Henning Fired as Coach of Atlanta

Dan Henning was fired Monday as coach of the Atlanta Falcons after a 7-8-1 season, the best of his four-year tenure.

Team management made the announcement in a terse, two-paragraph statement. Henning stayed at the team’s training complex for four hours after the announcement, but left without saying a word. Appearing later on his radio show, Henning cited the team’s improvement on defense and added that the offense had been neglected.

“Before you win in this league the way it is structured now, you have to be stable on defense at least, hopefully dominant,” Henning said. “That’s the approach we took. I think that’s shown a great deal of progress.”

Henning, 44, was 22-41-1 at Atlanta, and the Falcons finished last in the NFC West three times.