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<blog-post>
  <updated-at type="datetime">2009-07-28T10:27:32-04:00</updated-at>
  <intro nil="true"></intro>
  <title>Recent failure in Denver catches up to Shanahan</title>
  <published-at type="datetime">2008-12-30T18:28:47-05:00</published-at>
  <comments-count type="integer">137</comments-count>
  <created-at type="datetime">2008-12-30T18:28:47-05:00</created-at>
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      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2009-01-01T10:46:24-05:00</created-at>
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          <state>OH</state>
          <display-name>Kiwiaudio</display-name>
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        <body>Maybe it was time, but you've got to ask your self - who is better? Who can we get that will do as good as, or a better job than Mike Shanahan? On that mighty short list, whose available ?

This was an enormous mistake and it makes this Broncos Fan Sick !
The D needed rebuilt - Thats it !</body>
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      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-12-31T13:09:46-05:00</created-at>
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          <state>CO</state>
          <display-name>hdrider</display-name>
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        <body>I've been waiting for this since Elway retired; NOW, I can root for the Broncos!!</body>
        <id type="integer">3824469</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
          <created-at>2008-12-31T09:19:36-05:00</created-at>
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            <display-name>COLONIAL 1</display-name>
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          <body>Crazy! These impatient, spoilt brat owners know nothing about football or how a team is built. With them it's just a matter of &amp;quot;I want my superbowl NOW! NOW NOW!.&amp;quot; Just crazy! The BRONCOS need to take a page out of the STEELERS book.  Three coaches in their entire history; yet they have four superbowl wins! What the hell did the man do to deserve that? Crazy! And that's coming from a RAIDERS fan!</body>
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        <created-at>2008-12-31T12:54:14-05:00</created-at>
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          <display-name>86Buffs</display-name>
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        <quoted-text>Crazy! These impatient, spoilt brat owners know nothing about football or how a team is built. With them it's just a matter of &quot;I want my superbowl NOW! NOW NOW!.&quot; Just crazy! The BRONCOS need to take a page out of the STEELERS book. Three coaches in their entire history; yet they have four superbowl wins! What the hell did the man do to deserve that? Crazy! And that's coming from a RAIDERS fan!</quoted-text>
        <commentable-sequence type="integer">138</commentable-sequence>
        <body>LOL - impatient owner???  &amp;quot;What did he do to deserve that?&amp;quot;  Did you just wake up from a 10 year coma or is this Al Davis?  Shanahan has been Denver's coach for 14 years.  Shanahan has fired 4 Defensive Coordinators in 4 years.  Who has the revolving door going - Bowlen or Shanahan.  Shanahan is a great offensive coach.  Unfortunately his role with the Broncos has evolved from Head Coach to include all GM duties as well and that is where the problem lies.  He has made poor decisions on player personnel on the defensive side for years and years with poor free agent signings and poor draft picks.  As much as I liked him as a coach, a change needed to be made in the organization and I doubt he was willing to give up his player personnel powers.</body>
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      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-12-31T12:39:52-05:00</created-at>
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        <body>I'm a lifelong Broncos fan and although it was hard for me to say, it was time for Shanahan to move on.  The Broncos had become mediocre/average at best and the organization has always strived for excellence.  The defense has been just atrocious recently.  I also didn't like the reported coziness between Shanahan and ownership...employees should have some degree of fear from their bosses to maximize their focus and performance.</body>
        <id type="integer">3823977</id>
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      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-12-31T12:31:21-05:00</created-at>
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          <state>MI</state>
          <display-name>spebsqsa55</display-name>
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        <body>Smithtown31:

Shanahan grew up close to a chemical factory in the Chicago area, and went to blue collar East Leyden High School in Franklin Park. Shanahan is about as &amp;quot;West Coast&amp;quot; as the Sopranos. Frankling Park was about 50% Italian at the time. The New York fans would love him.</body>
        <id type="integer">3823836</id>
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      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-12-31T12:30:42-05:00</created-at>
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        <body>Smithtown31:

