The End of an Era

The Denver Broncos fired Mike Shanahan today. Mike Shanahan was the head coach and VP of Football Operations. Basically, he ran the whole show.

I was shocked that this happened. Yes, the team has been down as of late, but they are a very young team and had showed progress. However, a 3 game losing streak to end the season, blowing the division lead and missing out on the playoffs apparently pushed team owner Pat Bowlen over the edge.

Shanahan has been with the team for 21 years as an assistant coach and then head coach. The Broncos won their only 2 Super Bowls under Shanahan, in 1997 and 1998. But, since John Elway (a.k.a. the Greatest QB Ever) retired, the Broncos have won only 1 playoff game. Furthermore, Shanahan, in his capacity of VP of Football Operations, has made several questionable personnel decisions. I believe the decision to fire Shanahan was more about firing Shanahan the VP of Football Operations, not Shanahan the coach. I think Shanahan is still a great gameday coach, but he has continually hurt the team with bad personnel decisions.

This is a sad day for Broncos fans. As a fan, I'm not happy about this. I don't believe there are many coaches out there who are better than Mike Shanahan. He took a team with the worst defense in the league, and 7 different start running backs and managed to go 8-8 this year. There's maybe only 1 other coach in the league who can do that. With Shanahan, the Broncos were always competitve for the playoffs. They didn't always make it, but they were always competitive. Only a handful of teams can say that.

I wish Mike Shanahan the best in whatever he goes on to do. I think he'll get other opportunities to coach, and I think he'll do great if he takes one of these opportunities. I now anxiously await the decision on who will be the Broncos next coach. Whoever they choose will have big shoes to fill. Hopefully whoever it is will be the coach for 10+ years to come.