Black Tuesday Pro Tackle Football Update

In addition to Shanahan...

Dick Jauron is staying Head Coach of the Buffalo Bills...
Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News has the latest...
The contract extension is for three years...

Mike Martz is out in San Francisco to no one's surprise...
John Crumpacker from the San Francisco Chronicle tells us what we all knew- Samurai Mike and The Mad Scientist didn't get along...
Martz may now pedal his evil-geniusness someplace else...

The Raiders list for their opening includes Tom Cable, Giants' OC Kevin Gilbride, Raiders extra-special scouting guy Paul Hackett, Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, and Westwood One analyst Jim Fassel.

Gary Kubiak fired three assistants with the Houston Texans- DC Richard Smith, D-Backs Coach Jon Hoke, and D-Line Coach Jethro Franklin.

John McClain from the Houston Chronicle has the fallout.

Mary Kay Cabot from the Cleveland Plain Dealer gives us Scott Pioli's first choice for coach- Iowa's Kirk Ferentz...???

More Cleveland... Tony Grossi has the interview list for the Browns Chief Exec- Scott Pioli and Rich McKay. Falcons fans are more than happy to hear McKay's name thrown in there.

Coach interviews are looking like Eric Mangini and the Giants Steve Spagnuolo... Romeo Crennel has told anyone willing to listen that he'll be more than happy to stay on staff if the new coach wants him to... Gee, thanks...

Last, but not least... The Chin will talk to the Jets.
Brian Costello of the New York Post has the idea on paper that "GM Mike Tannenbaum is "willing to do what's best for the team." That includes giving up his player personnel duties for Cowher and his cadre.

But Peter King maintains that it will be 2010 that Cowher comes back at the earliest-unless that perfect offer comes along.

And it's only Tuesday...

Off With Their Heads!!

3 NFL head coaches were fired today.

Rod Marinelli was fired today by the Detroit Lions, who went 0-16 this year.

"You can't go 0-16 and expect to keep your job," Marinelli said. The man said it all.

Romeo, Romeo. Where art thou Romeo? Looking for a job. Romeo Crennel was canned by the Cleveland Browns. The Browns were expected to make a playoff run. Instead the Browns, with the color scheme of crap, played like it so Romeo was run out of Cleveland.

Cleveland Browns owner Randy Lerner talked to Bill Cowher about coaching the team. Cowher's response, not interested.

"The explanation that he gave," Lerner said, "was that he was very focused on his kids and his life in North Carolina, and the way he's living in a noncoaching or, if you will, a civilian existence and that he wasn't finished with that."

In other words, I'm not leaving my comfortable gig at CBS to coach your underachieving team.

Finally, and this one puzzles me, Eric Mangini was fired by the New York Jets. Team owner Woody Johnson and General Manager Mike Tannenbaum's reason for the move was, let's say it all together, they felt the Jets need to go in a different direction.

"I don't think it was one thing," owner Woody Johnson said at a news conference Monday. "We had to go in a different direction. There's nothing specific. It's just a call we made. Hopefully, it's correct."

"He did a great job for us for three years and he helped lay a great foundation," Mike Tannenbaum said. "We felt, in our judgment, we want to build on that and go in a different direction."

Sounds like corporate speak for "We are making a change to make a change." Ladies, gentlemen and Jet fans, it's this kind of decision making that make the New York Jets the joke their are.

The Jets played far above their heads starting out 8-3 and then your celebrity quarterback Brett Farve lets you down. In his last 5 games Farve threw only 2 touchdown passes and 9 interceptions.

The Jets collapse is on Farve, not Mangini. I know you can't fire Farve but you can the head coach. I'm sorry, Farve was great 10 years ago but now he's became a liability with his poor decisions and bad throws. Now you can call Brett Farve a coach killer because the way it looks he undermined Mangini authority to the point where the idiot owner and GM made this move.

Eric Mangini will be a successful head coach in the NFL. He won't with the Jets though but judging from their checkered past, who can.

