Salt Lake Tribune | 1998-12-25 | Page 49

The SaltLakeTribune SPORTS Friday, December 25, 1998 SCOREBOARD Six NFL Coaches Could Compiled by: Laurence Miedema FOOTBALL (14)— Pts OUR ob revting ae ARBTony Carter (ankle) end LB Collins ‘pectoral, DE Wille MeGi NFL Injury Report DE Ch Su he on ie al Fal Lageinjury report for || ony Whee ae B Aur wo viedbyte eng oelenaie PROBABLE.i Kela Bansas cry 6) ATOAKLAND(7) — NEW YORK GLANTS AT rune. MO Te Sea nen, PHIA (12) — Giants OUR $ Mio Woo{UNARLE, CH Dale Cater Je (hamstring QUESTIONABL rapes | (QB Rh Ganon oo el LB ten mela (hamstring) DT Robert Harris (aly WR, Jerolt Willant (hamstring). PROBABLE: WR. oe Jurevicuis nee Alexander (ke be Le i Glen Pak r st Seine) Raiders OUT fot DOUBTFUL, QB JetGeorge STIONABLE: DT Grady Jacks ham (hamstring) Wh Freddie Solon (shoulder ST: LOUIS(11) AT SAN FRANCISCO (114| aa OURTUL LB on SiMe ATTENESSER, QUESTIONAI TS WRJake Teed (back). DOL i LD Kalce Wonbaie QUESTONAG J: Dhan Edwards back) WR Robert 7 WR 6 $ 3 ‘ 124 10 74h 144 INDY flo FRAN E0 ARIZONA Washington JAXVILLE CINCINNATI a1 Carolina OUTBACK Campa, ay ORLEANS Pease 64(67)" Keatucky Pua | atoare ray St Lous | Ga Teh NotreDame Seatle CTTRUS Orlando, Pa San Diego Michigan" 3i41%s) Arkansas DALLAS Blueray (Montgomery) 14 40) Today ALOHA (Honoluly) Oregon 54 (54) Gray Tulane 76) | 2s) | ( AROLINA (212) AT INDIAN, OUT. OB Jur ae PEACH (Atlanta) hasan) PDR NOL WR Joey. Gal te LB Des We ine Bron FUL: DE cc Si ith ABLES Ere fe roin 8a Elva Caren out oa Aran (ante toner EST beradres Cop vaes ‘of Two Ggames eR Pal Fn of Two Games Cale Misisippi | Sporting Cristal 2. Universitario1 RESORT ALTA BEAVER MT. BASE NEW COMMENTS: 8 9 20 0 Packed-Powder. All 8 ltts open 9:15-4:30 p.m _Packed-Powder. Closed on DE Thr A HAY 8) AT CINCINNATI [phone] Christmas Day Mark The ‘bow R Hert Bimanue (kid beTROTT SABLA =i WR BRIAN HEAD 54 9 Powder/Packed. Powder. Five knee), QUESTIONABLE: G Jorge Da fatLB 8 ton (tacks PROBA ee [phone] its open 9 a.m.-10 p, BLE WR Reidel Anthony shoulder) QR Trent Ditfer BRIGHTON 37 0 Packed: ae x of 7 litt Frank Middleton ankle [phone] open9 am. ee Blake wrt), QUESTIO? odPayne hip 18 Webb Ka_a lab Joa aver ney WR Nae Rater Joes un: P Randy Fuller shoulder ‘EM ENGLAND(6) AT NEW YORK ETS THECANYONS 9g) Packed Powder Four of 1 [phone] its open. Nne vals open DEER VALLEY 9 Packed:Powder. 15 of 18s [phone] open, Holiday rates 12/26-1/1 ELKMEADOWS 59g Powder Al suits open [phone] Cross country skiing. NORDIC VALLEY 7a 7a _Nodateschecied o open [phone] PARK649-9111 CITY 4g) Packed-Powcer/ManWade. (4a) vats open 9 amp tame __titsepr POWDER MT. jacked Powder. Three of [phone] College Basheball Line SNOW BASIN Today [phone] adley $ LOUISVILLE SNOWBIRD ProFoil [phone] i Underdog Saturday SOLITUDE Minnesota 7 Tennessee | OAKLAND [phone] Sunday SUNDANCE NY JETS (801) 534-225-4107 BAL-TINORE ‘Uh Snow Report 821-8102 ATLANTA Favorite GEO. Wasi Kestuck WS MerryChristmas, Ray Rhodes. At least that's what the rumor mill has been spewing in recent weeks These coaches are in trouble Their teamsdidnot meet expecta tions. Somedid not contend for SuperBowls. Others did not competefor division titles. Still others did notvie for playoff spots So, when the season ends Sunday, blame the coach. It’s the American way. Fire Rhodes. Fire Capers. Fire Turner. Fire them Start over. Next year will be better. Or will it? Firing a coachis alogical first stepin a rebuilding process. But replacing him is a second and more important step. So before a Mike McCaskeyfires Wannstedt [phone] mkleDT Tony Srnc) Allen (ankle) RB thigh) C Wally Willams | DBABLE. OL Ben Canale ak GURBEN BAY (1053) AT CHICAGO(411) — for: ROURTPUL TE Mark Chr ai vn NABLE WR Corey Bradford WH fib 1 roksan TE Ty | WRMel irac REte Sai Vonnie Holsay (an lel TE W ans (knee O.K., that’s two openingseasily IN S MORNING NI as NFL head coaches. wea 7m | papery Mae's BY RICK GOSS THEDAL And Dennis Erickson and Dom Capers. All couldbeintheir final days Air Force NSICio‘th Musou 3% 648) "et Vegan America Scores | ScoresLatin VirginiaACYcate) Tech 9142) nd sting orsre ia Latin Ane MICRON PC Mian, la) <r emedfi Mia 7163) Cs ALAMO(San Antonio) Retrpane tue Corinthians 1,pulCraeiro 1, Since the first game tne DOUBT | KansasSate 1236(65) DE, Kenny ‘i fer OUT LBLenBah ended 1-1, there will be a third match, on fool). QUESTIONABLE. TE DE James Roberson ankle atoneBuMeanshoulder. INITARIAN (Boise, Idaho) | Wednesday TE Wendel Davis (bam | tern ae detomy) CBSanaRolle Jobo. 16 idaho covonsia ia (hand),KendylJaeox Southern Mis. hamstring); RB Rodney Thomas ting LBKat QUESTIONABLE: HOUDSY Sei Ma Return Game § Tommy 48 Arcona deporte ca, ¢ portCl atk Smuth ane) PROBA. Nebrata the chaps it had eaten als 0:he aL Tin Browit h) RB Larry Centers | LURERTY dee (epi, Tea) oo he ghCB Ta taa MAT DENVER (3 Be in Their Final Days And Norv Turner and Ted Marchibroda and ve Wannstedt Blue ao a open ey night skiing No dat scheduled o open 4g) Packed Powder Alo its andtram open. 9 Packod-Ponder, Al7 is N/A N/A a ‘open and Nordic track. 