Football coaching is a volatile business. That this website, now in our 26th year, exists is proof of that fact. And in covering the volatility and instability of football coaching, occasionally it's worthwhile to chronicle the instability of the coaching business as a whole.
We've seen two such examples this week alone.
On Tuesday, the New York Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau, days removed from his team's exit in the NBA's Eastern Conference Finals. The Knicks are the NBA's version of the pre-2004 Boston Red Sox, a marquee franchise whose status of never winning the big one has become part of the charm, and Thibodeau clearly stands alone as their best coach of this century. The Knicks hadn't made the playoffs in the seven years prior to his hiring, and Thibs took them to the postseason in four of his five tries. He won playoff series in three consecutive seasons for the first time since the 1990s, and this year's Eastern Conference Finals berth was the club's first since 2000.
And beginning this fall, they'll be coached by someone else.
Then, on Friday, the Dallas Stars fired head coach Pete DeBoer. DeBoer took the Stars to the NHL's Western Conference Finals in all three seasons with the team, but in all three tries the club went no further.
That's something of DeBoer's lot in life as an NHL head coach. Dallas was the fifth NHL club he's coached, and he's taken four to the Stanley Cup Finals or the Conference Finals -- with zero championships to show for it. After taking the New Jersey Devils to the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals and the San Jose Sharks to the 2015 Finals, DeBoer has personally lost six straight conference finals with San Jose, the Vegas Golden Knights, and the Stars.
Obviously, the dynamics of firing professional coaches vs. their collegiate counterparts is quite different. It can be much more expensive -- literally and figuratively -- to hire a college coach than a pro one, especially since professional athletes are under contracts that last longer than a semester. NIL and the Portal have made college coaches less replaceable.
In each case, the Knicks and the Stars thanked their respective coaches for their service while realizing that getting to the brink of the Finals requires a different skill set than getting over the hump and lifting the trophy.
“After careful consideration, we believe that a new voice is needed in our locker room to push us closer to our goal of winning the Stanley Cup,” Stars GM Jim Nill said. “We’d like to thank Pete for everything that he has helped our organization achieve over the past three seasons and wish him nothing but the best moving forward.”
Time will tell if this week's moves lead to the hoisting of the Larry O'Brien Trophy in New York or Lord Stanley's cup in Dallas. It also won't take the sting out of the set of firings inevitably coming in November and December in college football. But it is an early summer reminder that football is far from the only sport where not even playoff success can immune coaches from the unemployment line.