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John Fox’s stunning betrayals help set up an epic Super Bowl 50

mikencP226

By mikencP226,
in Carolina Panthers

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mikencP226 Newbie

mikencP226

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Super Bowl 50 might be the most consumed sporting event of all-time.

The occasion is so huge the NFL has ditched its traditional naming system for the big game, deciding 50 was clean enough to stand on its own. It’s like when Sean Parker told Mark Zuckerberg to drop “The” from “TheFacebook.” Super Bowl 50 doesn’t need no stinkin’ roman numerals.

Arguably the best QB of all-time, Peyton Manning, will be on one side, while likely league MVP Cam Newton leads the other. Sprinkle in Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware riding with The Sheriff and guys like Josh Norman and Luke Kuechly backing SuperCam, and you don’t need me to tell you how much star power will be on the field on Sunday.

Some 120 million people on television will join the 68,500 spectators in the stands and roughly 20 coaches on each sideline (plus a slew of others who in one way or another are important enough to be on the field) in watching the Broncos and Panthers battle for ultimate glory. One coach, though, will be conspicuously absent.

A man whose name will forever be connected with both franchises won’t be anywhere to be found. John Fox is long gone from both teams. Thank goodness.

Fox stumbled around the Carolina sideline from 2002-10 and then in front of the Denver bench from 2011-14. He had a career 73-71 record with the Panthers, falling backwards into a Super Bowl-losing team in 2003 before going 55-57 the rest of his tenure there.

Rumors swirled Fox quit on the Panthers in 2010, tanking their season in protest over owner Jerry Richardson not signing enough marquee free agents or giving him a contract extension. Fox even said at the time he had been “preparing [to leave Carolina] for a couple of years” while watching the Panthers finish 2-14. It was a scummy move by Fox, but it paled in comparison to what he’d eventually pull in Denver.

For a long time, it appeared Fox was just way too conservative and not very sharp. Never did anyone realize what he’d do the week before the 2014 Divisional Playoff against the Colts; it would become the most underreported, infuriating story ever.

But first, I must digress.

The initial signs of Fox’s incompetence came in the 2012 Divisional game against the Baltimore Ravens. It was Peyton Manning’s first year in Denver and arguably the Broncos’ best team on paper during the PFM era. You know the story by now: Fox had 31 seconds, two timeouts and a kicker, Matt Prater, who could’ve hit a field goal from 55-plus yards with ease. Fox decided to kneel the ball, saying the shell-shocked Broncos were too stunned by Joe Flacco’s late-game heroics to try anything at the end of regulation. The freezing day got even colder, and the Broncos bowed out in double-OT to the eventual Super Bowl champion Ravens.

The next year, Manning came back on a mission, leading the Broncos all the way to Super Bowl XLVIII, while Fox picked out his favorite cloud shapes in the sky. The coach badly botched Super Bowl week preparation, practicing without noise (how’d that first snap go?) and then claiming afterward he had no idea the game could possibly be loud.

Players were also out of control under Fox’s watch. One member of the Broncos went right to a strip club upon his arrival in New York. Another was so inebriated that the Broncos staff literally couldn’t find him one morning. And finally, I witnessed another Broncos player with eyes redder than a fire truck fall asleep during early morning media availability, the booze wafting off him like a sophomore in college after a fraternity mixer. Fox had no control of his team and it showed during the embarrassing 43-8 beatdown at the hands of the Seahawks.

During the 2014 season in St. Louis, I watched an irate Manning chew out Fox for incredibly bad clock management at the end of the first half in a loss to the lowly Rams. Manning was incredulous that a veteran coach like Foxy couldn’t figure out when to call a timeout; a nine-year-old Madden player could’ve done a better job persevering those precious seconds.

Still, this all goes back to my gut impression of Fox: He’s simply not the sharpest tool in the shed. It’s like Brendan Dassey from Making A Murderer fame (or infamy), sometimes the not brightest people are just going to say and do the not brightest things; not all the blame can be placed on them.

