This afternoon, President Obama addressed the country with an update on the fiscal cliff, meanwhileacross the NFLa collection of coaches have been thrown off a cliff.
Rim shot!
(Awkward silence.)
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(Regret.)
As I type, seven head coaches have already been axed this afternoonRomeo Crennel, Chan Gailey, Andy Reid, Norv Turner, Lovie Smith, Ken Whisenhunt and Pat Shurmurwhile three others (Jim Schwartz, Ron Rivera and Mike Mularkey) cling for dear life. On top of the coaches, three GMs (Mike Tannenbaun, Tom Heckert and Gene Smith) are out of work and we can expect at least one more (old pal Scott Pioli) to join that club in the very near future.
Its a tough a day for a lot of people in NFL circles. Its really indicative of the cutthroat nature of the league and professional sports in general. And lets have a brief moment of silence . . .
OK.
Now on the other hand: Its not a bad day to be a Patriots fan.
Heading into Week 17, while there was always a possibility that they would sneak into one of the top two seeds, it was still unlikely. Houston was favored by a touchdown. The Colts had nothing to play for! But as always, the Texans only know one way to jump into the playoffsand thats ass-first. And thats perfect for the Patriots.
The question is: What do they do now? How do they treat this unexpected gift from the Bye Week Gods?
I have a friend who's adamant that Belichick should just move the team to Denver for three weeks. To live and train in that environment every day, only coming back for the Texans game on the 13th. And he may be on to somethingbut I doubt Belichick will buy in.
After all, nothing screams looking past an opponent like moving your team to the presumed site of the AFC Championship a week before the wild card round.
But whatever, there are worst problems to have than how to spend a week off when you're two games away from the Super Bowl.
There are a lot of newly former NFL coaches out there who can certainly attest to that.
Rich can be reached at rlevine@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Rich on Twitter at http:twitter.comrich_levine