The ultimate reality show also has become the ultimate zero-sum game. For every good team, there’s a bad team. And every bad team wants to be a good team.
Thanks to guys like former Eagles and current Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who turned a bad team good in one year, plenty of coaches working for bad teams will be getting fired in the coming days.
In Minnesota, the signs point to Leslie Frazier being let go. The first clear indication came in the offseason, when the team rewarded him for an unlikely playoff berth in 2012 not with a long-term deal but by picking up the option for 2014.
And when a report emerged nearly two weeks ago that the Vikings have reached out to Penn State coach Bill O’Brien, the Vikings didn’t deny it. Instead, they had no comment.
We’ve now caught wind of talk that G.M. Rick Spielman has a double-digit list of potential candidates to replace Frazier. Which suggests fairly strongly that Frazier won’t be there.
Some wonder whether Spielman will be. As explained last week in our look at possible General Manager turnover, a case can be made for keeping Spielman, and for moving on.
If the Vikings move on from Frazier, there’s a chance we’ll know even before the day known in the NFL as Black Monday. When the Wilfs fired former Vikings coach Mike Tice eight years ago, it happened with a one-page press release circulated in the locker room after a Week 17 home win over the Bears.
While Tice needed to go, Frazier and Spielman arguably should stay. With a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterback, the Vikings quickly could get back into contention. And with the new two seasons to be played outdoors pending the opening of the team’s new home in 2016, it could be hard to persuade candidates with options to opt for a strange couple of years in Minnesota.