SPURRIER OUT?
MSNBC reports,
Steve Spurrier resigned as coach of the Washington Redskins on Tuesday, ending a failed attempt to bring his Fun ‘n’ Gun offense to the NFL, the team announced.
But Spurrier denied the report to the Washington Post, according to its website.
“I have not resigned,” Spurrier said, the Washington Post reported. “I’ve got a representative looking into some issues but I have not resigned. If they say that I have, that is not true. I’m not sure it is heading in that direction right now. We are seeing where it goes but I have not resigned.”
According to the team, Spurrier quit three days after the Redskins finished 5-11, losing 10 of their last 12 games. He was 12-20 overall.
He walks away from the final three years of a five-year, $25 million contract, the richest ever for an NFL coach.
Spurrier called Redskins owner Dan Snyder on Tuesday morning and offered his resignation, the team said in a news release. Snyder accepted it with “much regret,” according to spokesman Karl Swanson.
A rather shocking move given the money involved, but probably best all around. Spurrier was a great college coach but appears ill-suited for the NFL. In college, you can win by out-recruiting the competition and having a clever system. In the NFL, where everyone has terrific players, winning seems to be about putting in incredibly long hours working on game plans and watching film plus an intangible ability to make the players do the same. There’s little indication Spurrier could do either. While he’ll have to forgo the huge salary he was due from the Redskins, he’ll likely make $2 million a year at any college gig he lands plus have the luxury of a far more leisurely pace.
