Ray Rhodes

What are your thoughts on Ray Rhodes? Did he get a fair shake as a head coach? Was the right choice made?

1. I rarely have any thoughts on Ray Rhodes.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.

Mr Chicago Jesse Jackson took offense to the firing, so in my mind, the right move was clearly made.

the should have never hired him in the first place.

Ray Rhodes was a pretty good defensive coordinator, not quite Fritz Shurmer by comparison, but pretty good. I don't remember anybody calling it a bad move when he was promoted to HC. However, that 1999 season showcased his lack of HC skills and it was very apparent by the end of the season. While it must have been difficult from a PR perspective to fire an African American coach after only one season (since coaches rarely are fired that quick regardless of race), it was the right move to make. Ray just wasn't cut out to be a HC at the time and it really showed, maybe more so in the shadow of Holmgren.

I remeber at the time thinking maybe they didnt give him enough of a chance. Then I read a story about how when the season was going to pot and the team had just performed miserably in a game, Wolf went to the locker room to see what was being done to discipline the team and get them on track. Rather than the fire and brimstone Rhodes had a reputation for, Wolf found him playing checkers wth the guys and goofing around. Thats when they decided he wasnt the right guy.

I had high hopes for him. He was a disappointment. Fair? Hell Yeah - coaches get fired - it goes with the job.

The biggest compliment I can give Rhodes is that Andy Reid owes his entire coaching career to Ray and the staff he assembled in PHI.

I thought it was a lousy hire to begin with. Rhodes' record in Philly was poor...he took a powerhouse and in 5 short years turned it into a crap-hole. Record got worse each and every year. I thought it was ludicrous that he was named HC in Green Bay after systematically disassembling Philly.

Add to the mix that there were rumblings that he didn't even want to be here the first time around... I remember that season like it was yesterday. It was painful...it's been burned into my consciousness. It's the STD that just refuses to go away... being a Ron Wolf fan as I am and always will be, I have to wonder if Ray Rhodes had naked pictures of him and small farm animals or something.

Truthfully, I think Fritz Shurmur's arrival was what catapulted the Pack into Super Bowl realm in 95, 96 and 97.

Aside from all of that, I'm sure Ray's family loved him and that he's a good man, but in short, he got a more than fair shake because he never should have been hired in the first place.

Rhodes' staff in Philly included Jon Harbaugh, Leslie Frasier, Jon Gruden, Ron Rivera and a few other notable names. Reid kept them all, which is why I say Reid owes Rhodes his career. The fact that Rhodes couldn win with that team and that staff is reason enough to never let him HC again.

Checkers

Alex, the question is "What was the name of vice president Richard Nixon's dog?"

I'll take SWIMSUIT MODELS for $400.

He got a fair shake. Coaches get fired. Nobody has been knocking down door to hire him.

What would bring this up? Ray Rhodes was the worst coach the Packers have had in my entire life. He should have never got a shake at all.

Rally's

It's the off season. Only can do so much draft talk brah

Young pup. You should have seen the Gregg, Devine, Infante eras. (Left some out) I don't stretch back to the 50's thankfully.

Really my only memory of Ray Rhodes:

Panthers/Packers at Lambeau. Panthers down by 4 with a minute left and goal to go. With timeouts in his pocket, Rhodes stares at the scoreboard and watches the seconds tick away as Carolina is able to milk the clock all the way down and win at the end of the game with the Packer offense never getting a chance to get back on the field to try to tie or win.

"Young pup. You should have seen the Gregg, Devine, Infante eras. (Left some out) I don't stretch back to the 50's thankfully" Poppa San"

I do! Between 1950 - 1958 Head Coaches Gene Ronzani, Lyle Blackbourn and Ray McLean (1-10-1 in 1958) worst seas0n record in Packer history.
Packers did not have winning season in that ugly era.
PWT

Let's not leave out Bart Starr -- great quarterback, but pretty bad head coach.

Ray McLean was technically the worst ever, even with the shortest stint as a head coach. He was 1 - 10 for the worst winning percentage.

I didn't like ray, but at least he was at .500 with an 8 - 8 record. Not the worst, but not the best either ...lol.....he was a terrible decision maker.

Starr wasn't that bad. He was kinda a victim of circumstances and lofty expectations. I think they fired him prematurely. Devine was the worst. Nobody deserves to have their dog murdered, but Devine came as close as anybody. Before he coached the Packers, I was a Notre Dame fan, but when he went to the Irish, I STOPPED, and I still can't watch Notre Dame without getting Devine bad memories.

IMO Starr was unprepared to be HC and I think he was finally getting the hang of the job when he was fired. But he was HC for NINE seasons! His firing can be characterized in a number of ways but premature? Do you think he should've gotten a couple of decades to prove himself? And in those 9 seasons he won about 40% of the time and his teams played in exactly 2 playoff games during the strike-shortened year of '82. Devine was HC for 4 years and won about 48% of the time and lost in his only playoff appearance. Devine became HC three seasons after Lombardi, had been a college HC for 16 seasons and had won over 70% of those games so the expectations were high for him too. And IMO the circumstance both were "victims" of, along with every HC in Green Bay from Bengtson to Infante, was the structure of the organization. I think both would have had a much, much better chance at success if there was a GM in place to handle that side of the business of the NFL.

Well... Infante DID have Tom Bratz to help him muck the joint up. So, the right GM with TOTAL control of football operations is the key, really. From what I had heard at the time, Infante and Bratz were constantly swinging their purses at each other.