Chiefs’ coaching situation: Pitchforks or patience?
For the past two weeks, head coach Andy Reid has found himself in the crosshairs of this column. A number of our loyal readers are on board with that idea. Quite a few others have stopped just shy of calling me crazy. Dissenters of firing Reid have said that having continuity of staff is an integral part of building a championship-caliber team. It’s the patient organization that ultimately sees the payout. The most common examples cited in my watercooler conversations have been the Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots, New York Giants, and Pittsburgh Steelers. I’ve calmly taken those arguments apart one-by-one since my last Arrowhead Addict post. Today, I shall make my case for you.
Patience does not beget results in the NFL. Results beget patience. Having a revolving door coaching staff is only detrimental when they haven’t been given adequate time to prove their ineptitude. Firing a head coach after three years isn’t much of a gamble when you know you have the wrong guy in place. Some will argue Reid has done enough to warrant a stay of termination. I’d argue the inverse.
Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Sure, his 20 wins over the first two years of the regime are the best in franchise history, but look closer. Reid and company started out 9-0 and have been 12-17 since. Couple that with one of the most historical playoff collapses in league history, a 7-3 start turned 9-7 (and the failure to qualify for the postseason in 2014), a full season without a touchdown to a wide receiver last year, and a 1-5 record thus far in 2015, and you have a case for incompetence. Mind you, this is a year most NFL pundits picked the Kansas City Chiefs as a team that could challenge the Denver Broncos for the division title. With the Steelers and Lions ahead, there’s a good chance the Chiefs have six losses on the front side of the bye week.
So what of this sorcery we call patience in the NFL? Do head coaches really find their niche purely by having ample time to do so or are the two more loosely related than we like to admit? Let’s find out. Using the four aforementioned examples, I decided to take a look at the role patience played in the molding of those world-champion team. Sit down for this, you might be surprised at what I found.
Next: Exhibit A & B