Nfl Coaching Heads Keep Rolling Raiders Fire White; Fontes Likely To Join Hit Parade By Week’s End

Mike White joined the coaches’ casualty club on Tuesday, with Wayne Fontes in the on-deck circle.

White was let go by Oakland after a 7-9 season, the fifth NFL head coach to go in the last five days.

Fontes got a Christmas reprieve, but almost surely will learn Thursday that his 8-1/2-year tenure in Detroit will come to an end.

That will bring to eight the coaching changes in the NFL since the start of the 1996 season.

White joins Rich Kotite of the Jets, Dan Reeves of the Giants, Rich Brooks of St. Louis and June Jones of Atlanta as coaches who have lost their jobs since last Friday.

Add Dave Shula, who was fired in October after going 1-6 with Cincinnati, and Jim Mora, who quit the same week in New Orleans, and seven coaches who started the season are now out.

Bruce Coslet replaced Shula, went 7-2 and signed a new four-year deal, but the Saints are looking for a new coach after Rick Venturi, the professional interim coach, went 1-7.

Fontes, whose team finished 5-11 in a season in which it was supposed to go to the playoffs, continues to argue his case. His argument: His only superstars are Barry Sanders and Herman Moore.

“There’s a myth that the Lions have all the talent. We all know that isn’t true,” Fontes said.

“It’s time to take a look at it. The Lions have a couple of great players,” he said.

Fontes has been with one team longer than any other active NFC coach. He’s also been in jeopardy longer - last season, the Lions had to win their final seven games and make the playoffs to save his job.

White was 15-17 in two seasons in Oakland, but 9-17 since the team was 8-2 after 10 games in 1995.

The Raiders announced his firing in typical Raiders fashion: a one sentence statement that read: “Mike White will not be retained as head coach of the Oakland Raiders. He was notified that he was being relieved of his duties this morning.”

He leaves an obvious successor in Joe Bugel, the assistant head coach who is respected around the NFL for the job he did as coach in Arizona. Another possibility is Dennis Green, who has told friends he’d be interested in the Raiders if his off-field problems in Minnesota force him to leave the Vikings.

Meanwhile, some of the coachless teams are already hunting.

The Giants, who let Reeves go on Monday, might talk this week with Jim Fassel, believed to be their top choice, and could also talk to Bugel. The Altanta Falcons are reportedly interested in Reeves.

Many of the coaches on the “hot” list are either with NFL playoff teams or college teams that have bowl games left.

They include:

Pete Carroll, defensive coordinator of the 49ers and one-year head coach of the Jets before Kotite. He could be a candidate in St. Louis, Detroit, Atlanta, Minnesota (if that opens up) and even with the Giants.

Nick Saban, head coach of Michigan State, which plays Stanford in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31. If Saban, offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns from 1991-94, decides to go back to the pros, he will get interest from the Giants, Jets, Lions and Rams.

Emmitt Thomas, defensive coordinator of the Eagles. The Giants are interested in talking to him and so is St. Louis.

Bill Parcells, who will be free after New England’s season ends. Parcells is likely to re-sign with the Patriots, but the Jets and Falcons are likely to pursue him. (Forget all rumors of Parcells returning to the Giants - those bridges were burned long ago).

There also are likely to be other openings.

Venturi, the career interim coach who replaced Jim Mora in New Orleans when Mora resigned at mid-season, is finished and the Saints are actively looking elsewhere.

Marty Schottenheimer has a year left on his contract in Kansas City, but both the Giants and Jets are interested if he should leave; and Green could leave Minnesota to take White’s job.

Mora and Reeves, whose coaching credentials haven’t been questioned, could also be candidates for the Jets and Falcons. Steve Spurrier of Florida is a perennial candidate who always turns the NFL down and Rick Neuheisel of Colorado could do the same this year.

But scratch Joe Gibbs, the former Redskins coach, whom Atlanta would like, but won’t get.

Gibbs has the perfect life - he has two NASCAR racing teams and keeps his hand in the NFL as a studio analyst with NBC.