Following their special teams mishaps on Sunday against the Pats (and Kris Brown's highly inconsistent kicking all season long), Bill Cowher and the Steelers fired special teams coach Jay Hayes.
Cowher insisted Sunday's failures alone didn't cost Hayes his job and cited other reasons, including Hayes' handling of team meetings...."It was a problem all year, it wasn't just Sunday," Cowher said. "It's also because of where we were in our third year (with Hayes running the special teams). It was a number of things. He's a good person and a good worker, and there's never been a question about his integrity or work ethic."
"I was a good coach when I got here," said Hayes, a former special teams coach at Wisconsin and an assistant at Notre Dame. "In my mind, I'm still a good football coach."
I know that all coaches are held accountable for the performance of their players (namely Kris Brown) but does it appear to anyone else that Hayes is being made a scapegoat for the Steelers "disappointing" loss on Sunday?....It just seems hypocritical to me how Cowher can continually defend Brown AND Kordell Stewart (who I think, once again, showed his true QB ability with his performance in the clutch) yet the head coach not-so-subtly manages to place all the blame upon one of his assistants....the only thing I'm certain of is as long as Cowher keeps Kordell Stewart as his starting QB, the Steelers will NEVER make it to another Super Bowl, regardless of how stellar their defense or special teams may be.
Anyone else have any opinion on this firing?
Steelers fire special teams coach
[ January 29, 2002: Message edited by: gamecock ]