Friday, January 14, 2011

Cowher says he’s not ready to coach, yet


In a recent online chat with USA Today, former Steelers coach Bill Cowher dropped his strongest hint yet that he’s ready to return to coaching.
“I’m open to listen to opportunities,” Cowher said.
Today, he said that he’s not quite there yet.
“I’m just not ready to jump back into it,” Cowher told Tim Ryan and Pat Kirwan of Sirius NFL Radio. “I want to be able to be chomping at the bit and be ready to go.  That was just not the case.  It was not an easy offseason.  And I’ve got a good job at CBS so it was just not the right time.”
Cowher agreed that, in the end, the decision was family over football. “I appreciated Adam Schefter [of ESPN] having the insight to be able to put it the way it was,” Cowher said.
That reference to Schefter is intriguing, given that Cowher not long ago said he was “insulted” by a report that he had a three-team “wish list.”   The report originated with Schefter’s business-suits-and-barstools partner, Chris Mortensen.
While we don’t doubt at all Cowher’s sincerity regarding the decision to wait at least one more year, the reality is that the opportunities simply weren’t there.  His name was connected only to the non-opening in Miami, and Dolphins owner Stephen Ross recently insisted that Jim Harbaugh is the only coach to whom the Dolphins spoke without firing their current head coach.
Moving forward, the question for Cowher may be whether he’s willing to take a job that entails less money and/or control than he envisioned receiving.  As Peter King of NBC and Sports Illustrated recently pointed out, the trend is moving away from coaches who run the show, and not many coaches are making big money.

source:  PFT.com
author:  Mike Florio

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