Weighing in on Linehan

To the surprise of no one, the St. Louis Rams officially fired Scott Linehan today, after four straight drubbings to start the season. Defensive coordinator Jim Haslett was promoted to interim head coach, mostly because someone had to be. Haslett was head coach in New Orleans from 2000 through 2005, but his defense is giving up 36.8 points per game this year. The most viable alternative would have been offensive coordinator and former Chargers head coach Al Saunders, whose offense is scoring just 10.8 per game. Man, the Rams are bad.

To pat ourselves on the back again, we saw this coming last year. You just don't come back from 3-13 in the NFL, as Linehan had lost the respect of his players, not to mention the fans.

You can feel bad for Linehan today, even though he did a generally poor job in his two-plus years with the Rams. It's not fun to lose a job, and most of us can only imagine what it's like to be fired in such a public way. But Linehan will get himself a nice severance package, and if recent cases like Bobby Petrino, Mike Sherman, and Dave Wanntedt are any indication, he'll have some BCS-level university throwing a wad of money at him in the very near future. Before becoming offensive coordinator with the Vikings in 2002, Linehan coached at Louisville (1999-2001), Washington (1994-98), UNLV (1991), and Idaho (1989-90, 1992-93).

Stay tuned later this afternoon - Lane Kiffin might be queuing up up right behind Linehan on the firing line.