It’s as much a part of the football calendar as Thanksgiving Thursday or Wild Card weekend: Black Monday, the grim annual rite when NFL coaches are fired in droves on the day following the regular season.
The highest-profile sacking came in the nation’s capital, where Washington Redskins coach Mike Shanahan was fired following a meeting with owner Daniel Snyder after butting heads throughout the season over their respective treatment of franchise quarterback Robert Griffin III. Shanahan is owed $7 million on the final year of his contract.
Snyder will now be seeking his eighth head coach for his 16th season as an NFL owner — a span that includes four winning seasons, two playoff victories and seven last-place finishes in the NFC East.
“Redskins fans deserve a better result,” Snyder said in a statement. “We thank Mike for his efforts on behalf of the Redskins. We will focus on what it takes to build a winning team, and my pledge to this organization and to this community is to continue to commit the resources and talent necessary to put this team back in the playoffs.”
The more surprising move came out of Tampa, where the Bucs fired coach Greg Schiano and GM Mark Dominik in a house-cleaning. Schiano, known as more of a college-style taskmaster following his stint as Rutgers, began the season 0-8, reeled off four wins in five games, then closed in a three-game skid to finish 4-12.
Several reports have linked Schiano to a possible opening at Penn State, should Bill O’Brien leave the Nittany Lions as expected to pursue an NFL gig.
The Lions also canned Jim Schwartz, after the team squandered a NFC North lead by dropping its final four games. The fiery Schwartz had two years and nearly $12 million left on his contract.
The carnage began Monday morning with the Vikings announcing the firing of Leslie Frazier after three-plus seasons in which he compiled a 21-33-1 record.
The Cleveland Browns didn’t even wait that long, axing Rob Chudzinski on Sunday night following a 4-12 season and less than one year on the job. The dysfunctional Browns have fired four coaches since 2008.
And changes could be coming in Oakland (Dennis Allen) or Tennessee (Mike Munchak).
Stay tuned.
With AP