| This just in: Marvin Lewis has just announced
that he has changed his mind about going to work in Washington as the Redskins’ new
defensive coordinator and will instead just hang out all year in the Bay Area fishing and
chilling out with recently terminated Vikings head coach Dennis Green.
Just kidding.
The official press conference to announce the culmination of Danny Snyder’s
"Dream Team" coaching ensemble is apparently just an hour or so away as I write
this, and while it’s become amazingly difficult to determine just what the real deal
is with the wayward Lewis lately, it does appear he has finally come home to roost in
Snyder’s opulent playpen along with the Skins’ new head coach, Steve Spurrier.
Just 24 hours earlier, the day after those wacky Glazer kids in Tampa Bay suddenly
informed him that he just didn’t fill the bill for the Buccaneers’ head-coaching
gig, Lewis announced that he was turning down a big-money offer from the Redskins to
become their defensive coordinator and remaining as the only defensive coordinator in the
Ravens’ six-year history.
"I’m tired of putting my family through this," said Lewis, whose
shafting by the Glazers was the third time he had fallen short in pursuit of a
head-coaching job the last two years. "(Ravens owner) Art Modell, (senior VP of
football operations) Ozzie Newsome, right straight down the line through the organization,
have been loyal to me. I’m at peace with this decision."
Modell quickly praised Lewis’ ethics. "He didn’t want to go for the big
bucks and forgo some of the values that we have here," Modell said of Lewis, who was
apparently ready to re-sign a two-year deal that could reach $800,000 with incentives.
Meanwhile, though, Lewis’ omnipresent agent, Ray Anderson, was still juking and
jiving with the Skins, convincing them that his client could still be lured by the proper
amount of greenery.
An NFL-record three-year deal with the Skins worth as much as $1.2 million each year
with incentives turned out to be more than enough.
Loyalty and peace of mind be damned.
While nobody deserves top dollar more than Lewis, a fellow I pushed hard for in a past
column as the most worthy candidate to take over for George Seifert in Carolina, I
can’t help but think a little less of him now.
Hey, don’t get me wrong. Money speaks volumes. And thanks to Snyder’s open
checkbook, Lewis has done his fellow assistant coaches a great service, raising the money
bar forevermore.
But with it becoming clear that his agent has been pulling all the strings in
the soap opera in which he has been involved the last few weeks, Marvin Lewis’ word
has become a little more jaded.
Especially to the Ravens, who thought they had salvaged a valuable link in terms of
continuity when Lewis said he would stick around, only to do an about-face 24 hours later.
And how about those Bucs? Are the Glazer boys still actually trying to convince Bill
Parcells to become the head coach after being jilted at the altar by him twice already?
Don’t they realize that Parcells’ credibility isn’t worth squat right about
now?
Memo to Rich McKay: Get the hell out while the getting is good. |
