‘‘He could probably win in the NFL in the right situation,’’ said ESPN analyst Bill Curry, who spent 14 years in the NFL — four as a coach.
‘‘It wasn’t fair what happened to him at Washington,’’ he said. ‘‘If you are an owner and you strip a coach of his authority right away, the coach instantly loses the respect of his players.
‘‘How does any coach do under that situation? How did the Dallas Cowboys do in the years when Jerry Jones undermined his coaches? I wasn’t there, but I bet when Bill Parcells was hired, he told Jones, ‘The first time you undermine my authority, I’m gone.’
‘‘Steve Spurrier has proven he’s a great coach. . . . But when an owner undermines a coach, it doesn’t matter what you do — you don’t have a chance to win.’’
‘‘By the end he was being someone other than Steve Spurrier,’’ said Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Chris Doering, who played for Spurrier at UF and in Washington last season. ‘‘They hired him because he was different, then they tried to make him like every other NFL coach. Snyder took away everything from him, and he ended up being just like the NFL coaches he used to mock.’’
The Skins are the ones being mocked now.
