Bill Cowher: Afraid To Coach Again? Will Never Repeat Success with Steelers

Every coaching vacancy at the end of the 2008 regular season was somehow linked to Bill Cowher. Even jobs that aren’t officially open have Cowher's name attached to them.

Despite all the speculation, only one thing has become abundantly clear—Bill Cowher will not be a head coach in 2009.

The reasons are plenty. He wants to take another year away from coaching. He wants to spend more time with his family. And he’s hoping for the perfect situation.

What defines the perfect situation? A team with a young, quality quarterback, strong running game, stifling defense, and an intelligent owner?

Every incoming coach hopes to adopt a team with the tools he can mold into a winner. But that's not always the reality.

Any team pining for Cowher's services are desperate for a change in their fortunes. The expectations will be monstrous for Cowher as a new head coach.

Everyone will be thinking Super Bowl without remembering that it took Cowher nearly a decade-and-a-half to bring the Lombardi to Pittsburgh.

Bill Cowher Would Have Been Fired In Today's NFL

The NFL is known as a win-now league. Coaches who step in and have immediate success set the bar too high—sometimes too high for themselves.

Owners want a quick fix and an immediate turnaround on their investments. But quick fixes aren't Cowher's game.

In his 15 years with the Steelers, Cowher won his division eight times, went to the playoffs 10 times, with six AFC Championship games and two Super Bowls.

With only one Super Bowl win on the back end of those 15 years, the tide of today's NFL would have left him jobless in 1997.

Losing the Super Bowl and then failing to get past the AFC Divisional Round the following season would have had people calling for his head. In today's NFL.

Bill Cowher knows this. And it's why he's in no rush to return to this league. Not every organization is the Steelers, and not every town is Pittsburgh. The concept of sticking by a coach is a foreign one in today's NFL.

His return would be nothing short of a media frenzy, where his every move and decision will be analyzed to a magnitude he's never experienced. If he decided to coach in a major U.S. market, the pressure would be even more significant. 

There isn't enough respect for men who bring their reputations to new towns. When results aren't satisfactory, the fans don't have the same sense of dedication one may have grown accustomed to. 

Ask Brett Favre how things have worked out for him in New York.

The way Cowher is successful won't translate to 15 more years with another team—especially not when his name alone seems to have transcended the reality of the hard work necessary to be a head coach.

It has to be a legitimate fear for Cowher. Anywhere he goes, he will instantly become the new face of the franchise.

The number of legendary sports figures who have tarnished their legacies by coming back and not achieving the same success is monumental.

Does he really want to have his legacy questioned?