Jim Fassel fell on his sword near the end of the 2003 season — his seventh with the Giants — when he went into his bosses’ office and asked to be fired. They were going to do it anyway, and he knew it. So he figured: “Why wait?”
 
After all, at the time he figured he wouldn’t be unemployed for long. He was a coach who had led a team to a Super Bowl, and on the open market that was rare. He had a reputation for having a brilliant offensive mind, for being a mastermind when it came to working with quarterbacks. He had a 58-53-1 overall record as a head coach.

Heck, he even won the NFC East in 1997 with quarterback Danny Kanell.
 
That Fassel still has not found another head coaching job five years later is a mystery and a shame, given some of the unqualified unknowns and recycled has-beens that have often been given jobs around the NFL. You think he might have had a little more success with an NFL team than Rod Marinelli, Scott Linehan or Lane Kiffin? How about Norv Turner, Wade Phillips, Nick Saban, Cam Cameron, Bobby Petrino, Brad Childress or Herm Edwards?
 
All of them have gotten or held jobs since Fassel last walked out of Giants Stadium. And all that means to me is that 10 NFL teams made a big mistake.
 
The reason for Fassel’s long absence from the head coaching ranks is not completely clear. Surely it didn’t help that he wasn’t able to leave the Giants on a positive note (They were 4-12 in his final season thanks mostly to a long list of injuries). Then again, few coaches ever do. It didn’t help his cause that Tom Coughlin took over the Giants like a bat out of hell the following year, talking about discipline and making it sound like Fassel had been the cruise director on a sinking party boat.

The Super Bowl didn’t help either — an embarrassing, blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV that left even members of his own organization feeling the team was ill-prepared. But those who said “Can’t win the big one” about him overlooked the 41-0 hammering the Giants put on the Minnesota Vikings two weeks earlier in the NFC championship game.
 
Regardless, a trunk full of baggage hadn’t stopped previous head coaches from being recycled. And Fassel even tried to do things the right way, by going back to the coordinator ranks to work with his friend, Brian Billick, in Baltimore (though that didn’t end well either). Now he stays around the game as an analyst for Westwood One radio.
 
And still he waits, hoping that someone, somewhere remembers how good he was. He’s interviewed twice with the Redskins, once with the Bills and drawn seemingly endless interest from the Raiders during his years of waiting for the phone to ring. And now he’s so desperate to get back into the game that he might be the only person on the planet still interested in the Raiders’ job.
 
That is the latest report, that he wrote a letter to Raiders owner Al Davis letting him know he was interested and available — something Fassel didn’t deny during an appearance on Sirius NFL radio’s The Opening Drive.

“I can honestly say this and I mean this with all sincerity,” Fassel said. “I know Al Davis. I’ve talked to him at different times and I’ve worked for him and I can honestly say the year I was there (as quarterbacks coach in 1995) he never interfered with me one time. He treated me great. He paid me really good money. So I don’t have the same problem that, maybe, other people do. I’m just going to see what jobs open up and who is interested in me and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”
 
After five years of waiting, Fassel is used to it not working. He sounds like a man who doesn’t bother getting his hopes up anymore.
 
“I really don’t know what’s going on and really I’ve kind of tried to not figure it out anymore,” Fassel said. “I enjoy what I’m doing and if somebody says we want to go hire a veteran coach [who’s] got a winning record and all that, fine.”

The Raiders should give it some thought if they want to restore some of their long-lost credibility. And if they don’t, someone else should. Fassel had too much success to be out of the NFL this long. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s time for his wait to end.

Ralph Vacchiano is the author of Eli Manning: The Making of a Quarterback, which is available for purchase here.

Del.icio.us | Digg it | Athlon Sports RSS Feeds