Welcome to our weekly column where we look at all things NFL from our regular NFL tipster and Rugby League raconteur Nick Tedeschi. He will look at the good, the bad and the ugly of the NFL, holding back no punches.
The Axe Falls on Callahan
The Tennessee Titans terminated the ill-conceived Brian Callahan experiment with the ball club winning just four of 23 games during his embarrassing run. The Titans made an utterly idiotic call to fire Mike Vrabel, the team’s only winning coach since Jeff Fisher, and doubled down on it by plucking Callahan out of obscurity in what was his first senior role in the NFL as the OC at the Cincinnati Bengals. There was no market for him. He was not hyped as a big-time candidate. It was a terrible hire made by Ran Carthon, who has already been fired. Mike Borgonzi was named his replacement earlier this year and now gets his chance at his first major hire. He came through the Kansas City system so expect Matt Nagy to have the inside running though a run at Bill Belichick would not surprise.
Ranking Presidents by Love of Football
The Presidency has attracted some men who truly love football. Here are the Top 10:
- Richard Nixon: Had a direct line to George Allen’s coaching box when he led the Washington Redskins and famously called in two – failed – plays.
- Teddy Roosevelt: The man who saved football, working closely to make the game safer after 25 players lost their lives in 1905.
- Gerald Ford: Ford was the most accomplished player among the Presidents, playing centre for unbeaten Michigan teams in 1932 and 1933.
- Woodrow Wilson: Wilson played a major role in the establishment of the Rose Bowl and was part of the management of the team at Princeton when he attended.
- John F Kennedy: Kennedy and all his brothers played football at Harvard and it was the sport of choice at family gatherings in Hyannis Port.
- Dwight Eisenhower: Eisenhower was a fantastic two-way player at Army who carried his love of sport well past his presidency.
- Ronald Reagan: While Reagan was one of the least interested in sports Presidents, he did play the legendary Gipper in the football movie ‘Knute Rockne – All American’.
- Jimmy Carter: Carter was the first President to host a Super Bowl champion at the White House when the Pittsburgh Steelers visited in 1980.
- Donald Trump: Hardly a diehard football man but he owned the New Jersey Generals in the USFL and became the first sitting President to attend a Super Bowl.
- George HW Bush: Bush, 10 years after leaving office, became the first former President to perform the Super Bowl coin toss.
Is Aaron Glenn About To Enjoy a Shameful, Embarrassing Club
Since 1970, 34 head coaches have been fired after one season or less. It is a growing trend with 14 of those coming since 2011. There have been experienced coaches on likely their last gig (Lovie Smith, Frank Reich, Art Shell), weird college coaching hires gone bad quickly (Urban Meyer, Bobby Petrino) and a host of hires that should never have happened (Jerod Mayo, David Culley, Freddie Kitchens). Only Pete Carroll, fired after a year at the Jets in 1994, went on to any future success in the NFL. Hue Jackson was the last to receive a second chance, going 3-36-1 in Cleveland after an 8-8 stint at the Raiders.
Aaron Glenn is now on the verge of joining the illustrious list with the first-year head coach leading the Jets to a 0-6 start. The pressure is mounting not only because of their record but their total lack of discipline that has them ranked 7th in penalties and penalty yards against and the worst turnover differential in the NFL. There is frustration over the uber-conservative playcalling that has seen the Jets rank third in the NFL in first half runs and second last in first half pass attempts.
The Jets last fired a coach after a year in 2000 when Al Groh was allowed to go to Virginia after players turned on him despite a winning season – but they are not a club known for patience with only two coaches this century lasting five seasons. With the likes of Jon Gruden and Mike McCarthy jockeying for jobs, hot coordinators like Joe Brady and Brian Flores pushing for jobs and perennial college El Dorado candidates like Matt Campbell on the horizon, the money is on Glenn being one-and-done in New York.
Week 6 Bad Beat Power Rankings
No sport lends itself to cruel beats more than American football. Here are the four worst for Week 6:
4. LA Chargers -3.5: The Chargers dominated the Dolphins but needed a last minute field goal to win by two after the Dolphins scored two touchdowns in the last eight minutes including the final one with 46 seconds remaining.
3. Over 46.5 NE-NO: This game tallied 38 at halftime but just two second half field goals saw overs punters in the fetal position.
2. Under 46.5 TB-SF: This game was hanging on grimly on 46 until Chase McLaughlin sent it over from 45 on the two-minute warning.
1. Under 44.5 GB-Cin: This could have been a bad beat no matter what side you were on with 45.5 freely available and this game finishing 45 after a 10-0 halftime Green Bay lead.
Punter Stat of the Week
There have been 11 punts for negative yards in the NFL since 1978 led by Rusty Jackson’s -24 yard punt for the Buffalo Bills against Miami. Of the 11 negative punts, three results from snaps over head, three were kicked directly up in the air, two were kicked into a teammate’s backside, two were field goals gone awry and one saw heavy wind resulting in a whiffed kick that resulted in an opposition touchdown.
Fun Fact #1
There have been 467 players from the University of Alabama play in the NFL including 67 on active rosters.
Fun Fact #2
The state of California has produced the most NFL head coaches with 33 followed by Pennsylvania (31) and Ohio (25).
Fun Fact #3
Just two colleges have produced seven NFL head coaches: Oregon and Miami (Ohio) with the Redhawks producing the most Super Bowl winner with three.
Read It
‘Big Cat’ Ernie Ladd was a legend in both professional football and professional wrestling. A three-time AFL champion, Ladd is also in the Chargers hall of fame as well as the WCW, WWF, NWA and Wrestling Observer Hall of Fames. A giant of his time, he was one of the most feared defensive linemen in the history of the game. He made his mark off the field too by helping to boycott the 1965 AFL All-Star game in New Orleans after encountering racism a year after the Civil Rights Act passed, forcing the All-Star game to Houston on four days’ notice and severely damaging the reputation of New Orleans. Read a great article on Ladd and the boycott here.
Watch It
The most exciting, chaotic, underused, always-messed-up play in football is the lateral. It is wildly misused and rarely works but is always entertaining. This great video is nothing but 11 minutes of lateral plays in the NFL. Only 80% reference the Cal-Stanford game. Watch it here.