Bottom line for teams is winning
Firings
Dean Spanos said in a statement.
Whisenhunt was fired after six seasons, including taking the Cardinals to a Super Bowl loss to Pittsburgh after the 2008 season. He had more wins than any other coach in Cardinals history, going 45-51, and has one year worth about $5.5 million left on his contract. GM Rod Graves had been with Arizona for 16 years, nine in his current position. A 5-11 record after a 4-0 start cost him and Whisenhunt their jobs.
Cardinals President Michael Bidwill wasted no time in identifying possible replacements, saying at a Monday afternoon news conference that the team had reached out to Reid, fired earlier in the day after 14 years as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. Bidwill also said he had received permission to interview Denver Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy.
Gailey was dumped after three seasons with the Bills; Shurmur after two; and Crennel had one season with the Chiefs.
Reid took over a 313 Eagles team in 1999, drafted Donovan McNabb with the No. 2 overall pick and quickly turned the franchise into a title contender.
He led them to a run of four straight NFC championship games, a streak that ended with a trip to the NFL title game. But the team hasn’t won a playoff game since 2008 and after last season’s 8-8 finish, owner Jeffrey Lurie said he was looking for improvement this year. Instead, it was even worse. The Eagles finished 4-12.
“When you have a season like that, it’s embarrassing. It’s personally crushing to me and it’s terrible,” Lurie said at a news conference.
Shurmur went 9-23 in his two seasons with the Browns, who will embark on yet another offseason of change — the only constant in more than a decade of futility. Cleveland has lost at least 11 games in each of the past five years and made the playoffs once since returning as an expansion team in 1999.
“Ultimately our objective is to put together an organization that will be the best at everything we do,” Browns CEO Joe Banner said. “On the field, our only goal is trying to win champion- ships.”
Crennel took over with three games left in the 2011 season after GM Scott Pioli fired Todd Haley. Kansas City will have the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft as a result of having one of the worst seasons in its 53-year history. The only other time the Chiefs finished 2-14 was 2008, the year before Pioli was hired.
Gailey, the former Dallas Cowboys coach, compiled a 16-32 record in his three seasons in Buffalo, never doing better than 6-10.
“This will probably be, and I say probably, but I think it will be the first place that’s ever fired me that I’ll pull for,” Gailey said.
Smith and the Bears went 10-6 this season and just missed a playoff spot. But Chicago started 7-1 and has struggled to put together a productive offense throughout Smith’s tenure. His record was 81-63 with the Bears, and he took them to one Super Bowl loss and to one NFC championship game loss.
Receiver and kick return standout Devin Hester was bitter about Smith’s firing.
The fired general managers included Mike Tannenbaum of the Jets; Gene Smith of the Jaguars; A.J. Smith of the Chargers; Tom Heckert of the Browns and Graves of Arizona.
By StevenWine MiAMi — Florida State’s biggest weakness heading into their Orange Bowl game against Northern Illinois might be Midwestern geography.
The Seminoles concede they’d be hard-pressed to locate their opponent in an atlas.
“I could probably find Illinois,” receiver Rashad Greene said. “I don’t really know where the town is. Actually I don’t even know the town.” It’s DeKalb. “DeKalb?” Seminoles kicker Dustin Hopkins said. “Hey, next time I’ll know.”
“I thought it was in Chicago,” quarterback E.J. Manuel said.
Cue the cliche: A victory Tuesday night would put Northern Illinois on the map. The No. 16ranked Huskies have been widely derided as unworthy of a BCS bowl berth, which makes them eager for validation when they face No. 13 Florida State.
“We’re playing a team that is going to be willing to bloody their noses and get after you,” Seminoles offensive coordinator James Coley warned.
Northern Illinois (121) is the first Mid-American Conference team to play in the Bowl Championship Series. The Huskies made it when they cracked the top 16 in the final standings by 0.0404