When the Indianapolis Colts fired Frank Reich earlier this season and replaced him with Jeff Saturday, who had never coached a game in his life, there were a lot of public condemnations of the move. According to one NFL insider, there are still a lot of people behind the scenes upset over the situation.
“Coaching community was pretty disgusted by how Irsay handled the Reich firing/Saturday hiring,” wrote NFL insider Jason La Canfora in a tweet on Sunday night. “They’ll keep rubbing his nose in it every chance they get. Took a month for Colts to become an embarrassing trainwreck.”
Coaching community was pretty disgusted by how Irsay handled the Reich firing/Saturday hiring. They'll keep rubbing his nose in it every chance they get. Took a month for Colts to become an embarrassing trainwreck
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) December 5, 2022
The tweet came in the wake of Indianapolis’s embarrassing performance against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night. The Cowboys won 54-19, outscoring the Colts by a whopping 33-0 in the final quarter.
Given the way that owner Jim Irsay handled the Saturday hiring, shaming critics of the move and scoffing at the notion that there was something off about hiring an unproven white guy as interim head coach when many experience coaches from diverse backgrounds were available, critics are more than happy to pounce on him and the franchise with every bad game that Saturday oversees.
Given the extensive clock issues and the absolute drubbing the Colts took this weekend, it’s hard to imagine that Saturday’s tenure as interim coach will be viewed well when it’s over. And the NFL coaching community will probably remember. Just ask Nick Sirianni.
