Talk Soup is Cancelled
Mike Nolan was fired Monday as head coach of the San Fransisco 49ers. Nolan served as Defensive coordinator of the Washington Redskins from 1997-1999. It was during this time that Porkboy and Fatpickle tagged Nolan with the nickname Talk Soup. We thought he bore a tremendous resemblance to the original host of Talk Soup, Greg Kinear. I still enjoy playing the “he looks like someone famous game”, its always fun. But lets focus on another NFL firing. Until the past couple of weeks I have never liked the idea of firing a NFL coach in the middle of the season. Although the NFL season is long in the sense of time, there is only 16 regular season games. It seems crazy to fire a coach a quarter of the way thru the season. Especially when a head coach has put his system in place, gone thru OTA’s, training camp, and preseason. It seems as though things have to be dire straights, or severe rock bottom to make such a move. But, the Rams are 2-0 with wins on the road against the Skins and Cowboys, since firing Scott Linehan. Even the Raiders came up with a spirited win this weekend against the Jets, making the cable guy 1-1.
Which brings me to the hiring of Mike Singletary. I love this move! I know Singletary has never been a coordinator, but he is a leader. If intensity and motivation are what the 49er’s are looking for, he will bring it. Singletary has interviewed several times for coaching vacancies, and was always passed over. I hope indeed that he was a serious candidate for these positions, that he was not just brought in as a product of the Rooney rule.
Singletary now has 9 games to show the 49er’s that he should be the head coach, and I think he succeeds. He’s playing in a weak division, and he has good coaches in place. All he needs to do is light a fire, and I think he can do that with his stare alone. The 49er’s have a bye and 3 divisional games in the next month. Seattle and St. Louis at home, and Arizona on the road. If they do well over the next 4 weeks, they are right back in the division hunt.
We still have 2 more firings that could happen before season’s end. Rod Marinelli in Detroit, and Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati. Marinelli is most likely to go, his team is pitiful and the new GM will probably want to choose another head coach. Lewis should be fired with the Bengals bye week coming up. However, Mike Brown is a notorious tight wad, and probably can’t handle paying Lewis to sit at home for the rest of the season.
One things for sure, with all the openings that are going to be available for head coaching positions in the NFL this year, it’s time to get Russ Grimm a job. He too has been passed over many times, and has the knock of never being a coordinator. But he is a Super Bowl Champion and a Hall of Fame caliber player. He will be a successful head coach if given the chance.
Cheers and Hail!
