Well, okay, just one Giant.
Jason Garrett, who you may remember for his time coaching the Dallas Cowboys, out as offensive coordinator of the New York Football Giants.
Well, okay, just one Giant.
Jason Garrett, who you may remember for his time coaching the Dallas Cowboys, out as offensive coordinator of the New York Football Giants.
Sorry. I’m running a little behind, as I was tied up much of yesterday with various things, including going to see “Dune”.
(Random thought: it is refreshing to know that, thousands of years in the future, even on desert planets, there will be coffee.)
Anyway, NFL teams that still have a chance of going without a win this season:
Detroit.
The Lions play the semi-hapless (3-7) Bears on Thanksgiving Day. I’m thinking this is a toss-up, though ESPN seems to favor the Bears.
In firings news: Dan Mullen out at Florida. 34-15 in four seasons and they were in the national championship game last year, but (as Easterbrook often says) “what have you done for me lately?” (Answer: gone 5-6 this year and 2-6 in conference.)
Chip Lindsey out at Troy. 15-19 in three seasons, and 5-6 this one. Sensing a trend?
I’m back home, but playing catch-up. In the meantime, Justin Fuente out as Virginia Tech head coach.
43-31 overall and 28-20 in the ACC over six seasons.
Riding shotgun on the way home. In haste: Butch Davis out at Florida International.
Even better: it’s sabotage!
Another quick obit roundup while I’m still on the road.
Sam Huff, linebacker for the New York Football Giants.
Playing for the Giants in their glory years of the late 1950s and early ’60s, Huff came out of the West Virginia coal country to anchor a defense that gained the kind of renown that had previously been reserved for strong-armed quarterbacks and elusive runners.
He played in six N.F.L. championship games in his eight seasons with the Giants. He was named to the all-league team three times and played in five Pro Bowls.
Huff was remembered for his head-on duels with two of the game’s greatest fullbacks — the Cleveland Browns’ Jim Brown and the Green Bay Packers’ Jim Taylor — but he also had 30 career interceptions. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1982.
Jonathan Reynolds. He was a playwright and wrote a food column for the NYT. I wanted to note his passing because he was also a screenwriter. His first script was “Micki + Maude”, a Blake Edwards/Dudley Moore movie that I was unfamiliar with, but which was apparently well received. But…
He also did “Switching Channels”, “My Stepmother Is An Alien”, and “The Distinguished Gentleman”.
Gavan O’Herlihy. He had a fair number of credits, including “Willow” and “Lonesome Dove”, but seems to be most famous for playing “Chuck Cunningham” in nine episodes of “Happy Days”.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Well, it’s complicated.
Detroit tied Pittsburgh in overtime. But apparently the NFL is playing 17 games this season? Who knew?
(No, really. I didn’t.)
So it is still theoretically possible for Detroit to go 0-16…and 1. Does that count?
Reply hazy. Ask again in week 17, assuming Detroit hasn’t won one by then.
Tom Arth out as head coach of the Akron Zips.
3-24 overall. They were 0-12 in his first season, 1-5 in 2020, and are 2-7 so far this year.
Henry Ruggs III out as wide receiver for the Las Vegas Raiders. Of course, Mr. Ruggs has other issues, which are being well covered elsewhere, but I wanted to note it here because: 156 miles per hour.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Detroit
Next week is the Lions bye week. (Insert joke about Vegas odds against the bye here.)
This is also related to the Chicago Blackhawks sexual abuse scandal: he was the Blackhawks head coach at the time.
The investigation, which was made public Tuesday, revealed that Quenneville was aware of the situation and took part in at least one meeting regarding the allegations during the 2010 postseason. Quenneville had previously said he only learned of the allegations in the summer of 2021 “through the media.”
In an interview with TSN on Wednesday, Beach said there was no way Quenneville was unaware of the allegations.”I’ve witnessed meetings, right after I reported it to [Blackhawks mental skills coach] James Gary, that were held in Joel Quenneville’s office. There’s absolutely no way that he can deny knowing it,” Beach said.
According to recollections from former Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman in the investigation report, Quenneville, after learning of the Aldrich allegations, “shook his head and said that it was hard for the team to get to where they were [the playoffs] and they could not deal with this issue now.”
The NY Post is reporting the death of Carl Madsen.
Mr. Madsen was a long-time NFL official: he worked on-field from 1997 to 2008, then worked as a replay official from 2009.
He worked the game between the Titans and the Chiefs on Sunday. According to the report, he was driving home to Mississippi when he had some kind of medical problem. The police responded, pulled him out of the car and did first aid, and transported him to a hospital where he passed away.
He was 71. Our condolences to his family.
Stan Bowman, “president of hockey operations” for the Chicago Blackhawks, has “resigned”, in what sounds like one of those “resign or get fired” deals.
This appears to be a result of a third party investigation commissioned by the Blackhawks. A former player, who is being identified as “John Doe”, sued the team and states that he was sexually assaulted in 2010 by “video coach” Brad Aldrich. This was during the Blackhawk’s Stanley Cup run. Aldrich apparently admitted to a sexual encounter with “John Doe”, but claims it was consensual: “John Doe” denies that it was consensual.
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