A coach’s son, and so much more–near-mythical, Chip Hilton-like exploits as a schoolboy athlete in New England.
An Ivy League degree. A solid career as a tough, smart NFL defensive back. An impressive resume as an assistant coach. A lifetime of unquestioned integrity. The love and respect of his players.
Dick Jauron had it all, or so it seemed, and yet his tenure as Bears coach will be judged a failure based on one winning season in five. Pro sports is the ultimate bottom-line business, and a coach or manager with more losses than wins on his record has the life expectancy of an ice cube in Death Valley.
Especially in this town, where the blame game has never been more popular. Or less credible.
Bill Walsh used to say 10 years was the best a coach could, or should, hope for. Now it’s less than half that. If you haven’t got it going by Year 4, in any sport, you’re history.
Jauron follows Jerry Manuel and Bill Cartwright out the door. Good men, all of them. Maybe too good to succeed in a job where a prickly personality is a prerequisite.
There are exceptions, but for every Dusty Baker there’s Larry Bowa. Even the scholarly Walsh was a man with a mean streak.
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We are who we are. Dick Jauron is a good man and a good football coach, and a lot of overblown, wrongheaded criticism isn’t going to change that.
May he next land with an organization that knows what it’s doing.