Peter King: Cowher won't coach until 2010

[FloridaMan88]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...x.html?eref=T1


You want Bill Cowher to come coach your team? Wait 'til next year.

Cowher, the hottest coach on the market in a year with multiple job openings, will stay off the sidelines in 2009, reliable NFL sources tell me. The only way Cowher will even consider one of the jobs, I'm told, is if he gets an offer he just can't refuse. What would that offer be? There probably isn't one out there, but it would have to be ridiculous money -- more than $10 million a year, almost certainly -- plus one that Cowher thinks he quickly can build a team to win.

When Cowher left the Steelers after the 2006 season, he told his family he would stay out of football until his youngest daughter, Lindsay, finished her high-school years in Raleigh, N.C. Lindsay is a senior right now. And I'm told Cowher "absolutely'' has not changed his mind.

I'm also told reliably that if there was a job out there Cowher would have loved to consider, it was the Browns job. The fact he turned down the Browns' job almost without thinking Saturday night in a face-to-face meeting with owner Randy Lerner tells you everything you need to know about his unwillingness to return in 2009. Cowher, a former Cleveland player and assistant coach, loves the tradition of the Browns and the passion of their fan base, but it just wasn't the right time for him.

This shouldn't stop the Jets from sniffing around Cowher, certainly. If there's a 1-in-100 chance, Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum needs to check it out. But he'd better get a list of good alternatives available.