Old Coaches Never Die They Just Whip Your Butt

Some people out there are advocating hiring a bambino as the new Commanders Offensive Coordinator. It's the trend in the league. Hiring guys from Kindegarten. 

I remember a silver-haired coach who used to head special teams in Washington. He went on to coach four AFC Champions in the latter half of his sixties.

It isn't as if he was the only one. 

If fire in the belly counts, as Bambino Advocates allege, then surely Dante Scarnecchia, even now, could ignite a playoff run and perhaps can attest to age discrimination as a possible reason he never got a job as Head Coach.

Proponents of youth proclaim neurological decline as a key reason to avoid hiring an older gentleman as coach. Dementia leads to stagnant playcalling.

It is funny. Fight. Flight. Freeze. Happens at any age. I'm reminded of one young Jay Gruden who, according to the immortal Bruce Allen, possessed the "fire in the belly" to be an NFL Head Coach. 

And yet it was Jay who froze himself into the passing game and could not thaw himself out. He was a Bambino. He now thaws considerably as commentator on matters of the gridiron.

Gruden may well yet reverse Dick Vermeil. Vermeil came out of retirement at the youthful age of 61. He was converted to the "Greatest Show on Turf" Cult by passing game Bambino Michael Martz, then prepubescent in his 40s. 

It's a small gridiron. Vermeil, like Marv Levy, coached special teams for the youth-obsessed George Allen. Both of them went to Super Bowls. I knew we should have hired Danny Smith to be head man.

Applying the flip, I could forsee Gruden becoming a championship coach by hiring a Bambino Offensive Coordinator looking to start a running game cult.

Well, I'm obviously not anti-bambino. I'm simply saying there are older coaches who function excellently in the assistant and head coach roles.  

The decisive element is not age. It is competence.