Bills Select Jauron as Coach

Dick Jauron didn’t need to attend Yale to learn what it’ll take to make his second stint as an NFL head coach more successful than his first.

“In our business, it comes out in wins and losses. And if you win, it was a great decision. And if you don’t win, it was not a great decision,” Jauron said Monday after being hired by the Buffalo Bills. “And we know that our back is against the wall to win.”

Jauron had a 35-46 record in five seasons as coach of the Chicago Bears and guided the team to one playoff appearance. He was fired in 2003.

But that didn’t stop Marv Levy, the Hall of Fame coach and new Buffalo general manager, from selecting Jauron to replace Mike Mularkey, who resigned two weeks ago.

Jauron becomes Buffalo’s fourth coach since Levy retired after the 1997 season. And he takes over a team that had a 5-11 record last season and did not reach the playoffs for the sixth consecutive year.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers are four-point favorites to defeat the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 in Detroit after being underdogs against Indianapolis and Denver in their last two playoff games.

That means the Steelers can no longer recite the nobody’s-picking-us theme that has carried them through seven consecutive victories, all but two away from home. They can no longer say that they’re flying under the radar and are being overlooked even as they take down one higher-seeded team after another.

No wonder linebacker Joey Porter, the demonstrative and very confident leader of Pittsburgh’s defense, was practically begging oddsmakers to make the NFC champion the favorite following the Steelers’ 34-17 AFC championship game victory over Denver on Sunday.

“Nobody’s been picking us, don’t jump on the bandwagon now,” Porter said. “People are still crying about the Colts, and their stuff has been over for a week now. So pick [the Seahawks] so we can keep our edge.”

Here’s a bit of news for Porter: The Steelers are 4-0 when favored to win the Super Bowl and 0-1 as underdogs.

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Tony Dungy will return as coach of the Indianapolis Colts, the team said.

The announcement ended speculation that Dungy might retire following the death last month of his 18-year-old son, James.

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Al Saunders was formally introduced and given the title of “associate head coach-offense” of the Washington Redskins.

The former offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs will call the plays and replace Coach Joe Gibbs as the offense’s main game-planner.

Gibbs wooed Saunders last week, even as Saunders was still considered a candidate for head-coaching openings in Oakland and Houston.