Coaching Carousel Spins Around

At first I wasn't sure what we were going to talk about today, but I've decided that we'll hold off the Hall of Fame discussion for tomorrow.  All I'll say about the Hall of Fame election is that Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar are going to get in.  Instead, we have a preview of the NFL playoffs and some fun little end-of-the-season tidbits.

As expected, somebody inserted a quarter into the coaching carousel as soon as the season ended.  John Fox is out in Carolina and Eric Mangini is done in Cleveland.  And so is Raiders coach Tom Cable.  Huh?  His firing is further proof that Al Davis lost his mind sometime during the Reagan administration.  The Raiders went 8-8 and were relevant/somewhat good for the first time in years.  Yet the coach got canned.  Fun fact No. 1 involves the Raiders.  Oakland was the only team in the NFL to go undefeated in its division.  However, the Raiders went 2-8 against the rest of the league to miss the playoffs.  They're the first team ever to go undefeated in their division and miss the playoffs.

Of the four teams that canned their coaches during the season, the Vikings and Cowboys correctly decided to give the full-time job to their respective interim coaches, Leslie Frazier and Jason Garrett.  But it's beyond hypocritical that the NFL is requiring Dallas to "interview" a minority candidate (who has absolutely no chance of getting the job) just to fulfill the Rooney Rule, but Minnesota was allowed to just promote Frazier.  That's all I'm going to say about the ridiculous Rooney Rule, since I'm bound to offend somebody if I say anything else.  Actually, I'll say this, Frazier "interviewed" with the Seahawks last year just so they could fulfill the Rooney Rule before formally hiring Pete Carroll.  I ask you: Did he actually have a shot at getting the Seattle job?  Answer: No!  Likewise, will the minority candidate getting a sham "interview" in Dallas have any chance of getting that job?  No again!

Speaking of Carroll's Seahawks, it's possible that they're the worst playoff team in NFL history.  Seattle became the first team with a losing record to win its division, and the first sub-.500 team ever to make the playoffs in a non-strike season.  The Seahawks will host a playoff game against the defending champion Saints despite finishing with the eighth-best record in their own conference and the 17th-best record in all of football.  The Giants and Bucs both went 10-6 and missed the playoffs, yet both of them crushed Seattle (the Giants beat the Seahawks 41-7 and Tampa Bay beat Seattle 38-15), so it's pretty clear that the NFC playoff field doesn't actually include the six best teams.  And while it's ridiculous that a 7-9 team gets to host a playoff game, I hope the owners don't overreact and change the playoff system during the offseason.  The system is set up perfectly.  There are eight playoff games in the first two rounds and eight divisions.  Your reward for winning your division should be a home playoff game.

If the Seahawks had lost to the Rams on Sunday (sidebar: I've never cheered so hard for the St. Louis Rams in my life), they would've been one of eight teams (a quarter of the league) to finish 6-10.  Instead, Seattle ended up 7-9 and made the playoffs while the Giants and Bucs didn't at 10-6, which is generally considered to be the record that should be good enough to get you in.  Since they expanded the playoff field to 12 teams in 1990, only six teams have gone 10-6 or better and missed the playoffs (the 2008 Patriots were 11-5).  And a pair of 10-6 teams missed the playoffs in the same season only once, in 1991, when the Eagles and 49ers missed out (they're also the only other 10-6 NFC teams ever to miss the playoffs under the current format).

Finally, there's our friend Brett Favre.  This time, Brett called it a career and meant it.  There's not going to be the annual retirement dance this summer.  He's done, and I think even he knows it.  After catching lightning in a bottle during a remarkable 2009 season, Brett looked old this season.  He finally reached the point where he couldn't battle through his weekly injury, and was inactive for three of the final four games of his career.  It looked like his career was over when he hurt his shoulder against the Bills in Week 13, then saw his consecutive starts streak come to an end against the Giants the next week, but he amazingly made it back to play against the Bears the following week.  Favre threw his final career touchdown pass to Percy Harvin, then he was knocked out of the game by Corey Wootton, suffering a concussion that sidelined him for Minnesota's final two games.  Of course, I believed him last year when he said he wasn't coming back.  But this time it's different.  At his press conference on Sunday (this guy gave more interviews than all other inactive third QBs in NFL history this season), Favre basically admitted that he can't do this anymore and seemed at peace with it.

Besides, it's not like Brett's going to come out of the news anytime soon.  I wonder who the next current/former Jets employee to accuse him of sexual harrassment will be.