ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 24, 1996 TAG: 9612240078
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Try to climb up from the bottom of the NFL and the going's tough. All those discarded coaches keep getting in the way.
The New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons added to the pile Monday when they fired Dan Reeves and June Jones, respectively. Released on Sunday was St. Louis' Rich Brooks, and Rich Kotite resigned Friday before the New York Jets had to fire him.
During the season, Jim Mora snapped and resigned in New Orleans. And David Shula was canned in Cincinnati.
They figure to have some company soon. On shaky ground is Wayne Fontes, whose final game as coach of the Detroit Lions might have been Monday night's 24-14 loss to San Francisco. Bill Parcells, who guided New England to the AFC East Division crown, is in the final year of his contract after getting Patriots owner Robert Kraft to drop the fifth season of the deal.
There are rumors Marty Schottenheimer might have had enough in Kansas City; that Mike White could be out any day in Oakland; and that Dennis Green, despite an enviable coaching record with Minnesota that features playoff appearances in four of his five seasons as coach, including this year, is in trouble.
The coaching carousel is practically spinning out of control.
Reeves pretty much talked his way out of the Giants job. He led them to a wild-card playoff berth in 1993, but the team has been in a steady decline since.
When Reeves complained publicly about how the organization was run and his lack of input on personnel decisions, his chances of remaining with New York diminished, especially when the team went 6-10.
``It was not a power struggle. It was more a philosophy struggle,'' said Reeves, 31-33 in his New York tenure.
Added George Young, the general manager whose drafting and free-agent signings have come under attack in recent years but who has the full support of ownership:
``It evolved over the second half of the season,'' Young said. ``I'm not apologizing for anything. We made a decision. We wanted to go in a different direction. We felt we wanted to change leadership.''
Ditto Atlanta, although team president Taylor Smith offered kind words for Jones, who compiled a 19-29 record in three years. Jones had two years to go on his contract, but when the Falcons fell from a wild-card playoff berth to 3-13 - and franchise quarterback Jeff George was cut after a sideline confrontation with Jones was caught by television cameras - a coaching change seemed inevitable.
``Ultimately, coaches are judged by won-lost records,'' Smith said. ``But as far as holding him totally responsible for our record, it probably wouldn't be accurate. We need to take a whole look at where we are as an organization.''
Where they were in 1996 was near the bottom, along with the Rams and Jets.
Brooks lost his job after two years, in which he went 7-9 and 6-10. He made an argument for keeping his position by mentioning how young the Rams were. Brooks said he left the franchise in great shape, with 13 first-year players on the two-deep roster.
``Rich's view to me was that he thought I was making a mistake,'' said John Shaw, the Rams' president. ``I understand his view. But at this point I wasn't terribly confident that the direction we were going was such that we would win next year.''
Shaw was most upset by St. Louis' weak defense and large number of penalties under Brooks. The Rams gave up a team-record 418 points in 1995 and 409 this year, and they tied a team record with 133 penalties this season.
Shaw did not mention that the front office dealt away two of St.Louis' three best players - Jerome Bettis and Sean Gilbert - in the off-season.
Kotite's departure was the most predictable. He ran lackadaisical practices. His teams faltered in the second half of games. An inordinate number of players got hurt.
Like the Rams, the Jets committed too many penalties and were porous on defense. Some games, they looked like they had no clue - on the field and on the sideline.
Most damaging, of course, was Kotite's 4-28 record, matching the worst two-year mark in league history.
``It's been a long two years,'' Kotite said.
Nobody disagreed.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: color headshots of Reeves and Jones KEYWORDS: FOOTBALLby CNB