A year old article from a Houston writer, worth a read.
Quote:
He is as average a coach as the Texans' Gary Kubiak has been. Fisher might be the best average coach in NFL history. He is certainly the least accomplished, longest-tenured coach the league has seen.
His greatest accomplishment is that he has yet to be fired. Granted, that is a notable feat considering his boss fired six coaches in the previous stretch matching Fisher's tenure.
Those coaches had 10 winning years and 10 playoff seasons compared to Fisher's six winning campaigns and six postseason appearances. But let Fisher's media cronies tell you, and you'd think Fisher is a great coach. (A nice guy who hangs around the league long enough is sure to build a following.)
Fisher (141-115) is 15th in league history in games coached. Only two coaches ahead of him on that list have worse winning percentages: Dan Reeves and Weeb Ewbank.
Ewbank led two teams to three championships, including victories in the Greatest Game Ever Played and arguably the most important Super Bowl of all-time, the Jets' upset of the Colts in 1969. He also posted an .800 winning percentage in the playoffs. Advantage Ewbank.
Reeves coached three teams, taking two to four Super Bowls. He won seven division titles, and had nine 10-win seasons and a .550 playoff winning percentage. Advantage Reeves.
First clue: zero titles
Fisher has zero championships, one Super Bowl appearance, just four division titles and a sub-.500 playoff winning percentage. Both times Fisher had a team with the best record in the AFC and home-field advantage throughout the postseason, his squad was upset in its first playoff game.
If, as it used to be, championship contention was necessary to make money in the NFL, Bud Adams would have run Fisher off years ago.
Yet Houston fans and some media desire to hire Fisher? Great coach? Please. (Need I mention Fisher's relatively branchless coaching tree?)
It doesn't make sense
In NFL history, 57 men have coached at least 150 games. Fisher is one of only three to coach all of his games with one team and not win a championship. Coincidentally, each of the other two has a .622 winning percentage, compared to Fisher's .551.
Bud Grant, who coached 259 games (to Fisher's 256 at this point), posted 11 winning seasons, 11 division championships and made four Super Bowl appearances with the Vikings.
Andy Reid has six division titles in 11 seasons (and his team leads the NFC East), with a Super Bowl appearance, five NFC title games and just two losing seasons. Until last year, his Eagles, who host the Texans next Thursday, had not lost an opening playoff game, winning seven straight.
In a way, none of this matters as Fisher, one of the highest-paid coaches in the league, would have to throw away millions to leave the Titans before his contract expires after next year. And it is quite unlikely Adams would give him permission to immediately return to where his career started and take over the Texans next year.
Only a fool - let's go with a working premise that Texans owner Bob McNair is no fool - would fire Kubiak and give up draft picks to hire Fisher. It is also safe to assume McNair isn't afflicted with coach envy. If so, he would have fired Kubiak long ago.
There are five active coaches in the NFL who have won Super Bowls. Fisher isn't one of them. There are eight other Super Bowl-winning coaches who have left the NFL in the past five seasons.
Explain to me again why McNair would want to hire a non-title-winning coach with a 16-plus-year record of being slightly above average?
Average football coaches are a dime a dozen, well actually about $5 million a year each, but which is chump change to an NFL owner.
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http://www.chron.com/sports/texans/a...ns-1718143.php |
