“Playoffs? Playoffs?”
That was the beginning of former New Orleans coach Jim Mora’s famous tirade after a disappointing loss. It gets replayed so often that it’s hard to remember Mora as the only winning coach in Saints history.
Now son Jim Mora is backtracking from an incident after his Atlanta Falcons were eliminated from the NFC playoffs on Saturday in an overtime loss to Tampa Bay.
“I have great control of my emotions,” Mora said Monday.
Mora abruptly ended a postgame radio show when former Falcon Dave Archer asked why the Falcons had punted from their 24-yard line with 1 minute 8 seconds left in overtime. The Bucs won five plays later.
“All I did was take the headphones off and slam them down, and the thing bounced and I walked out,” Mora said. “If I offended anyone, I obviously apologize. That wasn’t my intent. … I didn’t handle it as well as I should have.”
Mora denied reports that he threw a microphone that almost hit radio network sideline reporter Nicole Watson.
“No, I didn’t toss it,” Mora said, demonstrating with his hands. “I threw stuff down like that.”
Mora said he’s being unfairly linked to his father’s occasional emotional displays.
“I think part of that comes from the fact I share my last name with my dad, who’s got famous sound bites,” he said. “So everyone is always looking for one, looking for one, looking for one. So you know what? There hasn’t been any. That’s the problem. You get a penalty for yelling at an official, and everyone wants to make a big deal out of it. Every coach in this league yells at officials.”
Against the Bears on Dec. 18 at Soldier Field, Mora drew a 15-yard penalty for berating an official.
“I knew exactly what I was doing,” he said. “I had to show those players who were freezing their tails off and fighting their butts off that I was going to fight for them. I was OK with that one. I knew what I was doing.”
Mora said Archer “asked a question, and after he did it I was just emotional and upset, as anyone who had just fought their guts out for close to four hours would be. I just wasn’t in a mental state at that time to talk anymore. We had been through too much for too long.”
Mora was seen using a cell phone during overtime as he and other team officials tried to find out what effect a tie would have on the Falcons’ playoff hopes. An NFL rule regarding the use of communication devices by coaches on the sideline is designed to prevent a coach from using a cell phone during an instant replay.
Anti-climactic
In anticipation of a Bears-Vikings showdown for the NFC North title, Fox moved Sunday’s kickoff to 3:15 p.m. After the Bears clinched the division at Green Bay and the Vikings were eliminated from the postseason in Baltimore, it’s strictly an exhibition.
“I’m not sitting here trying to make excuses for our failure,” coach Mike Tice said. “But still, we can accomplish a little bit of a better taste in our mouths if we can win the game on Sunday.”
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Tice referred to himself as a “lame-duck” coach without a contract for next season and without a promise from new owner Zygi Wilf that he’ll be back.
It’s the fourth time in five years the Vikings will miss the playoffs. They went last year as an 8-8 team.
“We’ve still got to be prepared, go out there and put on the best show we can put on,” said linebacker Keith Newman, who might be sidelined for the third straight week with a sprained right knee.
“It’s a national TV game, so if you want to get embarrassed on national TV, then you don’t prepare yourself. You want to look like something on national TV, then you go out there and you do the same thing you’ve been doing for, say, the last seven, eight, nine weeks when we were making this run.”