Week #17: Black Monday

There's the proverbial day after the holidays... Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Lay in Bed Because I Drank Too Much Day after NYE. In the NFL, there is Black Monday. The Monday after the final regular season game when the fate of coaches around the league is decided.

Not every man deserves to coach in the NFL,
only because not every many can.

We are all essentially one pay check away from our last on any given day, but in the NFL it comes with a certainty that is both eerily accepted and inevitable. For whatever reason, it's an industry where it's okay for the public to make signs from bed sheets at home calling for your head. How would you like it to show up to work and have people yell over your shoulder that you failed, you're a profanity and want to (as we heard once on KFAN radio in Minneapolis) tie you to the back of a pick up truck and drag you around the stadium until the gas ran out. Explain that one to your 5 year old.

We experienced our own Black Monday in 2008, which came down with the slam of a guillotine. Completely unexpected and out of the blue - or black should I say.  It's moments like those that makes the fact Sports Center runs over and over and over quite nauseating. But, as our family does, you put it behind you and you just keep moving forward, even when every one else won't let you. And so we have for the last 4 years.

This year will bring about 6 maybe 7 firings, could be more. There are the expected (St. Louis having already taken place) and there is always one that is the shocker. I could make my predictions, but you try not to make it a habit of speculating who is to lose their job. Some will happen quick and fast - decisions already probably made, yet not announced. Some coaches are already behind closed doors now, preparing to clean out their office. There are others who will have to wait. Owners and GMs who aren't sure the right course, wanting to see who else falls, to see who will be on the "market"... That waiting is painful.

It's the time of year that is always interesting for us. Is he going back or is he not? If you're a betting person, you'd say no. But, we can't place bets on the NFL. Do I want him to go back? Probably not; but, once a coach always a coach - which leaves us asking, "What's next?"

Life's Lesson: It's worth risking it all only if you are prepared to lose it all.