4g. Alits open, Nordle Center openfor shoeshoeng. NEL STANDINGS_ AMERICAN CONFERENCE WT te PAHowe vay ave xe in Chicago, heshould ask himself CanI find someonebetter? Clevelandalready has an opening fora head coach. So does San Diego. If Baltimore, Carolina. Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle and Washington all fire their coaches in the days and weeks to come, that would create eight openingsfor next season. But are there eight capable replace ments? George Seifert would top any list. He-won two Super Bowls in San Franciscobeforeretiring af- Wee the 1995 season. The Cowboys flirted with himlast winter before hiring Chan Gailey. Seifert now has spent three years recharging his batteries, and 1998 convinced him his future is not in television. Mike Holmgrenalsowill be out and about the marketplace. He has taken the Packers to back-to back Super Bowls. If a teamis willing to hire himin a dual capacity as a general managercoach, there's aclausein his con tract that lets him out at Green Bay filled — and anothercreated be- cause now Green Bay has to go out andhire a coach. So who’s left on thelist? Terry Donahue? He’s another namethat flirted with the Cow st season. But Donahue has been out of football for three years after a lengthy stay in the college game. The NFL would be Tabi Would he be an up: grade from Erickson? Erickson also came to the NFL fromcolleges, where he dominated as Donahue never did with two na- tionaltitles at Miami There don’t appear to be any emer a Wash Phil Mi GR 479-288 70 NATIONAL CONFERENCE WLT Pet PP PA Home Away SFC APC 40 4 4 + 0 9 a 04 0-93 530, 10 68 6710340 74) 310 34 TAO 5620160 6 04 We 18 7.00 $40 hot college candidates command- ing attention. Steve Spurrier swears up and downhe'll be back at Florida next season. Other namesyouhear are BarryAlvarez at Wisconsin and Nick Saban at Michigan State But we've heard those same names for a few off-seasons now ‘There have been 15 NFL head 0 tSF i coaching vacancies in the past two years — that’s half the league turning over — yet Alvarez and Saban haven't gotten the call Would Alvarez be an upgrade from Erickson? That leaves NFL search lists filled with the names of NFL co ordinators: Gary Kubiak and Greg Robinson at Denver, Sher. manLewis at GreenBay, Jim Haslett at Pittsburgh, Chris Paimer at Jacksonville, BrianBillick at Minnesota andBill Belichick at the Jets Is Kubiak or Palmer morehighly regarded now than Turner was whenhewascallingthe offensive plays and winning Super Bowls with the Cowboys? Is Haslett or Robinson more highly regarded now than Rhodes was when he wascalling the defensive signals andwinning Super Bowls with the 49ers? Newer doesn’t necessarily meanbetter Capers was the NFL Coach of the Year in 1996 whenhe took a second-year expansion team to Rhodes was the NFL Coachof the Year in 1995 and Wannstedt the Coach of the Yearin 1994 These men canall coach. All have won. So what happened in 1998? Before youattempt to fix a problem, youshould first identify the problem. Is it the players? Is it those coaching the players? Is it thosefinding the players? Firing the coach is the universal solution — but it may not always be the right solution. The NFI can't continue turning over al most athird of its coaches each year. So look beforeyoustep. E amineyour options. Makesure i you fire a Wannstedt, you can r¢ place a Wannstedt, Quality for the NFC championship game Marchibrodaalsotook his team to quality. the in Carolina, Chicago and Seattle AFC title game in 1996. Change for the sake of change may dig theholes deeper Full content of TheSalt Lake Tribuneis available daily on the Web. www.sltrib.com Refundable-Security Deposit. leanMaula Cash Dueat Signing. PRE Riack eman ay The 1999 Lincoln Town Car. All the luxury. All the style. And for a very limited time, you can haveitall for only $499 a monthfor 30 months. But hurry. Your Lincoln Dealer has savedthe best for last, but only until January 4th 10 Days Only! Ends January 4. w.lincolnmercury. com _t Lincoln Town Car. What a luxury car should be.