Cowher Has Eyes on Big Blue
January 15th, 2010
So much for Bill Cowher wanting to coach the Bucs, or even the Panthers near his Carolina home.
The Chin wants to patrol the Meadowlands wearing a Giants hat, so says Jerome Bettis, the beast who ran the football for Cowher in Pittsburgh. Bettis talked to Sirius XMs Mad Dog Radio yesterday, documented by the New York Daily News.
Bettis said the reason Cowher hasn’t returned to coach is because he’s “holding out” for the Giants job to open up. In fact, he told Chris “Mad Dog” Russo Thursday on Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Radio that Cowher would have gotten the Giants’ job in 2008 if Tom Coughlin hadn’t taken the Giants on that magical, Super Bowl XLII run.
“That’s the team that he really coveted,” Bettis said. “This is where he always wanted to be. The Mara family, he’s been very close to them. … He’s known them very well and was on the inside track – before the Giants won the Super Bowl – for that job. And I think he’s holding out for that opportunity if it presents itself. “
Joe gets a kick thinking about the years of speculation by pundits who have maintained that Cowher’s first choice is to coach the Panthers, with the Giants never being mentioned.
Joe’s sure inclined to believe Bettis is revealing what’s truly in Cowher’s head.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Tissues for all of those Cowher fantasizers here in Tampa.. Lol
January 15th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
He’ll coach wherever it is the gives him the most power and gets closest to his $10mil per year demand.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Seems like kind of dick move. Going around lobbying for all of these jobs that aren’t even open.
January 15th, 2010 at 6:41 pm
H0NESTLY IM GLAD WE RETAINED RAH FOR ONE MORE YEAR OVER PAYING COWHER THE MONEY HE WANTED. FIRST OF ALL NO COACH OF ANY CALIBUR IS GOING TO COME IN HERE AND MAKE THIS TEAM A PLAYOFF CONTENDER NEXT SEASON, SO WITH THAT SAID WHY PAY ALL THAT MONEY FOR A COACH THAT ISN’T REALLY GOING TO EFFECT TO MUCH IN THE 2010 SEASON INSTEAD USE THAT MONEY IN FREE AGENCY AND THE DRAFT….
SECOND I REALLY DON’T THINK COWHER IS THE RIGHT ANSWER ANYWAY.. PITT WAS AN UP AND DOWN TEAM YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT UNTIL THEY GOT DICK LABEOU(PROBABLY NOT SPELLED RIGHT) AS THEIR D.C. AND NOTICE WHEN TOMLIN TOOK OVER HE DESIDED NOT TO SWITCH TO THE TAMPA2 WHICH IS WHAT HE IS FAMILIAR WITH BUT INSTEAD RETAINED (THE ABOVE NAME THAT I CAN’T SPELL) AND ENDED UP WINNING A SUPER BOWL… MAKES ME WONDER A LITTLE BIT ON HOW GREAT COWHER REALLY IS!!!!
January 15th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
OH YEAH AN I FORGOT ABOUT DICK LEBEAU BEING THE D.C. ON THE 1995 SUPER BOWL TEAM ALSO.
January 15th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
If I owned the Giants and had a choice between retaining Tom Coughlin or hiring Bill Cowher, I would probably hire Cowher and cut Tom loose, because Cowher is hungrier to win and a better coach.
January 15th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
I just wanna say that Raheem should seriously take a look at Steve White for his d line coach. The guy breaks down every Buc game, finds flaws and makes corrections. He knows his $h!t. They said they are looking at refilling that position, and Steve White has the pedigree & knowledge to do it. I’m just saying, it sure as hell couldn’t hurt and I guarantee the line would improve.
January 15th, 2010 at 11:45 pm
Cowher and Dungy are great coaches but with the talent around them they both only could win one super bowl..Colts win at least 12 games a year for 8 years now and have one championship and one SB appearance…Steelers always had good teams same story except not as many wins.
