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Patience is a virtue...but that's not always the case in the cutthroat world of coaching in the NFL.
Trigger-fingers of NFL decision-makers are quicker and friskier than ever, the idea of a coach establishing his "system" and winning with "his players" often eschewed for the concept of stacking up immediate victories. Other times, coaches see the writing on the wall and opt-out of the dire proceedings before it's too late.
SK looks back on coaches who failed to make it through a single season on their NFL ledgers...
Which NFL coaches failed to last a single year?
Lou Holtz, NY Jets (1976)
Holtz is known for many endeavors: some remember him for his lucrative tenure at Notre Dame while younger fans likely see him as one of the primary voices of ESPN's college football coverage in the new century. No one, however, will remember Holtz's brief NFL cameo during the 1976 season, when he took on the cursed reins of the New York Jets.
Brought in to oversee what would become Joe Namath's final year in New York, Holtz mustered only three wins in a year that NFL Films took full advantage of: the team's 1976 highlight reel was entitled "Mayday", which opened with famed narrator John Facenda declaring "“Perhaps the best thing to say about the 1976 New York Jets season is that it’s over”. Holtz resigned from his post with one game left in the NFL season to return to college, accepting the head job at Arkansas.
Pete McCulley, San Francisco (1978)
Before Joe Montana, before Jerry Rice, the San Francisco 49ers' great hope was...O.J. Simpson.
With San Francisco's NFL endeavors in dire straits — mired in a five-year playoff drought — the team brought in the aging Simpson (a Bay Area native) to serve as an offensive catalyst. The 49ers also hired Pete McCulley, previously a receivers' coach with the Baltimore Colts, to oversee the operation. McCulley was San Francisco's third coach in three seasons after Monte Clark and Ken Meyer were let go after a year each.
McCulley failed to make it even that far: he was let go after the 49ers began the year 1-8 and wound up setting an NFL record with a jaw-dropping 63 turnovers. To make matters worse, the 49ers didn't even have the comfort of owning their first-round pick, having shipped off to Buffalo to acquire Simpson. McCulley was dismissed after nine games and never secured another head coaching spot.
Also Checkout: Joe Montana Super Bowl Wins
George Allen, LA Rams (1978)
Perhaps one of the most underrated bosses in NFL history, Allen guided his teams to winning records in each of his dozen years as head coach. His first such endeavor saw him take the Los Angeles Rams to three straight 10-plus win seasons.
After seven seasons in Washington, Allen was re-hired by the Rams in 1978; he was seen by many as a missing piece in the team's Super Bowl puzzle. Los Angeles had won each of the last five division titles but had trouble advancing past the semifinal round. Amazingly, however, Allen lasted a mere two preseason games: clashing with star players as well as Rams management and bidding farewell weeks before the 1978 season began. He'd never coach in the NFL again, though he'd last two seasons in the USFL.
Bobby Petrino, Atlanta (2007)
Having wowed the nation with the University of Louisville, Petrino joined the Atlanta Falcons on a five-year deal. It came mere months after he signed a ten-year contract with the Cards.
Petrino's NFL tenure was doomed from the start: brought in to supervise the Falcons' potent offense, his hiring coincided with franchise Michael Vick's arrest and imprisonment for operating dogfighting rings in Virginia. Thus doomed to a lost season, Atlanta struggled to the tune of a 3-10 record. Petrino swore his NFL loyalty to team owner Arthur Blank, but, hours after that promise, Petrino, like Holtz before him, resigned with a 3-10 mark to accept the head coaching position at Arkansas. His lasting NFL legacy came in the form of a generic, impersonal four-sentence letter he left in each player's locker, failing to address the team directly before going back to school.
