Accountability. You live up to your end, and we'll do the same. And this is generally the case with coaches' contracts.

Rooting out incompetence when it's identified isn't a negative message. Does this mean that coaches aren't unfairly treated in certain instances? Of course not. Look at Oakland.

Player contracts, however, are different story and are often a joke.

I think you're understating the importance of the business aspect of pro sports. It's common to see the guy with the big contract throw his weight around b/c he understands the organization's financial commitment in him and the sway that this holds.

Overlooking all this back and forth arguing is the reality of the situation: How many NFL coaches are allowed to coach in the last year of their contracts?

As Adam Schefter wrote last January: "Teams typically do not like coaches to head into a season as a lame duck; last season, the New York Giants handed a modest one-year extension to Tom Coughlin."

Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports, Dec. 25: "Mangini has one year left on his contract, making the team’s latest flop even more perplexing. If they go by the NFL textbook, they are in a “fold or raise” scenario. They don’t want a scenario where he’s in a lame-duck season, especially when the players are hearing the New York media and fan base calling for his head. Either they fire Mangini now and begin with a rebuild, or they extend his deal and hope he can repair the damage from a late-season slide."

Off the top of my head, I can't think of many, if any, coaches in recent years who entered the season in the last year of their contract (other than someone retiring, such as Holmgren). Maybe someone can come up with a few names that did, and I'll concede the point.

Sure, nothing prevents the Chiefs from keeping Herm on next year in his final year, or giving him a Coughlin-like one-year extension. But given the situation -- new GM, 6-26, massive rebuilding -- it just seems a perfect opportunity to cut your losses and start fresh, rather than keep around all the lingering questions and doubts.

Yes. I agree completely about accountability.

But we've gotten away from the original argument though, which was the idea that they can't let Herm coach his last year because it would be "lame duck". I have absolutely no problem at all with firing Herm because of accountability. He deserves that. But it's not a situation where he's either fired or his contract is extended because of the "lame duck" last year of the contract. That was the point I was trying to make. And now I feel like I'm just being argumentative, so I'm going to stop here...

The Bills have done it twice recently. Jauron started 2008 in the last year of his contract and then was extended mid-season after they started 4-0 and Gregg Williams did it a couple of years ago. He was actually never fired as head coach - his contract just expired.

It is very rare though.

Thanks.

Nah. Just good back-and-forth exchange.

:thumb:

Pioli down at the Sr bowl scouting kids is much better than Herm doing it anyways.

Remember how Herm can only watch 10min of video......then the bitch falls asleep.

I think the Bills extending Jauron like they did was a dumb move, by the way.

Those are possibilities, as are Shanahan and Haley. We can come up with explanations for why don't have a new coach yet. It's much harder to come up with explanations for why Herm hasn't been fired yet.

EXACTLY! The Pats made all kinds of unpopular moves and didn't care what the fans thought. Heck, even hiring Bill Belichick was unpopular at the time. That worked out okay.

It is funny to see how many people actually think the Chiefs care about what we think.

So few people remember this. Belichick was at near-Herm levels of derision when he left the Browns. It softened somewhat after he had success with the Jets - but still the opinion of most fans and media was "great coordinator, terrible head coach". It was repeated ad nauseum as so much NFL conventional wisdom is.

When you read about Belichick the thing you find is that he didn't really change much from Cleveland to New York - it's just that the personnel got better.

According to Gretz (take it for what it is worth) Pioli didn't go to the Sr. Bowl this week. To be honest I never saw any video or press pictures of Scott there this week. I've seen images of other teams coaches/front office staff. Parcells wasn't and still isn't a Sr. Bowl guy. He prefers game tape and individual workouts. I wonder if Pioli will be the same way?

You can make unpopular moves if you have a winning team. If you have a new/refurbished stadium that you want to fill up then public perception and reaction may be a factor they want to take into account.

They didn't have a winning team... just because you have one now doesn't mean you always have been one...

Didn't most people on this board bitch and bitch about Carl only making decisions in order to fill the stadium? It seems that posters are wanting Pioli to act more like Carl everyday.

The Patriots way is to do it your way on your schedule and everyone else, including the NFL office/fans/other teams, be damned. If you do your job right then everything else takes care of itself.