4 NFL HCs who were released without completing a single season in-charge
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