Kiffin’s firing tops crazy week for the NFL

Adam Schefter
By |

Published: September 30th, 2008 | Tags: ,

The NFL never has experienced a week like this one before. This marks the first time since at least 1970 — and quite possibly a whole lot longer — that two head coaches have been fired before the fifth game of the season.

It is so rare that the last time a head coach was fired before the fifth game was back in 1989, when Al Davis got rid of Mike Shanahn.

But now we’ve had two coaches fired 24 hours apart — first Scott Linehan in St. Louis, then Lane Kiffin in Oakland.

This is a list that we trotted out last weekend that is worth revisiting again:

Coaches Released Before 5th Game since 1970:

Year and coach Team Games and record
2008 Lane Kiffin Raiders Four games (1-3)
2008 Scott Linehan Rams Four games (0-4)
1989 Mike Shanahan Raiders Four games (1-3)
1985 Kay Stephenson Bills Four games (0-4)
1982 Jack Petera Seahawks Two games (0-2_
1974 Howard Schnellenberger Colts Three games (0-3)
1971 Jerry Williams Eagles Three games (0-3)

Noteable:
In 2000, Bruce Coslet resigned as Bengals coach after 3 games — was not fired/released
In 1978, George Allen was fired by the Redskins two weeks into preseason

Posted in: Adam Schefter  | comments  |  

Guidelines: Fan feedback should be within the guidelines for the NFL community. These guidelines will be used to identify those comments that will be removed from display on the site. Please keep your comments relevant to the topic, not abusive or combatant towards other fans, and don’t share any personal details. Use the “Report” link to help keep the community at its best.

Comments may be no longer than 2000 characters and will post to the site shortly after submitting.

Powered by WordPress.com VIP | Subscribe (RSS)