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Today's paper. Last Updated: 06/01/2012

Broncos, Seahawks Coaches Get Axed

DENVER -- Denver Broncos coach Wade Phillips and Seattle Seahawks coach Tom Flores have been fired in the wake of their teams' poor performances this season.


Phillips, whose team was unable to overcome an 0-4 start, was fired Thursday following a 7-9 season in the U.S. National Football League. Phillips, 47, lasted just two seasons as head coach of the Broncos. He was elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach on Jan. 25, 1993, when Dan Reeves was fired after 12 years as head coach.


Team owner Pat Bowlen said his decision to let Phillips go "came down to the fact that I had lost confidence in the coaching staff."


Phillips, the son of former NFL head coach Bum Phillips, led the Broncos to the playoffs as a wild-card team with a 9-7 season in 1993, losing in the first round to the Los Angeles Raiders.


In the case of Seattle coach Fores, there were too few wins, too few fans, and too many injuries.


So Flores, who coached the Raiders to a pair of U.S. National Football League championship Super Bowl victories in the 1980s, was fired as coach and general manager of the Seahawks. All of his dozen assistant coaches were dismissed, too. Flores, 57, learned of his firing by a phone call from majority owner Ken Behring on Wednesday night.


Flores, coming off a second straight 6-10 season, announced his departure Thursday after passing on the bad news to his coaches.


"It's a very fleeting profession and it's based on what have you done lately," he said. "Memories are short."


After a promising 3-1 start that included a victory over Pittsburgh, the Seahawks lost nine of their last 12 games to finish 6-10 for the second straight season.


What really spelled Flores' doom with Behring was an average of 13,532 no-shows in five Kingdome games this season.


The firings followed on the heels of Rich Kotite's dismissal as coach of the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday. New owner Jeff Lurie has met with former Eagles coach Dick Vermeil, who he says may be interested in the position, though no offer has been made.




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