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Grandma's Request: The Coaching Carousel

Last week, when I launched this blog, I sent the link to my family, mainly to see if I could get some followers. As I began to receive responses, my easy favorite was a comment from my grandmother:
"I enjoyed your blog even though I didn't know what you were talking about. Also, I know there is some personnel changes going on with the '49ers and the Raiders. I have no advice to give or any comments."
This wildly descriptive message will serve as the theme for tonight's post, as I attempt to answer her request. I will focus on the Bay Area, because everywhere else, interim coaches are being re-signed (Jason Garrett and Leslie Frazier) and suspected fired coaches are being kept on for another try (Tony Sparano and Marvin Lewis). As well, the only real vacancy is in Carolina, where John Fox managed to deteriorate a recent Super Bowl participant to a 2-14 record in 2010. But things are looking up for Fox, who is a leading candidate for the Denver Broncos head coaching job. Either way, I have chosen to stay close to home and focus on the Raiders and '49ers, as I don't really have any interest, and neither should most people, about the head coaching changes in the previously mentioned cities (Dallas, Minnesota, Miami, Carolina, Cincinnati and Denver), whose teams have a combined record of 29-67, a record which should warrant a coaching change, in my opinion.

Anyway, let's start by talking about Tom Cable. After one year as the offensive line coach, Cable took over as head coach of the Raiders, and stayed for contributed unimpressive years, and one decent year. The latter was this year, as the Raiders finished at .500 for the first time since the 2002 season. Despite going 6-0 in the AFC West and the Raiders having a plethera of free agents in need of resigning (Richard Seymour, Nnamdi Asomugha, and Shane Lechler, among others), the word around the world of sports is that Cable will not be returning for another season. But seeing as Al Davis has done everything in his power recently to make the Raiders self-destruct, I can't say I was surprised by this. For now Hue Jackson, the current OC, leads possible coaching candidates, but it's safe to say that no matter who gets hired, I won't care, so don't expect me to write about the Raiders again until draft day ( if it isn't obvious, im throughouly frustrated that the Raiders couldn't make the playoffs this year).

Another case of a boring change exists just across the bridge, in San Francisco. Whereas the '49ers were the expected winner of the NFC West this year, they managed to finish behind two teams whose final week matchup decided which losing-record team would make the playoffs for the first time in history (congratulations, however to the Seattle Seahawks for beating the Saints in the wild card round tonight). Due to the disappointing season the star-studded '49ers had, they fired head coach Mike Singletary, whose coaching legacy for now only exists in the infamous cross he sported on game days. However, the '49ers case may be more interesting than it seems, as they were able to sign now-former Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh, to a whopping 5-year $25 million contract, one of the largest contracts in the NFL.

Whether the Raiders and '49ers coaching changes really matter, my grandma asked for an explanation, and I am not one to disappoint my grandmother. So there you have it, a small and unimportant story, but some changes that Bay Area fans will have to live with for the next couple of years. Tomorow promises a more important story, and because I haven't had a video in this post, I will sign off with one (completely unrelated):


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