Game Takes a Back Seat With Coaches Under Fire

With winter on its way, cold winds gusting through football stadiums across the country can mean only one thing -- its the season for changing coaches.

The chill pervaded Giants Stadium on Sunday, where the result on the field -- the Washington Redskins defeated the New York Giants, 20-7 -- was secondary to the drama on the sidelines.

The Giants are expected to fire veteran Jim Fassel in coming weeks, and Steve Spurrier could likewise depart Washington only two seasons after he was considered the hottest hire in the league.

As many as 11 other NFL coaches, including Bill Cowher in Pittsburgh and Mike Shanahan in Denver, may be feeling the pressure.

Spurrier, smiling after a victory, shrugged it off.

“That’s part of our game,” he said. “Part of our business.”

This time last season, he was an NFL rookie barely started on a self-proclaimed three-year plan to turn the Redskins into Super Bowl contenders.

But the 5-8 team has shown little upward curve. Even worse, Spurrier recently sat through a six-hour meeting with his team’s mercurial owner, Daniel Snyder, who has employed no fewer than four head coaches in four seasons.

With three years left on Spurrier’s $25-million contract, Snyder might not make another switch. But relations are strained, and Spurrier has said that if he can’t get the job done, his boss should bring in another man.

In New York, Fassel has made no such suggestion. He doesn’t need to. Last season, fans cried for his ouster before the team sneaked into the playoffs with a late run. The 4-9 Giants won’t pull off any miracles this winter.

“Definitely I feel bad for him,” Giant defensive end Michael Strahan said. “Everything goes to him.”

After the game, Giant President Wellington Mara was asked whether a coach such as Fassel -- seven years’ tenure, two NFC East titles and a Super Bowl appearance -- had built up enough equity to survive such a bad season.

“Each year is a new year,” Mara said ominously. “It used not to be that way, but it is now.”

And although Giant players have voiced support for their leader, they did little to help him on Sunday.

New York showed only glimpses of good football. Strahan had two sacks in the first quarter, and Tiki Barber rushed 16 times for 99 yards.

The injury-prone team suffered another setback when quarterback Kerry Collins was carted off the field with an ankle sprain in the third quarter. And there were mistakes: an interception and missed field-goal attempt, two fumbles and too many penalties.

“We’re not making plays out there,” Fassel said. “We’re just not doing things at all.”

Boos filtered down from a sparse crowd on the 27-degree afternoon. Attendance was announced at 78,217 but appeared to be less than half that much.

That was fine with the Redskins, who played it slow and steady in cold conditions.

“You hope to run enough and hit a few [big plays] here and there,” Spurrier said.

Quarterback Tim Hasselbeck, starting in place of the injured Patrick Ramsey, did just that.

After the Giants took a 7-3 lead on a short Dorsey Levens run, Hasselbeck led his team downfield, finishing with a six-yard touchdown pass to Darnerien McCants.

In the third quarter, he drove the Redskins 80 yards in nine plays, completing a seven-yard scoring pass to Rod Gardner.

It was just enough to make Spurrier exclaim, “We have a happy bunch of Redskins right now.”

There was no such relief in the other locker room. Even Redskin players were sympathetic to Fassel’s plight.

“I don’t get any pleasure on trying to make him get on out of here,” said Redskin linebacker Jessie Armstead, a former Giant. “Coach Fassel is a good coach, and he’ll rebound somewhere. He’ll have another opportunity in this league.”

Fassel was asked whether it was difficult to keep his head up.

“Tomorrow I’ll come back and go to work,” he said. “I’ll be here at 5:30 in the morning working on the next one.”