Three years ago at a serene Hawaii resort, there was football wisdom - not to mention championship jewels - at nearly every table at the NFL owners meetings. Dick Vermeil spent one morning talking about his coaching philosophies developed over a lifetime in the game, while Bill Cowher spoke about his more than a decade of service in Pittsburgh.
At the league's annual meeting next month in Arizona, the coaches are going to need nametags, and a few will need a kid's menu.
As Marty Schottenheimer learned last week, there is no such thing as job security in the NFL, not when owners are shelling out obscene amounts of money to field a winning team. Apparently, you can go 14-2, but if you flame out in the playoffs (again), you're out.
Assuming no one else loses his job this off-season, there will have been 17 coaching changes in the last two seasons. Legends are being replaced by virtual neophytes. This off-season alone, the league has lost four coaches with at least 100 career victories: Bill Parcells, Dennis Green, Cowher and Schottenheimer.
Can you name Green's replacement in Arizona? Or how about Cowher's in Pittsburgh? And just who is Lane Kiffin, and why is he qualified to coach the Oakland Raiders at the tender age of 31?
The owners' hiring practices of late certainly show a movement away from men with head coaching experience. It seems everyone is looking for the next Lovie Smith or Sean Payton - a younger coordinator who can excel as a head coach. But the window coaches are given to succeed is so small, and if the learning curve for an inexperienced coach is so great, how could he possibly succeed, especially when playoff participation is a must?
Entering the 2006 season, there were seven first-time head coaches: Minnesota's Brad Childress, Houston's Gary Kubiak, St. Louis's Scott Linehan, the New York Jets' Eric Mangini, Detroit's Rod Marinelli, Green Bay's Mike McCarthy and New Orleans' Payton.
Payton got the Saints into the NFC title game before losing to the Bears. Mangini's Jets were a wild-card team. None of the other first-timers finished north of .500, with Marinelli struggling to a 3-13 record.
Entering the 2007 season, there will be five first-time coaches: Arizona's Ken Whisenhunt, Atlanta's Bobby Petrino, Miami's Cam Cameron, Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin and Oakland's Kiffin.
