Wannstedt's departure reflects an uneven playing field

This is what Butch Davis says of Dave Wannstedt: "He is probably one of the finest men I have ever known." It is a common feeling among those who have worked with Wannstedt. He is a prince of a man. Davis says something else, this time about Wannstedt's resignation last week: "It is a little bit of an indictment of the immediate gratification of sports in general. ... You can go from being in the playoffs to you can't win a game and yon are the biggest idiot in the country."

Under Wannstedt, the Dolphins won at least 10 games in three of the previous four seasons. That resume and his great character couldn't buy him insulation from the idiot's label. Instead, realizing he would be fired after the season, Wannstedt walked away now, trying to salvage some dignity from an autumn of embarrassment He didn't deserve this finish; he should have been judged on a level playing field, not one tilted by a bizarre employee who abandoned the team just before the start of training camp.

For coaches such as the Browns' Davis who are scratching to maintain their employment, the harsh treatment of Wannstedt is particularly troubling. It reminds them of their own insecurity in a league in which annual stories of teams rising from Clippers-like status to Lombardi contenders drive owners to seek quicker results than seems reasonable to the coaching profession. To make it even more unsettling for Davis, he spent last Sunday on the opposite sideline from Bill Cowher, a rare symbol of stability in a profession that keeps moving companies on speed dial.

Before this season, Cowher received a contract extension despite turning in a 6-10 disaster last year. But his bosses, the Rooney family, judge him not on short-term results but on long-term production, a policy Davis embraces. The wisdom of the Rooneys' thinking is reflected in the Steelers' jump to the top of the league this season. In his 13 years conducting the team, Cowher has figured out how to coach. Given the level playing field not accorded Wannstedt, Cowher more often than not will satisfy his owners.

Now, with a blessed rookie quarterback on hand, the end to Cowher's tenure could be another decade or more in coming. In the meantime, you wonder how many more good men such as Wannstedt will be sacrificed by owners with neither the wisdom nor the stability of the Rooneys.

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