12/21/24
January 02, 2011
Carolina Panthers Fire John Fox: Coach John Fox and his entire staff won't return to the Carolina Panthers next season, the team has announced. During his nine years at the helm, Fox's teams went 78-73 and reached Super Bowl 0x25.
It's been known for a while this would happen and it's probably time for a change. That being said, John Fox is a quality NFL coach who can walk into his choice of open D coordinator jobs and may well go straight to another head coach job. I would not be shocked to see him in Dallas next year as one or the other.
My only gripe about Fox is his handling of some of the personalities on the team. Clearly Julius Peppers was desperate to get away from him. About five years ago Peppers had a bad year and it was clear to me he had an injured hip, but it was never listed on the injury report and Peppers never mentioned it.
I think Fox was trying to keep secret something any damn fool could see on film and muzzled Peppers about the injury. When Peppers started catching crap on talk radio and boos at the stadium he became a very unhappy camper. He wanted out, but the Panthers couldn't figure out a way to get fair value for him.
Long story short, after putting the franchise tag on an unhappy Peppers two years straight, lots of drama, and tying up stupid amounts of money to keep him, he wound up walking away at the end anyway.
Is there a moral to this story? Maybe. Peppers' new team, the Bears, with Julius playing his ass off again, won the NFC North and the #2 seed in the NFC. The Panthers went 2-14 and locked up the worst record in the league.
posted by gradioc at 07:47 PM on January 02, 2011
Here comes Bill Cowher
posted by Debo270 at 08:15 AM on January 03, 2011
Or will it be "Here comes Jim Harbaugh and Andrew Luck"?
posted by NoMich at 10:04 AM on January 03, 2011
Is there a college coach desired (or at least rumored to be desired) by more NFL teams than Jim Harbaugh? Panthers, Niners, Broncos all apparently want him; Denver hired Elway because of his ability to hire Harbaugh and a local sports talk TV show said that one Niners GM candidate is getting serious consideration simply because he can deliver the Stanford coach.
posted by billsaysthis at 12:22 PM on January 03, 2011
For what it's worth, the feeling among sports fans in Charlotte is that Luck comes packaged up with Harbaugh, otherwise he's staying for his senior season.
Will a rookie salary cap hit the NFL before this summer's draft? If not, Luck would be throwing away about $50 million in guaranteed money if he stays in school.
posted by NoMich at 01:26 PM on January 03, 2011
I think with the talent the Niners have in place, it would be a great attraction for Luck and Harbaugh. With a good coach and QB that team could be poised to compete immediately at a high level.
posted by Atheist at 04:49 PM on January 04, 2011
Be interesting to see what caliber of coach the Panthers will be able to attract and under what contractual conditions (personnel decisions, etc).
Can't imagine there is a long line of smart, success-minded coaches that would want to cast their lot with the team ownership in its current state.
Although if Fox's current compensation is at $6 mil as reported (which is a staggering sum, all things considered), major money waving could be a critical factor. (It gets people to migrate to the Washington team who should otherwise know better).
Perhaps it's time for the pros to do like the colleges do.
The NY Giants could hire Fox and designate him head coach-in-waiting.