15 Guys Who Took Way Too Long to Be Fired or Need to Be Soon

Firing a coach should never be an easy decision for a franchise to make, especially when that coach has been around the program for an extended period of time and has become an integral part of the club's culture.

But sometimes, whether you like it or not, you have to take Ol' Yeller out to the shed in order to bring in new blood capable of making it to the postseason next year.

The following is a list of past and present coaches, managers and owners in professional sports that took too long for teams to fire or are currently coaching past their expiration date.

Rex Ryan

Although he hasn't been fired yet, Rex Ryan is sitting on a doublewide hibachi grill of a hot seat in New York—and the bacon is really starting to crackle.

In his four-year head coaching career with the Jets, Ryan hasn’t led to the team to the playoffs since 2010 and the trend since hasn’t been looking good.

Between his stubborn support of the Mark Sanchez Struggle-Bus experiment, the 24/7 Tebow media festival and the Jets' sub-.500 record this year, Ryan has given his critics more nails than they can slam in his coffin.

It’s time for the franchise to move on and for Ryan to crawl out of the burning stew pot of insanity that has become the New York Jets.

Bruce Weber

Former Illinois basketball Head Coach Bruce Weber huffed and puffed, but in his last six years with the Illini’s failed to come close to achieving the kind of success the Illini experienced in 2005.

Andy Reid

Andy Reid is trying. He really is.

Reid is trying everything from replacing team coaches and benching Michael Vick in order to save his job and salvage the last tear drop that’s left of the Eagles’ season.

But the fact is, the Eagles just suck. And they suck hard.

Yea, I said it, and I know it sounds harsh, but when it’s December and you haven’t won a game since September, empirical evidence suggests you could suck the varnish off a grandfather clock. 

Couple the horrible year the Eagles are currently having with the fact that the franchise hasn’t won a playoff game since 2008 and you have yourself a coach that has overstayed his welcome with a team.

Arsene Wenger

With three Premier League championships and three Manager of the Year Awards under his belt, Wenger’s 17-season managing career at Arsenal has seen its fair share of success.

But the last time Wenger brought home the silverware for the Gunners was back in 2004 when we were all listening to Bowling For Soup, and his critics around the league say it’s time for the team to let go of their sentimental attachment to the man Wenger was in his glory days and move on. 

Charlie Weis

Many Notre Dame fans believed the man with the Super Bowl rings would be the Second Coming of Touchdown Jesus when he signed on as head coach of the football program in 2005.

And then Weis and the Fighting Irish went 35-27 in five seasons, with a winning percentage of .432 in his last three years. 

Bud Selig

Nobody likes MLB commissioner Bud Selig.

Between his gushing over the unpopular World Baseball Classic, refusal to overturn referee Jim Joyce’s botched call and his wildcard expansion ideas, Selig hasn’t made many friends in the MLB and should probably consider hanging up his hat.

Bobby Valentine

Although it only lasted one season, one year with the Red Sox this past season proved to be one year too many to give Bobby Valentine.

Instead of laying down the law and straightening up the team as Red Sox had hoped he would, Valentine only made a bad situation worse. The team started the season 4-10 and ended up limping out a gruesome 69-win season this year under Valentine, who still claims none of it was his fault.

Joe Paterno

This might not make me many friends, but damn it, JoePa was old. That’s what old people do—they retire. Or they should retire, preferably before they get too old to survive a humiliating public dismissal from the institution that was their life’s work.

I’m not saying the Sandusky scandal would’ve been easy on JoePa had he retired, but at least Paterno’s legacy wouldn’t had ended with an unceremonious firing had he turned in his whistle earlier.

Norv Turner

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, Norv Turner will be out of the head coaching job in San Diego at the end of the season.

Turner’s six-year stint as the Chargers head coach has had its highs—his first season including a run all the way to the AFC Championship in 2008.

But for a franchise like the Chargers that’s looking to take the step from good-not-great to elite NFL franchise, Turner’s inability to put together a playoff caliber team the past three seasons has led to his eventual undoing in San Diego.

2009 was Turner’s last chance to prove he could lead the Chargers to a Super Bowl—the team was 13-3 and going to the playoffs—where they lost to the Jets in the first round.

David Stern

“I can’t hear you New York!! I said 'CAN YOU SMELL. WHAT THE STERN. IS A-COOKIN'?!?”

You could call the people booing David Stern at the NBA draft classless, but you can’t call them un-representative of basketball fans as a whole.

David Stern’s 28-year career as commissioner of the NBA has been wrought with controversy, the most recent of which involved fining the Spurs for not throwing their best gladiators into the ring and “disappointing” the fans. 

Stern fining the Spurs was in accordance with league rules, and could be construed as an act done in service of boosting the fans experience at games. But it has become quite clear that Stern doesn’t really care about what anyone wants.

Lovie Smith

The Bears will have to walk a tight line in order to make it to the playoffs this year, and if they do it will be only Lovie Smith’s second trip into the postseason in the past six years.

Chicago has most of the pieces it takes to put together a legitimate Super Bowl contending team, but before they can take that next step a coaching change needs to be made.

Bob Knight

No one can argue with The General’s track record at Indiana: three national championships, a perfect season and a program whose players had a graduation rate of 98 percent.

Winning was what Knight did, and he did it well.

What he didn’t do well, however, was give a damn what anyone thought, and by the end of his career Knight’s continued “pattern of unacceptable behavior” showed no sign of letting up.

Knight was finally fired after a video surfaced in 2000 of the coach grabbing a player by the throat. While it was one of the most contentious coach firings of all time, it was clear that Knight’s time had run its course at IU and that both sides would end up being better off for it in the long run.

Fred Wilpon

You can’t exactly “fire” an owner, but if there’s one recent instance that calls for that kind of action it would Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz’s alleged profiteering from Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme.

While the case against the owners was settled this spring, Wilpon could’ve very well been forced to sell one of the most valuable franchises in baseball away to the highest bidder.

Actually, that probably would’ve been a good thing.

Isiah Thomas

Prodigious spending, a sexual harassment case and a four-year record of failure that outstrips even the most winless franchises of all history in its crappiness was Isiah Thomas’ gift to the New York Knicks for hiring him as team president and head coach.

One year of him with the team was bad—four years earned Thomas the distinction from some as the worst front office contract ever signed in professional sports.

Oh yeah, by the way—Knicks owner James Dolan wants Zeke back.

Gary Bettman

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman promises fans one thing: They are nowhere, I mean not even close to getting this runny satchel of an NHL lockout over. 

The league is entering the fourth month of the third lockout that has occurred under Bettman’s watch as commissioner. The lockouts are hurting much more than the NHL, and something needs to be done. And that something is the resignation of Gary Bettman.