Coach Roth: Football: Drills and Coaching

Last time I wrote my comments about the firing of Dennis Green in Arizona, now I want to comment shortly the firing of Jim Mora, the other Head Coach, who got fired by the Atlanta Falcons immediately the day after the last regular season game.

Well in 2004 Jim Mora took over the Atlanta Falcons who ended up last in it’s division the season before with a 5-11 record and turned them around and won the division in his first year as Head Coach of the Atlanta Falcons with a 11-5 record. But the following two seasons his team missed the playoffs both times despite a very promising first half of the season, just to blow it in the second half two years in a row, ending up 8-8 in 2005 and 7-9 in 2006. The good starts into the seasons proves to me that the team has the potential to go to the playoffs but the second halves prove also that they are doing something wrong during the season. And obviously in Atlanta they decided it’s the Head Coach’s fault and fired him.

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The NFL regular season just ended and immediately the firing, resigning and retiring of coaches started:

Head Coaches Dennis Green ( Arizona Cardinals) and Jim Mora, jr. ( Atlanta Falcons) got fired immediately on Jan. 1st 2007.

Let me comment the firing of these two firings before I go on to other (Head)coaching changes:

- Dennis Green: Got fired after 3 disappointing seasons, during which the team didn’t make any progress at all (6-10, 5-11, 5-11).

I think after 3 seasons without any progress in the win column, yes, you should go for a change at the Headcoach position - that is, if the (only) goal for your organization is winning - remember there are organizations which have different priorities and rank other goals higher than winning (well everybody wants to win, it’s just a question of what price you are willing to pay and I’m not talking about money). But this is the NFL and the only thing that counts in the end is wins…

Just why did they give Dennis Green a 4-year contract in the first place? If you evaluate him after 3 years - which I think is a fair timespan - give him a 3-year contract for crying out loud, and extend his contract if he proves to be the man. On the other hand if you are totally convinced he’s the man, then give him a 5-year contract and save some money on the last 2 years (avoiding or postponing the raise when extending). But 4 years? That’s not neither nor, neither a "He’s the man" commitment nor a clear "Prove yourself" statement. That’s just in between - and a costly in between: $2.5 million.

to be continued…

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On Jan 1st, I finally a long planned and prepared upgrade of the underlying WebCMS (Typo3) from Version 3.8.1 to Version 4.0.4.

I hope I got everything working again, but if you encounter any problems or more than average ugly pages, please drop me a line.

Also the URL in the confirmation eMail you’ll receive when you register should be a lot shorter and therefore should work more reliable.

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