On Jan. 4, 2007, when Nick Saban gave his introductory press conference as Alabama’s head football coach, he professed — as coaches often do — his desire to make his new job his last one. “My next stop, you know where Lake Burton is?” he asked. “It’s in north Georgia, right on the North Carolina […]
Like anyone going through an identity crisis, Michigan football has had to make some changes. It’s tough to hang your hat on defense in today’s version of the game, but the Wolverines had done so under aggressive former defensive coordinator Don Brown, who took over for the 2016 season. The early returns were immediate and […]
There are few truly great football movies. The things that draw fans to the sport — a strange mix of athleticism, schematic complexity, courage and violence — seem to defy easy capture on the big screen. Perhaps it’s because our rooting interests change when we watch movies. We cheer for dramatic character arcs rather than […]
After a recent spate of hirings and firings, the NFL is in the midst of a coaching diversity crisis. Fewer than 10 percent of the NFL’s head coaches are black — even though about 60 percent of the league’s players are. Not one of the five new head coaches hired after the 2019 NFL regular […]
When the Cleveland Browns fired rookie head coach Freddie Kitchens after the 2019 season, he became the fourth one-and-done NFL skipper in the past five seasons. Kitchens’s departure led to that of general manager John Dorsey, who himself was brought in when the Browns’ tank-and-rebuild plan didn’t pay off after one full offseason. It’s not […]