Worst Hires of All Time

Totally agree on Seifert, I never liked him...

Worst NFL Hires

By Jay Glazer
The chore of searching for a new head coach can be exhausting, pressure-filled and absolutely draining. So much goes into finding a guy who can lead a group of 53 separate corporations toward one common goal.

While finding a new man to lead the troops builds hope, it also means stress for the owner and GM that the right man is found. Even more harrowing is the threat of swinging and completely missing. The whiff of the worst proportions.

And there has been no shortage of complete and total failures. Embarrassments. Those who set a franchise back a few years.

With the Dolphins, Redskins, Ravens and Falcons looking for head coaches here's hoping that they all at least get in the right ball park. If they need a guide for what a bad coaching hire looks like, we've got plenty for them to choose from.

Steve Spurrier — Washington Redskins: The Ol' Ball Coach was more like the Clueless Ball Coach when he left the cozy confines of his Florida offensive attack and golf courses for the big leagues. He was a total flop and eventually quit after realizing the NFL was a little bit too much for him to handle. Not only did he prove to be a poor evaluator of personnel, his offensive genius label went by the wayside when he surrendered the offense to assistant Hue Jackson. Players said he ran meetings and the team schedule as loose as a Club Med getaway in Cancun.

Bobby Petrino — Atlanta Falcons: Hired by the Falcons to be everything they thought they were missing with Jim Mora. Petrino, like Spurrier, had no business dealing with men on the NFL level. Some guys are born to coach football in high school, some college and some with the big boys. Petrino not only failed to relate to today's NFL locker room, he left being called a coward like a guy trying to sneak out in the middle of the night — which he pretty much did.

Shortly after bringing his tough-guy persona to the big leagues, Petrino realized that he couldn't pull scholarships or treat guys who make more dough than him as if they were serving him slop on a cafeteria line. Like Nick Saban before him, Petrino thought he could come into the NFL and bully millionaires with attitudes. Doesn't work like that Bobby.

Butch Davis — Cleveland Browns: Like Spurrier, Saban and Petrino, Davis could not relate to today's NFL player. Strongly distrusted by his locker room in Cleveland and disliked by many of his guys, Davis made Carmen Policy's last move in office a horrendous one. Not only was he not trusted at all by players, Davis' coaching acumen did nothing to spur his team to the next level.

Moral of the story? Stay in college Pete Carroll!

Art Shell — Oakland Raiders: Talk about a hire doomed from the start. Shell, according to his players, had absolutely zero relationship with his locker room nor did he care to build one. The team was run by one guy and the players acted like a totally separate entity.

To make matters worse, Shell put together one of the worst coaching staffs in history, low-lighted when he asked a bed-n-breakfast owner to come out of retirement and run the Raiders offense. Wow, what a great idea!

Opposing players scoffed at the Raiders' archaic schemes and Shell lasted all of one year, even though Al Davis insisted he was safe.

Marty Mornhinweg — Detroit Lions: He was Matt Millen's first hire and while he's a solid offensive mind, he was clearly not ready to be a head coach. The worst moment came when he angrily rode off on his motorcycle one day while his players secretly laughed. It was a sign of times to come for the lowly Lions.

Bill Belichick — New York Jets: Wait, wait, wait. Before you all go crazy looking to throw all my tea overboard, give me a chance to explain. Belichick's move to New England has turned out to be brilliant and one could argue he's the greatest coach of all time. The horrible coaching hire we're alluding to is with the New York Jets. It put the C in calamity and catastrophe. Actually, in comedy too as Belichick jilted Jets ownership at the altar. The move led the Jets and Patriots to a highly visible and public battle over New England's tampering charges.

Belichick's the best there is in the game but Jets ownership should have had a much better handle before being embarrassed and sucker punched for the world to see.

Ray Handley — New York Giants: In between Bill Parcells' Super Bowl victory over the Bills and Dan Reeves' playoff appearance in his first year was the infamous Ray Handley. Rumors regarding things we won't touch killed his reputation forever and sent him into hiding. But football-wise, Parcells' hand-picked guy upset the team so much that Lawrence Taylor once attacked him in the locker room and others had to be restrained at times. He was a complete and utter disaster to say the least.

Richie Pettibone — Washington Redskins: Was completely overmatched and failed miserably in his attempt to follow up Joe Gibbs when Gibbs hung it up the first time. He didn't last much longer than a season of misery and complete failure.

George Seifert — Carolina Panthers: Killed the Panthers cap after the team had some success under Bill Polian and Dom Capers. Seifert stockpiled old defensive linemen whose body parts failed to work anymore and overpaid the heck out of them. He had zero personal relationship with his locker room and sent that team spinning to one of the worst seasons in memory. John Fox had a perfect scenario to come in to the rescue.

Denny Green — Arizona Cardinals: Hired for a gig that should have absolutely panned out. In fact, at the time FOXSports.com conducted a poll of other head coaches and GMs and they voted Green most likely to have success in his new job. The problem is that Green ran a bad ship and a guy who was touted as an offensive guru was far from that behind the scenes. The team allowed him to bring in stars yet the Cards, in the end, were the same old Cards.

Cam Cameron — Miami Dolphins: He lost all but one game and that was after he decided not to be the head coach for Miami in the team's final preseason game. Remember that beauty, saying he wanted to evaluate his other coaches? His troubles have been widely reported here so there's no reason to dig it up again. But let's just say he and the locker room won't be having any koombaya moments soon.

Dave Shula — Cincinnati Bengals: A stunning 19-52 record will put you right on this list. Believe it or not, he actually had a pretty talented coaching staff but they still lost miserably. The worst moment for him came when Gary Reasons turned his coach's hat around on the sideline which made a mockery of the supposed leader of the team. It all went downhill from there.

 

Seifert had one awful season, and he didn't kill the cap. It was already dead. 2001's purge is half the reason we have cap to this day, and the roster he put together helped make a Super Bowl. Thanks for the dead horse.

Disagree. Carroll was a pro coach who went to the college ranks because a cherry gig opened up. He had a stellar record as a pro assistant, and a .500 record with some semi-talented teams in NY and NE.

 

If I were Carroll, I'd stay put...for now at least. Atlanta would be a step back for him. I could see him in San Diego in a few years.

 

agree, don't go into a lost situation and pretend to be a savior. It'll take a player's coach now, followed by a younger guy to start things correctly over.

 

I want Singletary to get a Head Coaching job, just not that one.

 

Same here.

 

Marion Campbell

 

I still do not think Seifert did a good job here as a coach. Our offense was Mike Martz lite and our defense was vanila. He failed to address a woeful OL until his final season. He stuck with Timmy B way too long. His offenses could never hold a lead. He just kept passing and the resulting turnovers let teams come back and beat us.

He did make some good draft picks for us though, especially his final draft. I can not really remember any of his free agent pickups doing much but he did draft fairly well.

 

Wow, look at some of those names.

Has there ever been a less qualified HC than Dave Shula. His coaching resume prior to joining Cinncy is staggering. It's bad when you make Bruce Coslet look like a savior.

Initially, Seifert seemed like a good hire. We did had a solid turnaround in '99 and things seemed to be on the upswing, but it's hard to forgive the Mount Rushmore/Jeff Lewis debacle.

Butch Davis? Not as bad as some of the other names. He's still the only coach to get the new Browns into the playoffs.