FanHouse JimMora

NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament. Because we have nothing better to do than predict what might happen if head coaches started punching each other in the face.

Consider this hypothetical: what if two coaches met in a dark alley and threw down in a no-holds-barred brawl? Who would emerge victorious?

First, some background: back when I was in high school, when my friends and I were pretty creative in finding ways to avoid actually paying attention in class, we'd create brackets (think NCAA Tournament) where we'd pit our teachers against each other**. Whoever we thought would win in a fight advanced to the next round. It always ended with our offensive line coach against our wrestling coach in the finals and a huge argument as to who would come out on top.

Anyway, last week, the Back Porch staff somehow ended up discussing whether Rex Ryan or Tom Cable would win in a old school playground scrap. I passed along the above information, and shortly after that, an idea was born -- NFL Coaches Fight Club: the Tournament.

When a video goes "viral" it circulates wildly around the internet. And today's special is DJ Steve Porter's remix of a slew of different sports rants. Via Kissing Suzy Kolber, it basically hinges on Allen Iverson's "Practice" rant while mixing in Jim Mora's "Playoffs!" freak, slicing some Terrell Owens into the fold and even including a little Mike Gundy and Joe Namath, although not together. It's freaking beautiful, too, people. Holy meme.

T.J. Houshmandzadeh finally made his free agency choice today, taking the Seattle Seahawks up on their offer to pay him $40 million ($15 million guaranteed) over five years.

From a football perspective, Housh's decision is huge: the Seahawks are immediately made better while the Bengals, well, hey, at least they're the Bengals. From a fantasy perspective though, this makes things extremely interesting.

The Seattle Seahawks have signed T.J. Houshmandzadeh, according to numerous sources and confirmed by ESPN's Michael Smith on SportsCenter a few moments ago.

Smith reports that while the Minnesota Vikings put the "full court press" on Houshmandzadeh, in the end he simply couldn't turn down what is apparently a five-year, $40 million ($15 guaranteed no less) contract from the Seahawks for the 31-year-old wide receiver.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

Mike Holmgren has long been one of the primary identities of the Seattle Seahawks. He took them to the Super Bowl and made them a perennial winner of the NFC West. Then last year happened. As Holmgren's retirement tour rolled along, more and more injuries piled up, Seneca Wallace had to start at quarterback for a few games, and the Seahawks stumbled to a 4-12 record.

The coaching transition in Seattle hasn't garnered much attention around the NFL this off-season, with coaching changes in places like Denver and New York making headlines while the media mostly overlooks the departure of Mike Holmgren.

The reason for that, of course, is that we've all known since last year that Jim Mora Jr. would take over for Holmgren after the season. But just because everyone in Seattle knew this change was coming, that doesn't mean there's no news coming out of Seahawks headquarters.

Adam Schefter of NFL Network reports that Seattle requested permission today to interview Patriots special teams coach Brad Seely, who could replace the Seahawks' current special teams coach, Bruce DeHaven.

And in a sign that Mora would like his defense to model the Tampa 2 system that Buccaneers defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin has employed over the last decade, Schefter reports that the Seahawks are also interviewing Buccaneers linebackers coach Gus Bradley and former Lions head coach Rod Marinelli.

What it all adds up to is that just because Mora was the top lieutenant on Holmgren's staff, that doesn't mean Mora is going to do things the same way Holmgren did. And really, why should he? With the Seahawks coming off a 4-12 season, they need more changes than just a new head coach.

Give the Washington Huskies this: they're at least determined. (Or, "delusional", as some of us NC State fans have learned the word actually means when it pertains to a coaching search.) First they've been rebuffed by Jim Mora and then reportedly by Will Muschamp, both gentlemen who did not actually take another real job.

And now, the seemingly incredulous rumor that Les Miles might be interested in this job has somehow surfaced.

A year after heavy speculation surrounding Les Miles and a possible departure to Michigan eventually resulted in Louisiana State University negotiating a new deal for its head coach, Miles is back in the rumor mill again. The Seattle Times is reporting that Miles may be a candidate at the University of Washington.

The Times more or less simply mentions the possibility, but still, let's be rational here, people. Miles turned down a chance to coach at Michigan -- his alma mater -- and to make more money than the Big Guy upstairs; he did this knowing that if he stayed in LSU, he would still always be under the Saban-scope and that he have to play in the SEC every year instead of the cupcake Big 10.

So why on Earth would the guy bounce for Washington -- even if some LSU fans are getting a bit testy with him -- the year after he won a championship? Exactly. Let's settle down on this one before it gets started then.

The Rooney Rule is well-intentioned.

It's designed to assure that minority coaching candidates get their fair shot at jobs. It's a jab at the "good ol' boy" network, as you can't just hire some random retread who has a .450 win percentage but led a team to a 9-7 season once. Well, you can hire that guy, but not before you go through an actual interview process.

Anyway, the St. Louis Rams tried to -- in essence -- sneak past the Rooney Rule. They fired Scott Linehan, named defensive coordinator Jim Haslett the interim coach, and then gave Haslett a contract that calls for him to be named the full-time head coach automatically if he leads the Rams to six wins.

PFT reported that this provision caused Dan Rooney, owner of the Steelers and namesake of the rule, to lob a phone call to the league office.

Now, CBSSports.com's Pete Prisco (via PFT) reports the league has voided Haslett's contract.