Cindy – very interesting – I’ll post that article when I get a minute. (And sorry for thinking you were Joe’s wife…Joe’s wife also comments here!)

There will be no Cowher Power for the Jets. Bill Cowher informed the team last night he is not interested in their head-coaching job, and it could be because he doesn’t want to coach Brett Favre. The former Steeler coach was the clear-cut favorite to replace Eric Mangini among Jets fans, and the team’s ownership. Now, Woody Johnson must move on to Plan B. Talks between the Jets and Cowher never advanced past the preliminary stage. Sources close to Cowher said he did not want to have Favre as his quarterback, and that he also wanted to bring in people he was familiar with to handle personnel. A source familiar with Cowher’s thinking said before last night’s decision came down that the former Steeler boss would have to receive assurances from the Jets that the 39-year-old Favre no longer was in the picture before agreeing to take control.

Comments anyone?

*Is it lack of “mental processing power” to react to situations in the game? Would someone like Sherman or Lovie have the same stare if they went to McDonalds, ordered a Big Mac, fries and a Coke, only to be told that they are out of Coke. Would he not be able to make a quick switch to Diet Coke or Sprite without a timeout or a 15 minute halftime so he could confer with his assistants?

*Is it a lack of preparation? I have never put a football game plan together and don’t think game planning for basketball is an apples-to-apples comparison, but in general, isn’t wise in any situation to have options and adjustments you may have practiced during the week to mitigate the scheme that the D is presenting? I may be drastically simplifiying this, but there is no drawing a play up in the huddle: A-Rodg with his palm out, using his other hand to tell Driver, Jennings, et. al. a route to run; so would there not be need to be prepared for as many possibilities as the D could throw out there? Or is it a matter of time and processing power of the players to be able to handle so much information and options?

*Does a lack of imagination or preparation by the head coach automatically indict the OC and DC (and all other asst. coaches for that matter)? How much veto power does the HC have in these situations where, for example, the OC wants to exploit something he sees, but the HC is so conservative that he overrules? Or the DC wants to put more pressure on, but the HC is too afraid of giving up a big play? Is it more likely that the HC fills his staff with like-minded coaches that are so close to the game plan that they can’t think outside of it?

*Finally, looking at the list, it seems that the jump from coordinator/assistant coach to Head Coach is Grand Canyon-esque. One would think that being a decent OC/DC would translate to some HC success given situations you may have experienced, but the list seems to indicate otherwise (see Crennel, Lewis, etc.). I think the era of college coaches to the NFL is done based on the 2007 debacle with Petrino and others, so this leaves the coordinator staff as the next head coach prospects, short of the re-treads and those that are in the booth now.