Quote:
Originally Posted by That Guy
mike will stay past this year, i'd bet on it gtripp  he's been around long enough and he's a lifer, and i mean... who else is danny going to get? fisher (sp?) is the only good candidate out there. |
Lifers who stick around (such as Dick Vermell in KC, Marty Schottenheimer in SD, Norv Turner in SD, Herm in KC, Wade in DAL, Coughlin in NY) typically didn't have to deal with multiple losing seasons in a row before retirement. In fact, none of those guys had consecutive losing seasons after their first job and returned for a third. Herm got the closest, I suppose. The most "recent" example I found of a older, re-tread coach who took a job then had back to back losing seasons and didn't call it a career was Vermeil in St. Louis. But he won the super bowl in his third year.
Mariucci went three losing seasons in Detroit, but he was ten years younger than Shanahan when Detroit hired him.
Parcells, Gibbs, Holmgren, Dungy all had winning seasons in one of their first two years back. If we're going to make the argument that Shanny can go 5-11 this year and won't step down at the end of the season, only Dennis Green was hired in his mid-late fifties by an organization that was struggling, then took three years to try and turn it around. Needless to say, I think either Shanahan's work pays off and he stays, or it doesn't and he leaves. I don't see a middle ground here. Winning is fun. Losing means retirement.
This applies to Chan Gailey as well, by the way. Though I have a good feeling that the Bills might avoid a losing season this year and keep Gailey employed.