PinnacleSports.com Posts NFL Coaching Odds

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- With the 2005 NFL season beginning next week, every franchise enters the regular season on equal footing with high expectations and Super Bowl dreams. Once some teams fail to meet pre-season aspirations of their owners and fans, several NFL coaches will inevitably find themselves on "the hot seat" with members of the media calling for their jobs. With job security for professional coaches at an all-time low, PinnacleSports.com today announced odds on which current NFL head coach will be the first to be fired or resign from his position this year.

The largest sports betting site on the Internet, PinnacleSports.com has calculated odds on all 32 NFL head coaches becoming the first coaching casualty this season. New Orleans' head coach Jim Haslett has opened as the favorite to be the first coach to get his walking papers at 7/1 odds after not receiving a contract extension from New Orleans in the off-season. Despite guiding his team to a playoff victory last year, Minnesota's Mike Tice (8/1) will be under heavy scrutiny from the team's new owners especially after his admission of scalping Super Bowl tickets. PinnacleSports.com lists both Oakland's Norv Turner and St. Louis' Mike Martz as solid pink slip candidates at 9/1 odds although this is only Turner's second season with the Raiders and the Rams won a playoff game under Martz last season.

"A number of NFL head coaches are definitely under fire entering the 2005 season, and there's a good chance someone will be looking for a new job sooner rather than later," said Simon Noble of PinnacleSports.com. "Jim Haslett may have led the Saints to their first playoff victory in team history, but that was in 2000 and the team has failed to make the playoffs every season since then. Although the Vikings are the fashionable expert pick for surprise team of the year, anything short of a conference title may mean the end of the line for Mike Tice. In Oakland, Al Davis has never been shy to make a coaching change, and if the additions of Randy Moss and LaMont Jordan don't pay dividends immediately, Norv Turner could be shown the door. While Mike Martz has been highly successful in his tenure with the Rams, management and fans are growing restless of his antics and poor decision-making."

Despite being highly respected and recently successful in the league, PinnacleSports.com surprisingly lists Herm Edwards (13/1), Dom Capers (16/1), Mike Holmgren (17/1), Joe Gibbs (18/1) and Tom Coughlin (20/1) right behind the four favorites to become the first coaching casualty. Other big-name coaches that could find themselves as "the fall guy" if their teams don't improve include: Jeff Fisher (22/1), Dick Vermeil (23/1), Jon Gruden (24/1) and Mike Shanahan (26/1). Of the 32 head coaches in the NFL, it should come as no surprise that PinnacleSports.com has made Andy Reid (60/1), Bill Parcells (70/1) and Bill Belichick (75/1) the long shots to be the first coach to get the axe or resign.