There are a lot of candidates for NFL coach of the year, none of whom should win. This is the year an assistant coach deserves the highest honor.
Behind every successful head coach there are effective assistants. It’s especially true this season.
Dick Vermeil of the St. Louis Rams is the sentimental favorite for coach of the year. He turned a team from 4-12 to 10-2, but not until he hired Mike Martz to coach the offense. A former receivers coach with the Rams who had joined Norv Turner in Washington, Martz was a favorite of receiver Isaac Bruce.
Under Martz, the Rams have become the No. 1 offense in the league.
Jim Mora is the top candidate in the AFC for the Indianapolis Colts’ turnaround from 3-13 to 10-2. Mora hired Vic Fangio from Carolina to coach a defense that improved from No. 29 to No. 15. Meanwhile, offensive coordinator Tom Moore did wonders to develop the league’s second-ranked offense.
Bobby Ross of the Detroit Lions deserves votes for winning without Barry Sanders. It was defensive coordinator Larry Peccatiello who kept together a unit that never had all 11 projected starters all year and offensive coordinator Sylvester Croom who had to figure out a way to score without Sanders or Herman Moore.
Tom Coughlin of the Jacksonville Jaguars lost coordinators Dick Jauron and Chris Palmer after last season. He assumed the offense himself and hired former Carolina coach Dom Capers for a defense that became the No. 1 unit in the league.
Ditka watch: When Mike Ditka looks across the field Sunday at Vermeil and the Rams, he will see an older coach and proof that one-year turnarounds are possible. But will that be enough to convince Ditka to stay in New Orleans? Moreover, Saints owner Tom Benson already may have made up his mind to take Ditka’s 1997 advice and find a new coach.
Benson promised unspecified changes last week. When Ditka arrived three years ago, he said Benson should find somebody else if he couldn’t get to the playoffs in three years. Offensive coordinator Danny Abramowicz is on a hotter seat than Ditka, but a change of assistants might not be enough to save Ditka, who has more problems than Benson may want to let him solve:
– Ricky Williams, a physical wreck all season, has missed the last two games because of a sprained left big toe, and likely will miss the next two games.
– TV ratings last week showed New Orleans-area viewers tuning out Fox’s Saints-Falcons telecast after halftime and turning on CBS’ Indianapolis-Miami coverage, featuring local hero Peyton Manning and ex-Saints coach Mora.
“I was just stunned,” said Jimmie Phillips of CBS affiliate WWL. “It is very unusual for any football game to even come close to a Saints game, no matter how badly the Saints are doing.”
– One unidentified Saints player said he anticipated half the roster would be gone next season. Another player said 60 percent of the team thinks a coaching change should be made, to which quarterback Billy Joe Tolliver replied: “I don’t know if we’ve got anybody smart enough to figure out what 60 percent of 53 is. I mean, I don’t know. How many is that? Do any of you guys know what 60 percent of 53 is?”
– In a telephone poll of 2,673 callers, 74 percent said Ditka should resign, according to the Times-Picayune.
Payton over Brown: Former Cleveland great Jim Brown has been named football player of the century by more than one poll. The NFL is conducting a fan poll via NFL.com. The leader so far: Walter Payton.
More Top Picks Dog Bed
Return to sender: Desmond Howard was in Chicago last weekend visiting the parents of Atlanta receiver Chris Calloway, a former Michigan teammate. On Tuesday, Green Bay had released Howard, who had been inactive because of dislocated ring fingers on both hands. The Lions’ plans to try out Howard were accelerated Friday night when return man Terry Fair broke a knuckle.
Howard arrived at the Silverdome about 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The Lions had until 4 p.m. to fax a contract to the league office so Howard would be eligible for Sunday’s game against Washington, the team that made Heisman Trophy winner Howard its No. 1 draft choice in 1992. There was no time to see if Howard’s fingers would allow him to catch a punt.
“I looked at him and said, `Can you catch punts tomorrow?’ ” said Tom Lewand, the Lions’ salary cap director. “He said, `Yeah.’ I said, `OK, done, passed physical.’ We signed him and sent it in at literally two minutes to four.”
Howard went to the team hotel, looked at tapes, met with special-teams coach Chuck Priefer and talked with Corwin Brown, a backup safety and former Michigan teammate. They talked about Howard celebrating after scoring a touchdown.
“What are we going to do tomorrow when I score?” Howard said, relating their conversation.
Less than 24 hours later, Howard returned a first-half punt 68 yards for a touchdown and a 20-10 Lions lead. When he got to the end zone and started to celebrate, he said he didn’t know the names of his celebration partners.
“I just knew numbers,” Howard said.
When Howard was returning for Green Bay the first eight games, his longest punt return was 20 yards and longest kickoff return was 31 yards.
The upshot: The Packers and Lions both had the Bears’ Glyn Milburn, now the best punt-kickoff return man in the NFC.
Still reeling: The 3-9 San Francisco 49ers signed return man Roell Preston, another ex-Packer, hoping for Howard-like results. Special-teams coach George Stewart said: “Is he in football shape? No. Can he help us? Yes.”
Bailey breaker: Lions cornerback Robert Bailey, who claims to be the first player to have used the throat-slashing gesture the NFL banned two weeks ago, has a new gimmick. Bailey unveiled the “bone-breaker” against the Redskins. He raises one knee and brings both hands down, as if he were breaking a stick over his knee.
“Everybody’s trying to come up with their own little thing,” Bailey said.
Another Payton: Giants quarterbacks coach Sean Payton, former Eastern Illinois quarterback and the Bears’ 1987 strike-replacement team quarterback from Naperville, called the plays for the Giants against the Jets last week and the results got him another shot.
For the first time in team history, the Giants had a 300-yard passer (Kerry Collins), a 100-yard rusher (rookie Joe Montgomery) and two 100-yard receivers (Amani Toomer and Ike Hilliard) in the same game.
Collins, who checked into alcohol rehabilitation last January after a lost season with Carolina and New Orleans, completed 17 of 29 passes for 341 yards and three touchdowns.
“It’s been a while since I felt this good and feel this good about the way I played,” Collins said. “It has been a long road for me. A lot of the stuff I’ve been doing and a lot of the patience and hard work has paid off.”
Cox revisited: Jets linebacker Bryan Cox is debating whether to have abdominal surgery.
“I’m just tired of taking Vicodin,” Cox said of the pain-killing medication that sent Packers quarterback Brett Favre to rehab in 1996.
“Bill (Parcells) told me he didn’t want me to play,” Cox said. “He said, `If you were my son, I wouldn’t want you pumping all that into you.’ He’d like to see me have the surgery. Me, I like to play. I haven’t been able to practice the last couple of weeks. I just play on Sunday with the help of medication.”