I will never understand the hiring practices of some teams in the National Football League. After coming off a 14-2 regular season with the most dynamic player in the game; a good, young QB; and the best defense in the NFL, the San Diego Chargers replaced Marty Schottenheimer with Norv Tuner. The same Norv Turner whose head coaching record is 58-82-1. That record spans two different teams, the Washington Redskins and the Oakland Raiders, and granted he may not have inherited the best football teams when he took over those two squads, but he knew what he was getting himself into. No one forced him to take those jobs and a good decision maker would have seen what he had to work with and decided against having his name associated with either of those teams.

Perhaps the Chargers are really into the environment and feel they should not only recycle cans and bottles, but also head coaches. Norv Turner has had his greatest success as a coach while employed as a Coordinator, and there is no shame in that. He rightly received many accolades for the Cowboys winning two Super Bowls while he was the Dallas’ OC. He is also rightly credited with grooming Troy Aikman into the Hall of Fame QB he ended up being. Norv also deserves a lot of credit for being the OC of the San Francisco 49ers this past year. A year when everyone was picking SF to be at the bottom of the division, they actually competed for a playoff spot up through the final weeks. Turner again made great use of his offensive talent; Frank Gore emerged as one of the best running backs in the game, and Alex Smith performed at a higher level than many anticipated. Credit Norv Turner for being a huge part of it all.

I would see no issue with hiring Coach Turner to run your offense, but not to run the whole team. Turner thrives on teaching and nurturing his QBs, he thrives on play calling and getting the most out of his offensive talent. He will not be able to work in the same capacity being the Head Coach. The game just isn’t set up like that.

In their attempt to grow from a great year and maximize their offensive prowess, the Chargers have chosen a route that essentially hired a great chef to be their restaurant manager. I always like to say, “don’t ask your tackle to throw the football” and the Chargers will pay a heavy price for doing just for not heeding those words.