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The firing Monday (Dec. 31) of Lovie Smith as Chicago Bears coach is not the end of the world. Certainly not for Smith, who has one year remaining on his contract and even could land another head-coaching position this offseason.
As promised, more NFL cheerleader calendars. With more to come. Oh, and the Eagles fired Andy Reid, who was 130-93-1 in 14 seasons in Philadelphia.
He was among seven coaches sent packing the day after the regular season ended, so vacancies abound. Of course, those openings are on teams that struggled. Some other franchise might look at Smith’s 10-6 2012 season with envy. Or his nine-year record of 81-63 (that averages to a 9-7 annual won-lost record) as something that sounds good in Arizona, Buffalo, Cleveland, Kansas City, Philadelphia or San Diego.
The reality is Smith’s teams reached the postseason twice in his first three seasons and once in his final six. Wih his second and third seasons being 11-5 and 13-3, that means the rest of his tenure was 57-55.
Bears general manager Phil Emery obviously did not regard a 26-24 season-ending victory at Detroit as vindication for Smith’s season that began with the team starting off 7-1. And the reality is a general manager generally wants his own coach, not the one left over from his predecessor.
Described as a “players’ coach,” Smith will be missed. By the players, Those who talked to the media on Monday showed their affection for Smith.
One of the reasons for such a reaction from players is genuine feelings for the only NFL coach some players had known. One of the other reasons has to do more with ego and insecurity than anything else. Uncertainty generally is not an athlete’s ally.
Devin Hester spoke of retiring, even though he has a year left on his contract. With his kickoff and punt-return numbers down and any hopes of his becoming a legitimate big-time receiver apparently evaporated, Hester might not be around, even if he does reconcile his feeling for Smith in a new regime.
A change at coach is no guarantee of improved performance — individually or as a team. Better coaching helps with better players. Smith had input on roster decisions. For some reason, other teams — such as the Green Bay Packers — could lose players at key positions to injury and still prevail.
It’s tough for someone not close to Smith to feel terrible about his exit. He was OK. Not horrible. Not great. Somewhere in between. If you’re a Bears fan, you’re hoping his replacement is better than that. And has results to prove it — regardless of whether the players love him.
Speaking of coaches, Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau can only hope there is an answer for his team’s recent poor performances. The latest was New Year’s Eve afternoon against the Charlotte Bobcats, who visited the United Center with an 18-game losing streak.
The Bobcats departed with a one-game winning streak after a 91-81 victory.
“When you go through an entire month without a win, it really eats at you,” Bobcats coach Mike Dunlap said. “I have a lot of respect for this [Bulls] team and the defense and how hard they play. For us, we were just trying to find something that would help us win.”
“Some nights you’re going to shoot better than others,” Thibodeau said after his team went 33-of-94 from the field. “But the defense and rebounding is not whee it needs to be.”
“We’ve got to get ourselves out of this fun,” Bulls reserve forward Taj Gibson said after Charlotte outscored the Bulls 26-16 in the fourth quarter. “We’ve been up and down this season. We have to push ourselves through it.”
In case anyone wonders and/or cares, the Bulls are 5-5 in New Year’s Eve games.
Postgame interviews plus the Luvabulls dance team in action:
OK, the highlight of the Bulls game — other than the Luvabulls — was the halftime entertainment with the Jesse White Tumblers turning in an impressive performance:
Oh, and Happy New Year!
Might as well start 2013 pretty much the same way we ended 2012. With Psy performing “Gangnam Style.” With special guest Hammer.
And some Taylor Swift, too.
Oh, and some exercise video, too. Not that you have to exercise or anything, but …
Assuming you have survived New Year’s Eve (or at least or able to read this), here’s a friendly reminder that the Jay the Joke Holiday Cookbook still is available for the low, low price of: F-R-E-E!
The brainchild of Bill McCormick (the man behind the jaythejoke.com web site), the cookbook contains a wide-ranging variety of food and drink recipes. There definitely recipes that would work well on New Year’s Day. Or any day, for that matter.
You can access the cookbook by clicking here.
And once again, to those who think the only reason we run mentions of the cookbook is to justify running the cover, that is not the only reason. And, hey, in that I control this site, I really don’t need to justify running whatever does appear around here.
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