FanHouse Jim Fassel

If there are two phrases/names/things that are relevant to all things important in the world's culture right now, it's pretty obviously: "J.P. Losman" and "United Football League." No, no. Seriously. That's because today, Losman transplanted Tim Rattay as the most relevant non-ex-felon to potentially hop to the new league.

But, all sarcasm aside, this is kind of a big deal from a football fan's perspective simply because Losman is a pretty huge name when it comes to the UFL. Again. Seriously.

On Tuesday we noted a report that former Stanford, Notre Dame and Washington head coach Tyrone Willingham had accepted a new job as an assistant coach in the upstart United Football League. But now it appears that Willingham won't be a UFL assistant after all.

In 2001, Jim Fassel led the Giants to the Super Bowl. He was fired three years later, eventually found his way to Baltimore, and served as the Ravens' offensive coordinator until Brian Billick canned him during the team's bye week.

That was two seasons ago. Fassel has been out of football since, though not from lack of effort. He was in the running for the 'Skins job last spring, and even sent Al Davis a handwritten letter about the Raiders' gig. Oh, and he also blamed bloggers for his plight. But that, as they say, is all water under the bridge.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Fassel's back. Sort of.

The St. Louis Rams will have a new head football coach in 2009, as interim coach Jim Haslett has been notified he is no longer a candidate for the full-time gig. Though he was said to have interviewed well for the job, I can't see how this is much of a surprise. He went 2-10 after taking over for Scott Linehan, including 10 consecutive losses to end the season.

Delving through the extraneous information (and the egregious typo in the title) in the article, it would seem Leslie Frazier is the front-runner, though Steve Spagnuolo is reportedly close to Frazier on the Rams' wish list. Other candidates presumed to still be in the mix are Rex Ryan, Jason Garrett, and Jim Fassel.

Apparently Clinton Portis isn't the only person fed up with first-year head coach Jim Zorn. Redskins fans have had enough, too, it seems. So, naturally, with three games left in the season and Washington, after a 6-2 start, now staring at 7-6 and very slim playoff hopes, the discussion has turned to ... who should replace Zorn.

Makes sense.

The DC Examiner's Rick Snider writes that Zorn "may be vying for his job over the final three games," which, frankly, sounds like a huge stretch, although owner Dan Snyder has a history of impetuousness.

Earlier this week, Ryan Wilson passed along the information that former New York Giants head coach, Jim Fassel, was in such dire need to get back into coaching that he would be willing to take on the task of leading the Oakland Raiders. He even, reportedly, wrote Al Davis a hand-written letter expressing his desire to coach the silver and black.

Frankly, if there's any truth to that report, Davis should probably strike while the iron is hot and hire somebody, anybody, that is willing to work for him. If he doesn't, Fassel has another potential option, one that's familiar to guys who can't find work in the National Football League.

Canada.

I can't envision a situation where someone of sound mind would agree to take the Raiders' head coaching gig, given what's happened since owner Al Davis fired Bill Callahan in 2003. We've seen Norv Turner, Art Shell, Lane Kiffin and now Tom Cable amass 17 wins in four-plus seasons. Staggering.

So maybe Oakland's best hope is to find an eager, young, bright football mind, someone who would use the opportunity to get some experience, while changing the culture of losing in the process. You know, somebody like, say, Lane Kiffin.

Or maybe not. The New York Daily News' Gary Myers has a suggestion:

Former Giants coach Jim Fassel fits the profile to be the Raiders' next head coach: He wants to coach again. After the Lane Kiffin disaster, Al Davis is not going to hire another coach barely out of diapers. The hot assistants are not going to want that land mine as their first NFL head coaching job. So that leaves the recycled coaches.

Myers points out that Fassel lost out to Herm Edwards in Kansas City, Scott Linehan in St. Louis and Kiffin in Oakland, which raises more questions than it answers, I think. Fassel, who took the Giants to the Super Bowl in 2000, couldn't beat out three guys who have subsequently run their respective teams into the ground, and two of them have already been fired?

Four days later and Jim Zorn is still head coach of the Washington Redskins. Since owner Dan Snyder announced the hire on Saturday night, we've had Zorn express his love for the maroon and black, a rejected Jim Fassel blame his bad fortune on the Ravens and bloggers (although he loves Snyder -- see above), and the realization that quarterback Jason Campbell will be learning his seventh offense in eight years.

Whatever, I'll admit the Zorn hire was out of nowhere, but after getting over the initial shock of it all, most of the reviews have been glowing. But the Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg unearths a few less-than-rosy takes on the new Redskins coach. The San Jose Mercury News' Tim Kawakami gets the ball rolling calling Zorn the "worst hire ever. Worse than Art Shell..."

Zorn had never been a coordinator until Snyder plucked him from the QB-coaching ranks to be the Redskins' coordinator a few weeks ago.

Worse: Nobody in the NFL had ever thought that Zorn should be considered as a coordinator–a coordinator!–until Snyder and his pal Vinny Cerrato came up with that idea....

So why didn't Jim Fassel, who had long been labeled the front runner, get the Washington Redskins head-coaching job? According to Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post's DC Sports Bog, he blamed bloggers in a radio interview today:

Because you've got bloggers, and they're saying, 'No, this isn't the right guy, and that ain't the right guy,' and you can't hold the lead, because you are going to take the hit. I mean, when you're the lead dog, you're going to take the hit. And I think the longer it went, the longer it went, the longer it went....

Unlike the bloggers Steinberg mentions -- Mister Irrelevant, Unsilent Majority, Hogs Haven, and the Curly R -- I like Fassel, think he was an above-average coach with the Giants and would like to see him get another head-coaching job. But if Fassel is saying he didn't get the Redskins job because Redskins owner Dan Snyder didn't want to anger Redskins bloggers, what he's really saying is that Snyder is an idiot. And no matter what Fassel is saying, if he has the problem with the way the Redskins' coaching search was handled, his real problem is with Snyder. But he won't say anything about Snyder because bloggers are a lot easier to criticize than billionaires.

Redskins fans are finally coming to grips with the team's new head coach, Jim Zorn. Not so much because nobody wanted him, but because nobody saw the hire coming. Whatever, the reviews are mostly good, even though Zorn has never been a coordinator or called plays before getting this gig.

One issue, though, is what this all means for quarterback Jason Campbell. Then-head coach Joe Gibbs traded back into the first round to grab Campbell in 2005, and after a year and a half learning by watching, the former Auburn star became Washington's starter midway through the 2006 season.

But here's the thing: with the latest coaching changes, Campbell will be learning his seventh offense in eight years, dating back to his college days. Seventh. Eight. That's a lot.

Campbell has flashed his big-play ability at various points in the last two seasons, but he's also been inconsistent. Not all that surprising given his inexperience and the fact that his last coordinator, Al Saunders, had a 700-page playbook. I'll assume Zorn's pithier than Saunders, but that doesn't necessarily make his offense any less complex: