Tom Landry was winless in his first year in 1960 as head coach of the Cowboys and didn’t make the playoffs until 1966. When fans started to get restless about his slow start, owner Clint Murchison gave him a 10-year contract. He went on to win two Super Bowls.
Chuck Noll went 1-13 in his first year with the Steelers in 1969 and didn’t make and didn’t make the playoffs until 1972. He went on to win four Super Bowls.
Bill Walsh had a 2-14 record in his first year in San Francisco and went on to win three Super Bowls.
That was then. This is now. Few owners have that kind of patience these days.
For the third year in a row, a first-year head coach was fired before he finished the season. Urban Meyer of the Jaguars and Nathaniel Hackett of the Broncos were the first two, and it could be argued they were poorly suited for an NFL head coaching job.
But there were a lot of eyebrows raised when Carolina owner David Tepper after he fired Frank Reich for going 1-10 in his first season with a rookie quarterback. Reich took the Colts to the playoffs twice in four years before being fired last year. He was the first coach to be fired in back-to-back seasons since the merger.
Granted, the offense has been terrible and it didn’t improve when Reich took over the play calling duties from Thomas Brown, who will resume those duties. Tepper also fired running back coach Duce Staley and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown.
But it is hard to to see how this revolving door is going to lead to success. When Tepper bought the team in 2018 for $2.275 billion, he inherited Ron Rivera as his coach. He fired him with four games left in 2019. He then hired Matt Ruhle in 2020 and gave him a seven-year, $63 million contract. He fired him early in 2022 and handed the job to Steve Wilks, who went 6-6. But he didn’t retain Wilks and hired Reich.
So who knows where Tepper goes from here. He is the same owner who made a deal to build a practice facility and headquarters in Rock Hill, S.C., but then it fell through.
Until Tepper finds the right coach and sticks with him, he will find out that being a billionaire doesn’t translate to success on the field.
VITO'S VIEWS 