Shanahan grew up close to a chemical factory in the Chicago area, and went to blue collar East Leyden High School in Franklin Park. Shanahan is about as &amp;quot;West Coast&amp;quot; as the Sopranos. Frankling Park was about 50% Italian at the time. The New York fans would love him.</body>
        <id type="integer">3823794</id>
      </comment>
      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-12-31T12:18:22-05:00</created-at>
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        <body>Is it just me or are a lot of Offensive Coordinators turned coaches not doing well in the NFL. You look at some of the top teams Patriots-Belicheck (Def Coordinator), Pittsburgh-Mike Tomlin (Def Coodinator), Baltimore-John Harbaugh, Indy-Tony Dungy, Tennessee-Jeff Fisher and the coaches that are offensive coordinators and are doing well pretty much have the best Def Coordinators in the game (NYGiants-Tom Coughlin has Steve Spagnuolo, Philadelphia Eagles-Andy Reid has Jim Johnson, etc). The point is why not get a head coach that is a up and coming defensive mind and have him get a O. Coordinator. If I was building a team that is how I would start it.</body>
        <id type="integer">3823628</id>
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      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-12-31T11:58:21-05:00</created-at>
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          <display-name>yankee7</display-name>
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        <body>To paraphrase: Control corrupts; absolute control corrupts absolutely. Shanhan -- as almost all NFL coaches -- is a control freak. He got his wish, and his eventual undoing, when he was named GM AND Coach. That's where he went wrong. If he'd had a GM to make personnel decisions for him, he would've gotten the defensive talent that he had no clue about getting on his own. He probably could've remained as coach if he gave up the GM duties but Bowlen knew he wouldn't. I think his best path right now owuld be to become the OC somewhere for a couple of years to allow the Bronco Orange to leave his system and to get a little humility and perspective. I hope and pray that the Jets don't hire him.</body>
        <id type="integer">3823187</id>
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      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-12-31T11:48:45-05:00</created-at>
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          <display-name>Miguel.Martinez505</display-name>
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        <body>Why not bring Shanahan to Oakland  =)  Imagine? Lol  That would be tight though, I must say.  If I were him, I'd take that O Coordinator job in SF just to have a year or 2 off from being a Head Coach &amp;amp; turn help turn around that team that looks to be on the up &amp;amp; up.  But I would much rather have him coach the Raiders.  That would REALLY stick it to the Donkeys.  But wish in one hand &amp;amp; **** in the other, right?</body>
        <id type="integer">3823007</id>
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      <comment>
        <quotable>
        </quotable>
        <created-at>2008-12-31T11:45:30-05:00</created-at>
        <user>
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          <state>CT</state>
          <display-name>tcabroncos7</display-name>
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        <body>I agree it was Shannahans time to go Cutler is a high level QB and to tell me he hasnt made the playoffs for 3 years that is rediculous Cutler is definately a playoff QB he nearly brought that team to the playoffs by himself</body>
        <id type="integer">3822966</id>
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  <body>&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;photo_container image_center&quot;&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;photo&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://img.fannation.com/upload/si_blog_post_images/shanahan-cutler.jpg&quot; alt=&quot;Shanahan-cutler&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;photo_attributes&quot; style=&quot;text-align:right;&quot;&gt;Mike Shanahan's Broncos never made the playoffs with Jay Cutler as the starting quarterback. (&lt;em&gt;Getty Images&lt;/em&gt;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;By Don Banks, SI.com&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I guess even Teflon has an expiration date. As recently &lt;a href=&quot;/2008/writers/don_banks/12/29/coaches/index.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;as Monday&lt;/a&gt; I had marveled how nothing ever seems to stick to Denver head coach &lt;strong&gt;Mike Shanahan&lt;/strong&gt;, despite his team&amp;rsquo;s glaring failures in recent seasons.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But even Shanahan, the second longest tenured head coach in the NFL, couldn&amp;rsquo;t avoid accountability for the Broncos&amp;rsquo; latest collapse. His back-to-back Super Bowl wins in Denver now 10 years old and providing him cover no longer, the Broncos made the surprise move of the NFL firing season so far by dismissing Shanahan on Tuesday afternoon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was not without cause. There was this year&amp;rsquo;s historic squandering of a three-game AFC West lead with three games to play, and much more. The Broncos haven&amp;rsquo;t made the playoffs the past three seasons, and own just one postseason win in the 10 years since quarterback &lt;strong&gt;John Elway&lt;/strong&gt; retired (a 2005 AFC Divisional round defeat of New England).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the past four seasons alone, Denver wasted a shot at the Super Bowl by losing at home in the AFC Championship Game to the underdog and sixth-seeded Steelers in 2005, lost in Week 17 at home against a sub-.500 49ers team to blow a trip to the 2006 playoffs, and this year somehow managed to avoid the playoffs despite holding a three-game lead over second-place San Diego with three weeks to go.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nine winning seasons, seven playoff berths and three conference championships in 14 years certainly sounds impressive, but the reality is that Shanahan never remotely approached the same level of success with any of the other quarterbacks who followed Elway after their four-year stint together.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not &lt;strong&gt;Brian Griese&lt;/strong&gt;, who the Broncos lavished with a huge contract and then parted ways with shortly thereafter. Not the erratic &lt;strong&gt;Jake Plummer&lt;/strong&gt;, who Shanahan acquired from Arizona and then gave up on following his AFC title game loss to Pittsburgh. And not &lt;strong&gt;Jay Cutler&lt;/strong&gt;, the current Denver quarterback and 2006 first-round pick who has both tantalized and tormented the longtime Broncos coach with his own inconsistent ways.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For most of the past 10 years, the Broncos have been NFL enigmas, capable of playing great for short spurts of almost every season, but never again finding the personnel combination and chemistry that served to bring them their only two NFL championships in 1997-98. And the blame for that has finally landed on the shoulders of Shanahan, who has always been pretty much a one-man show in Denver, calling almost every shot.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This time, the defeats finally caught up to him. In the NFL, no one is Teflon forever.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;margin: 0in 0in 0pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: 14pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</body>
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    <state>NY</state>
    <display-name>The SI Staff</display-name>
    <city>New York City</city>
    <id type="integer">21244</id>
  </blogger>
</blog-post>
