Around the league

by Ed Valentine on Sep 26, 2007 6:56 AM EDT in News Comment 3 comments

Peter King can have Mondays. For that matter, he can have Tuesdays, too. 'Greek' can have Friday, or Saturday, whenever he gets around to sending in his regrettable weekly selections.

Wednesday is going to be our day here at Big Blue View for a little feature I am going to call the 'Wednesday Walk Around the League.'

Every Wednesday I am going to look around the league, see what teams and players are making news, and offer some thoughts on the biggest stories.

So, let's get started.

First stop, San Diego.

Is it too early for the Chargers to fire head coach Norv Turner? The Chargers are 1-2, star running back LaDainian Tomlinson is not happy and it's quickly becoming obvious that the Chargers will pay dearly for General Manager A.J. Smith's pushing Marty Schottenheimer out the door despite last season's 14-2 record.

Yahoo! Sports columnist Michael Silver, for one, believes San Diego should admit their mistake, let Turner go now, and move on before the team is in complete shambles.

Here is part of what Silver had to say.

Because Turner is an accomplished offensive coordinator who has a knack for play-calling, Smith, like others before him, got lured into believing Turner could work the same magic as a head coach. This just in: He can't. And some of us have been saying so for a long time.

Talk to Turner's former players, and this is what they'll tell you: Give the man one job, and he'll do that job well. But give him a big job with multiple responsibilities, and he gets anxious and scattered and has a hard time doing any one thing capably.

Turner has a 59-84-1 career coaching record in Washington, Oakland and now San Diego. Maybe Smith thought he had put together such a terrific team a monkey could coach it.

Whatever the reason he chose to bring in the overmatched Turner his team is paying dearly for it. And that's not likely to get any better until Norv is gone.

• REXY WILL LOOK SEXY ON THE BENCH: It seems like Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith was the last to notice, but a 45.2 QB rating, six interceptions and just one touchdown pass in three games finally made Smith realize Rex Grossman is not a quality NFL quarterback. Brian Griese will replace Grossman Sunday against Detroit.

It's about time Lovie figured that one out.

• SAINTS PLAYING LIKE AINTS: New Orleans is 0-3, playing terrible football, and will now have to play the rest of the season without Deuce McAllister. Last year's emotional, feel-good NFL story, the Saints have come crashing back to reality this season. They just aren't very good.

• HALL WON'T GET A PASS: Atlanta coach Bobby Petrino has promised 'significant discipline' after DeAngelo Hall's Sunday meltdown. Three penalties for 67 yards on Carolina's game-tying drive followed by a sideline tirade aimed at Petrino have the rookie coach in a foul mood.

It will be interesting to see what the Falcons consider 'significant.'

0 recs | Comment 3 comments