As Washington Redskins coach Jim Zorn prepares to lead his team onto the field against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football, he has lost the ability to call the offensive plays.
According to former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher, Zorn has lost a lot more than that.
“He lost his dignity and he lost his credibility,” Cowher said of Zorn on CBS, per Neil Best of Newsday. “To me, he lost his ability to be a head coach and lead this football team. He’s nothing more than a figure head right now.”
Those are strong words from a former coach about the status of a current coach, but they’re more than just that: They’re also a reminder that if Cowher is ever going to come back to coaching, he’s only going to do it if he’s certain that he’s running the show.
During the Sunday Night Football Live Chat, Mike Florio fielded a couple of questions about whether Cowher might be the coach of the Carolina Panthers next year, and he said it makes sense -- if the Panthers will give him full control. Cowher wouldn’t want to return to coaching unless he had control over everything. And a coach who doesn’t even have control over his team’s playcalling? That’s a coach, in Cowher’s view, who has no credibility.