Jacksonville Jaguars Flight Home with Fired Coach Gus Bradley ‘Sucked’
Firing an NFL head coach is never an easy decision; however, few people were surprised when Jacksonville Jaguars coach Gus Bradley was let go after losing to the Houston Texans for their ninth straight L this season. With a 14-48 record over the past four seasons, Bradley had to go.
Owner Shad Khan could have probably timed it a little better, though. The firing was announced right after the loss, which would have been fine if it was a home game.
“I thought it would be best to do it immediately after today’s results so Gus can step away, relax, and regroup with his family during the Christmas and holiday season,” said Khan.
The only problem is, the players and the rest of the coaches had to fly home when the freshly-fired Bradley.
Yeah, that sucked,” said Jags defensive tackle Sen’Derrick Marks when asked about the flight home. “If I had an opinion on if I thought that was the right move, I don’t think that was the right way to do it. He had to ride the plane home back that way, but that ain’t my call. They did it. They made the move. Gus was very cordial about it. Spoke with everybody. Came through the plane shaking hands and just talking with people. Gus has always been a great person in that aspect, but I don’t think we as players were in the mood or were ready to actually see that at that moment.”
Flights home after a big loss (especially a divisional loss when leading 13-0 at one point in the game) have a tendency to be pretty awkward. There’s usually not much conversation to begin with. Add a dead man walking in Gus Bradley trying to stir up some dialogue on an already-awkward subject, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Fortunately for Marks and the rest of the Jaguars roster, the flight from Houston to Jacksonville only lasted about two hours. At least they weren’t coming from San Francisco—although, if they were, they probably would have won.