This week Giant head coach Joe Judge fired the offensive line coach, Marc Colombo, over what appeared to have been for “insubordination” after a heated Tuesday night argument at the team’s practice facility. In honor of moving on from coaches let’s look at the worst coaching departures in NFC East history.
Dallas Cowboys
Jimmy Johnson took over as head coach of the Cowboys the same year quarterback Troy Aikman was drafted. They had a rough two year start as the Cowboys went 8-24. Aikman recalls there were times that the two did not speak. However Aikman attributes Johnson as the architect of the Dallas 1990’s dynasty and that he made Aikman better through his coaching and leadership with the team. Jimmy Johnson had a knack for finding talent in the draft, making smart trades and signing talented free agents. Jerry Jones parted ways with Jimmy Johnson after winning two consecutive Super Bowls. The two were having difficulties working together and perhaps Jerry Jones wanted more say in personnel decisions.To this day Johnson is not in the Dallas Ring of Honor despite making the HOF. “Disloyalty … I couldn’t handle the disloyalty.” – Jerry Jones when asked why Johnson was not in the ring of honor. After winning Super Bowl XXX following the 1995 season with a holdover team from the Johnson years, Dallas never made it back to the NFC Conference Title game. Jimmy Johnson would go on to coach for four years as the Dolphins head coach and make the playoffs for three of those four years.
Washington Team
George Allen was a hardworking, innovative players coach. He took a Redskins team that had not finished above .500 for 15 seasons to a winning team. Under Allen the Redskins had a winning season for each of his seven years. They were in the playoffs for five of the seven years and won the Conference Championship his second year. Allen was the second coach in the NFL to hire a special teams coach. He had control over personnel decisions and traded for veteran players over newer players. The Redskins majority owner, Edward Williams, did negotiate a new four year deal for Allen but the signing stalled over details of the deal. There were rumors that Williams was questioning his coaches philosophy. After failing to sign the contract Allen was informed of Williams decision to look for a new head coach and general manager. George Allen ranks sixth among NFL coaches in win percentage. After Allen departed the Redskins failed to make the playoffs for the next four seasons. However four seasons after Allen was let go the Washington Team hired Joe Gibbs as head coach. Gibbs was the winningest coach in Washington’s history and led the team to two Super Bowl victories.
Philadelphia Eagles
After three straight losing seasons under head coach Ray Rhodes the Eagles hired Andy Reid as head coach in 1999. Reid was head coach on the eagles for 14 seasons and was their winningest head coach with a record of 130-93-1. Reid compiled the best playoff victory total (10) in team history. He captured six division titles and five trips to the NFC Championship game. During this period, no other franchise earned more divisional playoff round appearances (7) and only Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots exceeded Philadelphia’s (5) conference championship game appearances with (6). However Reid only made one trip to the Super Bowl which the Eagles lost. After two seasons of non-winning records Reid contract was not renewed. Reid would go on to coach the Kansas City Chiefs to six out of eight seasons with playoff participation and his first Super Bowl victory in 2019. Five seasons after Reid departed form the Eagles, the Eagles won their first Super Bowl under Doug Pederson. A feta that Reid never accomplished with the Eagles.
New York Giants
Vince Lombardi was on the Giants coaching staff from 1954 to 1958 as the offensive coordinator. During those five seasons the Giants went to two Championship games and won one of them. During that time the Giants also had Tom Landry as defensive coordinator. Together these two stars combined to lead the Giants in 1954 to 1958 to five of the top 26 seasons for positive points differential. Lombardi wanted to coach the Giants and Wellington Mara wanted him as a head coach. However the current Giant head coach, Jim Howell, had three consecutive seasons of winning football, two trips to the championship game and one Championship victory. Mara was loyal to a good coach and would let Howell play out as head coach as he wanted. Wellington Mara had given the Packers permission to talk to Lombardi. But, with one condition: the Giants could have Lombardi back whenever Howell stepped down. Olejniczak, the Packer’s president, agreed to the terms. Mara told Lombardi to take the job with the understanding that when Howell left Lombardi would come back as head coach of the Giants.
Howell decided to hang it up after the 1960 season. This was just two seasons after Lombardi left. Mara then contacted Olejniczak about getting Lombardi back as the two franchise leaders had agreed upon and promised. However, the Packers president reneged on their deal. Lombardi was enjoying winning seasons on the Packers and control over personnel decisions. Also being a man of integrity it was unlikely Lombardi would leave the Packers.
Lombardi went on to win five NFL Championships including two Super Bowls in nine seasons as Packers head coach. In 1961 and 1962 he beat the Giants in the Championship games. The Giants went to one more Championship game in 1963 which they lost. This was followed by playoff drought of 17 seasons and five head coaches. The decade after that drought saw the Giants win two Super Bowls.
In Conclusion
If I were to rank the four coaching decisions starting in order of worst effect on the franchise I would have
- Giants – The Giants had 22 seasons of no Championship game after the three seasons from losing Lombardi. However they did win a Super Bowl in ’86 and have won an additional three since then. But when you look at what Lombardi accomplished at Green Bay, letting Lombardi get away has to be considered one of the worst decisions in NFL history.
- Dallas – Since losing Jimmy Johnson and a subsequent Super Bowl win in 1995, the Cowboys have gone 24 seasons and have yet to make it back to a Conference Championship game. The only reason this is not number one is the accomplishments of Lombardi compared to Jimmy Johnson.
- Eagles – The Eagles went four seasons after Reid departed with only a Wild card appearance but then won their first Super Bowl.
- Washington – The Washington team hired their winningest coach four seasons after departing with Allen. Head coach, Joe Gibbs, won the Super Bowl in his second year on Washington.
