In the NFL today, it's win now or pack your bags

The job advertisement would read something like this: Wanted: Strong leadership ability, strategic savvy, people skills and intestinal fortitude. Fame, fortune and prestige guaranteed...if you produce a winning product immediately. Otherwise, pack your bags.

Many NFL teams dropped their head coaches like bad habits at the end of this season, as seven clubs sent their head honchos riding off into the sunset after less-than-satisfactory season results.

Some, like former Oakland Raiders coach Bill Callahan, fell from playoff glory to the depths of the division cellar in just a few short months. Others, like ousted Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Reeves, struggled with injuries to key players that cost wins and fan support. When things go wrong in the NFL, head coaches are often the first item on the "Things to Change" list.

The bottom line is that the seven head coaches who lost their jobs failed to live up to expectations. Along with Callahan and Reeves, the Washington Redskins and Steve Spurrier, New York Giants and Jim Fassel, Arizona Cardinals and Dave McGinnis, Buffalo Bills and Gregg Williams, and Chicago Bears and Dick Jauron all went their separate ways.

Though this mass exodus from the coaching ranks is larger than in most previous years, the trend of getting rid of coaches after very few seasons is becoming more and more apparent. Of all NFL teams, only five have coaches who have been at the helm of the same team for five or more seasons. The Indianapolis Colts have had 15 coaches since 1970, giving each skipper an average of 2.26 years in charge.

The message is clear: win now, or get out.

Explanations for this deviance from the traditional dynastic coaches like Vince Lombardi are often attributed to several factors. Free agency is one, while the immediate success of expansion teams like the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars is another. When the Panthers and Jaguars made it to their respective conference title games in just their second seasons in 1996, teams realized that success does not necessarily have to take time. Why plant grass seeds that have to take hold and grow when you can sod the lawn and have a finished product faster?

Coaches are being recycled like last week's Daily as job tenures shrink and more positions become available. Dallas Cowboys head coach Bill Parcels is now with his fourth club after officially retiring. Reeves was fired from the Denver Broncos only to be picked up by Atlanta, then be fired again.

With so many jobs opening up so frequently, the NFL and NCAA have traded coaches in hopes that success in one sphere will equate to success in the other. However, this has often proved unsuccessful as the two games have many fundamental differences. Spurrier relocated from his beloved Florida to coach in Washington, only to fail miserably. USC coach Pete Carroll was a loser in the pros, but led his Trojans to the collegiate national championship.

What, then, will be Callahan's fate as he leaves the Black Hole in Oakland for the Hole that is Lincoln, Nebraska? West Coast offense in the running heartland? This could be interesting, but inevitably it will not work out.

Though a coach contributes many key elements to the team- leadership, discipline, and brains -- the pressure for glory falls too heavily on his hands. Organizations should realize that, like Rome, success is not built in one day. If this trend of firing, hiring and recycling continues to worsen, the NFL will be left with little more than disillusioned, nail-biting coaches going to extreme measures just to keep their jobs.

It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it. Good luck to the next wave of coaches and see you next year, in the unemployment line.