Revenge of the Birds
On Black Monday, the Arizona Cardinals severed ties with their head coach, Jonathan Gannon. On the very next day, an interview with DC Vance Joseph was scheduled. Then, the franchise contacted five more candidates in order to set up interviews, some via Zoom, while the others will come in since their teams did not make the postseason tournament.
The NFL never rests.
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Back in the day, players had games from September to Christmas, then went home and found an off-season job. Y.A. Tittle sold insurance. Vince Lombardi worked in a bank. Don Hutson worked at a paper mill. Chuck Bednarik was employed by a concrete company.
And except for the college draft, nothing happened all year until training camp began, which is how it got its name, because players showed up out of shape and had to have their bodies “trained” again for exercise.
But in today’s NFL, if you notice, something is going on every month. This is by design.
And as the playoffs are set to begin, for some clubs, the hot topic going around is who is going to be their team’s next head coach? The league never stops moving.
A recent firing seems almost unbelievable. The Baltimore Ravens waited an extra day and let go of their head coach, John Harbaugh, late Tuesday afternoon. No, really. He was their head man for 18 years, went to the playoffs 12 seasons, captured six division crowns, and won a Super Bowl title. What more does a coach have to do to keep his job?
Seven teams reached out to Harbaugh’s agent with interest in the hour after his dismissal. It should be noted that there are only seven vacant NFL head coaching jobs, one of which is in Baltimore.
Already, clubs such as the New York Football Giants have been mentioned as the most likely landing place for Harbaugh. This much is certain: he won’t be accepting any coordinator jobs. And then again, he just might want to pull a Sean Payton, take a year off, then choose his vacancy to suit his needs. Or go the Bill Cowher route, take an analyst job, and never go back.
Harbaugh is considered a defensive-minded coach, and for the past decade, the Ravens have always had great defenses. It has been mentioned that the Cardinals’ defense is just a guy here and there from being an exceptional group, so for Harbaugh, he may see that the defensive core is intact without having to strip the entire group down and start over.
For now, Harbaugh, age 63, isn’t saying if he is or isn’t going to be on some teams’ sidelines in 2026. Let’s just assume he will. So, why not the Cardinals? Why not come to the desert?
Let’s just make a list and see what we can rustle up about coming to Arizona, with a few reasons Harbaugh might have an interest in:
