where he got into a shouting match with a couple of Philadelphia Eagles fans in the team hotel the day before the 2004/05 NFC Championship game (which the Falcons lost).

Be Nice on the Way Up...

My point is this. When the heat started coming on Mora…nobody…I mean nobody jumped to his defense. Not his team Owner, not the team's Fans, not the team's Quarterback and certainly no one in the Media. During the season he treated the media as a nuisance. What he failed to understand was that he was not in Philadelphia or Green Bay or someplace where they cover every nuance of the team and where they are the number 1 story whenever they did something. All we were looking for was a team that would win and the ability to do stories on them doing that.

The atmosphere surrounding the team here in Atlanta is not good and has gotten worse over the course of the season. The owner, Arthur Blank, isn’t a help either. Though he spends a lot of money on players and facilities (well, at least the facilities stay healthy and don’t drop passes), he likes to be an active part of the team, befriending the players and coaches. Privately he's OK, but publicly on the sideline during a game…not so much!

There is more. The team GM/Personnel guy Rich McKay (son of former Tampa Bay and USC Coach John) believes he is the smartest guy in football. He makes all, I mean all, the personnel decisions and we are seeing firsthand how that is working.

That being said, they said all the right things Monday at the firing Press Conference, but at no time did they defend their now former coach.

Can the Falcons Find Someone?

The Falcons will be fine. They will find someone to coach their team. They will be moderately successful for a couple of years and then the bottom will fall out and that person will be fired.

The way that the team does business right now is a set-up for failure. They will never get a “High-Profile” coach to take the job. Those guys want full control and Blank and McKay will never give it to them.

But someone will take it, and hey, who knows? If it’s the right guy….maybe they will get the most out of Michael Vick and the team will be a success.

The Falcons are not the worst franchise in the NFL. They aren’t the best either and they probably never will be. They will have times of success and times of failure, but at least in my opinion, will never be the consistent contender that they claim to be until they change the way that they do business.

What About Mora?

Jim Mora Jr. will be fine. Heck, he could lay on the beach for 2 years and still get paid a couple of million dollars for those years. Not bad work if you can get it.

He will find work again. The NFL is a very closed business. The teams tend to hire and fire the same people over and over again. Much the same way that the Coaching Carousel begins at the end of each regular season…it always ends at the start of a new one…and the passengers get off, they always seem to have someplace to go.

--Phil Cantor

“The time has come, my song is over, thought I’d something more to say” Time-Pink Floyd