By JOHN MANASSO
FOXSportsTennessee.com
January 26, 2011
In NFL years, Jeff Fisher might as well have been Joe Paterno.
The longest tenure of an NFL coach with one organization came to an end on Thursday when Fisher and the Tennessee Titans agreed to part ways, according to a team statement, ending 17 years with the franchise that dated back to its days as the Houston Oilers
Fisher only had six seasons of 10 wins or more, but with back-to-back 13-3 records in 1999 and 2000, including a trip to one of the most dramatic Super Bowls in league history in 2000 that ended with the Titans finishing a yard shy of tying the game on the final play, it would be hard to find a more respected coach throughout the league.
Filling his shoes will not be an easy or welcome task. After the 1992 season with the Washington Redskins when Joe Gibbs retired for the first time, conventional wisdom was that he left the franchise in good hands with long-time defensive coordinator Richie Petitbon. But Petitbon�s disastrous one-year tenure in 1993 ended after a 4-12 season. The same was true of Bill Parcells' departure from the New York Giants after the 1990 season. Ray Handley went 8-8 and then 6-10.
In that vein, offensive coordinator Mike Heimerdinger will be a tempting choice to replace Fisher. In two stints with the Titans, he has been with the organization for eight years overall, perhaps making him a comfortable choice with owner Bud Adams. His bio on the team�s Website touts that he produced a league co-MVP in Steve McNair and the NFL offensive player of the year in Chris Johnson in 2009. For those reasons he could be a comfortable choice with the players and coaching staff � should its members be retained � and with the vacancy coming so late in the NFL's annual coaching carousel, he might be an emergency choice.
It would not be fair to condemn Heimerdinger to the Petitbon/Handley fate, but those are the perils of following a legend. And Fisher is that. Another tempting name might be Lions' head coach Jim Schwartz who spent 10 seasons with Tennessee, ultimately serving as defensive coordinator, before departing. Schwartz is in the midst of a Lions' rebuilding project in which the team has gone 2-14 and 6-10 in his first two seasons and it would be hard to envision the Ford family allowing him to leave in the middle of that.
With Tennessee's vacancy coming after most teams have hired replacements for their fired coaches, the Titans and Adams put themselves in a bit of a pickle. There are the usual high-profile names that they are sure to contact and be rejected by � Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden � and there are the coordinators who interviewed for jobs yet were unable to land them. Atlanta offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, who interviewed with Cleveland and was requested to interview by Denver but declined, has been a head coach and his brand of ball-control offense might mesh well with the hard-nosed style that Fisher employed for so many years.
Other possible names are Jim Fassel, who led the Giants to the Super Bowl in 2000 but who has been out of coaching since the end of the 2003 season and has been unable to land a job ever since, despite coming close a few times. Another possibility is the Philadelphia Eagles' Marty Mornhinweg, who had two unfortunate seasons as head coach of the Lions, going 5-27. But for the last eight seasons he has served an apprenticeship to one of the league's top coaches in Andy Reid, including the last five as assistant head coach/offensive coordinator. Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers has been an NFL head coach twice � including as the head coach of the expansion Houston Texans, in Adams' hometown � and has earned great esteem through this postseason and could again be a possibility as a head coach.
Should any of them land the job, none would have an enviable task. They would encounter an owner in the 88-year-old Adams who has been at the helm of the franchise for 51 years. While not quite in Al Davis territory, he's teetering close to it. After all, even the Raiders made the Super Bowl as recently as 2003.
Fisher had to butt heads with Adams over Vince Young, a Houston native like Adams who led Adam's beloved Texas Longhorns to the BCS national championship. Fisher was said not to have wanted to draft Young, let alone allow him to quarterback his team but the owner forced him upon the coach. Young�s erratic behavior was a major factor in hamstringing the Titans and Fisher in recent seasons and proved a huge irritant for Fisher.
The next coach will not have Fisher's stature to battle Adams on such matters. As a result, it might not matter who the next coach is. The well could be poisoned for whoever takes the helm.
