Sunday, January 10, 2010

Turner Finally Starts to Get His Due


The hottest head coach in the National Football League is not a likely candidate -NORV TURNER of the San Diego Chargers has won three AFC West titles in his three seasons, has won every game he's coached in December and has the longest winning streak in the league at 11 (including wins over Dallas, Philly, Cincy, the Giants and Denver).

Despite his tremendous success this season, ESPN's Rick Riley writes why you never hear so much as a cough about him for Coach of the Year.

His first two head-coaching jobs in the league were under arguably the two most difficult owners in pro sports -- Daniel Snyder in Washington and Al Davis in Oakland. He lost in both places and was labeled a loser. That's like divorcing Charlie Sheen and being called a bad wife. The Redskins just hired their sixth coach since Norv and none of them have had a better finish than his 10-6 in 1999. The Raiders, meanwhile, are working on their third post-Norv coach with no end to the suffering in sight, and we all know why.

Really, if you inherited an NFL team tomorrow, how could you do better than Norv? He's tight with his team. He has "the steadiness, the never-flinch leadership and attitude," Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers has said. He's seen it all. (Among current NFL coaches, only Jeff Fisher, Bill Belichick, Tom Coughlin and just-hired Mike Shanahan have more seasons under their belts.) He's arguably the finest playcaller in the league, having been the brains behind the great Dallas Cowboys' Super Bowl teams (Troy Aikman had Norv present him at the Hall of Fame) and having run NFL offenses, as a coach and coordinator, for 19 seasons.

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