Sorry folks, nothing to see here.
That’s what Hall-of-Fame head coach Bill Cowher wants you to think.
Cowher responded to rumors linking him to the head coaching job with the New York Jets. Per ESPN:
“I have no interest in coaching,” Cowher said in a phone interview with ESPN. “I have too much respect for the coaching profession to talk about a job that isn’t open,” he said. “From that perspective, any job that is open, I have no interest in coaching.”
One week ago, Cowher’s name was buzzing, thanks to former New York Jets quarterback and current WFAN/CBS Sports NFL analyst Boomer Esiason, who named Cowher as a possible replacement for current Jets head coach Adam Gase. Per Pro Football Talk:
“All I know is that yesterday, [Cowher] was showing me and Nate [Burleson] film of him coaching on the sideline where he was mic’ed up, and we looked at each other like, ‘Hmm, what does that mean?’” Esiason said. “Is he sending a message? I’ve worked with him for 14 years and I’ve never seen that. …He was saying to me yesterday, he’s the one that told me the Jets job is going to be really attractive, and they could hire whomever they want, and he told me he loves [G.M.] Joe Douglas,” Esiason said of Cowher.
However NBC Sports’ Peter King believes Cowher won’t be returning to the sidelines.
I think I’m dubious at all the buzz that Bill Cowher might be interested in coming off the CBS set and out of retirement to coach the Jets. … I talked to Cowher for an hour in October—mostly about the Browns-Steelers rivalry but some about life—and got the strong impression that he was not going to coach again. He doesn’t want to abandon the New York life he’s settled into, happily.
Cowher retired in 2006 after 15 seasons as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a run which saw him win Super Bowl XL.
On the flip side, Gase is a dead man walking as head coach of the 0-13 Jets, who lost, 40-3, Sunday to the Seattle Seahawks.
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