Eric Mangini Photo Courtesy: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Sunday Carousel- Tackle Football Edition

Stop One: Cleveland

Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer lets us know that the futures of Browns GM Phil Savage ((pictured, thanks plaindealer.com)) and Head Coach Romeo Crennel are most likely done in Cleveland.
"The only way anything would happen tonight is if one of them forced the issue, a source said.

The Browns don't expect to hear anything from Crennel until he meets with Browns owner Randy Lerner, possibly on Monday. They are not certain if Savage will wait for a sit-down with Lerner to learn of his fate."

Crennel could be asked to stay on in some other capacity in the Browns front office. Savage, most likely, will be blown out unless he accepts a role where he would not have any final say on the 53-man roster.

Chris Mortensen, over at the four-letter, maintains Savage was fired over the phone by owner Randy Lerner already. Jay Glazer, over at Fox, says they're both gone.

The Plain Dealer's Tony Grossi has the line-up for Randy Lerner this week as follows...

Coach: Bill Cowher, Buffalo's Perry Fewell, Washington's Greg Blache, the Giants' Steve Spagnuolo
GM: Scott Pioli

Stop Two: San Francisco

Looks like Mike Singletary will get to keep his pants on for another few years.
We'll stick with Glazer again here...
Looks like a possible five-year deal for Samurai Mike. Mike Martz looks like he's out and Scott Linehan may be in.

Stop Three: Saint Louis

Is Jim Haslett the man or not...? The Rams players apparently drafted a letter for the front office maintaining their desire to have Haslett be the new head man.

Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes owner Chip Rosenbloom may have the letter in his hands sometime soon...

Thomas caught up with an anonymous veteran Ram about the whole thing...

"When asked if he thought the petition would do any good, the veteran player replied: "No. It's out of our hands. They don't pay us to make decisions on head coaches. But it's good for (Haslett) to know that we've got his back. All 53 players may not agree with it, but I think the vast majority wants this to happen."

Expect more fallout once the regular season craps out once and for all...

"Soldier" Winslow Suspended

((HT: Brother Martin))

Cleveland Browns Tight End/Soldier Kellen Winslow, Junior ((pictured arms akimbo, thanks WOIO-TV)) has been suspended by the club for popping off in a post-game interview about his perceived lack of love from the front office after suffering a staph infection and spending a few nights in the hospital.

The club felt compelled not to disclose what Winslow's injury was, but Winslow did Sunday. He was none too happy about General Manager Phil Savage not giving vigil bedside while he was in recovery...

From the Browns themselves...

"The Cleveland Browns are committed to winning and taking care of our players. We are also committed to protecting the privacy of our players, particularly with regard to medical issues. To that end, following discussions with Kellen Winslow and his representation, the Browns agreed to make every effort to maintain the confidentiality of his recent medical condition.

"As an organization, we have worked hard to ensure the safety and well-being of our players. Consistent with this effort, we have consulted the team's medical experts to ensure that any instances of staph infections are evaluated and treated thoroughly and expeditiously, and in accordance with the recommended standard of care. Further, steps have been and continue to be taken on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis to protect our players and personnel at our training facility and stadium.

During training camp, the entire team took part in an extensive presentation by experts in the field of infectious diseases. It was an educational meeting that informed players of the issues, how to prevent and minimize the risks of infection, and what preventative measures we as an organization had employed to assure maximum safety for the team combined with a Q&A session for the players. Kellen was in attendance at that meeting. Since that meeting, not one player has approached me, Romeo Crennel, or our medical staff with concerns as to how we have dealt with this issue.

Kellen has expressed his desire to be a productive member of the Cleveland Browns. His comments and behavior on Sunday evening, however, were unwarranted, inappropriate, and unnecessarily disparaging to our organization. His statements brought unjustified negative attention to our organization, and violated the team-first concept of our football squad. Therefore, disciplinary action will be taken in the form of a one-game suspension without pay for conduct detrimental to the club.

Beginning Wednesday, the focus of the coaches and players will be on preparing for the upcoming game against the Jacksonville Jaguars."

Winslow is not allowed to participate in any of the Browns' reindeer games this week, but is eligible to return on Monday the 27th...

By the way, did you know Winslow was a soldier...?