January 16th, 2010 at 12:36 am
Bill Cowher is a great coach. He was winning way before Dick L. became DC. In 15 seasons as HC, Cowher won 10 or more games 9 times! He only had 3 losing seasons. The guy is a much better coach than Mike Shanahan IMO. Cowher won with Kordell Stewart, Tommy Maddox and Neil O’Donnell as his QB for crying out loud. The Steelers have been quite frugal through the years, so he had to replenish quite a bit of his roster on a routine basis. The guy knows how to coach and to spot talent in the draft. I would take Cowher over Rah any day of the week. Especially when we have this huge draft and free agency coming up. Cowher is still only 52 years old, so he could easily coach 10 more years. If I was the Glazers, I would have tried my hardest to make the move. It won’t happen now. That is a shame. Like Pat said in the recent chat, Rah better win 7 or 8 games against this very weak schedule or he is done.
January 16th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Eric S. Both of Cowhers Superbowl App. Dick L. was the DC… and do
you honestly think Cowher would turn this franchise around in just one year??? Cowher’s teams were built on Def and the running game it has never revolved around the passing game so his QB’s never had to be that great..Dungy succeded with Dilfer, King, and B. Johnson neither of the three were great either…and by the way Cowhers winning Pct. is 100 pts higher when Dick L. is the DC vs. when he is not. If tampa goes out and get a solid DT in the draft along with some other quality Def players and spend some money in the off season on the OFF. i don’ t see why Raheem and the bucs can’t win 7 games. everyone acts like Rah has this long resume of loosing he has only been and NFL head coach for 1 year and only 3 years of being either a position coach or DC in the NFL or NCAA.. the guy is yound. like i said before Cowher isn’t going to make this team a playoff contender next season anyways…you give Morris one more year to see if he has matured as a head coach and if so who knows maybe we found a diamond in the rough!!! and i haven’t heard one play come out and say anyting negative about morris so far, they all seem to have his back.
January 16th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Bill Walsh 2-14
Mike Shannahan 7-9
Chuck Nol 1-13
Jimmy Johnson 1-15
Now here are 4 all time great NFL coaches who struggled in their first season as head coach but over time were able to put their own teams together and succeded. now i am by no means saying Morris is going to achieve the success that these coaches have(its not impossible though) all im saying is all coaches have to start some where and sometimes that happens to be at the bottom.. Give the guy a chance to succed!!!!! hell dungy flipped a 6-10 team to a 10-6 team in just one year. where would this franchise be had we fired him right after the first season???
January 17th, 2010 at 3:29 am
True, Dick L. was their DC in both SB app. But it is a bit unfair to bring up the winning percentage when he was only DC for 5 of the 15 seasons Cowher coached. Cowher still had a 59% winning percentage without him. I would take B. Johnson, Dilfer and King over Stewart, Maddox and Tomczak (another substandard QB that he got a playoff app out of). Heck Johnson was a very good QB. Cowher is not just a great coach. He’s a great judge of talent as I said previously. The guy drafted and brought in quality players year after year after year. He would have great for this team. Instead the Bucs hired a guy that wasn’t ready at all. The biggest reason why they hired Rah was probably because he came cheap. The team went from 9 wins to 3 wins. Not sure how this is progress. I thought they would win 6 games, so they didn’t even come close to that number. We are stuck with Rah for another season, so hopefully he can get things done.
All of the coaches you mentioned either had head coaching experience or had been a coordinator at the pro level. They were well prepared for the big step unlike Captain Chest Bump. Shanahan is not a greatest example here because he did get fired in his 2nd season. Not fairly but still. The Steelers hadn’t been to the playoffs in 22 years when Noll was hired. Rooney was going to be patient with him. He wasn’t expected to do much. Johnson was never going to be in trouble because Jerry Jones risked his reputation by firing Tom Landry and bringing him in. Walsh inherited a 2-14 team when he took over.
Walsh directed a high powered Cincy offense and directed Stanford to 2 bowl wins in his 2 years there before SF. Noll was a DC of a SB team before Pitt. Shanahan had been an OC of 2 SB teams before his first HC job and OC of 1 SB winning team before his second HC job. Johnson was a successful college coach who won 1 Natl champ and probably should have won 2 if Vinny didn’t suck in that one game. All of these guys should get a pass after their first season with the mountain of experience that they had and the situations they were put on. The 4 men inherited teams with 5-10, 1-13, 2-14 and 3-13 records. Rah got a 9-7 team and went down to 3 wins. He looked lost for most of the season. If Cowher was in there this year, I do believe they would have won at least 6-7 games. Fans would have been upbeat about the team’s future. Instead we have to rely on this neophyte and the tight purse strings of the Glazers. That is a deadly combo. We will see.