Coaching experience still counts

The return of 63-year-old Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs to the Washington Redskins and the hiring of former Jacksonville coach Tom Coughlin by the New York Giants shows owners still believe there’s no substitute for experience even in today’s hip-hop NFL.

If Dick Vermeil can lead Kansas City to a 13-3 season at 67, maybe Hall of Famer Marv Levy isn’t crazy for contemplating a comeback at 78.

Despite last week’s elimination of Dallas’ Bill Parcells, Denver’s Mike Shanahan and Baltimore’s Brian Billick, this weekend’s divisional playoff games are full of coaches who know how to win when it counts. That helps explain why these eight teams are still alive and 24 others are done for the year.

Of the eight coaches still in the playoff hunt, only Carolina’s John Fox is a postseason newcomer — although he was the defensive coordinator for the 2000 NFC champion New York Giants — and only Indianapolis’ Tony Dungy has a sub-.500 career playoff record at 3-5. New England’s Bill Belichick (4-1) and Vermeil (6-4) have won Super Bowls, and Tennessee’s Jeff Fisher (5-3) has been to the big game.

With three-time Super Bowl winner Gibbs back from 11 years in NASCAR, two-time champion Parcells, two-time AFC runner-up Coughlin and two-time NFC runner-up Andy Reid in Philadelphia, the NFC East rivals the AFC West (Vermeil, Shanahan and San Diego’s Marty Schottenheimer, with Art Shell perhaps heading back to Oakland) as the league’s division of wise old heads.

On the other hand, there’s a serious divide when it comes to these eight teams’ last championship parades. The Patriots (2001), Rams (1999) and Packers (1996) have won titles recently, but the ultimate celebration has been a long time coming for the Eagles (1960), Titans (as the AFL’s Houston Oilers in 1961), Chiefs (1969) and the Colts (in Baltimore in 1970). The Panthers, in just their ninth year, have yet to capture a championship. The Patriots, Rams, Titans and Packers have combined for seven of the past 14 Super Bowl berths.

As far as this weekend’s games are concerned, note that the Patriots, Rams and Chiefs are all undefeated at home. The Eagles were 5-3 at home. Making the Colts’ odds even longer in Kansas City is that dome teams are 10-37 in outdoor playoff games. And the Rams, Eagles, Patriots and Chiefs can take heart from this stat: Teams that have had first-round byes are 45-7 in the divisional round since the playoffs expanded to 12 teams in 1990.

Iron Mike sounds off — Mike Ditka, still beloved in Chicago for winning the Bears’ only title in the past 40 years, was incensed by the Bears’ firing of coach Dick Jauron after a 7-9 season.

“I would like to punch somebody, but I’ve got nobody to punch,” said Ditka, who left the Bears 11 years ago. “[As a coach,] your fate is in the hands of people who a lot of times don’t know the game. Some of them are just numbers guys. Some of them are guys who used the stopwatch and timed guys. All of a sudden they become the gurus of the league. They hold the power instead of football people.

“Are we not judging everybody [including owner Michael McCaskey and general manager Jerry Angelo]? Some of the signings in the last couple of years are ridiculous, signing people for a lot of money who haven’t produced and probably never will. You bring in a quarterback [Kordell Stewart] and tell the guy you want him to play [behind] this line and you don’t have a line. Then [Angelo] you make the statement before the season that they’re good enough to make the playoffs. You don’t think that puts the coach behind the eight-ball?”

Motor City madness — The lowly Lions allowed only 11 sacks, just four shy of the NFL record, but fired offensive line coach Carl Mauck. Detroit’s defense didn’t surrender a touchdown in the fourth quarter all season, and the Lions outscored their foes 84-33 in the fourth quarter, but Detroit still went 5-11. Second-year quarterback Joey Harrington threw eight touchdown passes and three interceptions in Detroit’s victories. Harrington’s touchdown-interception ratio in the losses was 9-to-19.