But that all changed in the week after an infuriating playoff loss to the Colts in January of 2015 when I learned what Fox had pulled off. The conniving Fox had his next job essentially lined up before the Indianapolis game, and it benefitted him to lose that day.

Fox knew his coordinators, Adam Gase and Jack Del Rio, were as good as gone for other coaching gigs and that if he didn’t win the Super Bowl, he’d likely be canned by John Elway right after the season. So what did Fox do? He more or less accepted the Bears job before the game.

According to a high level Broncos source, Fox’s wife, Robin, called the team’s sponsorship folks the Friday before the game in an absolute panic. She needed to get her hands on a few thousand dollars worth of furniture trade (gift certificates) at a local establishment immediately. She knew her family was about to leave town.

Fox (or someone close to him) also leaked to his good buddy Jay Glazer the Sunday morning of the playoffs, mere hours before the loss, that he’d be canned if the Broncos didn’t win. It was Fox putting the final piece in place to make sure he looked like the victim if (when) the Broncos lost that day.

Did Fox throw the game? No. But he sure as heck knew his next job was waiting for him in Chicago if the Broncos lost. He was ready to skip town the moment the clock struck zero.

To be fair to Fox, he did deny planning his abrupt exit from Denver at his introductory press conference in Chicago, the Wednesday after the Broncos playoff loss (quick turnaround!).

“That’s not true,” Fox said. “I didn’t have any jobs lined up. I didn’t know I wasn’t going to have one, other than I heard from plenty of places [that I might be let go]. There were no guarantees. I didn’t have any guarantees. Look, it was mutual. We both agreed to part ways.”

If Fox were a cartoon character, his nose might have grown like Pinocchio after uttering that quote.

It’s one thing to be a bumbling boob, constantly messing up game management situations and letting players walk all over you. It’s quite another to do what Fox did to the Broncos. You, or maybe someone you know, spent hundreds of dollars of hard-earned cash to watch the Broncos play that day. The multi-millionaire Foxy was slimy enough to care more about getting his hands on a few thousand dollars at a furniture joint before he dipped out of town than the fans getting an honest effort.

But here’s the dirty little secret: Neither the Panthers nor the Broncos would be playing in Super Bowl 50 without John Fox.

The No. 1 pick for the Panthers after Fox tanked that 2010 season? Cam Newton. It’s safe to say Carolina would be counting down the days to SEC football right now without him. How’s that for karma, Foxy?

And as for the Broncos, does anyone really think they would have gone 12-4 with Fox at the helm this year? Pro Football Reference says their record should have been 9-7 after reviewing 2015. But after going a ridiculous 11-3 in one-score games (you know, tight games that involved key coaching decisions down the stretch, something Fox consistently proved incapable of doing), their record wound up much better than it should have been. Without Peyton Manning playing like Peyton Manning and consistently bailing Fox out, I’m not sure how anyone could see the Broncos north of 8-8 with Fox in charge this year.

No one knows how Sunday will go. But it’s clear neither the Panthers nor the Broncos, in a roundabout way, would be here without the insubordinate, turncoat that is John Fox.

Thanks for nothing, Foxy. But in a way, thanks for everything.

You’re still not invited to the winner’s parade.


http://milehighsports.com/john-foxs-stunning-betrayals-help-set-up-an-epic-super-bowl-50/#X2Dc52MvjESsQw7d.99

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NJPanthers12 Proficient

NJPanthers12

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It's completely unfair to see say Fox quit on the team in his last year. Ownership refused to extend his contract and refused to sign any free agents in preparation of the lockout. They also let arguably their best player in franchise history at the time walk away for nothing. The franchise went full shield over the team and gave Fox no shot that year.

The only thing Fox did wrong was his treatment of Clausen. He put the kid in a no win situation. He also spited the team and played St. Pierre over Clausen. This fan base has a very short term memory. Fox was a very good coach for this franchise. Got them to a Super Bowl 2 years after going 1-15. The roster wasn't in great shape when he took it over. The guy also beat the Steelers in the playoffs with The Golden Calf of Bristol. He made it to a NFC Championship game with no Keary Colbert as the number 2 WR, Nick Goings as the starting RB, and a hurt Kris Jenkins.

