The Coach is KILLING Me!

The Norv Turner Experience Week 5: What Might Have Been

[Note -- as I mentioned last week, I had this all ready to go for when the Chargers beat the Chiefs. Except, of course, they didn't beat the Chiefs. Even Norv couldn't keep this team down forever, so now I get to use it.]

Certainly, on this site, I bemoan the effect that Norv has had on the Chargers --mostly because I live in San Diego, and I hate to see the nice people here heartbroken. Still, my heart remains with the Redskins, and with the Chargers beating the Chiefs Broncos, I can talk about the great "what might have been" of the season -- what if the Cowboys had hired Norv Turner?

Back in January and February, us Redskins fans were giddy -- not because of anything the Redskins did (they blew last year), but because of the possibility of Norv returning to Dallas. It seemed like everything was falling into place -- after all, Dallas is the one city in the country where Norv is remembered fondly. Perhaps they would ignore the last 15 years of history and hire the guy that they remembered from 1993.  In the end, even Jerry Jones isn't that crazy -- he hired the guy that had a winning record as a head coach. What a novel concept.

This remains one of those great what ifs of history, along with "What would our mobilization in Vietnam had become if Kennedy hadn't been assassinated?" and  "What if Jeffrey Maier had gone to school that day?" Instead, I have to watch the Cowboys tear up the league and deal with Norv in my back yard.

Oh, and apropos of nothing, Mike Sellers is a one man wrecking crew...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUVJrLrLHPg]

[Thanks to Mr Irrelevant and Awful Announcing for the video...]

UPDATE: The NFL obviously had it taken down, but you'll have to take my word for it ...

The Norv Turner Experience Week 1: Troy (hearts) Norv

Today began week 1 in what is sure to be the brief Norv Turner era in San Diego. The Chargers beat the Bears 14-3, proving that, no matter what you say about Norv, his little brother Ron (the offensive coordinator for Chicago) is even worse.

That being said, there are two important things we learned in this first week:

1) Troy Aikman LOVES Norv Turner.
After listening to Troy broadcast the Chargers game this week, I get the impression that, if Norv Turner was Neville Chamberlain, Troy would have been right there to say, "You know what Joe -- Norv is the kind of guy who can really read the opposition. If he says Hilter will stop with the Sudetenland, I believe him. " That is your I-have-a-history-degree-and-I-need- to-use-it-occasionally moment of the day.

2) Norv is still weak.
When  Norv was hired by the Chargers in February, the guys at Kissing Suzy Kolber did a great post about it called "I think I'll Have the Chicken," which starts with Norv not being able to get a waiter's attention, and ends with his wife leaving him for another man (hard to describe -- just read it). This bit immediately popped into my mind as Joe Buck described how the decision was made to hold LaDainian Tomlinson out of the pre-season. Apparently, Norv didn't necessarily like the idea of LT not playing, but he said "that is how it is done around here." Um, what? Who exactly runs the team? LT's agent? How in the world does a head coach with any cojones allow his best player to take the pre-season off if he doesn't agree with the idea? Considering Tomlinson had a total of 25 yards rushing today, maybe giving him some reps in the pre-season would have made some sense.

Oh, and to balance out the Aikman HoF picture at the top: