Between Jim Caldwell, head coach of the Detroit Lions, and Marvin Lewis, the same with the Cincinnati Bengals, somebody is overdue to get fired -- perhaps both.
Caldwell was put in charge of the Indianapolis Colts, a very good team built by his predecessor, and enjoyed one good year, even making it to the Super Bowl -- where he lost.
The following year, the Colts dropped off.
The next year, as Caldwell's system had taken full root, they totally went off the rails. So it was obvious he had to be deservedly fired. He took a good team and quickly led it into the sewer.
Then the owning Ford family of the Detroit Lions, in their cough, gag, infinite wisdom, somehow decided Jimmie C was the man to take over the long suffering Lions. In his four years at the helm, JC has posted a modest 35-27 record, not too shabby. Yet over those four years his team made it into the playoffs twice, losing in the opening round both times, by somewhat embarrassing scores.
It is also said that the doddering 90+ year old widow owner of the Lions -- one Martha Firestone Ford -- considers Caldwell a sort of teacher's pet. Or her "boy". Whatever.
But it has become quite apparent Caldwell has once again maxed out on the Peter Principle. He is definitely NOT the guy that will lead the Lions to the long-elusive "promised land" of a Super Bowl. They have gunslinger QB Matthew Stafford and little else on the team. A pretty good argument could be made that many of the Lions starting players wouldn't even make the rosters as back-ups on the better squads around the NFL.
And then there's Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati. He's been there for fifteen -- count em -- FIFTEEN years, and the Bengals still remain in sad-sack mode. True, they had a short run at being "pretty good" from 2012-2015, but they never got anywhere near sniffing a Super Bowl either.
How long ago was fifteen years? Dubya was still early in his FIRST term as Prez. The Middle East was relatively quiet. This was before W and his gang decided to blow it up over "weapons of mass destruction" that turned out not to exist. Tom Brady was still a relatively young quarterback for the Patriots. Tiger Woods was winning majors. The Williams sisters were newbies on the tennis tour, as was Kobe Bryant in the NBA. Danica Patrick hadn't yet crashed her first race car. Nobody had heard of people like Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), or the Kardashians (Trashbook), and Donald Trump was still at least a decade away from publicly insulting people via that pesky Twitter account. How long ago does THAT seem like?
Yet over all that time, Marvin Lewis managed to get the Bengals to the playoffs seven times. Like Caldwell's tenure with the Lions, the Bengals lost every single one of those playoff games.
Between them, they're 0-9 in the playoffs with the Lions/Bengals.
Cincinnati has long been eliminated from the post-season this year, and Detroit has but a very long shot at getting in.
Nevertheless, the Lions and Bengals will meet in Cincinnati for a game on Christmas Eve. The Lions HAVE to win it to keep their slim playoff hopes on life support, while hoping the Atlanta Falcons lose both their remaining two regular season games.
So here's the deal. Whichever coach of these two losers comes up on the short end of this game, should be fired. Period.
Better yet, kick both of them to the curb. Obviously, they are not capable of putting together and/or coaching up a team into anything remotely resembling a championship contender. And they never will be. All that history doesn't lie. It is what it is/was, and it ain't been pretty.
With all the college bowl games going on, this NFL contest between two sorry teams could rightly be called the Firing Bowl.
How these two guys have continued to hang on to their jobs -- making millions -- would seem to be a question that ranks right up there with how the Pentagon charges $800 for a hammer, $600 for a toilet seat, and the politicians can't wait to give them billions in MORE money.
Sigh.
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