Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

7DnBrnc53 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2023 9:58 pm

George buys them in '81, does he fire Reeves as early as '84 - loss to 9-7 Steelers - before Dan even makes it to a SB?? I think likely 'yes'! And not a stretch to say even the year prior - loss at Seattle! A strong, promising 10-6 outing first year on. Then bad strike year but would still be allowed on for '83. But that year even worse regular-season-wise than '81 - and then losing to another 9-7 team in their first-ever playoff year.

Looking back, I would have had no problem with that. They could have gotten a better offensive mind that would have drafted better players to put around Elway.

Putting this Steinbrenner hypothetical aside, I believe that Bowlen should have fired Reeves after the 5-11 SB hangover 1990 season, and offered the job to Shanahan. Elway never would have won a SB with Reeves.

I can't help but to think that Shanny hopping onboard Denver when he did was really the only time he could have won that back-to-back if even a title at all. Terrell Davis was such a key piece along with that mid-'90s nucleus already in place (O-line in-particular). What kind of team would Shanny have built starting in 1991? And still quite tough to fire Dan just one full season removed from posting a third-in-four-year SB-berth. Unless, of course, its GEORGE in-charge!!



But, now, away from Denver and thinking of other GS scenarios...Madden??

Had George bought Oakland prior to the '69 season, not only does Madden not at all make it to '76, but does he even make it to...1970?? Best record in league and losing a League Championship Game to a lesser team whom they swept during the regular season? Dropping the ax after '71 at the latest I'd guess (and, yes, what a real bad, and sad, thought)!

Landry?

By all means George, as most owners, wouldn't have kept him all the way through his first non-losing affair of '65 (Year 6), But let's say he buys Big D in '66 itself? Of course after back-to-back LCG-berths, George keeps Tom. But I can't help but to think (with Vince now out the way) that Tom...doesn't make it to SBV!!, hence the '70s with Dallas!

Buying the Giants in '83? Tuna may have very well not have made it to SBXXV after getting knocked out at home to the Rams (and getting swept by Philly a second year in a row). Three straight years without a playoff win!

Buys NYG in 2004? Coughlin may not make it to '07!!

First Jags owner? Couglin out after threep to Tenn!!

Buys San Fran in '89? Seifert out after losing to Dallas in the '92 NFCCG (maybe, just maybe, the non-playoff year prior).

Maybe Bills don't lose four SBs in a row had George been in charge (perhaps just two).

Bud Grant out of the TCs after '71??


Again, VINCE is the only one IMO who never gets fired!!



EDIT - I take that back about Parcells not making it to his second World Championship in '90. Actually, he doesn't make it to...'84!! I mean, he almost got fired after that first (3-12-1) season in real-time! So if Steinbrenner would have been in-charge instead...and very needless to say that would have seriously been a mishap!

And how many HCs who get fired after one real bad season their first time out ever get a second chance? Thus we may have never seen Bill Parcells as an NFL HC again (Rob Chudzinski, anyone? Forever an underrated bad firing IMO). Yes, maybe after another solid stint or two as a DC, Parcells could maybe get another shot (especially if for a SB-winner), but the odds would have been heavy against it.

Did David Tepper really just surpass DeBartolo for most-Steinbrenner-esque NFL owner ever??

Steinbrenner and Eddie Robinson were good friends. Steinbrenner even wrote the forward to Robinson's autobiography. So, for a completely different aspect to the thought of Steinbrenner being an NFL owner, perhaps Robinson might have gotten a shot at the NFL (other than a short interview with the Rams).