In writing about the recent firing of New York Red Bulls Head Coach Mike Petke for another website, and reading about the New York Giants dismissal of their defensive coordinator, Perry Fewell on Friday; I started to think about the seemingly inherent instability surrounding sports coaches. Our society treats these men and in some cases, women, as collateral damage in the major college sports and professional sports ranks.

 

The news cycle today includes the Denver Broncos, who were eliminated from the playoffs yesterday, “mutually agreeing to part ways with Head Coach John Fox” and the team fired all of the assistant coaches on the staff. Coach Fox guided the Broncos to the Super Bowl last season, though they lost to Seattle in that championship game, the decision today illustrates the cold reality in which these decisions are made.

 

Another recent example of a situation I was directly involved in covering was the firing of Head Coach Peter DeBoer by the New Jersey Devils. The team was mired in a slump and has not played consistently the entire season, but he was fired the day after Christmas, from the emotional standpoint that must have been very difficult for his family as well.

 

I understand that the world of major college athletics and professional sports has evolved into a scenario where a lot of money is at stake. The revenues of certain sports leagues are at all-time highs and the sheer amounts of money being exchanged for season tickets, personal seat licenses, and television/media rights are enormous in scale. The pressure on the respective front office and coaching staff of any team has to be tremendous given the circumstances. The emphasis on winning and delivering championships is at a tipping point in today’s sports landscape.

 

The players in major professional sports are highly talented and well compensated, they are the best and most gifted athletes on the planet. However, the blame seems to usually fall on the coach or the coaching staff if a team underperforms their expectations. The end result is that head coach, or in many cases an entire staff of coaches, being terminated from their jobs.

Hired To Get Fired

 

I understand from being a big sports fan that one of the sayings that coaches use, especially in the pressure cooker that is the NFL, is “you get hired to get fired”. There is a genuine understanding going into the situation that it is probably not going to end well. The rare exception is a coach finishing his tenure and leaving on his or her own terms; the majority of the time the situation ends in termination for the coach and their staff based on a losing season or poor performance.

 

A good case study of that scenario is Head Coach Tom Coughlin of the New York Giants. He has gone through some rough patches during his tenure with the team, at two different points the fans were ranting about the poor performance of the Giants. The team looked lost on the field, and both times the Giants turned their seasons around and ended up winning the Super Bowl. This past season was no different, with two championship victories on his resume, the focus still shifted to whether Coughlin should be fired because of the poor performance of 2014 Giants during their season.

 

The other scenario that costs a coach their job is essentially team politics which seems to be the case with Mike Petke and the New York Red Bulls. The team hired a new Sporting Director (essentially a GM or director of personnel) and he dismissed Petke after the best two years in the history of the team, to bring in a coach he had worked with in the past. Those type of relationship driven decisions on coaches have happened in the NFL and the NBA as well, in the rare case that the General Manager is fired and the coach has remained with the team. Most of the time the new GM will then fire the coach and bring in “his own guy” with whom he has a prior working relationship.

 

The attitude of disposability when it comes to these people is rather concerning to me. I know some others within the sports media world that have the same misgivings about the way our society approaches these matters. I understand that people spend their hard earned money on attending games and buying merchandise to support a given team and that we all want to see that team win.

 

However, at the same time, I do not think it gives any of us a license to demand that somebody, or an entire staff of people should lose their jobs. These people have families, they have children and dependents that rely on those jobs to live. Yet when a team hits a losing streak I turn on sports radio in the car and every caller is screaming about firing the coach. These people are human beings, they make mistakes, and they should not be treated as disposable items.

I am all for accountability, and we each are held to certain performance metrics in the workplace, but could you imagine having several hundred or a few thousand people coming into your place of work and yelling that you should be fired? I would imagine that would be very unsettling to many of us.

 

I know that, as a fan, watching losses pile up, like in the case of the New York Knicks who are having one of the worst seasons in their history, is upsetting and frustrating. I am also upset that the fans were chanting “fire Fisher” about their head coach, who has a family to support and a daughter who is very sick.

 

I also know that my detractors would say that these coaches, especially in the higher profile universities or in the top of the professional ranks, understand the pressure that comes with “the territory” and that if they “cannot take the heat then get out of the kitchen”. I also understand that many of the head coaches, and in baseball it would be the manager, are well compensated for their talents.

 

However, the assistant coaches and other staff members are not always well compensated and they are subject to dismissal, and very often are dismissed with the head coach when they get fired. In many cases, the head coach will find work again elsewhere and usually rather quickly. The assistant coaches and other staff members can be out of work potentially for much longer periods of time. It is difficult to find work if you are a particular type of assistant coach such as strength and conditioning, quality control, or offensive line coach; those job openings may be few and far between.

 

In comparison, if John Q. Public got fired from his job in marketing, there are other marketing jobs out there. He may have to take a different level job, maybe a step back from the level he was working as far as seniority, but he can find other work. The coaching ranks are competitive and unforgiving. The same goes for General Managers of sports teams, those job openings are rather specific and are generally pretty sparse.

 

Take A Step Back

 

I understand as sports fans, we want our teams to be successful and compete for championships. I understand that some coaches can make some rather dubious decisions with players, lineups, and strategies.

 

I just ask that the next time you are ready to go on a ranting tirade about a coach or a general manager that you consider what is at stake for those people. I ask that before you get ready to make that phone call to your favorite sports radio talk show, that you take a step back and realize that these coaches are people too. They have the right to be treated with respect and not as disposable parts, and certainly not as collateral damage.