Not the Way to End an Era: Mike Shanahan Fired

Tuesday December 30th, 2008, a day in which Pat Bowlen will live in infamy.
Mike Shanahan is fired from head coach and executive vice president of football operations for the Denver Broncos.

The past few years have been a bumpy ride for the Broncos with almost going to the Super Bowl in '05, to tossing in a rookie at QB with four games to go the year after, then finishing with a losing record in 2007, to being one of the most inconsistent teams in the NFL in 2008.

After all that has happened recently, I knew there would be speculation from some fans about Shanahan's future, but you would get that from any team, and those are just typical fans who want their team to be the best NOW as opposed to rebuilding and slowly get better, like it should be.

Make no mistake, Shanny will go down as one of the best, for many reasons, whether it be because of his nicknames of "offensive genius" or "mastermind."
Shanahan could believe that no matter how ordinary, how awful, the talent of the team he coached, he would make it better. And he did.

This year, after the first three games heading into Arrowhead Stadium to face off against our division rival Chiefs, I felt very confident that this was the year that we were going to shut up all the "Shanahan bashers" and ESPN analysts who constantly pound the Broncos over inconsistency and that we have lost our fire.

Little did I know, that game may have been the reason for our season to be derailed from then on.

The Denver Broncos are an incredibly young team with a heck of a lot of potential, especially on offense with a Pro Bowl QB-WR tandem, another Pro Bowl receiver in the making in Eddie Royal, the best slot receiver in the League in Brandon Stokely, two elite tight ends, one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, and a running game which has coined the phrase, "insert running back, gain 1000 yards."

In my (somewhat biased) opinion, firing Shanahan was one of the worst things you can do to a young team trying to develop into an elite team.

Broncos' owner Pat Bowlen once said that he was never going to let Mike Shanahan go, that his job was secure for life (retirement). Personally I don't understand this move, maybe it's just me still fired up about this whole thing, but I have no idea what the Broncos are gonna do now. Where do they go from here?

Offer Bill Cowher a buttload of money and hope he takes us to the Super Bowl the same way he took the Steelers? Who is going to get the head coaching job?

We will find out over the next year or so, whether Pat Bowlen's decision to part ways with coach Shanahan was actually in the best interest of the team, or not. No coach should be fired if he is at the top of a list of any coach you would hire. Shanahan is just not at the top of our list I guess.

Good work, Denver, you lost a Hall of Fame coach, and now have to fill two job positions before all the decent candidates for head coach get jobs in Detroit, Cleveland, New York, and anywhere else there is a spot opening up.

So if you will excuse me, I have to go to the doctor to get my newly diagnosed clinical depression treated.

Shanahan spent 14 years as head coach of the Broncos, his first season with the team he led them to an 8-8 record, then a playoff berth at a 13-3 record in just his second year with the Broncos. In his third year, he led the Broncos to back to back Super Bowl victories before John Elway's retirement.

Since the Elway era, Shanahan has led the Broncos to four playoff appearances.
Shanahan also led the Broncos to the AFC Championship in 2005, but fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers.