February 11, 2008
Redskins Hire Coach Who?
It's been all over the papers and on the tongues of many Washingtonians: who's going to replace Joe Gibbs as head coach of the Redskins? Although only a few weeks long, the saga seemed to stretch on forever. And in the end, the 'Skins surprised everybody, something Dan Snyder seems to enjoy: They picked the man who had just been hired to be the team's offensive coordinator, Jim Zorn. Who?
James Arthur Zorn is not exactly the best known coach out there. He was an NFL quarterback from 1976 to 1987, having most of his success in Seattle, passing to Hall of Famer Steve Largent before Dave Krieg took over. He also played a bit in Green Bay, the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers, then back in the NFL (sort of) with the Tampa Bay Bucs, where he ended his career -- the 'Skins won the Super Bowl that year, interestingly enough.
Zorn then joined the college coaching ranks as QB boss at Boise State, offensive coordinator at Utah State, then quarterbacks coach at Minnesota. After the 1996 season with the Golden Gophers, Zorn rejoined the Seahawks as an offensive assistant, spent a few years with Detroit, then came back to the Starbucks City as quarterbacks coach, holding that position until right now. And he did pretty well there, helping Matt Hasselbeck go from sixth round draft choice to three-time Pro Bowler and Super Bowl starter. Maybe that's why Zorn, somebody who was never a pro offensive coordinator, let alone head coach, is here: to groom Jason Campbell (or some other QB) to success in the league. It's not a bad gamble.
The coaching odyssey beget a lot of questions. Would it be former Giants head coach and more recently Ravens offensive coordinator Jim Fassel? No, thankfully, since the Ravens offense was about as successful as the French army in World War II. Fassel did get the G-Men to the Super Bowl in 2000, but was fired a few years later after some lackluster seasons. There was former Bills coach and Skins defensive wiz Gregg Williams. Everybody liked him and he interviewed four times with owner Dan Snyder, but then got the boot and headed to Jacksonville.
Former Hog Russ Grimm was popular, winning the poll at DCist (if you don't count "other"), but he didn't get much traction. There was the dark horse, Steve Spagnuolo, who led the Giants defense to the Super Bowl title. The Giants offered him a new deal and he took his name out of the running, which the Post's Sally Jenkins recommended, claiming Spagnuolo's friends would tell him "Daniel Snyder isn't really looking for a head coach, he just wants to hire another butler." Burn.
There were a few other names bandied about, like former 49ers and Lions head coach Steve Mariucci, Colts defensive coordinator Ron Meeks, even Jim Mora the younger (i.e. not the "Playoffs!?/Diddly Poo" guy). And in the end, there was Z.
What do you think, Redskins fans? Will Zorn (doing the funky chicken in this recent photo) be Joe Gibbs I, or another Richie Pettibon/Norv Turner? Or are the Redskins doomed, no matter what coach they pick, because of who is sitting in the owner's box?
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Great turnip-spewing jesus, y'all...Football cards looked like that the last time I gave a damn about the nasty things...looks like, what, 1977? Scheise!
As long as John Zorn isn't calling plays from his COBRA playbook...
Zorn seems like a good guy who tells the truth.
The 9ers have a coach who talks from the sides of his mouth. Never does he answer a question straight. It gets old after awhile.
Kneel before Zorn.
Zorn seems like a good guy who tells the truth.
The 49ers have a coach, Dick Nolan, who talks from the sides of his mouth. Never does he answer a question straight. It gets old after awhile. Esp. if you are loosing year after year.
A promotion before a single day on the job.
Where do I sign up?
I dunno anyone remember the last time they hired a former quaterback as coach? Though he happened to be a polished college coach leading a national power. Zorn has not. Regardless, I like him and hope he does well.
Um MS. Mike Nolan is the 49ers coach. His dad, Dick Nolan, was the coach back in the 1970s and died a couple of months ago.
And damn, Ty beat me to it.
RE: I dunno anyone remember the last time they hired a former quaterback as coach?
Our very own Steve "Fun and Gun" Spurrier...
From wikipedia
"In 1967, Spurrier was drafted during the first round by the San Francisco 49ers. Spurrier spent nine years with the 49ers before playing his last NFL season in 1976 with the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During his ten year career, Spurrier played in a total of 106 games, accumulating 597 completions, including 6,878 yards and 40 touchdowns, in 1,151 pass attempts."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Spurrier
I think it was a question he already knew the answer to. Hopefully Zorn won't change the logo to match his college, like the ol ball coach did
Offtopic, is there any reason that we can't comment in the previous entry? Maybe something having to do with the fact that Toyota is "sponsoring" the post.
Has it come to that? Sponsored posts on blogs?
Yeah, rhetorical question intended.
The important stat: 12–20 as coach of the Shins.
Zorn will do better; team is at least much better.
demonfafa - yes, Gothamist is currently running a sponsored post ad package with Toyota. They directed us to turn the comments off as a courtesy to the sponsor.
It's a new thing and, as with all our ad packages, not something the people who write and edit DCist have anything to do with. Thanks for understanding my and the rest of the staff's position in regards to this. I'd like to encourage everyone to continue to contribute other event ideas in our genre-specific Agendas during this campaign.
Sommer,
I understand that Gothamist controls most of what happens as far as Ads, but you might want to pass it along to them that it's simply censorship. If we, as individuals who are registered to post comments can do so on every single page EXCEPT for the one that has to do with a sponsor, then that's just simply wrong. I understand that this is a privately owned website and all, but being arbitrary about how people can comment is enough for me to not visit DCist anymore.
If I wanted administration policies for posting that are draconian, I'd continue to post on Livejournal communities.
hmmmm. sorry, didn't see the no-commenting-on-toyota issue in this thread. the genre-specific posts aren't always a good place to post suggestions on, say, theatre or movies or a wine-tasting or some random other non-music/non-book event someone finds out about at the last minute.
my only objection to toyota corolla is the turning off the comments. but since they did that, i'm going to buy a bicycle. or maybe just a ford. and attach "buy american" to all of my comments from now on. man up, toyota.