Recently canned by the Raiders, Norv Turner was named the 49er’s new offensive coordinator earlier this week. Amongst those very offended, the Sacramento Bee’s Marcos Bretón.
How in the world do losers such as Turner keep landing lucrative jobs in the NFL?
Here is a man, a supposed offensive genius, who took the best receiver in the NFL in Randy Moss and made him superfluous.
Here is a man handed a great Raiders offense on paper that became a disaster in reality.
Here is a man whose players quit on him by Thanksgiving.
Yet there he is, ladies and gentlemen, the man now charged with turning Alex Smith into a legitimate quarterback to live up to his $50 million guaranteed bonus – Norv Turner, Mr. Magoo himself.
Sometimes it seems this could happen only in big-time sports, where muddle-headed owners willingly place bumblers in charge of multimillion-dollar investments.
In the 49ers’ case, you have a team whose financial future is virtually riding on the shaky arm of Smith, who fumbled and bumbled and took a beating throughout his rookie baptism of flames.
So, of course, 49ers owner John York tabs Turner for the insignificant little job of schooling Smith, fresh off Turner’s 4-12 disaster in Oakland, arguably the Raiders’ worst season in nearly a half century of football.
Obviously York – and the 49ers’ head coach, Mike Nolan – don’t read newspapers, watch television or scan an invention called the Internet. Either that, or they are assessing Turner by criteria that have nothing to do with actual results.