Former Head Coach Jim Mora Feels Sorry for the Falcons

Filed under: Falcons, Seahawks, NFL Fans, NFL Coaching

If he were a lesser man, former Falcons head coach Jim Mora might look upon Atlanta’s plight as schadenfreude-tastic. After owner Arthur Blank fired him last off-season, Mora landed with the Seahawks, but he’s not one to revel in the misfortune of his former employer. At least not publicly, anyway:

The quarterback is in the clink, the Atlanta Falcons are in the cellar and the coach they hired to replace Jim Mora hightailed it out of town earlier this month. … But being fired didn’t prevent Mora from feeling some fallout from the disaster that has been Atlanta’s season. …

“I feel for those people there,” Mora said. “I made a lot of great friends in that organization and have a lot of great relationships with people there, both players and people in the front office. I feel for what they’re going through. It’s not easy.

The Falcons never lost more than seven games under Mora, and made it to the NFC Championship game in 2004. Now they are a 3-12 team one loss away from their worst season in 11 years.

Even if Mora had stayed Vick’s predicament would likely be unchanged, but you have to think Mora would’ve done a better job with the day-to-day responsibilities that go with coaching a group of young millionaire professional athletes. After watching Bobby Petrino bumble his way through at Atlanta, anybody would’ve been an improvement.

A year ago, many people thought Mora underachieved just enough to lose his job. But in retrospect, he looked like Dan Reeves compared to Petrino. Which reminds me: why did Blank fire Reeves again?

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