This (/deep breath) is a good thing. It needed to happen. Could it have gone a little cleaner, or in a little more media-friendly time frame? Sure. But the important thing to keep in mind is that when you look at all of the dynamics at play heading into next season, there was nothing short of a miracle that was going to make this work. Nobody with any juice was going to take a job on this staff, and there was always going to be a disconnect between the people in Fisher's spot who needed to win right away, and the people in Reinfeldt's spot who have to keep the long-term health of the franchise in mind. We were pretty much headed for a certified disaster, so at least now we have the benefit of a new vioce a tthe helm who can hopefully pull a little more out of the talented players on this roster. Short of hiring Gregg Williams, Bill Cohwer, Tony Dungy or Jon Gruden, Mike Munchak is probably the best hire Reinfeldt can make. Munchak has been pursued by a lot of teams (including Carolina within the past month) over the years, but has stayed loyal to the team for whom he put up a Hall of Fame career. All reports are that Mike commands the respect of everyone in the locker room, has been coveted by Bud Adams as a likely head coach for a long time and has a great relationship with Reinfeldt (the two played together for the Oilers back in the day). Is it sexy? No, but neither were a lot of head coaching hires that were successful. There's a part of me that's sad. I'd say that's a pretty pervasive feeling throughout Nashville this morning. You can't downplay how amazing of a job Fisher did navigating the Houston/Memphis/Vanderbilt/Adelphia transitions, and entrenching this franchise with the people in this town. Fisher loved living in Nashville, and it showed in how he conducted himself around town. It just wasn't working on a professional level, and several things had gotten very frustrating lately, but I wish nothing but the best for coach Fisher and his family. And yes, he'll always be coach Fisher in my house.
I've begged for a month now for the Fisher and Young decisions to be made separately, and they actually have. The either/or thing was disingenuous from jump. They both needed to go, and the fact that every report has said the Young decision hasn't been changed just shows that Young's relationship with Fisher wasn't the biggest or deepest problem holding him back from being a franchise QB. He's not coming back, so lets just drop that meme.
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Mike Silver delivers what pretty much equates to the Jeff Fisher party line on why this happened. Part of what kept Fisher around through the stormy episodes over the past 5 years was his relationship with Bud, but that relationship had completely gone in the tank. I'll agree with Silver that, looking back, Fisher's tenure here was on a death march after Bud told Jim Wyatt that he was essentially only keeping Jeff because he was due so much money over the last year of his contract; that statement holds even more weight after finding out that Fisher was due to make over $9 million between base salary and bonuses.
John McClain, who has been close to Bud and this franchise for over 30 years, makes the case for Mike Munchak. The real news here at this point is that Steve Underwood, who has been Bud's right-hand man for decades has informed people within the Titans organization that he'll retire when his contract is up prior to next season. That's a huge development, and really leaves Mike Reinfeldt as the most powerful member of this organization. Not bad for a guy who was brought in 5 years ago to be a cap specialist. I'm a fan of Reinfeldt's, and think he'll do an outstanding job navigating this ship into the next era.
Jeff Fisher says that the reports of the possible hiring of his son Brandon being the straw that broke the camel's back are 'bogus'.
Dennis Dillon of The Sporting News says the firing of Fisher is the end of an era where a coach lasting a decade was more the norm than the exception.
Various Dallas Morning News sports writers discuss if the Cowboys would have been better off to wait and see if Fisher became available before announcing Jaosn Garrett as the head coach.
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