I know the cool thing to do is for both fan bases to bash Fox, but it's no coincidence that he's been hired immediately after he's been fired. He's a good coach.

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L-TownCat Grand Master

L-TownCat

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25 minutes ago, NJPanthers12 said:

It's completely unfair to see say Fox quit on the team in his last year. Ownership refused to extend his contract and refused to sign any free agents in preparation of the lockout. They also let arguably their best player in franchise history at the time walk away for nothing. The franchise went full shield over the team and gave Fox no shot that year.

The only thing Fox did wrong was his treatment of Clausen. He put the kid in a no win situation. He also spited the team and played St. Pierre over Clausen. This fan base has a very short term memory. Fox was a very good coach for this franchise. Got them to a Super Bowl 2 years after going 1-15. The roster wasn't in great shape when he took it over. The guy also beat the Steelers in the playoffs with The Golden Calf of Bristol. He made it to a NFC Championship game with no Keary Colbert as the number 2 WR, Nick Goings as the starting RB, and a hurt Kris Jenkins.

I know the cool thing to do is for both fan bases to bash Fox, but it's no coincidence that he's been hired immediately after he's been fired. He's a good coach.

It is fair.  It is true.  Fox wanted out and was spiteful about it.  

Not that I care all that much.  He was a buffoon on the sidelines camel chewing that gum and clapping after turnovers.

Bad pressers, poor player management and even worse player development.

All in all, Fox just sucked.  He fooled us for years until the curtain was pulled back.

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NanuqoftheNorth Grand Master

NanuqoftheNorth

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I'm not the biggest fan of Fox for his ultra conservative approach, but anyone that hired him after his time at Carolina should have known what they were getting in that regard.

Manning/Fox is like vinegar and oil when it comes to offensive philosophies.

Not sure how much say Fox had when it came to selecting personnel, but that seemed to be his Achilles heel here in Panther land.  Never had the depth or diversity of talent overcome key injuries.  

A Fox/Gettleman combo might not have been as successful as the Rivera/Gettleman combo for numerous reasons however I suspect Carolina would have had several more winning seasons with that combo than they managed during the Fox/Hurney era. 

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Nicbsbll2 Newbie

Nicbsbll2

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23 minutes ago, NJPanthers12 said:

It's completely unfair to see say Fox quit on the team in his last year. Ownership refused to extend his contract and refused to sign any free agents in preparation of the lockout. They also let arguably their best player in franchise history at the time walk away for nothing. The franchise went full shield over the team and gave Fox no shot that year.

The only thing Fox did wrong was his treatment of Clausen. He put the kid in a no win situation. He also spited the team and played St. Pierre over Clausen. This fan base has a very short term memory. Fox was a very good coach for this franchise. Got them to a Super Bowl 2 years after going 1-15. The roster wasn't in great shape when he took it over. The guy also beat the Steelers in the playoffs with The Golden Calf of Bristol. He made it to a NFC Championship game with no Keary Colbert as the number 2 WR, Nick Goings as the starting RB, and a hurt Kris Jenkins.

I know the cool thing to do is for both fan bases to bash Fox, but it's no coincidence that he's been hired immediately after he's been fired. He's a good coach.

"Ask the personnel department" 

Fox absolutely quit on our team. He was pissed off that he didn't get a contract extension so he tried to make the team pay out of spite. Yeah, they didn't give him much to work with, but he didn't try to get the team ready and blamed all of his failures on "the personnel department."

Outside of his first few seasons here he was a .500 coach; nothing more and nothing less. As for winning in the playoffs with The Golden Calf of Bristol, does anyone remember how long he held out before he put him in? He waited until the season was seemingly lost. He just got lucky that their division was garbage and that The Golden Calf of Bristol had an even bigger horseshoe than Russell Wilson's stuck up his ass.

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